Jong Kook and Ji Hyo headed up the group, leading the other two couples around the side of the house to the narrow dirt road that led east to the main street. They followed that dirt road for some time, not knowing what to expect.

On any other day, this would have been a beautiful morning walk. The part of the island that they were on was relatively secluded, with nothing but woods and lush greenery bordering the dirt road. They hadn’t seen any zombies, not yet, and so they soon became more relaxed. Ji Hyo looked back every so often to check on the other couples, seeing the girls clinging to their Big Bang partners. At first, Ji Hyo thought that the girls were staying close to the guys because the guys were the ones carrying the weapons, but after a while, Ji Hyo realized that they were staying close because they were in love. She suspected now that it was G-Dragon and Dara in that room across the hall from them last night. She could see it in the way they were looking at each other, those flirtatious secretive glances they shared, their smiles tight, their cheeks red. Ji Hyo looked at Jong Kook now and reached for his hand.

“What is it, Ji Hyo-yah?” he asked.

Ji Hyo shrugged. “Nothing,” she said. “I’m happy.”

Jong Kook smiled. “I didn’t know how you were feeling after what we talked about last night and then after what happened this morning.” He paused a moment. “Are you really happy?”

Ji Hyo nodded. “I am,” she said. “I think we’re going to be okay here.”

Jong Kook wanted to share her optimism, but he couldn’t. He wanted to stay realistic and keep his expectations low. But the more they walked without seeing any zombies, the more he began feeling optimistic, too.

To their left, the greenery soon parted and they could see farmland that stretched to to the sea. Jong Kook stopped and stared at the fields. The other two couples abruptly stopped now, too.

“What’s wrong?” Bom asked.

Jong Kook smiled and pointed out over the paddy field. “Rice,” he said. “See all that?” The field ahead was flooded with tiny sprouts of green popping up out of that water in rows. “We can make a life here,” he said. “We can grow food.”

“I don’t know how to do any of that,” G-Dragon said.

“We’ll have to learn,” Ji Hyo said.

“I learned a bit on Family Outing,” Jong Kook said. “It looks like everything’s planted. We just need to tend to it until it’s time to harvest.” He was scared of being optimistic, but between the lack of zombies and the sight of seeded farmland, it seemed that there was hope for their band of survivors after all. Still, even though he smiled, he proceeded carefully as they continued on their way.

The road ended at a T-junction, where they could either turn left or right. The land across the road was a wide expanse of paddy fields that led to the eastern edge of the island, along with what appeared to be cabbage patches. They stared at the farmland ahead and then peeked down both ways on the road. If they turned left, that road would lead to the northeastern tip of the island. If they turned right, the road would lead south through town.

At their right was a small home at the corner of the intersection with an old pickup truck parked in front. It was the first home they had seen, and so they turned right and trekked carefully across the property.

“I’m going to try the truck,” G-Dragon said, running ahead of them.

“Ai, slow down,” Dara called out.

The truck was a Hyundai Porter II in dark blue, rusted in spots. The front cab was tall and narrow, with the back open like a pickup or flatbed truck. G-Dragon opened the driver’s side door, which let out a long creak from having been sitting for so long. The keys were in the ignition. As the others gathered around now, G-Dragon started up the truck, giving it some gas to rev it to life. He smiled as he looked at the others, his foot pushing down on the pedal more as the engine roared. “No more walking for us!” he yelled.

Jong Kook held out his hand to try to gesture G-Dragon to take it easy and not rev the truck so much, lest they draw attention to themselves. G-Dragon nodded and shut off the engine, but then he began adjusting the rearview mirror and fixing his hair as he stared at his reflection.

“Aish,” Dara said, pulling G-Dragon out of the truck. “Come on, y boy.”

“I just want to look good for you Dara-ah,” he said, teasingly.

“Let’s check the house, too,” Ji Hyo said, heading up the dirt path that led from the driveway to the door.

Bom walked up to the door and knocked.

“What are you knocking for?” T.O.P. asked.

“Maybe someone is home,” she said.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jong Kook said.

They waited, trying to listen for any sounds of movement inside. After a few minutes, when they hadn’t heard anything, Jong Kook reached for the doorknob and, seeing that the door was unlocked, now pushed it wide open.

Despite the sun shining that morning, it was somewhat dark inside.

“Try the lights,” Bom said, nudging Dara.

Dara leaned down to turn on a lamp near the entrance. It worked. The lamp lit up that shadowed room. “They have power,” Dara said. She glanced around at the fully furnished home inside. “We should just stay here instead.”

Jong Kook breathed in deeply and looked around, pondering what Dara had said. As much as he wanted to be in a house with power, this one was too small for their group. The Full House house had much more room, but more importantly, it was secluded, set back from the main road down that dirt path. Also, it was near the water where their boats were. If they needed to escape for any reason, they’d need only to row or swim to the cabin cruiser anchored in the water. “Let’s just take what we need,” Jong Kook said.

“We need everything,” Bom said, looking around the room. The entrance opened up to a small living room, which featured two worn sofas and a small table. Shelves with knick-knacks and antiques lined the walls, books were scattered across the room, and several flower-printed armchairs were crammed into the corners.

