Chapter 43
I was taken aback by their interaction.
‘How… how is he speaking?’
This teacher called Mr. Kwak was doing something that neither I nor Kim Hyeong-Jun could do. I let my head sag as I ran through every possible scenario.
‘Is he stronger than me?’
That couldn't be the case. Based on what Mr. Kwak had been saying, he’d only realized that day that he could recruit underlings.
‘But how is a being like him speaking like a human being?’
He was speaking with a mysterious woman who seemed rather shy, and he smiled every now and then. Thanks to that, I’d been able to see his teeth pretty easily.
He had human teeth. This meant that he hadn’t reached the next rank, like me and Kim Hyeong-Jun. That confused me even more. How in the world was a being like him able to speak…?
I shook my head and let out a quick breath. The best and most certain way was to ask him myself. I stepped out into view and looked at Mr. Kwak and the woman.
“GWAAAA!”
The children in the classroom started screaming. There was a boy and two girls there who were about early elementary age. They were screaming, and their hands were shaking as if they had gone insane. Mr. Kwak and the young woman whipped around to look at me. The woman was clearly frightened. In an instant, it seemed like her soul had escaped her body. Mr. Kwak stared at me, not knowing how to react.
“What… what… what are you!?”
Mr. Kwak yelled, stuttering. Even in the midst of all this chaos, he pushed the woman and children behind him as he kept his gaze trained on me. I looked Mr. Kwak straight in the eye.
‘What are you?’
“Yes, yes?”
‘How are you speaking?’
“Wait, no, how…? How are you speaking right now?”
I watched as his eyes moved side to side. His face was a mask of fear, like that of a weak human. He probably had no clue what was going on, now that he could hear a voice ringing inside his head.
The woman and children were trembling uncontrollably, their eyes bouncing back and forth between me and Mr. Kwak. I frowned and repeated my question.
‘How are you able to speak? I’ll spare your life if you answer my question.’
“What, what do you mean by that? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mr. Kwak kept speaking verbally. The woman behind him grabbed him by his sleeves.
“Mr. Kwak, what is that person? That person… Is that person saying something right now?’
“He’s talking to me, but whatever he’s saying is ringing in my head.”
“What?”
Color drained from the woman’s face as she looked at me. A voice ringing inside someone’s head. The fact that I was speaking without saying a word might’ve been scarier than my external appearance. The woman looked down, holding the children in her arms. As I watched her biting her lips, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
With a sigh, I looked back at Mr. Kwak.
‘Beings with glowing red eyes. You and I are the same beings. Got that?’
“Oh, yes. Yes!”
‘Don’t open your mouth when you want to speak. Think instead.’
“What? Oh, okay.”
Mr. Kwak smacked his lips and swallowed. Then, he looked me straight in my face.
‘Like this?’
‘There we go. And look at me when you talk. I’ll kill you if you look away.’
‘Yes, yes!’
‘Beings like us don’t innately possess the ability to speak verbally. But somehow, you’re having conversations with other people. Tell me how you’re doing that.’
‘Hmm? I don’t know…’
‘Think carefully about how you do it.’
I asked him this question as if I were slowly persuading him to tell me a secret. I asked as clearly and softly as I could, so that he wouldn’t lose himself to fear. Mr. Kwak tilted his head, his face puffing like a goldfish. His eyes were trembling. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that he was scared to death.
I flicked my finger at him.
‘Your eyes! Don’t look away!’
‘I’m, I’m sorry!’
‘Look me in the eye whenever you think.’
‘No, no… Uh, so um… How’d I do it? I was just like this…’
‘Tell me what you remember when you first opened your eyes.’
‘I, I… I only woke up two days ago, so I don’t know anything.’
I couldn’t tell if he was being naive, or if he was just plain stupid. He’d just blurted out, with total honesty, that he didn’t know anything. If I’d been a gang member, Mr. Kwak would’ve been long gone. I sighed, then asked again,
‘What’s the first thing you did after you got up?’
‘Oh, um…’
His trembling eyes finally locked onto mine. I saw his Adam’s apple twitch violently as he swallowed. I wondered if he’d just remembered something that he did not want to.
He was trembling, and his fists were clenched. I waited patiently for Mr. Kwak to speak. Mr. Kwak took a quick look at the woman and the children, then his gaze centered on me again.
‘The people here—no. The animals here, I killed them.’
