The Maze (II)

     Suzy woke up to the sunlight in her eyes. 

     She rubbed her eyes and looked around, Zico nowhere to be seen. She peeked under the tree and saw him splashing water on his face by a pond, retreating back to her spot. The warm sunlight that lay above her almost fooled her into thinking she was back at home, with Mom and Dad.

It was so quiet up here; no distractions.

She searched through her backpack and took a sip from her bottle of water, searching deeper for food.

So much had happened that she forgot that she was hungry. 

     She grabbed a canned chicken soup, pulling the lid off. She gulped the whole can down in a few gulps, throwing the can outside the branch. She lifted her shirt and groaned slightly at the bruise on her stomach; it felt like sharp needles piercing her stomach skin from the inside. The bruise had gotten better overnight, but she knew it would affect her running and survival for the day. 

The tree rustled followed by Zico who climbed back up inside the branch, his face dripping with water. 

He wiped the water off his face with his sleeves and stared at Suzy like he was waiting for her to say something. 

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah.." Suzy said awkwardly. 

Something about Zico seemed different; perhaps it was her misunderstanding but the way he stared at Suzy seemed softer. 

He no longer stared at her; he glanced at her. 

Zico leaned in to check Suzy's bruise on her stomach.

"Whoa," Suzy backed away as he tried to lift her shirt. "What are you doing."

Zico sighed and chucked an ointment at Suzy. 

"Apply this," he murmured. "I don't want to die because of you." He ped his backpack and took out a bottle of water, drinking it.

"Are you worrying about me now?" Suzy said with a small grin as she lifted her shirt and began applying the ointment on her bruise.

"Pphh," Zico spat his water as Suzy lifted her shirt right in front of him.

"Are you ok?" Suzy asked, shocked. "Your face is really red."

"Just hurry up," he murmured, avoiding eye contact. "I'll be waiting at the bottom."

Suzy watched in confusion as Zico rushed down the tree, his face burning up. 

Zico rushed down the tree. He could feel the blood burning his face and ran toward the pond to splash his face again.

The image of Suzy lifting her shirt replayed in his head like a broken cassette tape.

"What the ," Zico murmured under his breath. "I must be crazy."

"Are you ok?" Suzy tapped on his back and he flinched, backing away from her. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Let's go," he muttered. "We're already late."

He grabbed his backpack and stood up, blinking multiple times.

The Suzy who was right beside him a few seconds ago disappeared from his sight. He spun, trying to find her. 

The forest was horrifyingly silent and only the sound of the wind emanated his ears.

"I'm not in the mood for a joke," Zico shouted. "Come out!"

Only his scream echoed through the forest accompanied by the sound of the wind. 

     From afar, Zico noticed the empty soup can next to the tree they were at. A million thoughts rushed through his head as he sprinted toward the can. The can led a path that was clean of leaves in a forest covered with leaves; it looked as if a body was dragged in its path, clearing the leaves. 

"," Zico ran across the path and stopped in his track. 

He hid behind the trail of trees and followed the clear leaf track sideways, listening in for any sounds. 

Zico stopped in his tracks when he saw what he shouldn't have seen.

     Suzy stood before Joohyuk, looking right into his eyes. Her eyes were teary as the two just glanced at each other without any words; just silence. 

Zico sighed in annoyance and noticed something; Kyungri wasn't there.

"," Zico sighed and crouched, looking around for Kyungri.

     This was obviously a trick and the fact that Suzy still hadn't gotten to her senses irked him a LOT. Her eyes were filled with love and pain; the exact kind of emotions that would hold them back in this game.

     He slowly moved his position across the bushes and saw Kyungri hiding behind the bush in the opposite side, watching Joohyuk and Kyungri. She had a Swiss army knife in her hand, quietly flinging it back and forth with a sneer on her face. 

"Why did you throw the knife at us?" Suzy asked, her voice filled with pain.

Joohyuk only looked down and sighed. 

"Why Joohyuk?"

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Let me ask you a question," she said emotionlessly and looked into his eyes. "Did you throw it at me?"

"No, it was to Zic-"

"Did you," Suzy spoke over him, trying to stay calm. "throw it at me."

After a moment of silence, Joohyuk only nodded silently and averted eye contact. Suzy sighed, her head filled with anger and sadness at the same time. She didn't know what this emotion was; she never thought it was possible to become angry at the person she loved.

But right now, that's exactly what she felt.

"Why..?"

     Joohyuk stepped closer, trying to hug Suzy. She stepped back, distancing herself from him. In her eyes, he was no longer the sweet Joohyuk that was engraved in her memory. The person before her eyes was just nothing more than a monster. 

Joohyuk sighed and the expression on his face completely changed.

"Then should I die?" he said bluntly. "Killing you, killing anyone raises my chance of staying alive. And I'm not going to risk that. "

Suzy stared at Joohyuk in disbelief. She couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. 

Was this really Joohyuk?

"How can you be so ing selfish?" Suzy blurted.

     "What..?" Joohyuk stared at Suzy, shocked. He had never expected those words to come out of . He had never expected any words of hatred to come out of at all, especially toward him. Suzy was always loyal to him; he needed that for his survival.

