When Soojung wakes to some clamber the next morning, she realizes that she didn’t dream about her sister. Sitting up and looking around, she sees that Jongin’s sheets are messily strewn around, but the rest of her group is still asleep. 

She heads for the bathrooms on the far side and takes her time, washing her face, brushing her teeth with a toothbrush one of the attendants gives her,  and magically straightening out her hair. When she returns to the bunks, Sehun and Sulli are up, talking quietly to one another in the bed, and Naeun is up, combing through her hair with her fingers and looking a tad bit lost.

“Had a good night?” Naeun asks when Soojung nears. She smiles and nods, helping Naeun off the higher bunk. 

“Good. Sulli, do you want to come wash up with me?” she asks, looking to the couple still in the bed.

“Okay,” Sulli answers, lacing her arm through Naeun’s. They trot off with a cheerful bounce in their steps. 

Not knowing what to do, Soojung plops back into her bed. There is a mass of people still sleeping, but a large number are already at the cafeteria, grabbing plates of what seemed to be American-style breakfast. 

“Soojung, where’s Jongin?” a deep, crackling voice asks. Chanyeol drops down to the ground and winces a little at the sudden impact, messily running a hand through his hair. His shirt is fairly wrinkled and his eyes are barely open, causing a giggle to bubble in the back of Soojung’s throat.

“I don’t know. He was up earlier than me,” she replies. With a groan, Chanyeol slumps into Jongin’s bed and lightly smacks his lips, face becoming pleasant again.

“Chanyeol, get up and go wash. You look like a caveman,” Soojung urges, nudging his leg with her foot. He grumbles about the light being too bright and rolls onto his back, flaring his arms out.

Soojung gets up and grabs his hand, tugging him up and out of the bed. She pushes him with both hands, and leads him to the men’s bathroom and pats his shoulder.

“Go wash up and we’ll have breakfast together,” she bids, and then pushes him into the bathroom.

Jongin insists on target practice after breakfast and Suho agrees to empty out one of the practice ranges for the group. A couple of trainers stay behind, explaining the guns and how to shoot properly. One is tall, with light brown hair and dark-rimmed eyes. He doesn’t say anything. The other is shorter, with a small frame and short, brown hair. He smiles politely, making him seem friendly and innocent, until he’s behind a large machine gun, shooting away at the targets and hitting every single one of them, right in the center.

“Sniper,” he explains after he finishes with his examples.

Soojung’s arm clenches and is already sore after a few practice shots at a dummy with foam limbs. She only hits it once, but even so, it’s just a blunt skim on the upper arm.

“Relax your muscles, but expect the retraction of the gun before you shoot. If you don’t keep steady, you’ll never hit the target,” the shorter male says, coming up to Soojung with a smile. His hands adjust her grip, making it much more comfortable, and then he pushes down her shoulders, relaxing them.

“You said you were a sniper?” Soojung asks, as she takes aim at the dummy’s head, just in between the eyes. 

“Yep. First class in all of the Korean military. It was brief, only half a year before this happened though. I was sent here by my troop leader, to help train civilians,” he answers. Soojung takes a shot and misses, making a dent in the sponge wall behind the dummy.

“Right. How many soldiers have you trained? Here, I mean,” she questions again, taking the same aim. He relaxes her shoulders and keeps a firm hold, and then tells her to shoot. When she pulls the trigger, he keeps her shoulders and arms still and the bullet hits directly in between the eyes of the dummy.

“Just a handful. Not too many of the people want to train to fight those…things. They don’t die easily,” he says, he trades her gun for a different one, lighter in weight.

“I see.”

Sehun takes aim beside her and shoots, hitting the dummy in the shoulder. He shoots two more times. Once in the other shoulder and the second square in the chest. She wonders how he became so good at shooting, but then turns to the trainer still beside her.

“I didn’t catch a name,” 

“It’s Junmyeon,” he stretches out a hand and she takes it, feeling the surprisingly smooth skin.

“Soojung,”

The next morning, Soojung’s arms still ache from the shooting. She’s just stepped out of the bathroom with damp hair staining her black shirt, when she finds Kris walking by. He spots her and heads in her direction.

“Be safe,” he says when he stops just in front of her. Instinctively, Soojung nods.

“Make sure to eat well, if you can and don’t mess around,” he’s sounding like a worried father.

“And always be armed, wherever you are,” he finishes, putting both hands on her shoulders. 

She feels guilt strangling her lungs. It wasn’t Kris’s fault that her sister had died. He was out town when it happened anyway. Soojung looks up to meet his eyes, and before she knows it, she’s pulling him close and burying her face in his shirt. He still smells the same.

“Be safe,” he repeats, this time in her ear. Kris is the closest thing Soojung has to family now.

“I will,” she answers, pulling away from him and allowing herself to give him a smile. He nods and she turns to leave, only to be stopped by his voice again.

“Don’t get too attached to them. You never know when something’ll happen.”

The words wrap around Soojung’s brain and she has to force herself to walk away. 

