Walking Daddy

Chapter 191

Bang!

I pushed off the ground and rushed toward the enemy leader. He belatedly felt my presence and turned his gaze my way. Before he could react, though, I grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the ground.

“Gaaa!”

The enemy leader gasped and closed his eyes tightly. I pressed my advantage and broke both of his arms, then glared at him with my blue eyes.

“Where are your other buddies?” I asked him.

“What… what are you?”

"Answer me,” I said, pressuring him further. “Where are the Hounds?”

He started looking around. I wondered if he was trying to signal his underlings for help. However, the surrounding zombies didn’t seem to move. Unexpectedly, the enemy leader spoke.

“You stupid bastard. If you want to live, hurry up and hide.”

My eyebrows twitched reflexively at his unexpected reaction.

‘Asking me to hide all of the sudden…’

GWAAA!!!

Just then, an unpleasant roar echoed through the air, sharpening all my five senses at once. I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. I realized that it was coming from the north. From the way it was reverberating, I assumed that it was coming from quite far away.

I grabbed the enemy leader by the collar and hid in a single-story house right in front of us. I pushed him against the wall.

“Tell me everything that happened in Seogwipo,” I demanded.

"What are you talking about? We’re all dead anyway. It's over now. The devil’s going to come after me.”

“Where are the bosses of the Southwest and Southeast gangs?” I asked through gritted teeth.

The enemy leader snorted and shook his head. At this point, he should’ve been frightened and trembling in fear, but this guy merely twitched his lips silently, as if he had lost his sanity. My threats weren’t working on him. I kicked him in his left knee as hard as I could and repeated myself.

“Answer my question if you don’t want to die! Where are the Hounds?!”

The enemy leader only sneered at my threat, as if he didn’t care about the fact that he was being threatened.

“Hey, you fucking idiot, I already told you that you and I are already dead meat, so whether you kill me or not, just do whatever you feel like doing,” he replied.

I was silent for a moment.

“What happened to the other bastards?” I asked.

“They’re all dead,” he replied after a moment of silence. “The demon that’s coming? That demon ate them all.”

The enemy leader smirked. "I knew it,” he continued. “I fucking knew it. Hyung-nim… I knew it would happen the moment that bastard started walking around alone. I told you, hyung-nim, that we should’ve killed the black creature early on. We should’ve known the moment that bastard started walking around by itself, like it owned the entire town.”

“Are you saying that the Southwest Gang and the Southeast Gang have all been wiped out?”

“A scout from the Southwest Gang came by yesterday. The scout seemed like he had almost lost his mind and was spewing all kinds of crap, begging for his life. When I saw him, I thought, ah, we finally have a crazy one.”

“...”

“But that wasn’t the case. That fucking bastard! That fucking scout bastard brought the black creature here. It's all because of that bastard!!"

His eyes went wide, and he began to scream at the top of his lungs like a wild animal that had gone insane. I quieted the enemy leader by choking him. I felt a tingling pain through my fingertips, and the enemy leader’s entire body began to twitch as if he were being electrocuted. When I let go of him, he fell to the floor and coughed for a while, struggling to get himself upright again.

I crouched down in front of the enemy leader.

“One last question,” I said. “When was the last time the black creature attacked the Southeast Gang?”

“The devil tracks us down using its sense of smell. We can’t escape no matter what we do. The devil can smell you, even from four kilometers away. You’ll eventually get eaten, no matter how hard you try to escape.”

The enemy leader lost his sanity and was muttering to himself, his limbs trembling uncontrollably. I slapped the enemy leader with all my might and repeated my question.

“Answer the question. When?”

“This… this morning. We followed the exact same path the scouts took.”

“Then why is the black creature’s cry coming from the north instead of the west?”

“Because the leader of the Northeast Gang escaped with me and fled to Mt. Halla. The cry earlier on was the devil cheering after a successful hunt. Now it's my turn. I’ll… I’ll die as well!’

“...”

“I’ll die, you’ll die, we’ll all die!”

The enemy leader cried at the top of his lungs, as if he had gone insane, then looked me right in the eyes, a wide smile plastered on his face. I wasn’t sure how to describe him; he seemed like he was already gone. His eyes had already lost focus.

I slicked my hair back as I considered the situation.

I knew the enemy leader was right. The black creature must have smelled the enemy leader and realized that the enemy leader was here. I grabbed him by the collar and forced him upright. Without the slightest hesitation, I kicked him out of the house.

“Open the door! Open the door, you bastard!”

