“What… the… hell…!” I was taken aback from what I saw in front of me.

Someone seems to be running away from something and they’re headed towards me. You got to be kidding me, right? I’ve just avoided death from a vicious Tank and now this? I need to get away from here as fast as I could! I stood from the ground where I was seated with sore feeling all over my body and then starts to move away from the place.

“Hey! Help us! Please!” A girl called out for help as was moving away.

Darn it! She saw me… I could try to help them but I’m risking getting much farther away from Haena, what if the thing that chasing is another Tank? I could end up dead by helping them! I looked back towards the source of the voice and there I saw a girl… and she’s not alone. She seems to be supporting someone by her shoulders… the person seems to be injured quite badly.

Just as I about to leave them I remembered what Haena once said to me before… she urged me to help all of the people that we met that needed our help… she said, that deed is exactly what reminds her that she’s still human in this crazy age cannibalism. Not just those mutants eating humans… but in this age right now, humans do eat each other, for their own survival literally and not literally.

“Aish, curse me and this being human thing!” I muttered to myself and then run towards her while reloading my shotgun.

As I was on my way to them as a couple of mutants shows up jumping around and running around with in high speed. The girl struggles to move with a burden on her backs… she could outrun them if there wasn’t an injured person with her. By then I heard a loud screech and when I looked… one of the mutants jumps towards the girl with its blade like arm raised up, ready to slice down the girl when she’s within its reach.

I stopped on my track as the girl drag the injured person pass me and then I took aim of the mutant and blast its head off… literally. Okay… at least it’s a good thing that its defense was not as formidable as the Tank.

“Look out! On your left!”

Out of instinct I immediately reacted to that girl’s warning, I throw myself to the other side to avoid whatever was coming at me. But I was late by a second as I felt a sting of pain on my left back shoulder and soon after I could feel something warms running through my skins. The creature screeched once again as it jumped once again towards me… but this time I was ready.

I did a barrel roll to the right side and then immediately took aim and shot that thing directly at its head. The creature’s headless body fell onto the ground and then squirms for a couple times before it stop permanently… I did it… I killed it. As the adrenaline seeped off my system I started to feel pain all around my body… but I can’t go down here… not if I want to see Haena again.

“We need to get out of here now!” I said as I pick myself up with much trouble caused by the wound and the exhaustion.

“But you’re a mess! That wound on your shoulder…” The girl said as she looked at it and hesitates to reach it.

“Yeah I know it looks bad… but we can’t stay here.”

The girl nodded in acknowledgement… she knew that every second that we wasted here will also means trouble as there’s no guarantee that there will be no more mutants coming in this way… especially with all the gunshots. I signaled her to follow me and we started to tracked back to where I came from… to where Haena was.

After a quite a few minutes into our trips my head started to pound like crazy… my eyesight seems to get blurred sometimes. Maybe it was because of the blood loss that caused by my injuries from dealing with a Tank (Formidable as a Tank thus its name) and two of those agile creatures back then.

“Hey… are you okay?” The girl asked in concern.

Damn… I’m not okay… but Haena is waiting for me right now. But then again I knew my own condition well enough, if I were to insist going back to Haena it won’t be long before I died because of blood loss and exhaustion. I need a rest… but what about Haena? Will she be okay? Will she be able to fend for herself?

“You need to rest…” The girl suggested

“No… my friend is waiting for me…”

“Look… I could guess that this friend of yours that important enough so that you’re willing to risk your life so bad. But think about it… you’re losing too much blood! Forcing yourself like this could mean the death of you.”

“But…”

“No buts. We’re going to rest for now… and I will help you treat your wound. I know this area pretty well… there’s this convenience store not far from here, they may still have some first aid kid stuff there, and we’ll rest there.”

I couldn’t really say anything… she has her points you know. My blood loss seems severe enough as I felt lightheaded and my vision started to blur. I nodded as a sign that I agreed with her… and with that she lead the way towards this convenience store that she mentioned before with much difficulties.

I guess this is my limit… once we reached the convenience store I couldn’t hold on much longer. I double check the locks and make sure that it’s safe enough for us to rest for the time being and soon enough my vision darkens and moments later all I could remember was I fell onto the ground feeling pain all over my body, I collapsed…

“Haena-ya!” I shouted as I startled awake and panting…

I looked around and this place that I’m in was not anywhere that I know of… I tried to remember on what happened to me until now. I was looking for a shelter with someone when this monstrous abomination starts chasing us around… Haena… That’s right! Haena!

I tried to get out from the bed when suddenly my whole body started to ache. Damn… the damage from the last encounter with those things still there. A few moments later I heard a girl talking to someone about not forcing himself and he should rest to recover. The girl and the boy from before I guess… so her companion has awoken then. The door to this room then opened followed by this young girl with a shoulder length brown hair… she has a beautiful face as well… and I know that I know this girl. She’s awfully familiar… I couldn’t look properly back then as it was dark and the situation didn’t really helped with that as well.

“Oh… you’re awake?” She said as she came in bringing some breads and water “So… how are feeling? Better?”

“Yeah… better.” I replied as I watched her put the bread and water in the desk next to my bed “How long was I out?”

“About a whole day I guess.”

“What? I was out for a whole day, as in 24 hour whole day? ”

“Yeah… you’re out for 24 hours.” She replied as she sat beside me to check my wound… it’s been carefully bandaged “You’re lucky; your wound wasn’t that deep.”

