CHAWON KINDERGARTEN              11.16AM

Hayoung reloaded her gun as silently as she could, although she wasn’t so sure that it was of any use. Enclosed in a tiny building with only one level and the main entrance blocked, firing would only create noise that would immediately draw the infected to them. Her only other weapon was a dagger. Things weren’t looking so bright at the moment. 

Jae sighed from beside her, wiping his machete clean with his shirt. 

"What should we do?" Seungjae asked, his grip on his bat so tight that his knuckles were white.

Hayoung took out her dagger, leaving her gun slung behind her back. "For now we lay low and try to find an exit." Her voice is calm, smooth. There was no way things were ending here.

"Okay, let’s go," Eunji said, and she led the way with Kyla behind her. They went down the hallway and encountered one of the infected, stage 1. It was wearing a dress, it’s back facing them, doing a weird kind of dance where it bounced from one foot to the other. Hayoung thought that it must have been a teacher before it got infected. Jae approached it slowly, machete poised and ready to strike. Tap, tap. His footsteps went. He was an arm away now, close enough to attack, but at that moment the infected teacher turned around and let out a blaring shriek that made Hayoung wince and cover her ears. She regretted not closing her eyes, though, because it’s face was equally terrifying, a quarter of it missing, revealing the cavity within. 

"!" Jae swore, after all being the closest to the creature, his ears must have hurt the most. The shriek caused him to fall into a crouch, and within seconds the infected teacher leapt onto him.

Eunji immediately used the of her gun to hit the monster, causing it to land on the ground hard. While it was still on the ground, Hayoung drove her dagger straight into its head, wincing as some blood splattered onto her face. Hayoung wiped it off with the back of her hand, and turned back to address the rest of the group. "Everyone okay?" 

"I think I might have lost my hearing." Jae muttered.

"Let’s go this way," Eunji said, and they turned right through a set of swinging doors into some sort of a small kitchen. "Stage 1." Eunji whispered. Indeed there were some Stage 1s in the kitchen, Hayoung could count about four, and one of them was huge. Good thing was they haven’t noticed the group. Yet.

"Let’s try to sneak past them," Naeun suggested. They crouched down and walked like that past the infected in a single file, Eunji leading. They proceeded as quietly as possible, and Eunji and Kyla made it to the next door when the sound of rubber sole squeaking across the floor could be heard. Behind her, Hayoung could hear Seungjae curse. She turned around to him and he mouthed sorry. They braced themselves against a kitchen island, waiting for the creatures to pounce. Nothing happened. Ahead of her, Jae and Naeun hurried to where Eunji and Kyla was waiting, like a pair of spies on a mission. Only this mission was a hundred times more deadly.

After a few moments, Hayoung started to follow Naeun and Jae, coming out from her cover. She only took a step out when the fat one snarled from her left. Hayoung didn’t have enough time to react as it pounced onto her, the weight of it pinning her down on the floor. She heard Kyla’s sharp scream, heard the gasps from her friends.

"I can’t move!" She screamed, her dagger useless in her hand. Panic filled her mind as the creature’s saliva slipped down onto her chest. Hayoung closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to come from the bite of the creature. It never came. Instead, a cry came out and Hayoung saw Seungjae striking the fat creature with all his strength. It flailed backward at the blow and Hayoung took the chance to roll away from it. The other infected became seemingly awakened by this noise and charged towards Hayoung and Seungjae. 

"Damn it!" Hayoung got up and slashed the first one that came at her, but she couldn’t kill it. In her peripheral vision she saw Seungjae fighting off some other infected too. Naeun rushed from where she was and helped Hayoung finish off the creature she was fighting. 

"Let’s go!" Jae shouted, using both his machetes to kill two of the infected simultaneously. They could hear some snarls from the opposite direction. All the noise they were making were surely alerting the infected of where they were.

Naeun grabbed Hayoung’s hand and they ran to the door where Eunji and Kyla were waiting. 

The group made their way out of the door and into a mostly empty classroom save for two or three infected children. Naeun covered Kyla’s eyes from the scary sight while Jae and Seungjae charged forward to finish them off. 