It seemed like he wanted to live now, contrary to how he’d been behaving earlier on, as though resigned to being dead meat. With both of his arms broken and his left leg wobbling, he couldn’t even break down a door. I ignored the enemy leader and counted the remaining bottles of perfume I had. I still had five unopened bottles.

I figured that if I sprayed myself with perfume and moved west as fast as I could, the black creature would go after the enemy leader instead of me. Ironic as it sounded, I had to keep the enemy leader alive and use him as bait so that I could survive.

I opened the cap of one of the perfume bottles and poured its contents over my head. The strong perfume scent made my nose tingle, and the liquid soon trickled down my face. Just as I was about to open up my next bottle of perfume and spray it on my body, I heard footsteps that sent chills down my spine.

Splash, splash–

‘It’s already here?’

I widened my eyes and concentrated on my sense of hearing. When I’d heard its cry earlier on, it seemed pretty far away. I couldn’t figure out how it had gotten to us so quickly. I wondered if it had made its way over while I’d been going back and forth with the enemy leader. Perhaps it had caught onto us more quickly because the enemy leader had been shouting the whole time.

I tore open two more perfume bottles and poured their contents all over my body. It was no longer a fragrance; it had begun to feel more like a stench. I leaned against the wall and carefully peered out the window. I saw the enemy leader limping away. He was about one hundred meters away from where I was.

Almost instantly, a figure covered in tar flashed toward the enemy leader.

"GAAA!!!”

The enemy leader let out a death cry. He only stopped screaming when his head was lopped off. The black creature tore off his head in an instant and began chewing on it. I gulped and stared at the horrific scene.

I knew it was already too late to run away. I knew that going out the front door would only mark me as its next target. I tried my best to keep my composure as I observed the black creature’s movements.

I tried my best to see its eyes, because its eye color was the most important thing I had to know. I opened my eyes wide and stared straight at its back, hoping to see blue eyes. The black creature licked the fresh blood from the corner of its mouth and sniffed continuously. It turned to look at the building I was hiding in.

My eyes went wide, and I crouched down.

'I have to hide.'

I couldn’t think of anything else other than to hide myself. I tiptoed my way through the house and entered the bedroom, then hid myself underneath the bed. I pulled the comforters from the bed to plug the gaps around me and focused my mind on my hearing as I covered my mouth and nose with my hands.

Splash, splash–

I heard its footsteps. My limbs were shaking violently, as if I was in the middle of an earthquake. I focused all my strength into them to stop them from trembling and prayed with my eyes tightly closed.

‘Please, please let nothing happen.’

I knew I had to keep calm in situations like this. I had to calm down and understand what I could do to make the situation better. I took out the remaining three perfume bottles in my pocket and poured the contents of each of them onto my chest, stomach, and head. I rubbed my hands against my wet clothes and smeared the perfume over my entire body.

Bang!

The front door came crashing down, and I heard the creature's eerie footsteps echo loudly against my eardrums.

KWAAA… KA!!! GWA… KA!!!

It blew its nose a few times like a sneezing cat, and it started to enter the master bedroom through the living room.

Splash—

The sound of its footsteps came closer and stopped beside my head. It felt like the air around me had disappeared, and time had stopped. My head was ringing like crazy, my mind screaming at me to get away. However, I felt as though I was drifting in the middle of a vast, endless ocean that stretched out in every direction.

I couldn't move. I couldn’t move in the face of the almighty, absolute fear. I couldn’t move in the face of death.

KWAAA…

Only the comforter was between myself and its eerie cry, which pierced through my eardrums from thirty centimeters away. I held my breath, engulfed in fear that sent chills down my spine and my entire body, and prayed that it would go away without noticing me.

Rustle—

Contrary to my prayers, the black creature slowly lifted up the comforter. Just like wind that makes its way through the smallest crack in a slightly-opened window, death rushed in through the tiny gap; a gap so small that my palm could barely fit through. I bit my lower lip and stared at the small gap.

KWAAA! KA!!! GWA! KWAA!!

To my surprise, the gap closed swiftly, and the black creature started to backtrack while blowing its nose continuously. It seemed like the black creature had backpedaled at the mysterious stench that had oozed out from the cracks as soon as it lifted up the comforter. Perhaps the stench was too strong for it, like the awful stench of rotten fish.

The black creature kept blowing its nose repeatedly as it hissed and howled at the bed. I plugged my ears with my hands and prayed that it wouldn’t attack the bed.