‘What?’
As I frowned, Mr. Kwak’s breathing grew heavy, but he kept going.
‘They, they weren’t human.’
‘You’d better elaborate.’
Mr. Kwak let out a heavy sigh and slowly closed his eyes. I’d already given him fair warning that I would kill him if he looked away, but considering the circumstances, I decided to cut him some slack.
After a moment, he continued.
‘There used to be a lot of people here. This place was one of the two shelters in Majang-dong.’
‘Majang-dong?’
Was he saying that we were in Majang-dong? I supposed it made sense that we were no longer in Haengdang-dong anymore, since we’d traveled quite a distance north from Wangsimni Station. Mr. Kwak kept on talking.
‘If you go east, you’ll find a middle school. It operated as a shelter. However, about a month ago, some people showed up at the middle school. After that, they were attacked by zombies.’
His words made me smack my lips with bitterness. There was a high chance that the gang members had attacked them. Shelters were the last bit of hope for survivors but in the eyes of the gang members, it was like hitting a jackpot full of food.
Mr. Kwak continued to share his memories.
‘When people from the middle school came, those in here started getting nervous as well. Food was running low, there were more people, and most of all, none of the people who came from the middle school were sane. They acted like they had seen ghosts.’
‘What’s your point?’
‘Then, one of the people that came from middle school…’
He then took in a deep breath before he finished his sentence.
‘That person killed someone else.’
‘Kill a person?’
‘Do you know what kind of eyes people have after they completely lose their minds?’
I remained silent.
‘The person kept laughing as he performed the killing. They kept on uttering the same thing over and over again, as if they had gone insane.’
Mr. Kwak’s face started to darken. He was close to tears, and his voice was on the verge of breaking.
‘“Meat, it’s meat!”’
‘That’s what the person said?’
‘That son of a bitch kept laughing as he said this. They called a living person meat, and they were laughing about it.’
I was at a loss for words. It would have been difficult for anyone to maintain their sanity after witnessing something like that with their own eyes. Mr. Kwak eventually burst into tears. He continued in a hoarse voice,
‘After that, the zombies started attacking. They would come once a week and kidnap people.’
I pursed my lips grimly as I looked at Mr. Kwak.
If they came periodically to abduct people, it was difficult to believe that ordinary zombies carried out the attacks. It had to be the gang members. The gang members harassed these people constantly. They didn’t wipe out the people in one go, but came periodically to breed fear and mistrust amongst the people in the shelter.
Then the woman behind me glared at me. It seemed she believed that things were not going in their favor.
The woman got up and strode toward me. With her eyes open wide, she cried, “Eat me instead! Don’t bother him! Take my life instead!”
Her sudden outburst was unexpected. I scratched my eyebrows. Although her mouth was closed, her jaw was trembling with fear. Her tears were on the brink of flowing. Mr. Kwak was astonished by her sudden outburst as well. He took her arm and dragged her behind him again, but she escaped his grasp.
“Eat me, you son of a bitch!”
I had no idea what I’d done to deserve such vulgarities being hurled at me from someone I didn’t even know. I smacked my lips and then looked at Mr. Kwak.
‘Calm this woman, would you?’
‘I’m sorry. Ms. Koo is a bit… rough, from time to time.’
‘Ms. Koo?’
It seemed like they were both school teachers. I wondered if that was the reason why the children followed them so easily. Mr. Kwak tried all sorts of things to calm Ms. Koo. After soothing her for a while, she finally took a seat, then began to cry. All the children around her burst into tears as well. Just watching them made me feel uncomfortable.
After a moment, Mr. Kwak spoke.
‘She just wanted to sacrifice herself for the sake of the children. Please understand where she’s coming from.’
I understood completely. They needed Mr. Kwak in order to forage for food outside. She was asking me to take her life instead for the sake of the children’s future. Realizing this made my heart ache.
I thought of So-Yeon and the time I’d tried to fight off the zombie attack to protect her. Back then, I’d wished for them to eat me instead, that they would leave So-Yeon in the master bedroom alone. I could still feel the desperation and sense of despair in that moment, and I more than understood her sudden actions.
I smacked my lips again then turned my attention to Mr. Kwak.
‘What happened afterward?’
‘Infighting flared up amongst the remaining survivors, and their quarreling lured the zombies, who attacked. In the end, everyone except for Ms. Koo and the children died.’