Kris is right. It’ll just be painful if she gets too attached to the people she travels with. She doesn’t know when someone will be attacked. She has to keep her guard up at all times. 

Junmyeon comes by, just as they’re loading up and saying goodbye to Suho. He’s holding three lightweight guns and a small plastic box. He stops before Soojung and hands her the guns and the plastic box. She shakes the contents of the box, but doesn’t understand.

“Jongin requested for the guns since you shoot better with them. And silver bullets. I went digging for all the casings for those and this was what I found. I hope to see you all again; especially you, Sehun. Your shooting skills would go to so much waste,” he explains. 

Soojung then realizes how easy it is to become attached to someone. She had only met Junmyeon yesterday, but he already feels like a friend. Someone she could rely on. Kris’s words ring through her ears, but she puts on a smile.

“We’ll see each other again, don’t worry,” Chanyeol assures, patting Junmyeon’s shoulder. 

Soojung sits in the very back with Sehun and Sulli when they finally pull out of the facility. Jongin veers into a highway, and Soojung finds herself drifting off.

The countryside stretches out for miles on both sides of the highway. On a regular basis, before the attack of the beasts, a trip to the western shore would only take around two hours, but because of the numerous cars, bodies, and debris on the road, they’re taking detours. The routes are cut off on many sides, and they have to find new routes to take them around.

Travel takes up most of the hours, but they make slow progress. Many of the roads are abandoned, but they stumble across a few survivors. They split up into three groups, search for people, food, and shelter once the sun starts setting. 

They pull into a small city. The buildings are relatively small, and there aren’t any dead bodies lying around. They split into three groups and start looking for safe places for the night. Soojung and Chanyeol walk around a more homey part of the city. 

There doesn’t seem to be any survivors yet, and her stomach is begging for food, so she lets down her guard for the time being. Walking lazily, she tries to evaluate the houses on her side of the street, although none look very safe to stay in for the night.

When a flash of white catches her eyes, and stops abruptly. The beasts weren’t white; none of them. Craning her head, she tries to spot anything in particular, but doesn’t see anything. Shrugging, she starts off again; only to see a flash of red this time.

“Chanyeol,” she calls quietly. He’s by her side in a matter of seconds.

“I think there’s something in that house,” she whispers, pointing to the house before her. It’s quite large compared to the rest of the houses, and it is painted an odd bluish color.

“Let’s go check it out,” Chanyeol mumbles. He slips his hand over the gun on his belt and moves forward. Soojung stays close behind, glancing behind her every now and then.

The house is brightly lit with the evening sunlight melting into the walls. Most of the windows are large and open, illuminating the insides even more. 

Chanyeol turns into the kitchen first. Some of the cabinets are open, and the refrigerator door is slightly ajar. Soojung tenses a little, but keeps on Chanyeol’s tail. 

He goes into the living room next, and nothing seems to be out of place but a few cushions. She takes a look at the family photo and sees a young couple with a small child. A thud comes from the room just across from her and Chanyeol, and they both take off in that direction, pausing at the door, first, and peering inside.

Soojung doesn’t expect to see what she does. Three people, two boys and a girl, all around her age are sitting on the large bed in the room. One of the boys has a small stature with dashing burgundy hair and large, circular eyes. The other boy has lighter, blonde hair with smaller eyes and slightly feline features. The girl is pretty with long, caramel colored hair and a pair of round eyes. 

All three of them look up, alarmed. Soojung and Chanyeol share a look, and they both slip into the room.

“Who are you?” the boy with large eyes asks, tone slightly bewildered.

“Calm down, we’re not here to hurt you. We’re just trying to help,” Chaneyol assures, taking a few tentative steps.

“Survivors,” Soojung breathes, taking a good look at the three. They seem fine, clean and well fed, but something in their eyes tells her that they’re just like all the other survivors—frightened and confused.

“You should come with us. We’re a group of six, traveling to the shore. We’ll help you start your journey to the Survivors’ Facility in Apgujeong. You’ll be safe there, with many other people,” Chanyeol starts. The three exchange looks of worry and amusement.

“Alright, we’ll come with you, but it won’t be safe outside in a little while. The sun’s dipping fast,” the first boy says. His large eyes are distracting, but within those eyes, Soojung sees determination.

“Yep. We’ll move quickly. These homes won’t provide a safe enough hideout for nine people, anyway,” Chanyeol voices. 

The five of them move quickly back into the city. Sulli sees them first, and with a large grin, she greets the newcomers.

“Oh, survivors! Hi, I’m Sulli!” she says loudly. Sehun stands behind her, looking bitter and dissatisfied.

“Hi,” the three say in various forms.

“Come on guys, let’s find Jongin and Naeun. Have you found any safe locations?” Chanyeol urges, eyeing the lingering horizon wearily.

“No, but I’m sure Jongin has,” Sulli says, quite cheerfully.

So, a short little update for all of you. I feel so bad that I haven't written or updated in such a long time! I'm so sorry, but I hope you guys will stick with me! 

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