Leeteuk was sitting at a table with Sora and Kangin. The zombie virus revelation had apparently scared Kangin so much he didn't want to go anywhere near Sohee anymore. The three of them were actually trying to secretly stalk her every movement.

"Why did she even come if she's so sick?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," Kangin said, loud enough to be heard over the music, but soft enough for just their table. "But she's definitely not well. When she got here I tried talking to her and she totally ignored me. But not the 'I'm mad at you' girl thing. No, when she looked at me she looked right through me, like I wasn't there. Her eyes.. weren't right."

Leeteuk shivered. If something had scared Kangin, he didn't want to be anywhere near it. "We should probably just head home. This isn't feeling safe anymore." He looked for Donghae and Eunhyuk on the dance floor as Sora nodded in agreement. Leeteuk was scared, more than anything he wanted comfort, but where his mind usually went for it, Leeteuk knew his best friend wouldn't come, so he switched his thoughts to being happy for Kangin and Donghae nearby.

"Is it just me?" Donghae asked as he came to the table with Eunhyuk after seeing Sora waving them over. "Or is everyone dead tonight?"

Leeteuk  and Kangin stared at him.

"I mean, they're here, dancing and pretending to have a good time. But no one's laughing and there's not a lot of singing along, or talking on the sidelines."

"Everyone's probably just scared because of Jessica, earlier?" Eunhyuk suggested. Leeteuk had told them his theory, but Donghae and Eunhyuk weren't about to believe in zombies.

Leeteuk nodded and Kangin leaned closer to his ear. "I lost track of Sohee," he whispered.

Heart pounding, Leeteuk jumped out of his seat and scanned through the auditorium for the biggest of his current fears. Before he could find her a shrill scream sounded from the middle of the dance floor and everyone scattered for the doors in a swarm of bodies. Leeteuk and his company got up into it and as he looked back to try and make out what had happened, he found Sohee. He knew her by her half bald head, but that was the only resemblance anymore as she leaned over an unfortunate junior, eating his intestines from a gaping hole in his abdomen.

There was confusion at every exit. All the students were trying to shove past their fellows in an every man for himself effort to escape with their lives. In the rushing confusion, Leeteuk had lost track of everyone except Sora, who was clinging to his arm as if her life depended on him and it probably did. Leeteuk took her hand tight in his own and ducked down, squeezing his way through people to get out.

Siwon was leading the way now and he pressed Heechul back into the shadows as a quarantine vehicle drove past them. "Do we have an escape route?" Siwon asked Heechul.

"I figured this would be a grab and run. We'll just have to make our way."

Siwon nodded. He'd brought extra ammo, but he didn't have nearly enough to shoot down an entire city. The one thing he was happy for was that both he and Heechul were in fatigues, bloodied as Heechul's may be. The soldiers out here wouldn't shoot them on sight at least.

Heechul had fully woken up after his stomach had been emptied. The adrenaline coursing through him would keep him going for the rest of the night likely. He promised both Siwon and himself that he wouldn't hesitate again. His resolve was clear now. Leeteuk was in danger and as he'd decided before they'd even gotten back together as friends, he would do anything for him, anything to keep his best friend safe.

The sounds of screaming they'd been hearing were getting louder as they neared the high school. Heechul broke into a light jog with Siwon close behind. He half expected to see the building on fire but there were only frightened teenagers, running without looking back. Heechul had trouble breaking the current of bodies as he weaved through, trying to get to the building. If only he'd had his cell phone with him, but his dad had taken that in an effort to break Heechul's will to find Leeteuk. Bastard.

"Heechul!" Someone yelled to his left and Heechul looked over to see Donghae and Eunhyuk. That was good news. Heechul caught Siwon's attention and nodded their direction.

"What the is going on?" Donghae asked, out of breath. "And what the hell is on you? Is that blood? What the Heechul?" His voice was getting more and more frantic with each revelation about Heechul's appearance.

"Calm down, calm down," Siwon yelled.

"It's not mine," Heechul said once Donghae had quieted in the face of Siwon's bulk. "Where's Leeteuk?"

