Chapter 194

The next morning, the survivors loaded all of their supplies onto carts and made their way to Port Jeju.

Once we arrived, all the survivors assigned themselves tasks and moved into action as one. Everyone exercised their own judgment and did whatever work was required on their own, even without the leaders telling them what to do.

Since Port Jeju jutted out into the ocean, it was safe from the zombies as long as the southern entrance was blockaded properly. The facilities management team began to reconstruct the iron wall that we’d used back in Gwangjang-dong at the intersection of Pier 6, which was located at the southern end, and the guards began to build their encampment between Pier 6 and Pier 9. Kim Dae-Young and his underlings helped with the heavy lifting.

The team in charge of food, clothing, and shelter moved platforms into position behind the iron wall so that the guards could brace their K2 rifles, and made Molotov cocktails using the gasoline that Do Han-Sol had retrieved.

Since Port Jeju was large and mostly flat, Park Gi-Cheol and Hwang Deok-Rok built a guard post along the first line of defense, made out of objects that people could take cover behind. Bae Jeong-Man and Park Shin-Jeong armed the men and constructed a second line of defense at Piers 7 and 8, north of the first line of defense.

Because the passenger terminal was located to the right of Pier 7, it was almost impossible for the survivors to stay alive if the second line of defense went down.

While Lee Jeong-Uk observed everyone at work, he directed a question at Hwang Ji-Hye, who was beside him.

“What’s that over there? The thing that’s touching the ocean? Is it a breakwater?”

“It looks like a breakwater. There’s also a lighthouse at the end.”

To the north of Pier 8, which was north of the second line of defense, was Jeju Outer Port. There were two narrow bridges in front of Yuhwang Wharf, and a long diagonal breakwater that looked like a walkway.

Lee Jeong-Uk quietly rubbed his chin as he scrutinized the breakwater, then he looked at Hwang Ji-Hye.

“How many do you think can fit on that walkway?”

“If we fill it up completely, I think we could fit up to about a thousand. I’m not sure about the width, but the length itself is mindblowing.”

“In the worst-case scenario, we can use it as the third line of defense.”

Hwang Ji-Hye gave him a confused look, as if he was making no sense.

"Huh? There’s nowhere to take cover.”

Lee Jeong-Uk’s expression remained serious.

“If the second line of defense goes down, we’re pretty much done for,” he replied. “We have to hold on until Lee Hyun-Deok, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Han-Sol take care of the black creature and come to our aid.”

“Hold them off from there, when we don’t even know how long they’re going to take? There’s another worst-case scenario to consider as well. If Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, Mr. Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Mr. Did Han-Sol die… We’re going to be trapped on that breakwater.”

“Once the second line of defense goes down and we are forced onto the breakwater, that already means that we’re betting everything on them. Going there basically means that we’ve failed in holding off the zombies on our own.”

Hwang Ji-Hye grimaced, and after a moment, she nodded. Then she called Lee Jeong-Hyuk, Choi Da-Hye, and the principal over and asked them to begin to construct a third line of defense along the bridge that would lead to the walkway along the breakwater.

Lee Jeong-Uk took a deep breath and looked out over Port Jeju. As he observed everyone at work, he couldn’t help but wonder if this place was going to be their grave, or if it could be the starting point of the future of mankind. In truth, nobody knew what the future held.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

* * *

While the survivors were building their encampments in Port Jeju, Kim Hyeong-Jun and I focused on converting our underlings into mutants. We did our job outside of Jeju City, since we thought that it could pose a danger to the survivors.

In order to make a mutant, we had to force our underlings to fight each other, which meant that we would lose one of our underlings on the spot. In other words, once we ordered all our underlings to fight, we would lose half of the number of underlings we currently had. Since we’d be losing a large number of underlings very quickly, Kim Hyeong-Jun and I recruited new underlings non-stop, by pushing whatever zombie we saw.

The throbbing headache, which I hadn’t felt for a while, made me feel like I was still alive. The headache was not accompanied by physical pain, and so it did not cause me much suffering. In fact, it gave me a sense of freshness and vitality.

The thing that could possibly count as pain… was the pressure of not knowing when the black creature was going to attack. It was extremely nerve-wracking, far outweighing the sensation of the headache.

Do Han-Sol insisted on making mutants, but I explicitly told him not to. Although it was true that mutants were specialized for combat, it was important to overwhelm the black creature with numbers. The black creature would wipe out dozens of underlings, but if enough underlings managed to attach themselves to the black creature, it would be enough to divert the black creature’s attention, even for a little bit.

