When Dara and G-Dragon, Jong Kook and Ji Hyo, and Jae Suk left on their own separate searches, the rest of the group went out together to look for their cots.

T.O.P. and Bom led the way as they wandered through the western section of the field. Bom was the first to be tagged; she had W38 while T.O.P. had W39. They were happy that their cots were right next to each other.

“We can stay up all night and talk,” T.O.P. said to her now, as they walked down the row. He nudged her a bit and smiled.

“Why you being so cute?” Bom asked.

“What do you mean? I’m always cute,” T.O.P. said.

Seungri, who was walking with CL, heard T.O.P. and Bom discussing their codes and then checked his own tag again. He was W48. He looked over at CL’s tag now. “You’re W44,” he said to her. “That means there are three cots between us,” Seungri said.

CL smiled. “What’s wrong with that?”

Seungri felt a bit heartbroken at her nonchalance. But then he became preoccupied with figuring out whose cots would be on either side of her. He slowed his pace and joined the back of the group, seeing that Gary was W45. He felt a tinge of jealousy at the idea of Gary sleeping next to her. And then he wondered who would be at her other side. “Who’s W43?” he asked.

The others in the group – Kwang Soo, Daesung, and Minzy – checked their tags, but none of them was W43.

“I think Jong Kook is,” Gary said.

Seungri knew that Jong Kook had something going with Ji Hyo, but that didn’t stop him from being jealous. He regretted not standing close to CL when Se7en was giving them their tags. He hadn’t fully understood what the codes meant at the time. If he had, he would have made sure to get a cot right next to CL. He wondered now about how strict the sleeping arrangements were. Would the soldiers check each cot every night, making sure that everyone was sleeping where they should be, according to their codes? Couldn’t he just switch with Gary?

While Seungri was busy thinking about this, Daesung and Minzy were at the tail end of the group, talking about the possibility of seeing Daesung’s sister, Bora. Se7en had mentioned to Daesung that Bora was there, but he didn’t say where Daesung could find her.

“Let’s find our cots first,” Minzy said, “and then we can go look for her.”

Daesung smiled. “Okay,” he said, happy that Minzy wanted to accompany him. They were the last to be tagged. Daesung was W49; Minzy was W50. Daesung was hoping that, by having their cots so close, their relationship would be able to progress beyond just hand-holding and other subtleties. Neither of them had yet spoken to each other about their feelings. Daesung had wanted to ask her about this during the Truth game, but he had chosen to instead wait for a more private moment.

Up ahead, T.O.P. and Bom had nearly reached their cots. But just as they were about to pass the last occupied cot to that first open one reserved for Bom, they heard barking and then saw a brown and black pit bull rounding the corner of the cot and approach Bom.

Bom gasped and was about to run but then the dog’s owner quickly came over and kneeled beside the dog to restrain it. “Don’t worry,” the young man said. “He’s a really nice dog…” but his voice trailed off when he recognized the girl he was speaking to. “Are you…Park Bom?” His thick eyebrows arched in surprise. “Wow! And T.O.P.!” He smiled now, the dimples deep in his cheeks. “My name’s Jason,” he said. He stood up and quickly tried to run his hands like a comb through his short messy black hair. “And this is Caesar,” he said, gesturing toward his dog. “He won’t bite you, I promise.”

Bom smiled hesitantly and then slowly held her hand out to the dog. When she saw that Caesar didn’t seem interested in biting her, she got more comfortable and soon sat down next to the dog on the grass to pet him.

T.O.P. pointed to the W37 cot beside them. “That’s yours?” he asked.

Jason nodded.

T.O.P. felt the same unwarranted jealousy that Seungri had felt. He knew that it was ridiculous, but he didn’t like the idea of this young guy with his cute dog sleeping on the other side of Bom.

The rest of the group had caught up by then and were all slowly gathering around the dog on the grass. The dog, for some reason, seemed to take a particular interest in Gary. Kwang Soo found this funny and told the others that Gary’s nickname in school was “Gae” (dog in Korean), which is why he chose the stage name Gary, or Gae-ri.

