It was a new day. A day of hope. Filled with optimism for a brighter future. Perhaps not a happily ever after future, but brighter. One where he didn't have to spend his life alone. One where he didn't have to worry that he would be killed in his sleep. One where he didn't have to constantly look over his shoulder to see whether a psycho zombie was after him, since he already had his own pet zombie to protect him. It was not how he had pictured his life would turn out when he was younger and thought the world was his oyster, planning to sprinkle it with some salt and lemon juice, aiming to swallow it in one bite. But that oyster was infected, incurable, unsalvageable. He was going to have to change his menu. Dare to be different. Embrace a more exotic way of life.

And with that in mind he stuffed the last of his things into his bag, glancing at Youngbae who was loitering around, awkwardly keeping a safe distance between them. Although he had not once caught him looking at him, he could sense he was keeping an eye on him. Somehow he didn't think anything escaped his attention. He looked so innocent that it triggered the impulse in Jiyong to protect him, but deep down he knew full well that he was in no need of protection. Especially not from him. What could he, a mere human, do for a super creature like him?

It was incredible, as well as gut wrenchingly terrifying, to see of what one microscopic virus was capable. The arrogance of humanity, getting drunk on power, actually believing it was their species that ruled the planet, crowning themselves the top of the food chain. It was nothing more than a self proclaimed victory, a lie that everyone loved to feed themselves. It made them feel special, like they were above it all, like they could control nature. And try they did. Ironically creating their own demise. Nature had a way of fighting back and watching Youngbae aimlessly kicking the ground with the toe of his shoe filled Jiyong with humble admiration. What a beautiful but ruthless way to fight back. That was nature for you, breathtakingly amazing, yet utterly merciless.

In a way, he did understand the curiosity of the scientists, since apparently the human body was capable of so much more than they could ever realize. And if you had the means to find out right in front of you, there weren't many people that wouldn't press that red button. Even with the proof right before his eyes, he could hardly believe the results.

Maybe the problem with the human brain was that it had too many frivolous thoughts cramped in there, preventing it from reaching its true potential. Using all that brain space to worry about whether someone had liked their Facebook photo, obsessing over the daily wardrobe of their favorite celebrity and whether that cute hottie liked them back, distracted the brain from doing some actual work. It wasn't a bad theory, Jiyong thought, not bad at all. He couldn't help but be a little bit proud of himself for coming up with it. Besides, it wasn't like there was anyone left to contest it.

Jiyong stood up and swung his backpack over his shoulder. It was alarmingly light. They were going to have to head for a settlement, somewhere with food. Although that was always a risk, since towns were the zombies' hunting ground. Now that he had his Youngbae beside him, it wasn't as much of a risk for him, but he couldn't help but worry for his new zombie friend. (Boyfriend?, a small voice hiding behind the thoughts in his head whispered.) Sure, he was incredibly nimble and surprisingly strong, and he had taken that zombie down that attacked him at the house. But what if there was more than one? What if he got injured? He did heal fast, but if dismembered, he couldn't grow new limbs. Even zombies had limits.

It was no use dwelling on the 'what if's. It was a new world and in this new world there lurked perils behind every corner. There was one and only one certainty that came with each day, and that was that it would bring new challenges to be faced. Instead of focusing on the many, many, many worst case scenarios, he decided to focus on the positive for once. He was happy that he had someone to share those trials with, a partner in crime. He didn't know what had gotten into him today, but his mood was lighter than it had been since this whole 'end of the world' business started.

Youngbae was hesitant, but he walked towards him, finally daring to meet his eyes when he reached him. Jiyong added one more power to the list of zombie super human abilities, mesmerizing eyes. He just couldn't look away. Not even to get a better look at his milky smooth skin the sun seemed to love caressing. It was hard to believe that he wasn't already sunburnt to ashes with that whiter than white complexion, but it appeared not to affect him at all. Did his skin have some other kind of UV protection than pigments, or did he simply heal so fast that the sunburn didn't have a chance to show up on his skin before it was healed? Youngbae was a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and Jiyong couldn't resist a good puzzle.

Their relationship, or set of encounters was perhaps a better description, had mainly taken place in the dark shade of night. Since Youngbae was so white that he practically glowed in the dark, Jiyong had thought he had discovered all the facets of his astonishing appearance, but he had thought wrong. His beauty had layers and he couldn't wait to start peeling. First up, his eyes. His dangerously alluring eyes. They had an impossible sharpness to them, every line overly defined, too beautiful to actually exist. They made him think of deep water fishes, that lured innocent clueless little creatures with their shining light, mesmerizing them, practically making the prey catch itself so the only thing left was to enjoy eating it. Was that what Youngbae was doing to him?