On top of that, I wasn’t sure if Kim Hyeong-Jun and I would be able to keep the ranks of our underlings full as we made more mutants, since Jeju Island was running out of zombies.

We kept on making mutants throughout the night, and after just two days, we finally converted all of our underlings into mutants. In the span of just those two days, Jeju City was wiped clean of zombies. We had run out of zombies because we’d already gone about cleaning up Jeju City a couple of times beforehand.

Kim Hyeong-Jun still had to create five more mutants to fill his ranks. We decided to create the remaining mutants when Jeong Jin-Young regained consciousness, and moved on to step up the trap for the black creature.

* * *

On the morning of the third day of our preparations, I heard Kim Dae-Young calling me just as I was just about to leave the passenger terminal to patrol the area.

“Mr. Jeong Jin-Young has woken up.”

When I heard the news, I went to the rest area of the passenger terminal, where I had laid Jeong Jin-Young down. His hand was on his throbbing forehead, and it seemed like he wasn’t able to get up at the moment. He was fiddling with his gums with his right hand, as if his gums were itchy.

I sat down beside Jeong Jin-Young and looked at him.

“Mr. Jeong Jin-Young. Mr. Jeong Jin-Young?”

"Ahhh… Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, you’re here.”

"Are you feeling unwell?”

“My body is too hot. My mouth is itchy too.”

“Then you’re okay. Just hold on for a moment. It will go away soon.”

Jeong Jin-Young continued to move his mouth about as he bit his lips. I knew exactly how he was feeling because I also hadn’t been able to bear the pain just before my sharp teeth grew out. After waiting for about thirty minutes, Jeong Jin-Young, with all of his sharp teeth grown out, slowly raised himself up from the bed.

I gave him a once-over.

“How are you now?” I asked. “Do you feel any changes in your body?”

“I’m not sure if this is right… But I feel strong, full of energy.”

“Can you tell where your underlings are through your mind?”

“Pardon?” Jeong Jin-Young asked, looking at me in confusion.

Kim Hyeong-Jun, who was next to me, tilted his head.

"Ahjussi, didn’t that only happen once we were able to control over a thousand underlings?” he asked.

“Oh, was that the case?”

Honestly, it had been such a long time ago that my memory was hazy. After thinking about what Kim Hyeong-Jun had said, it did seem like I could only tell where my underlings were after the number of underlings I could control had hit one thousand. It was only natural for me to feel this way, since it had been a long time since I had taken care of the dong leader of Majang-dong.

I scratched my sideburns and asked Kim Hyeong-Jun a question.

“What else was there, besides knowing where your underlings are?”

“Checking how many underlings you have?”

“You’re right. Was that also something that happened only after reaching one thousand underlings?”

“I think so.”

I scratched my head and looked at Jeong Jin-Young. He was still staring at me blankly. I knew he’d be unfamiliar with what was going on and was afraid of everything that was happening, since he didn’t know what time it was or how many days had passed since he’d fallen asleep.

Jeong Jin-Young fiddled with his sharpened teeth with his right hand, and only snapped out of his daydream after cutting himself. Jeong Jin-Young swallowed and asked me a question.

“What’s happened to Jeju Island?”

“I'll tell you along the way. Follow me.”

“Uh, where are we going?”

“We’re going to go see your underlings. Your first underlings.”

As I chuckled, Jeong Jin-Young looked at me, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Ha-Sol, his eyes trembling. He swallowed again and got to his feet. We headed to Jeju National University High School, which was east of Jeju Airport. When we got there, I saw some zombies—some that I saw as red, and some without any color—tied to ropes, trying to squirm their way out. Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had tagged along, offered me a smirk.

“Ahjussi, you form an alliance with Jeong Jin-Young first,” he said. “I'll be recruiting those zombies over there.”

"Okay."

With that, Kim Hyeong-Jun started pushing the zombies that weren’t governed by a chain of command and recruited them as his underlings. I told Jeong Jin-Young exactly what I’d told Kim Dae-Young when the two of us had formed an alliance. He seemed a bit nervous, but he quickly gave me a sharp nod and opened his eyes.

I held out my right hand and looked at Jeong Jin-Young.

“It’s going to be a little painful.”

“I can’t imagine it being worse than the pain after waking up.”

“It depends on the person. For you… It’s going to be pretty painful.”

Jung Jin-Young took a big sigh and took my hand.

"GAAAAAAA!!"

His scream echoed through the first floor of the school.