“That’s right,” Gary said, as he pet Caesar. “This dog understands me.” Caesar the side of Gary’s face at that moment. Gary squeezed his eyes closed as the slobber dripped down his cheek.

“Ew,” Bom said, laughing.

“Ah, he loves me,” Gary said.

Bom lay on her side, facing T.O.P. who was lying on his cot facing her. The two stared at each other for a while, smiling, sometimes occasionally talking, but mostly just staring at each other sweetly, happy to be alive and in love.

The next four cots were empty, reserved for G-Dragon, Dara, Ji Hyo, and Jong Kook in that order, none of whom had returned yet.

CL, on the next cot over, was lying on her back and looking through the plastic cover to the blue sky above, watching the clouds slowly pass by as she thought about her parents – her mom, especially, who she usually talked to on the phone every day – and her sister, Haerin. All of them were abroad. CL couldn’t stop thinking about them and wondering if whatever was happening here was also happening there. She hoped that the soldiers knew something and would explain to everyone soon exactly what was going on.

Gary, on the other side of CL, wrote in his lyric notebook while the dog, Caesar, curled up by his feet. Jason had never seen his dog get so quickly attached to a stranger and, considering this, had said that Gary could hang out with Caesar as much as he wanted to, so long as he didn’t let the dog out of his sight. “I don’t want Caesar roaming around,” Jason had said. Gary understood and had been grateful for the dog’s company. Ever since the outbreak, he hadn’t felt like himself. He had been quiet most of the time, keeping his feelings bottled up inside him. But with Caesar around, life felt somewhat normal. It was strange how a dog could make what was essentially a refugee camp feel normal, but there was something calming about Caesar’s presence.

Kwang Soo was sitting on the next cot and was having a hard time. The pants they had given him to wear were way too short. He sat with his legs outstretched before him and saw that the pants reached only to mid-calf, like capris. On everyone else, the pants came down to their ankles. He supposed that this was a minor concern, but it felt almost like his legs were unprotected. But then he came to his senses and realized that if a zombie was going to bite at his ankles, a thin layer of cloth wouldn’t stop its teeth from penetrating. Still, he had nothing else to keep his mind occupied and so he just stared at his bare calves, wishing that he wasn’t so tall.

Next to Kwang Soo was an empty cot reserved for Jae Suk, who also hadn’t returned yet.

After that was Seungri’s cot. Seungri was sitting up, looking over all the other cots between his and CL’s. He saw that she was lying down on her back, seemingly lost in her thoughts. He wanted to go over and talk with her but he didn’t want to be a nuisance. They seemed to have a cat-dog relationship. And while that was kind of fun, he really wished that they were on the same level. After all, they were around the same age. He was born in December 1990, two months before she was born. Technically, he was older, but for some reason, he always felt much younger around her. This wasn’t really a bad thing. In a way, it made him want to strive to be better, to be more mature, to be stronger, to be wiser. She made him want to be a better person and he loved that about her.

The last two cots, reserved for Daesung and Minzy, were empty. They had gone out in search of Daesung’s sister, Bora. But it hadn’t taken them long to find her. Bora had already been on her way to find them.

Bora’s duty at the rescue center was to deliver food rations each morning to the survivors. At first, she was able to handle the duties on her own. But after more and more evacuation vans began arriving and the survivors soon numbered into the hundreds, the food delivery became a team effort consisting of four soldiers, each responsible for a section of the stadium. Bora happened to be responsible for the western end, which was where she was headed to now, just as Daesung and Minzy went out to look for her.

They met up halfway down the row. Bora hugged her little brother, so happy to see his smiling face. Daesung, despite everything he had been through, before the outbreak and after, still had that infectious smile that could cheer up an entire room – or an entire stadium even. Bora had always been the more serious of the two siblings, but she loved her little brother’s exuberant personality. He was her other half in a lot of ways and she was so overwhelmingly grateful that he had made it.