"You okay?" Eunji asked Hayoung as they started shifting tables and chairs to barricade the door.

Hayoung’s head snapped up and her gaze landed on Eunji’s concerned face. If she was being very honest, she was shaken up by her near death experience just now. Besides, she could feel bruises starting to form on her arms.  The stench of the creature’s liquids didn’t help either. "I’m fine," Hayoung replied. "Thank you for asking."

Eunji smiled back. Just then, a pounding came from the other side of the door. 

"They’re here," Naeun announced shakily.

"What do we do?" Seungjae asked.

 Hayoung scanned the room quickly, looking for an escape route, and bingo. She pointed at the vent at the back of the room. They immediately went into action, shifting a table against the wall. Jae climbed onto it and strained as he tried to remove the metal cover. 

The pounding from outside became louder and Hayoung knew that the door wouldn’t hold any longer. 

A screech sounded and Jae tossed the metal cover to the ground. "I’ll go first," He said and then wriggled into the tiny space. Naeun went next, followed by Kyla who needed help from Eunji and Seungjae to hoist her up into the hole. Eunji immediately followed after Kyla. At that moment Hayoung heard a resounding crash, meaning that the infected had broken through. "Hurry up!" She shouted to Eunji, and once Eunji’s legs disappeared into the vent Hayoung scrambled up and wriggled inside as fast as she could to give Seungjae the space to climb in too. 

"Ugh! They’re trying to climb up too!" Seungjae shouted, his voice strained. Hayoung glanced backwards to see Seungjae struggling to climb fully inside the vent. His face contorted as he tried to kick the infected off. Moments later, he finally succeeded and climbed as fast as he could further inside the vent.

"You alright?" Hayoung asked. He nodded in reply. "But we gotta hurry up. I think they’re starting to attempt to enter this vent too."

Hayoung nodded and urged the others in front to hurry up. They had no idea where they were going and although they only climbed for about two minutes, Hayoung’s elbows and arms were starting to hurt. A growl vibrated through the vent and Hayoung shivered despite herself. "They climbed in too" She whispered to herself. Hayoung gripped her dagger tightly.

"Okay guys I found an exit!" Jae announced, an unmistakable joy in his voice. Hayoung could hear grunts as he tried to pry the metal cover off. He must have succeeded because a triumphant yes came from him. "Lord bless us we’re gonna land straight into a dumpster!" 

"How is that a blessing?" Eunji complained.

"It’s a soft landing I guess," Hayoung replied. She felt the need to have ten showers, stat.

Eventually they all got out of the vent, landing in the softness of refuse. The stench, however, was so horrible that Naeun vomited for two straight minutes. Eunji patted her back while Hayoung looked on, worried. 

"Hate to break it to you guys, but we gotta leave. Like, now." Jae said, bouncing on the heels of his feet, seemingly anxious.

"Okay, how do we get to the radio station?" Seungjae asked.

Hayoung spoke up. "Let’s find a vehicle first. Anyone knows how to hotwire a car?"

ELITE HEADQUARTERS         12pm

"We need to create a diversion big enough that it allows Yookyung to set this place to self destruct once she gets here," Yuto said in between bites of his sashimi. "And somehow all escape together."

"You’re getting ahead of yourself," Dawn replied, amused. "How is she gonna get here?"

Yuto considered her question carefully. The two were having lunch on a private balcony. If he looked out all he could see was a blue patch of sky, which was pretty amazing.

"By plane, I suppose. She can fly one pretty well." Yuto paused and stared at his fork. "What I worry about is the airport. I saw that it was full of the infected."

Dawn reached across the table and clasped Yuto’s hand in hers, locking eyes with him. "Don’t worry, that’s what we’re for. We can communicate with Yookyung and tell her just how to get to an aircraft. We have the advantage of being able to see everything."

"Right." Yuto was apprehensive. It weird seeing Dawn so supportive when at the same time she pretended to be Dr Abrams’s top secretary. He studied her as she dug into her dessert of strawberry pudding. He still wasn’t completely sure if she was to be trusted yet. There was always the possibility that she was merely pretending to be on his side, after all. But for now, all he could do was to play along.