Chapter 42
As the sun began to set, my twenty underlings and I headed back to Shelter Hae-Yeong with our hands full of items. We returned with trash bags filled with soil and others filled with metal pieces. The Lee brothers checked the metal pieces while the elder felt the soil that was inside the bags. He smiled rather sadly and said that it probably wasn’t enough, but that he would give it a try.
Han Seon-Hui brought a wet towel and wiped the soil from my hands. I thanked her, then sat on a wooden bench within the complex. After a moment, Choi Da-Hye came up to me.
“So-Yeon’s father, we made a barricade. Could you take a look at it?”
I nodded and headed toward the side entrance where a barricade had been erected. The barricade was made out of wood, tied together with rope. They had used the dirt from the playground as extra support, to prevent the barricade from being pushed back.
It was enough to keep out the zombies who could only smell or hear, but it wasn’t enough to keep the ones with eyesight away. I lifted my right hand and held it to my forehead as I looked at Choi Da-Hye. She tilted her head in confusion.
“The barricade has to be this tall?”
“Grr.”
“Hmm, then we have to make it again from scratch. The center of gravity won’t be right if we just add on to the existing structure.”
I wanted to give her a round of applause for considering the center of gravity. I noticed the stainless steel spears we’d made a long time ago had been incorporated into the barricade. I assumed that the spears could be maneuvered around the barricade, since the haft of the spear was accessible from the inside.
I took out the notepad and pen I had in my pocket and wrote down a few phrases.
- First defensive line, second defensive line, third defensive line.
Choi Da-Hye considered my words and nodded.
“We’ll try to create a defensive line around the entire apartment. We’ll try to make it as safe as possible.”
I nodded and then wrote down more words.
- Not enough people. Let me know.
And then I pointed to my underlings next to us.
Choi Da-Hye looked at what I wrote, then looked back and forth between me and my underlings. She tilted her head again and asked for confirmation that she’d understood me correctly.
“I should let you know if there isn't enough manpower?”
“Grr.”
“For sure. I’ll let you know.”
Choi Da-Hye nodded, smiling. She knew how to get stuff done. Probably better than most men. I nodded back to show that I was happy with what she was doing.
As time progressed, it had gotten easier and easier to get my message across. Not only did everyone get better at interpreting my written messages, but it was getting easier for me to write out words. I wondered if I was getting used to being a zombie, or if it was because I had gained back some of my forgotten knowledge through consuming my enemies’ brains.
I didn’t know the exact reason why, but I knew one thing for sure. It was a change for the better.
I always had a pen and notepad on me at all times. They were like a part of my body. They were important mediums through which I could communicate with others.
Since I was done with all the tasks I had planned for the day, it was time to check out what So-Yeon had been up to the entire day.
According to Han Seon-Hui, So-Yeon liked art class the most. She said that So-Yeon liked to explain to her what her drawing meant while she was drawing on the drawing pad. I wanted to find out what she had drawn today. I headed toward unit 505 of apartment building 104 with joy.
Grr!!!
At that moment, I heard a rather disturbing noise. I turned around, my eyes wide. Choi Da-Hye tilted her head, clearly wondering what had made me react so suddenly.
“Is there anything else you want us to add?”
I brought my index finger to my lips and gestured to her to be quiet. Choi Da-Hye sucked in a breath and looked around as well. I focused all my attention on my hearing. I couldn’t figure out the meaning of the sudden cry.
GRRR!!!
I heard it again. It wasn’t coming from nearby. It was a sound that others couldn’t hear. It was something only I could hear.
‘Found red creature.’
It was a signal from the underlings I had sent out on patrol. I ran toward the Lee brothers, who were sitting on a wooden bench. They saw my agitation and stopped organizing the metal pieces. I quickly took out my notepad and wrote down a couple of words.
- Found enemies.
“There are enemies here?”
Lee Jeong-Uk stood up with a frown, looking around.
“Where? Where are they coming from?”
- Signal from Wangsimni Station scout.
“You can hear your underling from here?”
