G-Dragon climbed into the driver’s seat and looked around, trying to get a feel for the truck.

Jong Kook sat down in the passenger seat beside him. “You think you can handle this?” he asked.

G-Dragon bit his lower lip as he looked down at the gear stick, seeing that it had ten speeds. “Erm… I think?”

Jong Kook glanced at the gear stick and told G-Dragon not to worry. “We’ll probably be going too slow to worry about all those gears,” he said. “I can’t imagine the roads being clear enough for any speed.”

G-Dragon nodded and shifted into neutral as he inserted the keys into the ignition. The truck roared to life and idled noisily. “This thing’s a monster,” he said, with a nervous chuckle. He looked around for the wiper knob, turned it on to its highest setting, and watched as the wipers whipped back and forth, clearing the soot and ash from the glass.

Meanwhile, Jong Kook noticed a GPS on the dashboard and pressed the power button. It flashed a welcome screen and then brought up their location on the map. “It’s not showing any streets,” Jong Kook said.

“Probably because we’re not on any actual street,” G-Dragon said. “Try zooming out.”

Jong Kook was slightly embarrassed by his lack of tech-savviness. He excelled at many things, but technology was not one of them. As he searched for the zoom button now, he couldn’t help but think that he seemed built for this new primitive-like world, where technological skill was irrelevant and, instead, survival skills such as strength, perseverance, and the ability to strategize were key.

When he finally found the zoom button, he clicked it a couple of times, enlarging the map area displayed. The section of the map that they were in was greyed out, but he could see white lines representing streets north of them. “We just need to find a way to those streets,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that,” G-Dragon said, smiling. “We can make our own way in this thing.” He pressed down on the clutch and shifted into first, hearing the truck rev loudly, and then quickly shifted into second. It was a slow and rough drive over the debris-ridden terrain. He shifted into third and then fourth as he forged a way north through the wasteland, veering around a few burnt structures and some smaller warehouses.

“We should be headed right for this road here,” Jong Kook said, pointing to a white line on the map that began just north of the industrial area.

Eventually, the gravel they were traveling on smoothed out to pavement, and they saw what looked like the start of that road. The GPS map indicated that they had indeed found a way out, but the scenery around them hadn’t changed much. It was still very much a wasteland. If there had been any trees at all in this area before, they had long ago been burnt away. On either side of the road, there seemed to be remnants of the buildings that once stood there, reduced now to jagged iron frameworks and massive piles of bricks.

They continued heading up the narrow lane, turning on the wiper blades every once in a while to clear the ash that continually fell from the black sky.

Up ahead, there were five or six zombies scattered across the lane. The zombies stopped upon hearing the truck and turned their heads toward the noise. G-Dragon purposely steered left a bit to hit the closest zombie, feeling the impact as its body smacked against the grill and then rolled underneath the truck’s eighteen wheels. “You see that?” G-Dragon yelled, excited. He then veered right and took down the others one by one, clenching his teeth at the sound of the truck grinding up the bodies.

“Don’t get too crazy,” Jong Kook said. “We don’t need to go out of our way to kill those things.”

“Well, the way I see it, that’s one less zombie that can kill us.” With his focus still on the road ahead, he added, “We should take this thing and drive all over the city, just killing every last one of them.” He glanced over at Jong Kook, his lip curled in mischievousness, and then turned his attention back to the road.

“You serious?” Jong Kook asked.

“Think about it, hyung! We can save the world!” He laughed a little, but then appeared quite sad.

Jong Kook studied his face, wondering what he was thinking. He sensed these last few days that G-Dragon was overcoming the horror with humor and a bit of immaturity and assumed that this was his way of dealing with everything that was happening. He wondered now how often G-Dragon thought of Hyun Suk and the others they had left behind. It had never been Jong Kook’s plan to leave those on Sido behind permanently. He had always assumed that if they made it to the base in time to catch that flight to whichever unaffected country was willing to take them in, that he would somehow convince the pilot to briefly land in Sido to rescue the others. He knew that the chances of that happening were slim, but he had to hold onto that hope. It was the only way he could move forward. 

“You okay there, hyung?” G-Dragon asked, seeing the worried expression on Jong Kook’s face.

