It’s dark. She’s running; from what, she doesn’t know. She just runs, not knowing how long she’d been running, stumbling around the bodies that litter the ground. And, she’s alone; no one to hold on to; no one to help her. Her breath is rugged and she doesn’t think she can keep going. 

A hand, that’s it. A hand grabs her arm and pulls her. For a moment, she wants to lash out at the creature, until she feels the warmth. The creature is warm, hot even. She wants to look up at it, but can’t bring herself to do so; afraid of what she might see.

“It’s gone,”

It talks. She’s so startled that she can’t even make out her own words. It…he talks. She catches herself before she starts screaming; it’s not one of those bloodthirsty creatures; it’s a person.

She feels the person unwrap his arms from around her and she hears him shuffling around. It sounds as if they’re in a cave because the sounds are echoing, but she knows there’re no caves in the middle of the city. She tries to blink out the darkness, but it’s still pitch black. 

“The sun will come up in about an hour, it’ll be safe to move then,”     

His voice is low, but firm and strong. It feels addicting to hear his voice—the only voice in a hundred, no a thousand miles; or maybe even in the whole world. She can’t see him, but she can definitely tell he is watching her. How he could even see her in the darkness, she doesn’t know. 

She wants to say something, but she doesn’t know what, so she just sits, waiting for the sun to rise—as he had said. Then, finally, after what seems like hours, she sees the darkness retreating. She’s sitting a few yards away from the edge of an alleyway; on a small quilt that is still clean. She sees a long row of candles, still burning, at the entrance to the alley, putting up a strange scent and a puff of smoke. But there’s something strange about the candles—the flickering fire isn’t yellow and bright, it is black. She wonders what kind of candle it is, but doesn’t ask. 

She’s sitting against the brick wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, and hands tightly holding onto herself. When she tries to move, she’s stiff and sore, but she manages to crawl off the quilt and stand up. 

“You don’t want to go east—they’re infested with the creatures, but if you must, only move in the light. They won’t come out in the light. I’m advising you to move west, people you know might still be alive there,” the voice advises.

It’s still addicting in some ways and she finds herself turning to the voice. She’s certain that the owner of the voice will be a tall, older man with an army jacket and a row of guns and bullets strapped to his body, but what she finds is even more surprising. 

A boy. He looks just about her age with jet black hair and deep, dark eyes. His clothes are normal, a bit dirty from surviving alone. He doesn’t have much on him except a large duffel bag full of who-know-what and a few guns and knives. He doesn’t look threatening. 

“You’re…” she starts, her voice, in retrospect, high and quiet, compared to his. 

“Kim Jongin,” he says. The name doesn’t sound familiar.

“That’s not what I mean. You’re just a…boy,” she sounds rude, but she can’t help it. People told her that all the time.

“And you’re just a girl. Funny how the least likely are the ones who survive an apocalypse,” he sounds skeptical, and somewhat offended.

She doesn’t know what else to say, so she just keeps quiet. She watches as he picks up gun after gun, inspecting it for bullets, and then shoves it into a holster on his belt. The knives come afterward and he throws a few over his shoulder. 

“Why are you throwing those away?” she asks, looking at the neglected blades.

“They’re dull, or a different metal. Only stainless steel and silver kills them,” he explains. 

She wants to ask more, but doesn’t know what. Again, she sits in the silence, waiting for something to happen. But nothing happens and in a few minutes, he’s ready to leave.

“Where are you heading?” she asks, weary of what might happen to her if she is left alone again.

“To find friends,” is all he says. He starts to walk out of the alley, and there’s a sort of panic rising in her chest. With a few long strides, she catches up to him.

“I’m coming with you. Besides, I have nowhere to go. My family’s dead, my friends are nowhere to be found, and the only living thing I’ve seen the past three days, is you. I’m coming with you,” she states firmly. 

He stops, takes a look at her. His eyes rake around her body, as if trying to decide whether or not she is good enough. Then, he takes a gun and a knife from his belt and hands it to her.

“You’re gonna need it,” 

He starts walking and she follows, tying the weapons to her own belt. She feels awkward, walking in silence, but doesn’t try to break it. They walk a few blocks, keeping an eye out for the creatures or survivors and she doesn’t realize how hungry she is until she hears her own stomach growling. They both stop in their tracks, and she tries for a smile.

“How long has it been since you last ate?” he asks, a worried expression crossing his face. She thinks, but doesn’t really remember.