Donghae shrugged.

"She was eating him," Eunhyuk said randomly, breaking out of his shakes.

Heechul's heart dropped out of his chest. "Who?" He yelled at Eunhyuk. When the kid just stared at him shaking his head, Heechul jumped at him, holding his throat. "Who was it?"

"Hey you," Donghae yelled and kicked at Heechul, yanking his arms away from Eunhyuk.

Siwon grabbed Heechul's wrists and disengaged him from Eunhyuk, holding him back as he continued to claw at the younger guy.

"He doesn't mean Leeteuk," Donghae yelled after he was sure Eunhyuk was okay, his arm around his shoulders. "Don't you ing touch him again." He yelled at Heechul.

"Where the is Leeteuk?" Heechul yelled guttural and raw.

Still holding Sora's hand tightly, Leeteuk was guiding them as quietly as possible through an empty hallway, toward the back door of the school. No one was safe anymore, potentially nowhere either, but Leeteuk felt they'd have a better chance out in the open than stuck in a room with nothing to protect them.

Sora yanked him back into an alcove as a door ahead of them opened slowly. They kept to the shadows against the wall and peeked the sides of their heads out to get a look. A girl, intelligible only because of the skirt she wore, staggered out of the classroom and into the dark hall. The moonlight through the windows illuminated the blood drenched across her skirt. Sora and Leeteuk were so silent they could hear the plip, plip of the drops spattering to the floor. More than likely a boyfriend had asked her alone to try and get some action in a classroom, his remains were probably in there now. Instead of the movie zombie , the creature was completely silent save for the scrape of the side of her foot against the marble hallway as she staggered the opposite direction from Leeteuk and Sora's position.

"We can't get past her," Sora whispered at Leeteuk, close to his ear.

He nodded, knowing she was right. They didn't know what these creatures were capable of, considering Sohee had eviscerated a classmate in a matter of seconds. "We backtrack," He said and took a step before Sora was ready.

Sora stumbled back and hit the wall with a grunt before gasping and clamping her hand over .

Leeteuk looked at her as if she'd just shot him and slowly turned to peek around the wall at the creature. She had turned their direction, limping with limbs clicking at odd angles. Her face was covered in blood, some of it her own where Leeteuk could see her prey had made an attempt to save himself by scratching across her left cheek. She let out a screech like a raptor and came lumbering faster toward them.

Leeteuk grabbed Sora from her shocked position against the wall. "Run." He yelled and took off down the way they'd come.

Heechul had left Donghae and Eunhyuk outside. They hadn't wanted to go back in looking for Leeteuk, but they were fine waiting to see if he turned up. He and Siwon had taken a tandem patrol of the entrance, checking the darkness for anything undead. With the majority of still living students out now, their progress was made easier.

Heechul's instincts spoke up for Leeteuk. He knew his friend was smarter than to stay in the area with trouble. But morbid curiosity led him to the gym where the dance had been. Siwon put a hand on his shoulder as he reached for the double doors.

"You sure you can handle it?"

Nodding, Heechul pushed open one side of the door and stepped in, Siwon right behind him, gun drawn. Heechul had his axe in his hand as they surveyed the room. They paused with their backs against the wall as the horror was made plain.

The middle of the floor was covered in blood. The body there was disemboweled and missing a face. Bloody footsteps from where Heechul's fellow classmates had stumbled through, led from the mess out the doors. Heechul was thankful his stomach was already empty as a wave of nausea took him. The only thing missing from this nightmare was the beast that had done it. There was no bloody creature still huddled over the body, there was no movement in the auditorium at all. And there were plenty places to hide.

"Heechul," Siwon said. "We can't fight a war."

Heechul had pulled away from the wall, heading closer to the body.

"We should find Leeteuk and go."

Heechul wasn't paying any attention to him as he came upon the body, looking at how the flesh was torn apart as if a wild animal had made it into the gym.

"Heechul! Left!" Siwon yelled.