* * *

We began with Jeju National University High School, then we checked Namnyeong High School, which was located within the base of the Northwest Gang. Kim Hyeong-Jun created the five mutants that he was missing, and we decided that Do Han-Sol could have ten stage-one mutants, because there were so many zombies left.

I had forty-five stage-one mutants and a stage-three mutant, Ji-Eun. Kim Hyeong-Jin had forty-four stage-one mutants and Mood-Swinger, and finally, Do Han-Sol had ten stage-one mutants and twelve hundred ordinary underlings.

With this amount of zombies, I was convinced that we could go up against the black creature. After a moment, Jeong Jin-Young, who had just joined our alliance, spoke up.

“Did you say that I should focus on just defending?”

“Yes, please.”

“You can speak to me informally as well. I think that will help me feel like we’re on the same team.”

"Okay,” I replied with a smile and a nod.

Jeong Jin-Young had passed out momentarily at Jeju National University High School. To be honest, I’d felt rather anxious that he might have just died. However, his red body had slowly turned purple, and it hadn’t taken him long before he opened his eyes and regained consciousness.

Thankfully, Jeong Jin-Young had overcome the pain, and we formed an alliance without any issues. He looked at the underlings that were following him, then tilted his head.

"Then… Should I mark my underlings the same way you did?” he asked.

"Mark them? Did you mean painting them blue?”

“Yes. Don’t you think it’d be nice for the survivors to distinguish my underlings from the other zombies?”

“Yeah. In that case, let’s stop by the supermarket first.”

Next to the Northwest Gang’s base was a hypermarket. We walked over and grabbed some blue dry-erase markers, paint, and spray paint, before heading straight toward Port Jeju.

* * *

While Kim Hyeong-Jun and I headed toward the survivors, Do Han-Sol and Jeong Jin-Young said that they would lead their underlings in front of the first line of defense to paint them blue. I gave them a small nod and went over to where Lee Jeong-Uk was, accompanied by Kim Hyeong-Jun.

Lee Jeong-Uk was having an important conversation with the leaders in the passenger terminal. He welcomed me with a bright smile after noticing me.

“So-yeon’s dad, how’d your underling situation go?”

“We’re all prepared. How are things here?”

“We’re done building the lines of defense, and now I’m considering any other variables or situations that might occur.”

“I’d say that we need to make some countermeasures against the stage-one mutants. I think the most likely surprise that could happen would be a mutant appearing.”

“We have plans for stage-one mutants.”

I looked at him quizzically, inviting him to elaborate. Lee Jeong-Uk gestured for me to head outside of the passenger terminal. Dozens of drums were lined up in a row between the first and second lines of defense, and there was a basic guard post above one of the drums. Lee Jeong-Uk pointed to the rope connected to the drum.

“Can you guess what would happen if you pulled that?” he asked.

“What?”

“If you pull that rope, the guard post will collapse and the drums are going to fall like dominoes. And of course, all the drums have gasoline in them.”

“If you pull that rope huh…”

I took a look around the area surrounding the guard post. I noticed an impressively large pit spanning the distance between Pier 6 and Pier 9. It seemed like the survivors had made it to keep the zombies at bay.

Lee Jeong-Uk grinned.

“We also have a steady supply of Molotov cocktails,” he continued. “I don’t think any zombie will be able to withstand the fire. If they do…”

“I’m sure the stage-one mutants will.”

“And that’s why Mr. Kim Dae-Young will be in charge of pulling the rope. I’m confident that any mutants that make it past the flames won’t be ordinary. That’s when Mr. Kim Dae-Young will take care of them.”

I rubbed my chin quietly, and Lee Jeong-Uk gestured to me to follow him.

“I still have a lot more to show you. We’ve made enough preparations so that you’ll feel comfortable leaving us here, so look forward to what you’re about to see.”

I nodded in response and followed Lee Jeong-Uk.

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

At that moment, I felt a subtle shaking coming from the ground beneath my toes. I remained still, and Lee Jeong-Uk turned around.

"What are you doing?” he asked. “Why aren’t you…”

"Shh."

I put my finger on my lips, my blue eyes flashing. I sharpened my hearing and concentrated fully on it, as well as the vibration I sensed beneath my toes. The ground was shaking like a foreshock that heralded an earthquake. Soon, the ground began to rumble even more, and I could hear heavy footsteps coming from afar.

'This can’t be.'

I hurried to the first line of defense and jumped onto the roof of the tallest building I saw, opening my eyes wide as I did so.

Just as I’d expected, I saw an endless zombie wave coming toward us.