“I guess I haven’t eaten since three days ago,”

They’re now browsing through an empty convenience store. A backpack is lying harmlessly on the floor so she empties out the contents and stuffs food into it. Jongin, she thinks is his name, advises her to take what she needs because he doesn’t want to make an unnecessary and dangerous stop again. 

“Why is this a dangerous stop exactly?” she calls from the very back of the convenience store. The electricity is surprisingly still running so Soojung stuffs her bag with cold drinks and waters. She glances behind her and finds the boy rustling about in the medicine corner.

“We’re vulnerable in here. We can’t see outside and we can’t see what’s happening. And, this type of light isn’t harmful to them—only sunlight is.” He answers, showing up beside her and stuffing packs of steril bandages and rubbing alcohol into the bag.

The grounds here are much less decaying with bodies than they were just a few blocks back. Soojung feels a little hopeful now. They walk in silence as she bites off a piece of her convenience store sausage. She’s somewhat used to the silence now. 

“When did you first get attacked?” he asks. Soojung has almost forgotten that she is living a mass human extinction. 

A shudder runs through her spine as she remembers about a week ago. The creatures had come so sudden and her sister, Sooyeon had helped her hide before going off to find their parents, and probably her boyfriend. She would never forget that horrible scream that she heard after her sister walked out of the room. She sat in the room for a whole day before she ran out of the house, just to find all the people she’d ever known, dead. 

“Well, I’m guessing my first time is the same as everyone else—about a week ago, right? Then after that, yesterday,” she managed to choke out.

It was silent after that and when she looked up to the boy’s face, she could see his eyebrows knitting together as if he were thinking hard about this. 

“That’s strange,” he says, but doesn’t have time to say more because a loud scream comes from just up the road. Soojung drops her convenience store sausage and feels her belt for the knife that he’d given her. 

She feels the sharp blade cutting into her palm, but doesn’t have time to react because she’s already running behind the boy, following him into an alleyway as he fumbles to fish out another black candle from his duffel bag. He lights the candle before turning the corner, and flings it at the creature that’s positioned just in front of a girl, about their age.

Soojung’s jaw drops as she finally takes a good look at the creature. Its skin is like an alligator’s, scaly and rough, but its eyes are almost feline. The teeth protruding from its mouth are like a tiger’s, but ten times larger. 

As the creature roars loudly, creating an awful, shrieking sound, it backs into the opposite wall of the alley and turns to her and Jongin. 

“Are you sure that was a good idea?” she asks, trembling from just seeing the creature. Jongin pulls out a long range rifle from his duffel bag and positions it under his arm. 

“When the creature is down, run. Bring that girl over here as fast as you can while I kill it, is that clear?” he asks. She’s about to protest, but nods instead. She isn’t a coward—no, never. 

As she positions herself to sprint, she hears the two loud shots from beside her and then his voice, urging her to get to the girl. When she passes the creature, she can hear it still wheezing, but tries to ignore it. She reaches the girl who doesn’t seem to be harmed, just scared, so she pulls her up to her feet and rushes back. 

Jongin runs to the creature, cursing under his breath. With one quick lash at its throat, it slumps down into its own puddle of dark, red blood. He fishes a lighter from the duffel bag, and a can of black powder. When he covers the creature in the black powder and lights it, a scalding black flame rises, burning the thing into a pile of ash.

He’s panting as the smoke from the creature rises and makes the air claustrophobic. He turns to see Soojung consoling the girl they’d just saved. Pushing his rifle back into the bag, he walks to their side. Somehow, he remembers the girl’s face, but can’t seem to remember a name.

“You’re okay, you’re fine. We’ll help you find your group mates again. Come one,” Soojung says. She stands the girl up once more and smiles at her.

“You have a group?” Jongin sounds skeptical again—almost shocked. The girl just nods and whimpers. 

“What’s your name?” Soojung asks. It takes a while for the girl to answer, but she does.

“Sulli,” she croaks.

The first chapter is up! 

Hello all my beautiful readers! It feels so great to have this up, finally! WIth a blast of inspiration last week (after watching "I Am Legend"), I've finally posted the first chapter, and am planning on writing some more today (since I've been kind of stuck). 

I really hope you guys like this and will enjoy reading this story since I've put so much effort into it. 

Thanks you all for reading and don't forget to subscribe! ^^