Heechul felt the creature moving toward him at a lumbering run before Siwon had even said anything. He hefted his axe and brought it down with a wet thunk into the Sohee's skull, dead center. She struggled and convulsed in her death throes and Heechul kicked at her chest, tugging the axe free.

Siwon caught up to him, standing by his shoulder and looking down at the girl.

"I told her I don't kiss on the first date," Heechul mumbled.

Siwon stared at Heechul, slowly breaking into a laugh despite the seriousness of their situation.

Heechul chuckled as he leaned down to clean his axe off on her dress. They stopped suddenly and stared at the door to their right as they heard a girl screaming from that direction.

Sora let out a blood curdling scream as they rounded the corner only to run headlong into someone.

Kangin held up his hands. "It's me, it's me."

Leeteuk stared up at him, checking his eyes subconsciously before hugging him tightly. Sora joined in the hug, happy to have someone stronger than Leeteuk with them. Kangin was taken aback by the hug but returned it for a few seconds before pushing them off.

"We should keep going," Leeteuk said breathlessly, looking behind them for the girl zombie.

They heard footsteps rushing their direction and Leeteuk and Sora hid behind Kangin, guiding him backward toward a classroom.

Kangin had been terrified alone, but having someone to protect suddenly made him bolder. He caught sight of army uniforms before realizing who was standing in front of him. "Heechul?" He asked. Not only was his friend blood spattered, he looked different, like he'd aged about 30 years and wanted to kill things.

"Where's Lee-" Heechul stopped as Leeteuk and Sora stepped out from behind Kangin. Relief finally came for him, but through his tiredness and the sickness he'd witnessed, he had no more room for emotions. His face stayed in its soldier calm as he looked over the three of them.

"Are you hurt?" Kangin asked him.

"It's not mine," Heechul said. He looked behind them and around the halls.

Siwon was aware of being stared at by not only Sora but Leeteuk and Kangin too. They didn't have time for introductions. Nor did Siwon really want to make any. There was no guarantee that any of them weren't carriers, until they were analyzed, he wasn't going to make friendly. "We need to go," he told Heechul.

Just after he said it the same raptor-like screech announced the zombie girl was still following them.

"Right," Heechul said. "Come on." He led the way with Kangin close behind. Sora was holding his hand and Leeteuk brought up the rear of their friends. Siwon stepped in behind them all and watched the rear as Heechul took them out of the school.

Leeteuk didn't know what to think or feel. He was numb. He'd seen zombies, real, flesh eating, zombies. Heechul had come back and Leeteuk still didn't want anything to do with him. Leeteuk found himself throwing the blame on Heechul for all of this. If he'd known what was going on with Sohee and Jessica, why hadn't he told his father and had them looked at? Taken care of. There was so much wrong right now, but he felt safe that Kangin and Sora were there. They at least were some solid truth in this real life nightmare.

Walking past the auditorium, Leeteuk paused, scared in place at the sight of the open door. "She's out?" he whispered in disbelief.

"Keep walking," Siwon told him, pushing his back gently.

Leeteuk swallowed and tried not to think about it as he ran to catch up with Sora and Kangin. They filed out onto the lawn and Leeteuk broke rank to run to Donghae, hugging him tightly. "You're alive."

"So are you," Donghae said, squeezing him in his hug.

Heechul watched Leeteuk and Donghae, feeling a stab of jealousy in his overtired psyche.

Siwon took Heechul's arm and pulled him away from the group of teenagers. "Now what? We can't take all of them back to base with us. Your dad was fine with Leeteuk." He whispered.

"Leeteuk won't leave without them." Heechul said. "And I can't leave him with them."

"You're serious?" Siwon asked, looking to Heechul's eyes. "You're going to drag all of them through the city to the base? There's probably not even transportation anymore, not to mention road blocks."

Heechul closed his eyes, knowing it wouldn't work. The base wouldn't let any of them on, he knew he'd have to plead with his father for even Leeteuk to join them. They just had to try. "I'm not leaving them." Heechul told Siwon as he set his jaw.

Siwon rolled his eyes and sighed with a nod. "Alright. Lead on."