‘Didn’t you say earlier that you killed people? Doesn’t that mean some people were still left alive?’
‘I don’t want to consider the people from the middle school as people. The people I was referring to were the people that were here from the beginning; the people who were hiding in this elementary school.’
I wondered just how deep his condemnation of them ran, for him to say such a thing. I nodded slowly and prompted him to continue.
‘What happened?’
‘The people from the middle school were hiding in the gym. As if they’d known that the zombies would be coming at some point. They took early measures and hid themselves.’
‘…’
‘I led Ms. Koo and the children to the principal’s office, and afterward, I was bitten.’
‘So after you woke up as a zombie, you went ahead and killed the people hiding in the gym?’
‘…Yes.’
‘Did you kill everyone in the gym and eat their brains as well?’
He flinched when I asked if he had eaten their brains. Mr. Kwak glanced at Ms. Koo and the children. It seemed like he hadn’t told them that he had eaten their brains.
I understood, since I hadn't told my people that I had eaten zombie brains either. How in the world could I tell anyone that I ate a human’s brain?
From his reaction, I became certain of one thing. If you ate a human’s brain, you would be able to communicate through speech. You could talk verbally, unlike the way I was right now, where I had to write letters and draw in order to communicate. If I ate a human brain, I would be able to talk to So-Yeon like I used to.
GRR!! GAA!!
Distressing throat-rending noises came from outside the window. Surprised flashed across Mr. Kwak’s face, and he quickly dashed toward the window. Zombies were racing to our location through the darkness from far, far away. The zombies had been attracted by the children’s crying and Ms. Koo’s scream.
“Get to the principal’s office. Hide there!” Mr. Kwak yelled at Ms. Koo.
Ms. Koo wiped the tears from her face and then led the children to the principal’s office. Mr. Kwak clenched his fists and then looked at the incoming group of zombies. I tapped his arms with the back of my hand.
‘It was good talking to you today,’ I said.
‘Huh?’
‘Since you gave me information, I’ll give you a little something as well. I think I’m at fault for their screaming.’
‘I’m not following what you’re saying.’
I beamed at Mr. Kwak so that he could see my teeth. His eyes widened, and he fell backward in surprise. I wondered how my teeth looked like to him, with the moonlight reflecting off of them.
I couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking or feeling, but I knew one thing for certain. He probably sensed the difference between me and him. I looked down at him.
‘Mr. Kwak, I look red to you, don’t I?’
‘Oh yes. Yes, yes.’
‘If you see any red creatures like me, just run. No one else will sit and listen to what you’ve got to say.’
‘…’
‘Especially the ones that say they’re part of a gang. Get away from them no matter what.’
‘Gang?’
‘You heard me right. They’re the ones that turned you into this.’
Mr. Kwak looked dumbfounded. I fixed my eyes on him and spoke from the bottom of my heart.
‘Mr. Kwak, you’re doing perfectly fine now. Keep at it.’
‘…’
‘Whatever the circumstances are, protect what you want to protect.’
‘Yes…!’
A different light flickered in his eyes. His lips, which were closed tightly in a line, and his clenched fists showed his determination. I smiled a satisfied smile.
‘I hope we meet each other once again. I hope you get stronger by then, so that we can be on the same team. Like forging an alliance.’
Even if I wanted to forge an alliance with Mr. Kwak right now, it would’ve been difficult, since he was so weak. It was obvious that he would faint the moment we clasped hands. I looked at Mr. Kwak for the last time.
‘Don’t die until the day we meet again.’
With that, I opened the window and leaped down to the ground. I ran toward the black tide that was making its way through the main entrance.
* * *
‘Don’t die…’
Mr. Kwak watched the man run toward the horde of zombies, his mind churning. He wasn’t sure what to make of his last words. He knew that he was already dead.
For some reason, though, that man’s words hit him differently. They held both warmth and sadness at the same time. He couldn’t hold back his tears.
Before he met this man, he’d been wallowing in absolute despair and darkness. However, this man was a ray of hope that had come out of nowhere. He felt alive again, as if his heart had somehow started to beat again, despite having already stopped beating. Mr. Kwak stared at the man making his way through the zombies.
‘I should’ve at least asked him for his name…’
Not asking for the man’s name was the first thing he’d regretted after turning into a zombie.
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