Jong Kook nodded and stared out the window, looking over the burnt buildings and the overturned cars. The lane had widened to a two-way street, which G-Dragon now gained some speed on. “Take it slow,” Jong Kook said.

“I got it, hyung,” G-Dragon said.

The further north they traveled, the more buildings they saw in the distance – some of which were still standing, seemingly untouched by the fires. They passed what appeared to be an elementary school on the left with a playground out front that was overrun with zombies. A much larger L-shaped building was still standing aside it but the majority of its blue-tinted windows were completely shattered and billowing smoke.

Ahead, they could see more congestion – more buildings, more zombies, more smoke. It was clear that they were leaving the outskirts of the city and about to head deep into its streets.

“Do I just stay straight or what?” G-Dragon asked.

Jong Kook glanced at the GPS. “I don’t know,” he said. He tried to zoom out so that he can see the entirety of Seoul and the land that lay north, but in doing so, the map showed only major routes instead of city streets, with the only apparent connection between Seoul and Uijeongbu being Highway 61. “You think this truck can plow through whatever’s on the highway?” Jong Kook asked.

“Yeah, definitely,” G-Dragon said.

Jong Kook set the screen back to the street view. “There’s an intersection ahead for Cheonho-daero. It’s a big street. If we go right, it will lead us straight to the highway.”

“Got it, boss,” G-Dragon said, as he ran over another zombie, the blood splattering across the windshield.

In the back of the truck, everyone sat crammed together, holding whatever flashlights were available to provide some light in what would have otherwise been complete darkness. They had felt every bump in the road and were trying to hold on to each other so as not to get tossed around back there, never once guessing that those bumps were zombies that G-Dragon was running over.

“How long do you think it will be before we get to the base?” Seungri asked, glancing around at the others.

“A long time,” one of the ahjummas said.

“Yeah, but like how long?” Seungri asked.

“Seungri-yah, you really think any of us know that?” CL asked.

“Why are you being so mean lately?” he asked, flashing his puppy eyes.

CL sighed. “I’m sorry,” she quietly said. She reached over and held his hand. “I’m just tired and hungry and… I don’t know.” She looked up at him, frowning. “I’m really sorry, baby.”

Seungri’s face lit up at her calling him baby. He blushed immensely and reached over to squeeze her thigh. “It’s okay. You can make it up to me later.”

“What?” fell open and she quickly shooed his hand away, embarrassed.

“I have some food if you’re hungry, Chaerinni,” Dara said, reaching into her pack. She pulled out a few snacks and offered them to CL and the others.

The ahjummas then shared the food they had packed, too, and everyone ate quietly, trying to make the best out of their situation.

“Bommie, I have something special I’ve been saving for you,” Dara said, pulling out a can of corn from her bag.

Bom shrieked and tossed her share of the snacks aside as she reached for the can. “How’d you get this?” she asked, her big eyes swelling with tears.

“I packed it back on Sido,” Dara said. “It has a pull-tab. You don’t need a can opener or anything.”

“Oh my god,” Bom said, as she peeled back the lid and held the open can up to her nose, thinking that she had never smelled a sweeter scent in her life. “Oh my god, oh my god,” she said, smiling.

“You gonna share that?” T.O.P. asked.

“Erm, no!” Bom teased, yanking the can away from him. She chuckled then and leaned over to kiss him. “Just kidding,” she said. She reached into the can and pulled out one kernel of corn, which she then passed to him. “There you go,” she said, smiling widely.

“What? Is that how much you love me?” T.O.P. arched his eyebrow at her. “One kernel’s worth of love?”

“Aish, fine,” Bom said, pulling out a second kernel.

“What! Don’t you dare just give me just one kernel again!” T.O.P. yelled.

The two began to fight over the can then while the others watched and laughed. Eventually Bom gave up and began feeding T.O.P. spoonfuls of the corn in such a sweet exchange that it caused the others in the truck to blush and look away.

“Ai, young love,” one of the ahjummas said, as she smiled and closed her eyes.

Taeyeon was the only one who hadn’t looked away. She stared with sad, wistful eyes at T.O.P. and Bom as they cuddled close to feed each other, sneaking secret kisses between each bite. It was the sort of love that Taeyeon had always dreamed of having.

