Walking Daddy

Chapter 51

I used a couple of A4 papers to explain what had happened over the course of the past couple of days. Once I was done explaining everything, Lee Jeong-Uk was the first person to speak up.

“Then the person lying down outside is someone you formed an alliance with?”

I nodded.

“Did you say his name was Kim Hyeong-Jun?”

I nodded.

“The first thing we should do when he wakes up is to thank him, then.”

Lee Jeong-Uk made his point calmly, and everyone in the meeting room nodded. After a moment, the principal spoke up.

“So eating brains makes you go to sleep and wake up stronger… I think this is something we have to discuss.”

I told everyone about the characteristics of the zombies with glowing red eyes. I focused on the fact that we would fall asleep and get stronger every time we ate an enemy brain. I knew that if I kept this a secret any longer, it could ignite a feeling of distrust toward me if the rest found out on their own.

I told everyone everything with this opportunity, thinking of what I would have to go through if I had to face the music later down the road. But I didn’t tell them about the changes red glowing-eyed zombies would go through if they ate human brains. This was the one thing I could not tell them.

Silence followed the principal’s statement. It seemed like everyone was looking at either Lee Jeong-Uk or me, expecting us to take care of the situation. Lee Jeong-Uk looked around the room and frowned.

“What’s wrong with everyone’s faces? Isn’t it normal for a zombie to eat other zombies? What’s the big deal?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

The principal trailed off as Lee Jeong-Uk glared at him.

“Are you calling So-Yeon’s dad a monster? You still can’t have faith in him after all this time?”

“No. That’s not what I meant. I was just wondering how the bodies of zombies with glowing red eyes worked. Those like So-Yeon’s father.”

“Could you elaborate?”

Lee Jeong-Uk tilted his head out of confusion. The principal nodded and continued.

“Sure. Would the term biorhythm make more sense? So-Yeon’s father said that he couldn’t resist the sleepiness that came after he ate an enemy’s brain. That could be considered as a period of recovery.”

When the principal mentioned the term ‘period of recovery’, all eyes in the room focused on him. They were listening intently, keen to hear what he would say next. Of course, I was no exception. The principal smacked his lips as if pressured by the sudden attention.

“Humans rest when they’re tired and sleep when they’re sleepy. That’s how we humans recover. However, So-Yeon’s father doesn’t seem to sleep or rest, does he?”

“Hmm… yes.”

Lee Jeong-Uk calmed himself and listened to the principal. The principal continued to lay out his argument.

“Perhaps the recovery process for So-Yeon’s father could be eating other zombie’s brains.”

“...”

“I’m curious as to what would happen to him if he doesn’t eat brains. If So-Yeon’s father keeps on going without having sufficient rest, you’ll never know what will happen, you know?”

I was surprised by what the principal had said. I’d never thought of such a thing. I didn’t have the hunger to eat, never felt fatigued or the urge to sleep, and yet I continued to live every day.

Even machines needed breaks, but even I, as a living being, had never thought of the possibility of hitting my limit. Perhaps I didn’t think much about it, as I’d already considered myself as no different from being dead. The principal had hit upon a very important point.

I interlocked my fingers and contemplated the implications of this, and everyone looked at me worriedly. Lee Jeong-Uk asked me a question.

“So-Yeon’s dad, do you know anything about what the principal just said?”

- I don’t know.

“Then, you don’t know what would happen to you if you stop eating someone else’s brain?”

- I’ll ask Kim Hyeong-Jun when he gets up.

There was no point wasting time on a question I didn’t have an answer to. I let out a sigh and changed the topic. No one seemed to mind. No one here could guess what would happen to me if that did happen to me. Everyone probably understood why I changed the topic, since even I didn’t know the answer to it.

After a moment, Lee Jeong-Hyuk spoke up.

“The biggest thing on my mind are these ‘dogs’.”

The ‘dogs’ were also a major issue that we had to discuss. Lee Jeong-Hyuk looked around the room.

“What should we do from now on? If there are ‘dogs’ around, shouldn’t we stop accepting survivors?”

Lee Jeong-Uk looked skeptical.

“There aren’t any gang members in Haengdang-dong. Do you think that there are still ‘dogs’ here?”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk looked at his brother as though he couldn’t understand where he was coming from.

“Didn't Hanyang University, which was right next to us, collapse a couple of months ago? Because of the ‘dogs’? If so, wouldn’t it be natural for us to consider the possibility that they’ve made their way into Haengdang-dong? After all, a part of Hanyang University is in Haengdang-dong.”

Choi Da-Hye, who sat next to Lee Jeong-Hyuk, spoke up in support of him.

“I agree with what Jeong-Hyuk oppa said. Up to now, all the zombies that came into Haengdang-dong had come from the east. Aren’t they the ones that are part of the so-called gang?”

Choi Da-Hye looked at me, waiting for an answer. I nodded, and she kept on going.

“If the gang members entered Haengdang-dong through Hanyang University, there’s a possibility that the ‘dogs’ are already in Haengdang-dong as well.”

Everyone seemed to agree with what Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye had said. Lee Jeong-Uk rubbed his chin for a while, then spoke.

“I think Da-Hye is right. It might be okay to bring more people in if we had a perfect plan, but in our current situation, I think it's best to turn everyone away.”

Lee Jeong-Uk had been persuaded by Choi Da-Hye. Since everyone was in agreement, I agreed as well. But then, Lee Jeong-Uk lifted his hand to raise an objection.

“Then what do we do with the four people that came in today?”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk crossed his arms, seemingly at a loss as to what to do next.