As the guys carried the couches out to the truck, the girls walked toward the kitchen ahead. A traditional floor table with cushions centered the space. Bom began collecting the cushions as Ji Hyo and Dara checked the counters and drawers. They found the utensils drawer and decided to pull it out entirely to take with them while pocketing a few of the knives.

Ji Hyo searched the rest of the kitchen, feeling weird about invading someone’s home like that. She had never stolen anything in her life.

Bom apparently felt the same, because at that moment she nudged Dara and asked if what they were doing was okay.

Dara shrugged. “I don’t think we’re doing anything wrong, Bommie. It feels wrong only because we’re used to the old world. But we’re just trying to survive now. We need this stuff.” She opened a nearby closet and found extra seat cushions inside.

Ji Hyo listened to the girls’ conversation and reflected on her own feelings in regard to what they were doing. “I’m going to check the bedrooms down the hall,” she said. The 2ne1 girls nodded and continued to scavenge in the kitchen.

Outside, the guys had already moved both couches and the table from the living room into the pickup truck. Jong Kook had taken charge and was telling the Big Bang boys how to best situate the furniture in the back to allow for as much free space as possible to fit more. Dara and Bom came out at that moment, carrying the floor table with the cushions piled atop it. G-Dragon and T.O.P. ran over and helped them haul it to the truck.

“Where’s Ji Hyo-yah?” Jong Kook asked, realizing that she was the only one not outside.

“She’s checking the bedrooms,” Bom said.

At that moment, they heard a loud crash inside. Jong Kook ran toward the door and then through the house in a panic. He found Ji Hyo in the back bedroom, standing over the corpse of an ahjussi zombie dressed in tattered farm clothes. Ji Hyo yanked her trekking pole out of the zombie’s head now and began picking up the shattered pieces of the vases that had fallen from the shelves during her brief struggle with it.

“Ji Hyo-yah, don’t worry about cleaning that up,” he said, confused as to why she was bothering.

Ji Hyo nodded and stood up. “I guess I’m not used to breaking things and just leaving it.”

Jong Kook put his arm around her.

“This whole situation is so weird, Jong Kook-ah,” she said. “It was one thing in that convenience store, but this is someone’s home.” She looked down at the zombie on the floor. This was his home, she thought.

“Would you rather we find a furniture shop?” he asked.

Ji Hyo dismissed his suggestion. “It’s stealing either way,” she said.

“It’s survival, Ji Hyo-yah.”

“That’s what Dara said.” She knew that they were right. It’s not like this furniture would do anyone else any good, she thought. She breathed in deeply now and gestured toward the stack of sleeping mats and quilts in the corner. “Can you take those out to the truck?” she asked. “I’ll check the closets for some clothes.”

“I’m not leaving you alone in here,” he said.

“I’ll be fine, Jong Kook-ah. I can handle myself.”

Jong Kook smiled and kissed her forehead. “I know you can, Ji Hyo-yah,” he said. He thought back on that morning and then couldn’t help but laugh. “You with that crab claw… aigoo. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Ji Hyo smiled and shrugged. “I had to think quickly,” she said. “It was the only sharp thing in sight.”

Jong Kook tilted her chin up to him and kissed her deeply. Afterward, he smiled again. “That’s why I love you, Ji Hyo-yah. There’s no one else like you.” 

The scavenger group raided two more houses down the road, finding some lumber in a shed behind one house, which they could use to build more fencing, as well as a great deal of tools like hammers and axes and sickles to use as weapons. They also found more tables, seating, and bedding for the house, and most importantly, some jugs of water and tons of dried and canned food. Bom hadn’t found any y outfits for CL, as the community was mostly rural and populated by older folks, but they took whatever they could, all excited to just wear something clean. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Ji Hyo had found a dozen or so bottles of soju that she snuck into the back of the truck, hoping to surprise them all later.

Although they all felt that they could search more, having only seen a couple more zombies and feeling quite safe, the back of the Porter was nearly overflowing and so they knew that they would have to head back home.

All were in good spirits as they drove back, talking about what they had found and how they could make a list tonight of what they still needed in preparation for another scavenging trip tomorrow.

No one talked about zombies. They had only seen three zombies while out on their mission, all of which were rather easy kills. Even Jong Kook, who tried for so long to keep his hope at bay, was now smiling with the rest of them in that crowded cab and was as excited as they were to go back home… an actual home full of friends and soon to be full of furniture and food, too.

They rounded the corner and headed back up that dirt road, their impressive haul weighing down the back of the truck. No one paid mind to the greenery bordering the road. They all looked ahead with hope for their new house and the life they could make there.

They assumed that Sido had a relatively low population, and they were right – only around three hundred people claimed that island as home. Even if all three hundred were zombies, that number was still manageable if they continued to encounter only a few stragglers at a time during their scavenging expeditions. Perhaps they could clear the island in a matter of weeks, if not days, if that was the case. But the stragglers they had seen – those lone random zombies – were the exception to the rule. The rest had herded together eating whatever animals they could find in the very woods bordering the dirt path our survivors were driving down. If those in the truck had been paying attention to the scenery, they might have seen those infected eyes staring back at them from the brush, drawn to the noise of that loud truck engine and now staggering after that sound in a slow, shambling pursuit that would eventually lead them to that secluded house at the end of the road.