Youngbae kissed his cheek gently while monitoring his actions. It was like he didn't fully trust him in the light of day. What did Youngbae have to be afraid of? He clearly had all the advantage in this weird alliance of theirs. When he saw that Jiyong didn't object, he gave him a soft kiss, this time on the lips. Jiyong closed his eyes. This. This was the reason he was still alive. This was worth living for.

After breaking the kiss all too soon, Jiyong could feel Youngbae's fingers, entwining themselves around his fingers. His stomach dissolved into a fluttery substance, tickling him from the inside. He squeezed Youngbae's hand decisively, their palms pressing up against one another, sharing heat and electricity. It was as if they were plugged into each other's life force, the current traveling up his arm.

His touch filled his mind with glimpses from this morning. Before sunrise Youngbae had woken him up with soft little kisses. He had wrapped himself around him to keep him warm in the wee hours of the morning, as the temperature had dropped quite low. Even inside the Youngbae-sleeping bag, the cold had managed to find him. Biting at his toes and fingers. Still it didn't bother him like most nights, his mind having other things to think about. Like the hand that had snuck under his sweater. Or the eager lips that didn't seem to be able to find what they were looking for, searching absolutely everywhere. At least until Jiyong showed them where to look, much to both of their excitement and enjoyment. It made his insides jump just thinking about it. He wanted more mornings like that. That was a cause he was willing to fight for.

Youngbae started walking towards the main road, dragging Jiyong along, hand in hand. Youngbae didn't fully comprehend how limiting it was to be a mere mortal, going way too fast for Jiyong's normal human legs. He was practically running to keep up. He didn't complain though. He liked this hand-holding take charge Youngbae and he didn't want to mess with his groove by finding fault with him. So he just jogged along.

Eventually Jiyong ran out of breath, forcing them to slow down. They were in luck though, as they had stumbled upon a tiny little village. Probably no more than ten houses, but as long as it hadn't been raided too heavily already, ten houses were plenty. The smaller the town, the lower the likelihood of encountering hostiles, be it zombies or raiders. They to the side road, passing a derelict illegible sign. It didn't really matter though, the village was so small that he wouldn't have recognized its name even if he could read it.

“Bingo!” Jiyong exclaimed happily, throwing caution into the wind. A kitchen cabinet had swallowed him whole almost, it was that deep. Which was reason to celebrate, because the raiders that had taken just about everything, hadn't bothered to go after the cans at the very back of the lowest cabinet. Probably in a hurry, thinking it wasn't worth risking becoming easy prey in case they were discovered by Infectees on the hunt. He grabbed every last one of them, stuffing them into his backpack. It felt nice not to have to worry about food for a few days. He couldn't think too far ahead into the future anyway.

There wasn't much else to be found in this eerie mini ghost town. Jiyong didn't like visiting these relics of the old world, he only did it out of necessity. It freaked him out to see all these empty living spaces, shadows of people's lives. They mirrored the emptiness inside him. It was worst at first though, when the houses looked like their owners had just stepped out for a brief moment, except it was all the owners of all the houses that had stepped out. Stepped out and died.

Now they were looking less and less lived in, it was more like discovering old ruins that had been visited by tomb raiders. They were no longer a reminder of the vibrant past that had been so full of life, now they were a reminder of a gloomy future full of nothingness. Either way, Jiyong preferred staying clear of former human habitats, except when forced to scavenge for food.

Jiyong exited the house ahead of Youngbae, who was on the scent of something, or so it appeared, as he was traversing the house like he was following a winding trajectory, taking him upstairs. Jiyong hoped it wasn't an Infectee. Either way, it wasn't going to help if he went with him, he would only get in the way, distracting Youngbae in a brutal battle that would end in death one way or another, risking getting hurt in the process. He froze on the topmost step on the porch.

Brown hair, so at least it wasn't an Infectee that was coming down the street, but raiders weren't all that much better. They rarely cared about anyone else's survival but their own. Jiyong hadn't come across anything resembling a joint effort to fight back, to save the species. There were groups out there, but they were more a loose alliance of convenience than anything idealistic, and the moment things got rough it was every man for themselves.

“Hey!” the brown haired man waved enthusiastically. Jiyong nodded reluctantly, not trusting him for even a split second. He hesitantly went down the stairs to meet him, thankful that Youngbae was still in the house. He didn't want to think what would happen if they were to meet, and didn't really fancy getting the man's opinion on humans fraternizing with the enemy, so he started walking away from the house in an attempt to lead this guy away from Youngbae.

