They had pulled far away enough from the shore to be out of danger but then stopped and just let that boat float in the middle of the river, the low hum of the idling engine like underlying static, interrupted by the occasional splashes of water that lapped against the side of the hull.

Jong Kook and Ji Hyo, with Dream in her sling, were standing at the bow of that small cabin cruiser, holding onto the handrail. Seungri and CL stood at their left, Daesung and Minzy at their right. No one spoke. They just stared across the water at the soulless corpses on shore. From that distance, the sight seemed surreal, as if they were watching some sort of amateur art film or were lost in an abstract dream. It didn’t feel like real life. If they hadn’t experienced it all firsthand, they wouldn’t have believed that any of it had even happened.

G-Dragon was still in the captain’s seat, his arm around Dara beside him. He turned his focus away from the shore and now looked at her, studying that heart-shaped face and those big brown eyes as her gaze met his.

She smiled. “Do you remember what you said to me the last time we saw each other?” she asked.

G-Dragon nodded. “Saranghae,” he whispered, as he threaded his fingers through the strands of her wind-blown hair.

On the U-shaped deck seating behind them, T.O.P. and Bom sat close, holding each other tightly. He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes, his heart light in his chest.

Sitting beside them was Jae Suk and Kyung Eun, with little Ji Ho his thumb as he slept across his mother’s lap. Gary was on the edge of the seat with Caesar on the floor at his feet. Jae Suk looked over at Gary and smiled. He then adjusted his glasses and looked around now at the others onboard. Thirteen adults, one toddler, one infant, one dog. They were all that was left.

The boat continued to idle in the middle of the river. They weren’t ready to move on. They needed this moment, this quiet moment with only the hum of the engine and the splash of the water to settle their nerves and allow them to breathe.

But all of their breaths were suddenly cut off when they heard something slap the back of the boat. At first they thought it was the canoe, which was still tied to the back, but when they turned to look they saw an arm come out of the water, the hand reaching out and once again slamming against the platform that jutted out from the stern.

Jae Suk quickly stood in front of his wife and child and then scanned the floor of the deck for his shovel. He grabbed it now and held it up high as everyone watched and waited for that zombie to emerge.  

They could see the top of its head now, the hair breaking the surface, and then in one swift motion, they saw it come up, spit out water, and take a long gasp of air. It wasn’t a zombie. It was alive.

“Oh my god,” Dara cried, as she ran from her seat and slid across the slippery deck, falling to her knees on the platform to which her brother, Thunder, was desperately clinging.

Jae Suk slowly lowered the shovel, stunned, but then he snapped out of it and helped Dara pull Thunder from the water.

“My… shoulder,” Thunder said, shivering.

They yanked his body aboard, the drenched boy lying on his back as everyone now surrounded him. Jae Suk reached over to inspect Thunder’s arm and saw a bony lump where his shoulder should’ve been. “I think it’s dislocated,” Jae Suk said. His eyes darted between everyone. “Um, find me something,” he said. “Just, anything to tie it tightly.”

“You need to reset it,” Jong Kook said.

“How do I do that?” Jae Suk asked.

Jong Kook bit his lip and shrugged. “You just straighten it out really hard and really fast.”

Jae Suk looked up at him. “Well, come on muscle man, get down here and do that then.”

Jong Kook glanced at everyone and then looked back down at Jae Suk and Dara crouched on the deck. He had no idea what he was doing. He had only seen it done in movies.

“Hurry,” Dara said. “He’s in pain.”

Jong Kook nodded and walked around Thunder, sitting near his feet. He scooted up now and extended his legs so that his feet were pressed inside Thunder’s underarms, and then he reached for Thunder’s forearm with both of his hands. “Okay, this will probably hurt,” he said.

Dara swept the hair from Thunder’s face as he squeezed his eyes closed, preparing for the pain.

Jong Kook began pulling on the arm, not sure how much strength to give. Thunder cringed and cried out, but the shoulder was still not set. Jong Kook now pulled harder and then felt a pop, quickly letting go as Thunder rolled on his side and lay in a fetal position, crying.

Jong Kook leaned back and let out a long breath of relief as the others smiled and cried, all feeling a deep release from the fear and the sadness and the hopelessness that had weighed them down for so long. 

G-Dragon was still a bit jerky at the wheel, the boat nearly tipping in spots not only from his driving, but from the excess weight. It was a small cabin cruiser with a comfortable capacity of eight passengers. But with Thunder, they now had fourteen passengers, not including the children or the dog. Still, no one complained about the cramped conditions. Everyone was just happy to be alive.

They had already passed underneath the Yanghwa Bridge and were now approaching the Seongsan Bridge. Dara was next to Thunder on the deck seating, her arm around him as they both looked up at that red bridge from which he had jumped. Thunder didn’t say anything at first, not until after they passed it.

“I thought I was going to die,” he said. “I just tried to brace myself, tried to keep my body straight.”

“What about Lee Joon?” Minzy asked.

