Eunji awoke from her 30 minute nap with a jolt. She yawned and looked around. Chorong was beside her, braiding Namjoo’s hair. She noticed that Eunji was awake. "We gotta go now, Eunji."

 

"Mmkay." Eunji sat up and grabbed her backpack. The nap was so satisfying it almost felt like she was back in her bed at home.

 

Chorong finished Namjoo’s braid and stood up to go. "Come on," she called out to the others. Everyone went outside to the main entrance, where their tiny army gathered. The tall lanky boy came over and introduced himself as Jae to them, exchanging small talk.

 

Eunji caught sight of a young girl lingering behind Jae who couldn’t have been more seven years old. She had rosy cheeks, wide eyes, brown pigtails and was wearing a pink raincoat. She approached the girl. "What’s your name?" she asked kindly, but the girl gave no reply, and only stared. 

 

Then, Jae appeared and swept the girl up. "This," he announced grandly, "is Kyla. Kyla, say hi." But the young girl remained impassive, and fiddled with her toy rabbit.

 

"Is she okay?" Chorong asked.

 

Jae gently let Kyla down. "Kyla refuses to talk because her mom is gone." He cast a worried look at the little girl. Eunji knelt down to try to talk to her again.

 

"Poor thing," Naeun commented.

 

"Yeah. She’s my neighbour. She used to be so much brighter, but when her mom went out to look for her father, she never came back. She cried so much at first, but now she won’t even make a sound. No six-year-old should go through this."

 

Eunji studied Kyla, who was playing with her stuffed rabbit. Then Eunji imitated a rabbit, biting a carrot and then hopping around Kyla. "I’m Eunji the rabbit! Nice to meet you!"

 

This managed to catch the interest of Kyla, who looked up from her rabbit and gave a tiny smile. 

 

"Kyla, you’ll have to follow us closely later, okay?"

 

Kyla gave a tiny nod and continued playing with her rabbit silently. Eunji ruffled Kyla’s hair and stood up. Seeing this girl reminded Eunji of her own brother, who was, thank god, safe at home with the rest of her family. Eunji vowed that she would protect this little girl no matter what.

 

A minute later, they were called to line up in twos, with Xiao and Yookyung leading the way. Eunji felt a tug on her shirt. To her surprise, it was Kyla. She wanted to partner with her— and this made Eunji so happy she grinned widely.

 

"Hey did you steal my partner?" Jae asked jokingly.

 

"As a matter of fact, she chose me." Eunji retorted.

 

"Hey, it’s no big deal. So I get to partner with Naeunie now right?" He slung his arm around Naeun. 

 

"Hey, hey. Keep your hands to yourself." Hayoung warned.

 

"It’s the least she could do after kicking me!"

 

Naeun rolled her eyes but couldn’t resist smiling. 

 

"No time for flirting!" Eunji put in, smirking. 

 

"Let’s get down to business, shall we?" Chorong asked.

 

"We can do this!" Namjoo pumped her arm through the air like a cheerleader.

 

The group set out at a steady pace,and a couple of people that were staying helped to keep a lookout, their guns in standby position.

 

Eunji held Kyla’s little hand tightly. If anything happened to her, she would feel awful. Kyla reminded her of her own little brother, which made her very protective of Kyla. She turned around and saw Hawk and his gang at the back, and felt anxious. When would they take action?

 

---

 

The first fifteen minutes were uneventful. It was just running, and Eunji had to limit her pace to let Kyla keep up.

 

"Are you alright?" she asked.

 

Kyla nodded her head, but she was breathing heavily. 

 

It was at that moment snarls were heard in front.

 

"The infected." Xiao tightened his grip on his rifle.

 

Inevitably, one of the infected came into their view, seeming to have rounded the corner to block their path. It was a woman, or what remained of a woman, for she missing an arm, which caused her to walk lopsided. 

 

Kyla let out a cry upon seeing her and Eunji quickly scooped her up into her arms. "It’s okay."

 

"We’ll take care of this,"one of the men said bravely. "You guys can go on ahead."

 

Eunji was about to protest, there were more of them coming, but Xiao nodded. "We’ll leave it to you. Catch up later."

 

Then, they started moving again as some of the men went forward to attack. Eunji couldn’t help but turn around, and it was a gruesome image. Those men tried their best to help, but they were outnumbered and didn’t have good weapons. The men sacrificed themselves for them to move forward.Two of the infected teared into a man’s thigh, and he let out the most bloodcurdling scream ever. The blood spurted wildly, like in a violent game. Except that this was no game. This was real. Eunji tried to cover Kyla’s ears, horrified that Kyla had to experience this. 

 

They picked up the pace now, acutely aware that the noise they made just now would have attracted more of the infected. A Stage 1 infected pounced out of nowhere into their path but with no hesitation, Yuri stabbed it twice with her sai, kicked it, and continued running.

 

"! Are those Stage 2s?" Namjoo cried out in front of her. Indeed, there were about 5 of those creatures they had seen the night before, the ones that crawled and pounced, a distance away.The ones that almost had Eunji. Eunji hurriedly knelt down behind a car, letting Kyla down for a moment. It was tiring, carrying a girl, her gun, and supplies. Namjoo and Bomi hid behind the same car too. Eunji could see the others doing the same. With Stage 2s, you couldn’t just run away. They would catch up. You had to wound them. 

 

"Ready?" Xiao called out. "Go!"

 

On cue, the shooters aimed at the group of infected,and the gunshots were so deafening that Kyla covered her ears. 

 

 

 

 

Eunji shot at the infected, her eyebrows furrowed in determination. Not today, ers. Her aim was quite good— she managed to help bring down two of those things. Soon enough, the group of Stage 2s were down temporarily, and so they continued to move.

 

"Kyla, run fast and stick to me, okay?" Eunji asked.

 

Kyla nodded, and Eunji could see that the little girl was scared. Everything will be alright, Kyla-ah. We’ll get through this alive.