After the siblings hugged and dried their tears, Daesung introduced Minzy to Bora, and the two then helped Bora with the food trays she was carrying. “Usually we give out the daily rations each morning,” Bora said. “It’s nearly afternoon now, so you only have two-thirds of the rations. Just enough for lunch and dinner today.”

“That’s fine,” Minzy said. “We’re happy just to have something. We’ve been living off of Bom’s health food and seaweed snacks we found in some office desks.”

“The food here’s not much better,” Bora said. “It’s very simple. Because we only give food once a day, you only have hot food in the morning. Usually some soup. Sometimes ramen. And then for lunch and dinner it’s dried or canned food.”

“I’m so hungry I think I might eat up all my rations right now,” Daesung said.

Bora gave him a stern look. “Just because you have a sister working here on food delivery doesn’t mean that you get extras.” She looked at Minzy now. “Make sure that he doesn’t eat it all now.”

Minzy smiled. “I’ll look after him,” she said. “I promise.”

Daesung blushed at Minzy’s words.

When they came down the row carrying the food to their friends, everyone nearly leaped from their cots and gathered around, their stomachs growling loudly just from looking at the trays.

Bora made sure to tell everyone that because they had missed breakfast, there were only two rations per person for today, but that tomorrow morning, and each morning after that, they would receive three portions of food. “Make sure that you save your food,” she said. “It’s important that you make it last throughout the day.”

Everyone understood and returned to their cots with their trays, where they quietly ate and cherished each bite. The rations for those who had not yet returned were left on their cots.

Not long after Bora left, Jong Kook and Ji Hyo showed up. Jong Kook had baby Dream in his arms. Byul had asked that he watch the baby for a bit so that she could get some rest and later talk with the counselor, Rae. It had been hard on Byul to take care of the baby all by herself this whole time. She hadn’t known anyone at the stadium who she felt that she could trust to babysit. Until Jong Kook arrived, that is.

Jong Kook was ecstatic to take care of Dream, even if it was just for a few hours. He thought of the little girl they had met earlier, Ah Ri, and how she had said that she hoped Jong Kook and Ji Hyo would marry and have lots of children. As Jong Kook walked with Ji Hyo now, holding Dream, he felt like a father, and the three of them together felt like a family. It was a nice feeling.

Everyone was focused on their food, but when they saw the baby, they put down their trays and ran over, all oohing and aahing over the precious boy.

A few minutes later, G-Dragon and Dara also returned. They saw everyone standing around the baby and didn’t want to ruin the joyous mood, but they knew that they needed to tell the others about Hyun Suk’s letter.

When he had everyone’s attention, G-Dragon read the letter that Hyun Suk had written. Afterward, everyone tried to come to terms with the fact that Hyun Suk was gone.

“He should’ve told us,” T.O.P. said. “I would’ve gone with him.”

Bom looked at T.O.P. and shook her head. “I wouldn’t have let you,” she said.

“He did what he needed to do,” Jong Kook said. “If it was my wife and son, I would’ve done the same.”

“He drew a map for us,” G-Dragon said, showing them all the bottom of the letter. “He said that if something happens, we should head to the marina and follow the backup plan.”

“But we’re safe now,” Minzy said. “We don’t need a backup plan anymore.”

G-Dragon shrugged. “I’m just telling you what he said.”

Everyone sighed and looked down at the ground. They were all worried about Hyun Suk out there on his own.

“What should we do?” Kwang Soo asked. “Should we form another search group and go find him?”

“No,” Jong Kook said. He paused a moment and then looked at the others. “He didn’t tell us in person that he was leaving because he knew that we would either try to stop him or try to go with him. He knew what he was doing. We need to respect his choice.”

“What does that mean for us?” Gary asked. “What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“We make this place our home,” Ji Hyo said. “We try to survive. Try to be happy. And hope for the best. For him and for the rest of us.”