Thunder shook his head. “He got bit on the bridge. And he didn’t fall vertical like me. He was kind of going down flat, like on his stomach.” He closed his eyes for a moment and then added, “If the fall didn’t kill him… then the bite did.”

No one said anything for a moment. They just continued to sit – some on the deck seats, some on the deck floor – while holding onto the handrails as the boat bounced atop the water.

“Does he know where he’s going?” Gary asked, pointing to G-Dragon in front.

“He has the map Hyun Suk gave him,” Jong Kook said. He tried to balance his weight on the boat now as he let go of the handrail and walked a few steps up the deck to reach G-Dragon, who was sitting next to Seungri since Dara left to sit with her brother.

“He’s my first mate,” G-Dragon told Jong Kook as he smiled and pointed toward Seungri. “If this was a bigger boat, I’d make him run errands for me.”

“Can I see that map?” Jong Kook asked.

“My first mate has it,” G-Dragon said. “Actually, I don’t want you to be my first mate anymore,” he told Seungri. “Where’s Big Seung Hyun?” He glanced behind him now. “Seung Hyunnie! Come up here and be my first mate.”

T.O.P. looked at Bom and rolled his eyes. “I’ll be right back,” he told her, kissing her sweetly on her lips.

Seungri passed Jong Kook the map and they both returned to the deck seating as T.O.P. now sat up front with G-Dragon.

“Seungri-yah!” G-Dragon called out, glancing behind him. “Just because you’re not my first mate anymore doesn’t mean I don’t love you!” He paused a moment and then added, “You can be my cabin boy, Seungri-yah!”

T.O.P. elbowed G-Dragon now. “You’re having too much fun up here,” he said. “Stop it.”

“Yah,” G-Dragon said, rubbing his side where T.O.P. had poked him. “What’s wrong with a little fun? We’re safe now.”

“For now,” T.O.P. said. “But we can’t let our guard down. We don’t know what that island is going to look like. Could be crawling with those things.”

G-Dragon tilted his head and looked at T.O.P. with that annoyed expression he sometimes wore. “Come on, Tabi. Don’t be such a… dog poop.”

“Aish,” T.O.P. mumbled, as he turned to watch the passing scenery. The northern half of Seoul to his right was now full of trees and blooming greenery, but the city continued to stretch down the southern half on the port side of the boat. And there, things didn’t look as serene. T.O.P. could see smoke billowing out from a few burning buildings, the haze like a dark cloud over the city.

He turned his attention ahead now, finding a sense of calmness in the water. The land was full of danger, but the water was full of hope. There was nothing here that could hurt them. They were safe, just as G-Dragon had said. Maybe it was okay to have a little fun, he thought. Too bad they didn’t have any soju.

No one talked much on the boat. Most were thinking about their friends and family that have died, as well as the friends and family that were still lost out there, all of whom were likely dead too. Others were thinking about the island, wondering how safe it would be there.

“Do you think Yang Goon-sajangnim will be there?” Daesung asked, glancing at the faces around him on the deck.

Everyone looked up at him but no one said anything, not until Seungri said what the others were all thinking.

“We’re on his boat,” Seungri said.

Daesung shrugged. “That doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “Maybe he took another boat.”

At that moment, T.O.P. left his seat next to G-Dragon and carefully climbed back to the deck to reclaim his seat next to Bom. “Get up,” he said to Seungri. “Come on, I want my seat back.”

Seungri sulked. “I don’t want to go back up there,” he said. “Ji Yong-ah is on this weird power trip as the captain. I don’t want to be his first mate slave.”

Jong Kook, who had been reviewing the map, now stood up, gestured for Seungri to sit in his seat, and then made his way up front. “Looks like I’m your new navigator,” he said to G-Dragon.

“You mean my first mate,” G-Dragon said, smiling.

Jong Kook puffed out his chest and widened his eyes, giving G-Dragon that half-threatening, half-joking glare he sometimes used to intimidate people on Running Man.

“Okay, okay,” G-Dragon said, laughing. “My navigator.”

Jong Kook smiled and sat beside him. “According to this,” he said, pointing to the map, “the river will split soon.”

“I don’t see anything yet,” G-Dragon said.

Jong Kook tried studying the map again. Hyun Suk had drawn the river as a dotted line that traveled between crudely sketched blobs meant to represent land masses. “Well, if the river splits, just stay the main course. Don’t go right. We’ll end up in North Korea if you go right. And don’t go so fast. We’re still dragging that canoe back there and it’s slamming hard against the water.”

G-Dragon smiled. “Aye aye, matey,” he said.

Jong Kook looked at him for a moment and then started laughing. “What’s with you?” he asked.

G-Dragon smiled again. “What? I got my girl, my friends, and even my brother-in-law Gold Thunder back there. I’m just happy.”

Jong Kook nodded and looked back at Ji Hyo. She had just doled out food and water to the others from the bags she and Jong Kook had filled at the convenience store, and now sat back down to feed Dream. She looked gorgeous even with her face bare and her hair a mess in the wind. And the baby, that beautiful little boy. Jong Kook smiled. He was happy, too.