Chapter 37
Lee Jeong-Hyuk shrugged and explained himself. “Think about it. The thing we saw at the high school tried to kill us. If So-Yeon’s dad hadn’t been there, we would’ve been wiped out. If those enemies gathered more forces and came back to attack us, don’t you think it would make sense for us to combine forces as well?”
He had a point. If our enemies combined forces, we could reach a point where I might not be able to handle all of them on my own. Lee Jeong-Uk stayed silent for a while, then shared his own thoughts on the matter.
“I don’t disagree with what Jeong-Hyuk is saying. But if we join up with another community, we might run into some conflicts. We have our way of surviving, just as they probably have their own way of surviving as well. I’m just saying that it’d be pretty easy for the situation to get nasty over the smallest things.”
Lee Jeong-Hyuk didn’t seem to agree with him. “Well you do have a point, but…”
Lee Jeong-Uk cut him off. “Things will get exponentially worse when the size of the group increases. It seems like there are a good number of survivors at the supermarket, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people began to form their own factions.”
Lee Jeong-Uk also had a valid point. The rest of the group remained silent since both of them seemed to be right. All eyes were on either Lee Jeong-Uk or Lee Jeong-Hyuk. Everyone was looking unconsciously at the person they agreed with.
Noticing the division within the group, Choi Da-Hye quietly raised her hand. “Let’s do this the most democratic way possible.”
“Like what? You want to vote or something?” Lee Jeong-Uk asked, tilting his head slightly. She nodded without any hesitation.
‘Voting huh…?’
I never expected to hear that word in such a day and age.
* * *
The voting went smoothly. Everyone took a piece of paper from the drawing pad. A circle represented a vote to join forces with the other group, while scissors represented a vote against joining forces. It was rather simple; each person just had to draw either a circle or scissors. Everyone went into the master bedroom to cast their vote.
While everyone else voted, the Lee brothers and I sat at the dining table silently, waiting for the results. The three of us did not vote. The two had different opinions, so it was meaningless for them to vote. For me, I chose not to.
If I voted, it was obvious that the results would skew toward the option I ended up voting for. Since I had everything required to survive, my presence was more important than anything. Therefore, I planned to quietly go along with whatever the survivors ended up deciding on. I decided that I would never intervene in the decisions of the survivors.
After about thirty minutes, Choi Da-Hye stepped out with a pencil case. There were folded papers stacked irregularly inside the pencil case. Judging by how crumpled all the papers were, it seemed like they’d all had a hard time deciding.
The Lee brothers exchanged glances, then looked at me at the same time while smacking their lips. Lee Jeong-Uk chuckled.
“So-Yeon’s dad, if you don’t mind, could you check the results for us?”
“Grr?”
They really knew how to put me in an uncomfortable position. I couldn’t help but wonder how they would react to the results. I smacked my lips and took the pencil case from Choi Da-Hye. I took out the piece of paper that was on the very top.
“Grr?”
“Why? What shape is it?”
I could only make weird noises as I twitched my eyebrows. Lee Jeong-Uk couldn’t wait any longer and grabbed the piece of paper out of my hands. After a moment, he reacted in the same way as I did. He then turned the pencil case upside down, poured all the slips of paper out, and went through all of them.
None of the papers had any marks on them. The Lee brothers both looked at Choi Da-Hye in surprise. Choi Da-Hye smiled at them. “This is what everyone wants.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Choi Da-Hye shrugged. “Well, that’s up to you three.”
It took me a while to understand what she meant.
It was like the time we first met. We all had different opinions back then, but over time, we ended up having the same goal. We were drawn together with this same goal, and relied on each other more and more, eventually developing a sense of trust.
At that moment, we realized that the grocery store survivors and the high school survivors all respected our decisions and were willing to go along with whatever we chose to do.
The three of us started scratching our heads and smacking our lips. I was embarrassed. I could tell they were embarrassed as well. Without realizing it, the three of us at the table—the Lee brothers and I—had become the leaders of our group.
“I vote for So-Yeon’s dad.”
Lee Jeong-Uk seemed as if he’d been waiting to say that line. Lee Jeong-Hyuk nodded in agreement.
‘Wait, does this mean they want me to decide?’
I waved my hand violently. I wanted the Lee brothers to take care of decisions like this. I didn’t want this sort of limelight. As I vigorously indicated my objections, Lee Jeong-Hyuk smiled a wide smile.
“I want hyung and So-Yeon’s dad to deal with this. I’m out.”