Splash, Splash, Splash—

The black creature seemed to wander around the master bedroom desperately, then broke the window next to the bed and jumped out. I heard the black creature moving further away. After it left, though, I could still hear it blowing its nose and letting out its throat-rending cries.

I hid under the bed until the black creature's presence was completely gone.

It wasn’t because I had a choice. I knew I couldn't fight the black creature, nor could I run away from it. The moment the black creature had fixed its gaze on this house… Looking into its eyes was like looking into an abyss. I couldn’t fathom the depths of its pupils. Its eyes seemed like endless holes of despair.

To make matters worse, the thing I had feared had turned out to be true.

The black creature in Jeju Island already had black eyes.

* * *

“Hyeong-Jun! Kim Hyeong-Jun!”

Lee Jeong-Uk called out to Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had just come back from cleaning up the zombies. Kim Hyeong-Jun walked over to Lee Jeong-Uk as he wiped away the blood on his face with his sleeve.

“Yes? Were you looking for me?”

“The drum that So-Yeon’s dad was talking about. They said that they don’t have any big ones, but they do have a lot of small ones. Will a small one be okay?”

“Well, how big are they?”

Lee Jeong-Uk titled his head and spread his hands about sixty centimeters apart.

"Let’s say… This big?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his sideburns, but asked almost instantly, “How many are there?”

“It seems like there are about fifty of them.”

“Fifty? Where did they get all those drums from?”

“That’s what Mr. Heo Seong-Min told me. He said that they still have the kkwaenggwaris, janggus, and other drums they used for traditional cultural and artistic performances in the past.” [1]

Kim HYeong-Jun’s eyes went wide, and he snapped his fingers, nodding vigorously.

“Could you get me all of them?” he asked. “Wait, no. In fact, I'll go get them. Where are they?”

“Mr. Heo Seong-Min should know. Should I ask?”

“I’ll go ask him. Thank you, though.”

“But why the janggu and the drums? What are you trying to achieve by making loud noises? And why is Do Han-Sol looking for gasoline?”

"I'll tell you about it when Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok gets back.”

With that, Kim Hyeong-Jun flashed a sheepish smile and ran off to where Heo Seong-Min was.

“There’s something going on for sure,” Lee Jeong-Uk muttered to himself as he watched Kim Hyeong-Jun go.

He still couldn’t help but think that they were hiding something from him. However, since neither Lee Hyun-Deok or Kim Hyeong-Jun were willing to let him in on it, he sighed in resignation and walked over to where the officers were.

The leaders of the Survivor Rally Organization had a map laid out on a desk. It seemed like they were discussing how they were going to divide Jeju Island.

“So are you saying that you want to use land starting from here all the way to here as rice fields?” the principal asked the white-haired elder as he rubbed his chin.

“The land there is the most even, and since the waterway there is open, there’s no better place.”

“Wouldn’t it be too far from the shelter?”

“Once the zombies are cleaned up, distance won’t be an issue.”

Lee Jeong-Uk rubbed his neck as he listened to their conversation. Since everything about the black creature was based on his assumptions, it seemed unnecessary to share the information about it with the other leaders.

Lee Jeong-Uk moved next to the principal.

“Mind if I join?” he chimed in.

“Ah, Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk. Of course. We were just discussing solutions to our food problem.”

“Even if we start planting rice, it’ll take a whole year for us to harvest. Don’t you think that it’d be better to scrounge around the nearby supermarkets or go out to sea and fish until then?”

“Actually, Mrs. Choi Da-Hye brought up something regarding that.”

The principal looked over at Choi Da-Hye, who was across the table, and gestured for her to speak. Choi Da-Hye pointed at the right side of the map.

“Here. Udo has been known for its fish,” she said. “There are a lot of coral reefs in the area as well, which makes it easy to get different kinds of seafood.”

"Oh really?"

“Yes. And in terms of safety, it’s much safer than Jeju Island. In fact, there used to be close to two thousand people living in Udo. Of course, I don’t know the current situation.”

When Choi Da-Hye finished, the white-haired elder spoke up.

“As I said before, over seventy percent of ​​Udo is specifically used for growing garlic or peanuts. It’s very windy, and the land there is barren, making it difficult to grow other crops.”

“But it’s also a place where there’s plenty of seafood,” Choi Da-Hye countered.

Knowing that there might not be an end if they kept on going back and forth like this, Lee Jeong-Uk calmed the two of them down and posed a question to Choi Da-Hye.

“By the way, Da-Hye, do we have any boats to go to Udo in the first place?”

1. Kkwaenggwari and jangus are traditional Korean instruments. ☜