"Your life is important and others' lives aren't?" Suzy took a step toward him. "What kind of sick person are you?"

Joohyuk stepped back, flustered.

"And with this sick mindset, you tried to become a doctor back home?" Suzy glared at him and slapped him across the face, glaring at him atrociously.

Suzy stared right into his eyes and noticed that his eyes kept on flitching back and forth her and behind her.

She glanced behind her and before she could do something, Kyungri popped up from the bush and threw a swiss knife right at her face. 

Suzy ducked down and pulled Joohyuk down with her, watching the knife land inside the tree. 

Suzy stood up and stared at Joohyuk, then at Kyungri.

"Even this was to kill me?" Suzy said in disbelief. 

     "Sorry but you've gotta die for us," Kyungri said with a forced smile as she slid another knife out of her side belt and flung it at Suzy's face, Suzy ducking just by a centimeter. She slipped out her knife from her bag and kicked Kyungri on the leg, collapsing her onto the floor.

She threw the knife at Kyungri but missed as she rolled over to the side, flinging the knife at Suzy's ears.

     Kyungri jumped right back up and flung her right leg across Suzy's head, Suzy ducking down and grabbed her ankle, twisting it to throw her on the floor again. Suzy jumped on Kyungri and pinned her to the floor with her body, trying to stamp the knife into her face, missing each time Kyungri moved her face sideways. 

Suzy grunted as Kyungri kicked her on the abdomen and pushed her off, taking out the other knife from the tree.

Suzy grasped her abdomen and fell to the floor, rolling over to escape the hit. 

Her abdomen wasn't fully healed from Jooheon's blows and the pain was excruciating; she barely had the power to even stand up. 

Kyungri smirked and slowly walked toward Suzy, flinging the knife in her hand. 

"Well lasted ," she said impressively."No one's lasted this long against me."

Suzy backed away, grabbing her abdomen in pain.

     "Time to go," just as Kyungri raised her hand to stab Suzy, another knife hit Kyungri's waist and she dropped the knife. Kyungri screamed as her waist dripped with blood and her shirt was soaked with blood.

Zico stood up from behind the bush and walked toward Kyungri, kicking her on the exact stab spot as she fell to the floor in pain. 

     Joohyuk's face turned into anger as he slid his knife out and walked toward Zico, trying to stab him in the heart. Zico swung to the side and took his knife out, taking a swing at Joohyuk's face. Joohyuk ducked and kicked Zico on the stomach as Zico pulled Joohyuk down with him and the both of them released their knife as it slid across the ground. Joohyuk climbed on the top of Zico and punched him in the face twice before Zico rolled over and punched Joohyuk three times.

Joohyuk tried to kick Zico off but Zico held down his four limbs with his entire body and stared at his face, his lips dripping with blood. 

"Get off you tard," Joohyuk cursed as he screamed and pushed Zico off. 

Both of their eyes laid on the knife that slid across the ground and within a split second, both of them ran toward the knife.

     Joohyuk threw his body toward the knife and grabbed it, but Zico stepped on his wrist and snatched the knife off, pressing it against his neck. Both of them panted as Zico held the knife against his neck and glared at him.

"P..please," Joohyuk pleaded. "The next time you see us, you can kill us or do whatever with us. Just let us go this time." 

Zico snorted. "Are you ing stupid? Do you remember what you said earlier? Killing anyone raises your chances of staying alive. Why should that be any different to me?" Zico said with a smile as he pressed the knife closer to Joohyuk.

"W..WAIT!" Joohyuk pleaded again. 

"What?" Zico said, irked.

"W..what do you need? I'll give you my bag. We stole supplies from a lot of other districts during the night, I'll give you all of them. Just... let me go." 

Zico glanced at Joohyuk's bag which was really full of all the weapons and supplies.

     Zico hauled the bag on his shoulder and released Joohyuk, watching as he breathed heavily. He wiped the blood off his neck and ran away from the forest, leaving Kyungri behind. Kyungri was losing a lot of blood as she groaned in her spot, hoarsely calling for Joohyuk who got further from the forest.

Zico sighed and walked over to Suzy who leaned against a tree, emotionless.

Her face was void of feelings; she looked dead inside. 

"You okay?" Zico asked. 

"Mm," she murmured and tried to stand up, falling back down. "."

"Stay still," Zico said quietly as he wrapped her around the body and helped her stand up. 

Suzy and Zico quietly continued their journey when Kyungri hoarsely called from behind.

"Please.. help me," she croaked. 

Suzy turned back and crouched down, staring at Kyungri who was bleeding so much. 

"Well lasted ," Suzy said. "No one's lasted this long against me."

Suzy took out her knife and stabbed Kyungri right in the heart, watching her die in agony.

Suzy wiped the blood off her face and stood up, looking at Zico.

"Let's go."

Zico watched Suzy, a little startled.

Suzy had finally..   gotten a grip.

Hello guys

I am so sorry I haven't updated in a long time.

Although I have started summer break, I never actually had a lot of time to come on AFF because I was working and I recently broke up with my boyfriend and there were just so many things going on in my life. But I finally kind of settled down and I will try to update more. Writing on AFF and updating this story is one of my biggest pleasures and I really want to update often, I'm sorry I was so late ToT

Here is a GIF of Suzy