“My friend…” I said as I tried once again to get out from the bed but still fail miserably as I fell onto the floor “She’s waiting for me… I’ve got to get to her.”

“You still need to recover… There’s no way you could do anything with your condition right now. The responded as she helped me to get back onto the bed.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist as I know that what she said was right… I won’t be able to do anything… heck I couldn’t even stand up on my own two feet. I felt as if I don’t have any energy at all… left alone protecting her I even doubted that I could find her with my condition like this.

“You need eat something to help you recover your strength…” The girl reached for one of the breads she brought with her and handed it over to me with a sweet smile.

I sighed in defeat and then took the bread from her as I muttered a word of thank you which she responded with a simple nod and a smile. She then leave me in the room here by myself… she’s checking on her friend I guess, I heard someone called for her minutes ago. I ate the bread that she gave to me… hey it’s a chocolate bread, my favorite. I then looked over to the desk to check the rest of the bread, hey… there’s cream bread here… Haena’s favorite.

I wonder how she is doing right now… it’s been a whole day since I left her. Is she still waiting in that house for me? Or had anything happened that forces her to leave the house? All of this guessing game about her condition was not really helping as it getting me more and more worried about her.

After I finished the bread except for the Cream one - I decided to keep the cream bread so that I could give to Haena once I see her again - and drank the mineral water, I get up from the bed slowly and headed outside the room. It’s the convenience store that we entered yesterday… and it seems this room is the room for their employee to take a rest at night; this was after all a 24 hours convenience store.

I saw the girl and the boy that I saved yesterday at the counter… the girl was searching for something on the lower rack of the counter desk and the boy search the cabinets on the other side.

“Looking for something?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Hey… shouldn’t you still be in bed right now?” the girl asked.

“Naah… I’ve been sleeping for 24 hours already. I could use some exercise.”

“Hi there… I heard from Jiyeon that you saved us yesterday.” The boy said as he approached me and extended her hand “I thank you for that.”

“Don’t worry about that...” I replied as I accepted his hand “If you wanted to thank someone, you should thanked Haena.”

“Haena?” The girl called Jiyeon asked.

“I was actually wanted to leave you behind when you called me back then.” I explained as I reminisced about yesterday “But then again when I saw you I feel obligated to help… Haena would want me to help you, which are for sure. She always says that helping someone in need is a sign that you’re still human.”

“Well, I guess we’re going to have to say thank you to Haena once we’ve met her then.” The boy said and then went off saying that he’ll go search at another spot.

“Yeah you should…” I said as I directed my sight towards this Jiyeon girl “By the way… are you by any chance worked as a part of an Idol Girl Group before?”

“Oh yes, as a matter of fact, I did.” She replied

“Park Jiyeon… from the Idol Girl Group T-ara, Am I right?”

“Yes!” Jiyeon chirped happily and stop searching “So... you know me?”

“I think everyone who’s into K-POP should know or at least heard about you.” I replied “Heck you’re my number two bias!”

“Number two? Not number one?” Jiyeon asked with a cute pout.

“Hahaha… sorry… my number one bias was Haena.”

“Haena? Your friend Haena?”

“Yeah… she’s from an Idol Girl Group as well.” I said as I spotted a few case of shotgun shells by the bottom drawers of the cabinet. The owner of this convenience store seems to own a shotgun much like mine I guess… and speak of my shotgun, where is it anyway?

“She was?” Jiyeon asked as she looked at me knowing that I seem to be searching for something “Which group she was?”

“Kiss & Cry… have you heard about them? They’re fairly new…”

“Ah… I’ve heard of them before. But I don’t think I known them better… they’re just a new junior to me. And oh by the way if you’re looking for your shotgun and your bag it’s on top of the ice cream freezer by the refrigerator.”

“Ah… thank you Jiyeon.” I said as I walked towards the ice cream freezer to get my shotgun “I couldn’t blame you for not knowing her… I don’t really know her until a couple of months ago.”

“And yet, she’s your bias?”

“Well… just put it this way… I saw her and then I like her.” I explained as I reload my shotgun and stuff the rest of the shells into my bag “Pretty much like love at the first sight. Hey… if it’s any consolation, you’re my first bias before Haena came to the picture.”

“Well… at least I was number one first! I win!”  Jiyeon said with a proud smile which made me smile as well.

“Hey… look at what I’ve found!” The boy said as he approached Jiyeon while showing a device on his hand.

“What is that, Myungsoo oppa?”

“A fully functional GPS System!” Myungsoo said as he gave the device to Jiyeon.

“That could be useful if need to get somewhere… Let’s find some batteries to go with it.” I said as I looked at the GPS on Jiyeon’s hand.

“I’ve done that already!” Myungsoo showed his backpack where he put couple dozen batteries in.

“Urmmm… by the way…” Jiyeon intervened.

“You are talking to me?” I looked at Jiyeon and pointed to myself to confirm that she’s really talking to me.

“Yeah… what is your name? I mean you already know both my name and Myungsoo oppa’s name.”

“Oh! Sorry about that.” I replied “My name is…”

And before I could actually mentioned my name to them something came crashing from the roof of the convenience store, knocking some of the shelves over and creating a big smokescreen as one of the shelves were hosting packs of flour.

“What the hell was that?” Myungsoo asked with a surprised tone while pushing Jiyeon behind him as a protection.

“Oh no… Not again!” I said as I know what I saw in the middle of the smokescreen due to its silhouette “RUN!”