I nodded. Lee Jeong-Uk rubbed his chin silently, then looked at Lee Jeong-Hyuk.
“Bring whoever’s outside back inside, and have the guards and the foraging team station themselves here.”
“Roger that, hyung!”
Lee Jeong-Hyuk got moving the moment he got orders from his brother. Lee Jeong-Uk looked me straight in the eye.
“And what are you going to do? Are you going to head straight there?”
I nodded.
“Don’t you think it might be better to stay and defend this location?”
I shook my head. His point was valid, but I had to see with my own eyes what kind of red creature my underlings had discovered. My underlings could only distinguish if a zombie was red or not. They couldn’t tell if the zombie was part of a group.
It was possible to turn into a zombie with red glowing eyes even if you got bitten by one of the normal street zombies. There were no black creatures in Haengdang 1-dong anymore, and since there were no gang members around, it was reasonable to conclude that the red creature was someone who had been bitten by one of the street zombies.
As a countermeasure for situations like this, I had underlings with vision stationed all around Haengdang 1-dong. I was able to determine where the signal was coming from, and which underling was sending it.
Now, the underling that was stationed in Wangsimni Station had sent me a signal that it had discovered a red creature. I had to confirm if the red creature was part of the gang, or if it was just an unfortunate person who had been bitten by one of the street zombies. If the red creature was a gang member, I had to get rid of it before it got the chance to survey Haengdang 1-dong. If my underling got caught, the gang would know that there were no black creatures in the area anymore.
Lee Jeong-Uk scratched his head, seemingly not knowing what to do. I took out my notepad.
- Stay calm.
Lee Jeong-Uk read my message, took a deep breath, and eventually nodded.
“Let me take care of things here. Be careful out there.”
I nodded. I patted Lee Jeong-Uk’s shoulder gently, then took two hundred underlings with me to Wangsimni Station. Gang members that were assigned to patrol Haengdang-dong—in other words, the zombies with glowing red eyes known as ‘bait’—usually had around three hundred underlings.
If the intruder was ‘bait’, they were probably still weak, still possessing their human teeth. Two hundred underlings would be more than enough to take care of them.
However, I was worried about the possibility of a two-pronged attack, so I had to keep my defenses strong while only leading the bare minimum number of underlings out to go on the offensive, just in case.
During the time the shelter was being prepared, a couple of these ‘baits’ had entered Haengdang 1-dong.
To be honest, I didn’t have to be so cautious towards intruding gang members. However, I was more cautious this time around, not just because I was wary about a two-pronged attack. There was another reason.
The gang members all had one thing in common: they would enter from the west, through Hanyang University. However, this red creature was discovered in Wangsimni Station, which was north of where we were. There was the possibility that the gang members had realized that there were no black creatures in Haengdang 1-dong anymore.
If they were really planning to attack from two directions, it probably meant that the gang realized that there was no black creature here, and also that there was a zombie that was capable of rational thinking in the area. If such an attack were to occur, it would definitely be the officers who were leading them.
‘The ones at the shelter: increase the number of lookouts. Tell me right away if you see a red creature around the shelter.’
With that final order, I headed toward Wangsimni Station.
* * *
I reached Wangsimni Station in three minutes, moving non-stop. Now that the sun had set, I had gotten stronger, and was able to cover ground more quickly. I ordered my two hundred underlings into hiding, then swiftly made my way to the scout on the rooftop.
‘Where is it?’
My scout pointed. I followed its fingertip and saw five red creatures a small distance away. I titled my head as I looked at them.
‘Five of them?’
I couldn’t believe there were only five of them. I squinted my eyes to check if there were any zombies with glowing red eyes amongst them.
After a moment, my gaze locked onto one of them, a male that seemed rather dazed. He looked rather lost. He was tottering about with his hands pressed against his temples. He had glowing red eyes, and unlike the four zombies around him, he was of a slightly darker hue. I bit my lower lip as a thought came to my mind.
‘Did he undergo his mutation recently?’
