Chapter 6: 1.6 Tom Rhee

The biggest mystery of the TWD series is the lacking presence of the military. If not lacking, then losing… It is quite thought-provoking. How in the world did an army of well-trained soldiers capable of effective and efficient mass slaughter are losing to a bunch of slow walking brainless fucking undead!?

I am full of emotion right now as the answer presents itself to me. I recall those odd military guys in black. Why in the hell are they helping the undead in attacking the Detroit Arsenal?

It doesn’t make sense unless those guys are with the undead. They might as well have answers as to where the Wildfire virus comes from.

I can only think of one reason why the Detroit Arsenal is receiving the direct attention of whatever organization is behind those guys in black military uniform… It is obviously because of the tanks. As a plant for tanks, the Detroit Arsenal is a dangerous threat against walkers.

Imagine a bunch of tanks just rolling in the streets directly going over a herd, and mowing down on every undead in sight. Forget the bombastic artillery function of the tank. Just with an engine effective enough, you’d be invincible.

The dots in my mind start connecting. There must definitely be mutated zombies capable of turning knobs or climbing places, but I cannot imagine them being fast enough to go into a tank and forcefully open its door.

It has always been the humans that were the real threat.

“Mom, we should do something… Grandpa might be fine against those undead, but you saw those other people, right?”

Mom stays quiet in my pleading and continues driving the car.

“Mom, please…” I beg her.

Suddenly, the car stops. Must be engine failure all thanks to taking too much damage for taking the brunt of all those bullets. “Let’s go. We’ll find a resting place, or maybe another car. We will wait for grandpa there.”

Mom grabs her bag, and grandpa’s bag and leads the way. I obediently follow her.

We arrive at another car. Mom is quite versatile as with a hairpin, she makes quick work of the car’s door. “Get inside.”

I quickly go to the backseat where I find myself most comfortable. It will also give us more options in an occasion of a car crash. It is just my opinion though as I don’t have experience with these accidents. Still, I was hoping not to experience one.

Mom starts the car easy peasy by jumpstarting the wires. Such skills come as a wonder to me. Does she steal cars as a side hustle?

Seeing my confusion, mom gives her side of the story. “Hmmm… You must be thinking about how awesome your mom is... Aren’t I great?” She boasts to me.

Come to think of it, she also knows how to handle a shotgun… Is she a hitman in her past life? Or maybe she has a secret identity?

Catching onto my weird thoughts, mom strangely looks at me. “I definitely wasn’t a spy in my past life or anything…”

“I wasn’t thinking any of that? So are you actually from North Korea, and you are actually an adopted daughter of grandpa and grandma? And then you suddenly fall in love with an American boy to whom you swore to leave your past behind?”

“???”

Okay, I think that was too much even for me.

“You have a story already!” Mom giggles at the ridiculousness of how easy it is for me to make up stuff. “No, your father isn’t anyone great that he’d convince a commie spy to leave her past behind…”

“So you are actually a spy!” I jump from my seat hitting the roof of the car. The car is in motion as mom continues to circle around the place so, I got hit more than I want to. I hate gravity, I denounce the very phenomenon that is innocent though and through.

“Are you alright?” Mom stops the car and looks behind her. She worries her son might become truly an idiot after getting hit so many times.

“F-fine, mon… I am okay…”

I behave myself and put a seatbelt on me afraid that I might do something that I’d regret. I am too hyper for my own good.

After getting a reasonable distance, not so far and not so near, Mom stops the car, parking itself just beside CTT, a trucking company. “I think we are good here. The car is tinted, so we can just stay immobile for some time until we get news from your grandpa.”

“Mom, are you really a spy?” I ask mom as I am still hung up on the conversation minutes ago.

Mom is stumped and speechless.

“Mom?”

“No, of course not… I don’t know, but I was definitely not a good person. I got mixed up with bad kids when I was young. I was a delinquent, and so is your father…  I was pretty much a runaway when I was 15. Throughout my delinquency, I learned a lot of bad things. Picking locks and hi-jacking cars are not the last of them… I was 19 when I got pregnant with you… Your dad being an asshole left me… From there, I stopped being a delinquent. I was still a runaway though… and… I hid you from your grandparents... I just can’t break their hearts, you know? My sister is helping me though.”

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There was this strange bitterness in mom’s voice. Like after swallowing a bitter fruit, you’d suddenly find that there is a sweet aftertaste to it.

“When you turned 6, I returned home with a degree in education…”

Mom beautifully smiles at me.

“And then… from since then, the happy story began…”

But such a beautiful smile didn’t last long on mom's face, as the cruel reality presents itself to us. Outside our car, a group of people is running left and right. There is a riot, and no police officers or first responders are on the site.

“Mom, should we help?”

“No, we cannot…”

Mom opens her flip phone and dials nine-one-one. “There is a riot here near Detroit Arsenal…People are attacking! They are using the nearest weapon they can get! Some are even biting… It is total chaos out here. Please send help!”

Mom is sensible enough not to mention zombies. She hangs up her phone and returns it to her pocket. Looks like some services are still in effect, and the apocalypse hasn’t totally set in yet.

Mom looks at me and with her same gentle voice tells me not to worry. “We cannot help, but others can… For now, we stay…”

I look at the road where it is getting more congested lately.

“Can we even escape this place? Look at the road, mom. There are too many people… If they all turn… Would we be able to escape? And if we do? Where should we go?”

Michigan is too far from the main cast who lives in Georgia... It is very tempting to join the protagonists of TWD but I don't want to bet on my chances like this. That's like 3 to 4 states away from Michigan to Georgia!

“Hey, baby, look at me…” Mom comes to me and holds my cheeks. “We will be fine… Your grandpa will be fine… If it is where we should go, then there are plenty of places to go, okay? I promised you we’d go to Disneyland on my next payday, right?”

Disneyland? I laugh inwardly… And here I was fantasizing about going to Georgia... and here is my mom thinking of going to Disneyland of all places... Back then, I didn’t mind even though I am not really a fan of the mouse, but the journey together with this family means something to me.

“Mom, Disneyland is too much… I am happy to have just grandpa and you around…”

It’s not only me that needs comfort. I hug mom. Because of tight spaces, we can only settle with a half-hug, but the message did go across. After disengaging from the hug, mom returns to her seat and starts looking out by the window.

While busy, I reckon it won’t bother her much if we continue talking.

“How about dad? Or whoever that guy is?”

“Don’t go looking for him… He is no longer here… I blasted him with a shotgun…”

Oh, so that’s how mom was able to become proficient with a shotgun.

“Is he… dead?”

“No, just went abroad.”

“Okay.”

Silence envelopes the car. Mom looks at me. “Do you resent me? That you don’t have a dad?”

I certainly don’t remember much of my past life. That includes my past relationships. I don’t even know what the difference is between having a dad and not having a dad. Maybe a dad is something like a discounted version of my grandpa? I don’t know.

“Mom, why would I resent you? I don’t resent you, not even one bit… Why would I want a dad? I already have you…”

Exactly at that moment, my world turns upside down as inertia takes a hold of my body. A car just comes out of nowhere and hits our car. The car window beside me breaks into smaller shards of glass. From behind it, a walker puking blood tries to grab me.

I hear gunshots. The last I hear is mom shouting my name, slowly, I faint and fall into unconsciousness as the effects of the head trauma finally set in.

“Fucking useless seatbelts…"

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