I had no idea where I was. Something was moving under my left arm. It took me a second or two to realize I was laying face down, drooling on a plastic bag of insulation. My mouth is really dry. My left hand was now feeling up Bomi’s belly.

-”Oppa what are you doing…?”

Bomi said sounding annoyed but not angry or shocked, as she sat up.

-”Oh crap I’m sorry Bomi!”

I yelped, with my rough morning voice. I was still very tired, it was clear I hadn’t slept long, but there was already some light coming down the stairway to the surface. I can’t really hear any explosions or anything else from the surface.

I sit up besides Bomi and look over at her. She has has hands clasped and eyes closed, clearly praying. I did the same without saying anything. I prayed for everyone I knew who might be stuck in this mess. When I open my eyes I see Bomi looking at me a bit funny.

-”I didn’t know you belived in god…” She says. She looks like she feels better.

-”I’m protestant like you” I say without thinking.

-”...How did you know I was…?” She looks at me with a wondering expression. My face feels warm like if I’m blushing.

-”Uhhm… wikipedia…” I say trying to sound less awkward… Bomi looks at me funny.

-”Oppa are you stalking me?” She says clearly joking, but I still feel blushed.

-”You’re a famous idol you know.” I say in an attempt to redeem myself. Bomi looks somewhat convinced.

-”Okay… We don’t have any water right? I’m really thirsty.” She replies.

-”Yeah I am too… It sounds pretty calm outside, there’s no use staying here.”

-”Can we look for the others?” Bomi says as her face turns to a solemn but worried expression.

-”Yeah. We’ll have to be careful of course. I have some useful stuff in my car, if it’s still there.”

-”Mhm…” Bomi replies still looking worried.

-”We’ll find them. I’m sure they made it.” I lie, but I don’t know what else to tell her. I really have no idea. After making this very rough plan we gather our things and leave.

We go up the stairway to the surface and look out the hole that let us into the building. It’s clearly just after sunrise, the weather is clear apart from all the smoke still rising from the burning and collapsed buildings. Otherwise everything is eerily calm. We can’t escape the reality of what’s going on, I get a sinking feeling in my gut and Bomi looks sad too. There’s debris and rubbish all over the ground, clearly not a place to walk with bare feet.

-“Uh. Wanna get on my back again?”

-”Yeah, thank you oppa…” Bomi replies.

I bow down and Bomi jumps on my back. I take her legs and help her up, and we start walking. As we turn around we see the sky above the central city. It’s completely filled with smoke. It looks a bit like mushroom cloud.

-“We’ll find you some shoes”. I say. We walk towards the arenas parking lot where I parked my car. We can hear some explosions far in the distance but otherwise is very calm, there’s not even any birds making noise. We arrive at the parking lot to find that at least half of the cars have burnt out. There’s puddles of water around, but they are all filled with debris and soot. As we walk I see the lower body of a woman sticking out between two crushed cars. Bomi gasps as she notices. I swallow.

-“They look like they are about your size…” I mutter, referring to the dead womans shoes.

-”No way. Don’t even think about it.” Bomi says in disgust and I keep walking.

-”Why is no one alive around…?” Bomi asks, sounding absent.

-”I don’t know… I don’t think we want to know…” I reply. It’s probably better that we don’t have to deal with helping other people, or worse, defend ourselves from them.

We get to my car and luckily it’s not burnt out but it’s still quite messed up. Looks like it’s been crushed between the two cars next to it. I set bomi down on the hood and reach in through the window to retrieve a small shoulder bag I always keep in my car. Inside I keep all sorts of useful things, like a lighter, some rope, an emergency blanket, a small first aid kit and a knife. I take the knife and put it in my belt. I hear slurping from behind me and I remember how thirsty I am. I turn around to see Bomi slurping up rainwater from a huge dent in the roof of my car. There’s some soot in the water but it doesn’t seem too bad.