Lee Jeong-Hyuk got up and stood next to Choi Da-Hye, who melted into his arms with a rather bittersweet expression. Lee Jeong-Uk seemed slightly annoyed for a while, then sighed and said, “So we’re back to the drawing board, huh?”
“Grr…”
I wasn’t enjoying the situation at all. Lee Jeong-Uk sighed twice in a row, then crossed his legs.
“So-Yeon’s dad, all of us will follow your decision. After all, you’re the one who got us together. It’s up to you to decide.”
That made me begin to contemplate the situation seriously. Everyone said they trusted and relied on me, but I knew that I had limits as well. I thought of this situation as something outside my control since I was a being with glowing red eyes. I couldn’t defy mother nature, after all.
After thinking it through, I pointed my index finger at Lee Jeong-Uk. Lee Jeong-Uk tilted his head as if he didn’t know what I was trying to say. I pointed back and forth between him and the master bedroom and clenched my fists.
Lee Jeong-Uk titled his head and asked, “You want me to be the leader?”
I nodded.
“But I’m still going to follow your decisions, right?”
“Grr…”
“Then we can be co-leaders. But for your information, I am more of a figurehead.”
Lee Jeong-Uk gave me a cheesy chuckle and then slapped me on the back as he got to his feet.
“Alrighty then! Since we’ve decided on our leaders, let’s eat dinner.”
Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye beamed and led the others out, who were waiting in the master bedroom. I couldn’t help but snort at what was happening.
‘Huh, this is definitely something.’
With time, I had grown closer to this group of people. I felt like I could be a leader to these sorts of people. They had not only made So-Yeon laugh again, but me as well. They taught me the meaning of community.
Just as Lee Jeong-Uk said he was going to go along with my decisions, I would go along with his decisions as well. Today’s dinner would be a memorable one—an inauguration dinner for the human leader and the zombie leader.
Lee Jeong-Uk called my name while he was deciding on what side dishes to eat. “So-Yeon’s dad.”
As I stared at him, he let out a smirk.
“You should wash up. A leader can’t have such dirty clothes on.”
I nodded while smirking back at him.
* * *
The next day, Lee Jeong-Uk woke up early and told everyone that he was going to the supermarket. Lee Jeong-Hyuk said he’d be going too, and I naturally started getting ready as well. The Lee brothers looked carefully at what I was doing, then stopped me. Lee Jeong-Uk smiled at me gently.
“I thought we agreed that we would be in charge of food now. You have to live up to your promise, you know?”
“Grr…”
That was indeed our agreement, but I couldn’t help but feel worried. The Lee brothers left for the supermarket, and I could stand and watch their backs from the balcony. Choi Da-Hye, who had observed the exchange, came and stood next to me.
“If you’re that worried, then you should follow them secretly.”
“Grr…?”
“If you observe what they do with your own eyes, you’ll have more faith in them.”
I nodded slightly and jumped off the balcony. I tailed them silently, and finally understood what Choi Da-Hye had been trying to say all along.
The two of them made a perfect duo.
I thought of intervening when I saw two zombies in front of the supermarket, but what the two of them did next made my jaw drop.
Lee Jeong-Hyuk distracted the zombies as Lee Jeong-Uk quickly snuck behind them and slashed one of the zombie’s necks. When that one went down, the other one naturally turned its attention to Lee Jeong-Uk. At that instant, Lee Jeong-Hyuk stepped forward and twisted its neck.
It seemed difficult enough for people to stab zombies, which is why I hadn’t expected him to twist its neck with his hands, even though he had gloves on.
I could tell that they were experienced in carrying out such operations. They were no novices. The reason the Lee brothers had managed to survive outside was down to the trust they had in each other. The Lee brothers retrieved food and blue markers from the supermarket.
Later on, as everyone was eating, I sat looking out the window, feeling rather embarrassed about not having had more faith in the two of them. Choi Da-Hye approached me.
“So, what do you think about the two of them, now that you’ve seen them in action with your own two eyes?”
I nodded slowly back at her with a knowing expression. Choi Da-Hye beamed and slapped my back, then made her way back to the kitchen. I chuckled out of embarrassment.
As the rest continued with their meal, I went outside with the blue markers and started coloring the underlings that had yet to be marked.
* * *
Just before sunset, I went out with Lee Jeong-Uk. We went to the supermarket with ten of my underlings that were colored blue. The night before, we had come to a conclusion.
- Let’s try talking to the people at the supermarket. We need their opinion on this. It’s not something that we can decide on our own.