“Oh, them. I totally forgot about them.”

I looked around the room. It seemed like they had accepted the four people into Shelter Hae-Young at the screening station while I was taking a shower.

I unfolded a piece of paper and wrote down some words.

- Bring them here.

Lee Jeong-Uk’s eyes widened as he read what I wrote, and his voice took on a tone of disbelief.

“You want me to bring them here?”

I nodded.

Lee Jeong-Uk looked around at everyone else. They all seemed to be on board with the idea.

- Bring the papers they filled out as well.

Lee Jeong-Uk read what I had written down and nodded. Choi Da-Hye raised her hand.

“I’ll bring them over. They’re waiting outside, right?”

“They’re probably at the playground.”

“Do I just have to bring them over? Do you need me to bring anything else?”

“They should have filled out some papers at the screening station. Bring those as well.”

“Got it!”

Choi Da-Hye gave a lively affirmative and left the meeting room. I got up and walked toward the balcony. There were three men and a woman in front of the playground. They looked nervous, and they were whispering to one another. They weren’t doing anything threatening, nor did they raise their voices.

‘God please, let them not be one of them…’

I watched them closely as I prayed.

* * *

The four survivors entered the meeting room, and the papers they had filled out earlier were laid out in front of me. I took a look at their papers, which contained information such as where they were headed to and their hobbies and skills. I also noticed that they had passed the questions regarding the first and second conditions I required from every survivor. I could tell why Lee Jeong-Uk had let them in.

I placed the papers down and looked at the survivors that stood in the entryway, unwilling to move further in but unable to go outside. They flinched at my glare and quickly looked down. I could tell how nervous they were by the way their arms and legs were trembling. However, there was one person who didn’t look away but was clenching his fists instead. He was a man in his early twenties with an ordinary physique.

I took a close look at his face and then slowly wrote down some words.

- You’re from Haengdang 2-dong?

“Yes.”

- No one can survive out there.

“Have you been there yourself?”

He had a bold side to him. He didn’t seem nervous in front of me. On top of that, he talked back to me. Some might think that he was being disrespectful with no manners, but his boldness didn’t bother me.

Human beings had a hard time hiding their feelings in urgent situations, especially people in their twenties. But his boldness made me even more suspicious of him because he had the guts to pull off whatever he thought he was doing in this situation.

I smirked and kept writing.

- Tell me where you’re exactly from.

The man kept his mouth shut. I sighed and wrote down more words.

- There’s no place for you here if you don’t speak.

The man still refused to speak.

He wasn’t budging even though I’d just told him that he couldn’t stay here without giving me the information I sought. I moved to stand up, but the Lee brothers got up first and walked toward the survivors, and started to push them outside. The only woman among the survivors shouted,

“Why, why are you curious where we’re from…?”

I gestured to the Lee brothers to go back to their seats and then wrote down more words.

- To know what kind of people you are.

“What do you mean? We’re people. What else would we be?”

- Do you have any other people with you?

At that moment, the survivors face’s hardened as they read what I had written down.

I had caught them off guard.

The reason they couldn’t tell where they were from was that they had a safe haven of their own, probably with other survivors there. The reason they weren’t willing to say where they were from all along was because they didn’t trust us.

From their perspective, I understood how funny the situation could be for them. The people here were getting along with a zombie. I assumed that they were regretting getting involved with us in the first place. They probably thought they had made the wrong decision.

Suddenly, the bold-looking man reached his hands into his crotch. He did not reach into his pockets, but inside his pants. Han Seon-Hui’s eyes went wide and she looked away. Choi Da-Hye snickered and watched him in amusement.

The man pulled a pen-knife out of his pants. For a moment, I thought he was doing some crazy magic trick. It was a Swiss army knife, commonly known as a MacGyver.

“Don’t come near us! We’re going to get out of this place!”

Our group observed him calmly, and the man seemed taken aback by our reaction. The man started brandishing his knife in midair to threaten us. I sighed and stood up.

Lee Jeong-Uk looked at me and then smacked his lips.

“I had no clue they would come at us with a knife. I was naive when I carried out the inspection. Should I take care of them?”

“Grr…”

I shook my head and walked toward the newly-arrived survivors. The bold-looking man had a look of terror on his face.

Squelch!

The man closed his eyes and stabbed me in my lower belly. In fact, I let him stab me. Ignoring it, I kept walking toward him and got right up to his face. He turned pale and fell backward onto his bottom.

I took out the knife in my belly and tossed it to the ground next to him. I gestured at him to stab me again. He looked at me, trembling violently. It seemed like he had lost the will to stab me.

After a moment, the bold man spoke up, on the verge of tears.

“Please, spare our lives.”

I looked at him silently.

“Then at least spare my friends. Let them get away.”

The man was crying, and just looking at him made me sad. The other survivors surrounded the man. They were yelling at me, and I could hear the tears, nervousness, and anger in their voices.

“Don’t do this! Why are you doing this?!”

“We don’t have anyone else with us!”

I wondered what I’d done to them for them to ask such a question. I scratched my forehead and looked into their faces. Their eyes shone with sincerity, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of the tears rolling down from their faces, or because they were actually nice people. I was more than surprised by the strength of their bonds of friendship.

I couldn’t help smiling as I looked at them, which naturally revealed my sharp teeth. The survivors that saw them stiffened and began to wail. I belatedly closed my mouth and then took out my notepad and pen from my pocket.

From the bottom of my heart, I wrote out the following message:

- We’re trying to help.