She didn’t need the ahjumma’s death earlier to remind her of how quickly life could be taken; if anything, it only served to remind her about how much she wanted to live. Seeing T.O.P. and Bom together gave her that reason to live. She wanted to find love, to experience it just once before her time in this world was up. She wondered now if she would have that chance.

“You smell that, hyung?” G-Dragon asked.

Jong Kook nodded. “It smells like burning rubber.”

“That’s not us, right?”

Jong Kook rolled down the window and was immediately overcome by the smell. Holding his nose, he said, “I think it’s outside.” He looked around at the buildings on either side of the street, all of which were in varying states of condemnation but not yet on fire. He couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from and, for a moment, grew worried that it was indeed coming from their truck. But as they traveled further up the street, he noticed a tire retail store ahead on the right with an outside display that stretched the length of the block. All of the tires on display were burning, producing a terrible, acrid stench that made their eyes water and their noses burn.

“Shut the window, hyung,” G-Dragon said, trying to waft away the smell. 

Jong Kook rolled up the window and coughed out the smoke he had breathed in. Because he had been so focused on the fiery tire display, he almost didn’t notice the intersection ahead, where the street on which they were traveling crossed with the major boulevard, Cheonho-daero. “Oh my god,” Jong Kook said, as he pointed ahead at the multitude of zombies staggering across the boulevard.

“Is that where we’re supposed to turn?” G-Dragon asked.

Jong Kook nodded. “We’re supposed to go right, but…”

“Well, should we?” G-Dragon asked. “Hurry, hyung! Should I turn or no?”

Jong Kook couldn’t decide. The road they were on was a rather narrow street without many zombies, but because it was narrow, if they did encounter a large horde, they wouldn’t have the room to go around or to otherwise dodge the danger. They’d have no choice but to try to plow through, and to do so without even knowing where the road led. Contrarily, if they turned right, they’d have a direct route to the highway, and although it was full of zombies, there was a possibility that they’d have some room to go around the denser clusters of the undead.

“Well?” G-Dragon asked.

“Turn right,” Jong Kook said. “Right, right!”

G-Dragon whipped the truck onto that multi-lane boulevard and then began darting around the clusters of zombies, managing to avoid the larger groups while easily rolling over the individual stragglers. Almost immediately, he and Jong Kook became acclimated to the smashing of a zombie against the grill of the truck every few seconds, to the point where it didn’t even faze them anymore.

While Jong Kook fidgeted with the GPS, G-Dragon steered left and right, continuing to avoid the densely-packed groups of zombies as they barreled down the boulevard. Occasionally, he would glance up at the tall buildings lining the street, reminding him that he was in his beloved city of Seoul and not in some post-apocalyptic video game world. “Do you think we’re actually in hell?” G-Dragon asked.

“What?” Jong Kook asked, eyeing him curiously.

G-Dragon shrugged. “I don’t know. Just… thinking. Like, maybe all the good people were already sent to heaven and we’re the bad people that were left behind.”

Jong Kook shook his head and looked over at G-Dragon. “We’re not bad people.”

G-Dragon shrugged again. “We’re kind of vain. I mean, I can admit that. It’s just the way the entertainment business has molded us, you know? We’re obsessed with our looks, our talent, our money. Or, at least we were, before all this happened.” Distracted, he swerved too late to avoid missing another cluster of zombies and ended up ramming into five bodies at once. The truck withstood the impact, but it was enough of a shock to refocus G-Dragon’s attention back on the road.

“You smell that?” Jong Kook asked.

“Rubber again?” G-Dragon asked.

“No, it smells like gas this time.”

“You think we’re leaking gas?”

“I don’t know,” Jong Kook said. “Maybe all the zombies we ran over damaged our fuel line somehow.” Just then, he saw a gas station up ahead on the right. The fuel pumps closest to the road had been knocked over and one of the hoses was flying through the air, spraying gasoline everywhere. “Watch out!” Jong Kook yelled. “You see that?”

“See what?” G-Dragon asked, as he swung the truck to the right to avoid another cluster of zombies, not knowing that he was headed directly under the fuel spray.

Jong Kook didn’t have time to answer. At that moment, a flash of fire erupted at one of the pumps and the next thing Jong Kook saw was blinding white… and then blackness.