In a way, it was the right and obvious thing to do. For some reason, however, we had been thinking about everything with a rather selfish attitude. Groups had to come together by having conversations.
The cool summer breeze tickled the tip of my nose. The cicadas’ chirping grew even louder, as if they didn’t want the sun to set. The bugs and cicadas chirped in a symphony while the red dragonflies danced through the air.
With this romantic atmosphere as a backdrop, Lee Jeong-Uk and I made our way toward the supermarket, accompanied by ten of my underlings. I had put on fresh clothes and washed my greasy hair the night before.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere, or my new clothes, or even the fact that I had washed up, but I felt as though everything would be smooth sailing. It felt like the day was going to be full of good things.
After walking a while, we finally saw the supermarket a distance away. I looked at Lee Jeong-Uk while pointing toward the supermarket. He nodded with a serious expression.
As we got to the entrance of the supermarket, I realized that all the dead zombie bodies had been cleared away. There were no zombie carcasses anywhere, even when I got to the travelator and escalator landings on the first floor.
‘Did they spend the whole night cleaning up the place?’
I headed toward the second floor, my mind occupied by the work that they might have done. As I got to the travelator leading to the second floor, I noticed that the barricade that had been blocking the way previously was also gone.
I stopped in my tracks, staring blankly into space. A second later, I felt chills down my spine. Not only were the zombie bodies gone, but the barricade was no longer there as well. All of that had happened in the span of one night.
I quickly made my way to the third floor. There were still plates and tents around that seemed like they were being used. However, I didn’t see any survivors. The most important part.
Everything was the same, except for the fact that everyone was gone. I lifted the big cloth and checked the inside of the tent.
The only thing that greeted me was some dust that hit me in the face as I lifted the cloth. I couldn’t help but be surprised. I still felt some warmth within, and that did not seem to fit with everything else.
‘Something must’ve happened here.’
Grr… Grr…
While I was still checking the tent, some hideous cries came from outside. I dashed to the window and looked outside. What I saw was no different from hell itself.
* * *
Everything was red. I couldn’t fathom how many there were. I couldn’t see an end to the red wave that was unfolding before my eyes. The zombies I had crossed paths with at the high school were nothing in comparison to this.
‘Five hundred? No, there are at least seven hundred of them.’
There were seven tightly-packed square formations of zombies. Each blob seemed to contain at least a hundred of them. I swallowed, not quite sure what to make of the situation.
‘Do I have to summon the rest of my underlings, the ones still at the apartment complex?’
The number of underlings was proportionate with the leader’s strength. I didn’t know how many zombies I could have as underlings, but I knew that whoever was in charge of this red sea of zombies wasn’t weak.
The red zombies were standing in formation, perfectly in order, like well-trained soldiers. After a moment, I saw a being that was of a darker color than the others. It had its hands in its pockets and was looking up at me.
Its color was noticeably darker, a shade of burgundy, the same color as the zombie I’d come across at the high school. I subconsciously looked at its face, and saw that it had glowing red eyes. I met its gaze wordlessly.
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure if it was fear that was preventing me from speaking.
‘Come out.’
I heard its voice. It was without a doubt, ordering me to come out.
Was I supposed to follow its command? Or was it better just to run away?
Just then, I looked over at Lee Jeong-Uk. His mouth was sealed tight, and he was shivering with fear. His eyes were full of fear and horror that he couldn’t contain. However, I saw a glimpse of hope in his eyes. He was counting on me. I could feel the trust and faith he had in me.
The old Lee Jeong-Uk would have assumed that this was a trap. Now, though, he was betting everything on me. I knew it would be impossible to escape with Lee Jeong-Uk in tow.
From the zombies’ numbers alone, it was pretty clear that they possessed decent physical capabilities.
I already knew that there was only one option for me. I had to confront it. There was no way out. I stood in front of Lee Jeong-Uk and put my hand on his shoulders.
He swallowed hard, trying to suppress his rising fear. I saw his Adam's apple move violently. I could tell how nervous he was. I patted his shoulder and took a deep breath before exiting through the window.
Whoosh.
I covered the distance from the third floor to the first floor in one leap.
I had nothing to be scared of.
I couldn't allow myself to look weak.
Despite my first impression of the situation, I could not let it get the better of me.
I straightened my back and looked the zombie leader straight in the eye. It stared back at me for a moment, then reached out its right hand wordlessly. I couldn’t figure out what it was trying to do. Then, a cold, deep voice reverberated through my mind.
‘Don’t you know how to shake hands properly?’
Its arrogance made my eyebrows twitch.
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