Without a doubt, his actions indicated that he was enduring the headaches that came after pushing zombies with his palms. Since he only had four zombies around him, I assumed he had mutated pretty recently.
I headed down to the first floor.
‘I need to interrogate him.’
However, a sudden, dangerous thought came to mind.
‘What if he was somebody that only took a couple of underlings with him at a time?’
I knew that Kim Hyeong-Jun and the gang members mostly traveled with a host of underlings. However, there could be others like me who only moved around with small numbers of underlings at a time.
‘What if he has the same personality as me? If that’s the case, there’s no way of telling if he is dangerous or weak.’
I stopped midway down the stairs and looked out of the window on my right. I had to observe his movements a little bit more. He pushed another zombie, then wailed toward the night sky.
‘Yeah, your head probably hurts like hell right now.’
The pain that engulfed his entire body was probably more than he could handle. I knew exactly what he had to be going through, since I had fainted during the process of recruiting thirty underlings, back before I’d gotten rid of the black creature.
From his screaming, I assumed that the man wasn't strong. If he had sharp teeth like me, recruiting five underlings wouldn’t be enough to leave him in such pain.
I observed him carefully as I rubbed my chin. He was shaking his head and taking deep breaths, as if he had given up on recruiting more zombies. After a moment, he picked up the black plastic bag that he had put down earlier.
The sun was down, and the color of the plastic bag hindered my ability to see what was inside. All I saw was the silhouette of a bag.
After a moment, the man began to walk off, swaying like a drunk person. I bit my lips as I watched him.
‘Should I kill him now? But what if he’s not part of the gang? What right do I have to kill an innocent person? What if he was somebody who had devoted his life to helping other people?’
On one hand, it was probably wise to get rid of beings that could become troublesome later on. However, my hope that he could turn out to be a good person suppressed this first instinct. It wouldn’t be too late to take care of him after I confirmed what he was with my own eyes.
I gritted my teeth and followed him quietly. We were heading north. After we had walked for a while, I noticed a wall surrounding an elementary school. The man entered the school as if he was entering his own home.
‘Is he holding captives in there? Or is he protecting survivors like me?’
I couldn’t come to a conclusion unless I saw what was going on with my own eyes. I walked around the wall and made it to the rear entrance of the school. There were no lookouts at the entrance.
I jumped over the gate and glued myself to the wall. After a moment, I heard footsteps coming from inside the building. Someone was climbing up the stairs. As I lifted my head to peek through the school windows, I noticed a broken window on the third floor.
A three-storey jump was nothing to me. In one swift leap, I was inside. I quickly hid in an empty classroom. A moment later, I heard footsteps echoing down the third-floor hallway, I peeked outside to see what was going on, and saw the back of the man I’d seen at Wangsimni Station.
He entered a classroom at the end of the hallway, and after a moment, I heard murmuring. It was people talking. I crept out into the dark hallway and snuck my way toward the classroom. As I got closer, the voices grew clearer.
“Hey everyone, drink slowly. You’re going to get tummy aches!”
“Thank you, Mr. Kwak!”
“Shhh. What did I say about making noise?”
“Keep our voices quiet. Hehe.”
I heard children's voices. There were about three of them.
“Mr. Kwak, what’s it like outside?”
“Hmm… It’s not good.”
“Are you safe out there? The monsters out there… No, the zombies out there… Don’t they attack you, Mr. Kwak?”
“I’m safe. But I learned something rather interesting.”
“What is it?”
“I can make zombies into my underlings.”
There was a young woman inside as well. However, there was something odd about what the man being addressed as ‘Mr. Kwak’ was saying.
The words he was spewing did not make sense unless he was a red creature. At the same time, someone who was alive would not be able to make the same statement. It seemed like the zombie who had just entered the room was Mr. Kwak.
I peeked into the classroom to determine the answer to the mystery. What I saw made my jaw drop instinctively. My eyes widened, and my head began to spin.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The red creature that had just entered the room was speaking.
It was having a conversation with a living person.
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