“Get anything?” the raider asked with a little too much interest for Jiyong's taste. He appeared to be alone though, there was no sign of others nor did his body language indicate he was waiting for anyone.

“Not really, a blanket and a couple of knives.” Jiyong lied, walking really carefully so the cans in his bag wouldn't clink together and expose him.

“Ah, too bad. Better luck next time, right?” the guy said, like he was trying to cheer him up. Jiyong wondered what his game was, what kind of trick he was trying to pull on him. There was no one that was nice for no reason, not anymore.

“Heh, yeah.” Jiyong nodded with a weak half smile. He was pretty sure he was being smart not trusting a random guy off the street, but it was kind of depressing to have become so paranoid that being in the company of others only made him uncomfortable, wishing this encounter would end sooner rather than later.

“So were you in Seoul when it.. you know.. all went down?” the guy's cheerful aura darkened, filling the atmosphere between them with tension. Jiyong didn't care for it, he didn't like talking about the past and least of all that. He just nodded, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. But of course it wasn't, it had been too much optimism on his part.

“Woa, that's amazing. You must've been born under a lucky star. I heard not many made it out of there in color, if you know what I mean.” he winked at him. Jiyong knew what he meant. He knew all too well what he meant.

“Have you... like.. heard anything? Whether it's just here or.. if it went global?” Jiyong half stammered. It was the question that had burned in his chest from day one, a question he had been afraid of facing, terrified of actually getting an answer. But since they were already on the topic, it sort of just came out. And for some reason, it wasn't as scary as before. Was he really getting used to this crazy new world?

“I.. I don't know. I'm from here, you see. I've been hiding in an underground bunker my paranoid psycho of a father built in case we would someday face an alien attack. I guess he wasn't so wrong after all. But I ran out of food a couple of days ago, so I was forced to go out to look for some.” the guy explained, knowing even less than him about the situation. Jiyong just nodded.

“You don't think.. we could team up, do you?” he asked hopefully when they had reached the end of the street, nothing but the open road ahead. Jiyong sighed. The guy picked up on his hesitation, waving it off as a stupid idea. A quick handshake and a wave later, guilt pierced Jiyong's soul as he watched that lonely man start his search for something, anything. He knew how he felt, it was how he used to feel, making him realize that he no longer felt that way.

That excruciating loneliness, which had ganged up with the gnawing lack of purpose in trying to suffocate him time and time again. He remembered himself wishing they would just finish the job, but they always went right to the edge of the line, pushing him as far as they could push him, before leaving him sprawled on the ground in agony, leaving him nothing, not even death. He didn't envy that fellow. He felt sorry for him. Compassion. It was nice to know that it still existed in his heart, however deep one had to go to find it.

He watched his lonely silhouette as he walked away. In part to make sure he would actually leave, in part to say goodbye to those dark days, to close that chapter and start a new one. An adventure. His gut fluttered at the thought. He shook his head at how silly his body was acting. It was the end of the world, for Pete's sake!

When the wanderer had gotten some distance, he turned around, his hand up as if to wave but it didn't move. Jiyong waved back, but it got no response from the guy, like he had turned into a statue. His eyes were so wide, it felt like they would split open at any moment. His expression didn't sit right with Jiyong, it gave him an uncomfortable feeling.

“ZOMBIE!! BEHIND YOU!! RUUUUUUUN!!!!!” the guy let out a guttural scream when he finally snapped out of his statue phase, turning around and starting to run himself, run for his life. He was faster than Jiyong would have expected, and that was not good. Not good for him. He didn't think he could outrun him, which meant the Infectee would reach him first. Well, it didn't matter if he didn't start running. He just stood there frozen, watching the back of that terrified man get smaller as it moved further and further away. Now it was only him and the zombie.

Slowly, steadily, he turned around. He was holding his breath, readying his muscles. He wished to whatever powers would listen that it was just Youngbae, or that at least Youngbae had heard the guy scream and would come check out what was happening, saving him from the Infectee before it was too late. Please, he pleaded. Not now. He didn't want to die just when he had found something to live for. He bit his lip as a human like form materialized at the corner of his eye. He sighed. He could recognize the outlines of Youngbae's perfect body before it came fully into view.

“Don't scare the poor guy like that.” Jiyong chuckled, but Youngbae wasn't listening. Youngbae wasn't paying any attention to him at all. His eyes. His eyes were following the wanderer's every movement. They had this focus to them he had never seen before, it was so non-human. It was the first time since they had met that fateful day at the supermarket that Youngbae showed any real signs of being an actual Infectee. His stomach churned. He had a bad feeling about this.