“Psst!” G-Dragon was on the top bunk, trying to get the attention of Dara, who was sleeping on the cot beneath him. “Ai, wake up!” he whispered.

Dara opened her eyes to see G-Dragon’s head hanging over that top bunk. She glanced around for a moment and saw that the room was just barely lit by the morning sun. “It’s too early,” she said.

“Go check out Tabi and Bommie over there!” he whispered.

“Hmm?” Dara breathed in deeply and rolled over to look at the bunk bed across from them. On the bottom cot, even though it was narrow and meant for only one person, T.O.P. and Bom had managed to find enough space to sleep together, their bodies closely entwined. Seeing this, Dara smiled.

“I win,” G-Dragon whispered.

“What?” Dara rubbed her eyes and looked back up at G-Dragon. “What are you talking about?”

“Our bet, remember? They’re definitely doing it.”

“Whatever,” Dara mumbled. “They’re just sleeping. Which is what I want to do…” She rolled over and pulled the sheet higher, tucking herself back in. “So, unless you have some hard evidence…”

Her attempt at sleep was interrupted then by a knock at the door, followed by the sound of that door slowly creaking open as a quiet and timid voice called out. “Hello?” Jinwoo took a few steps inside and looked around. “Anyone awake?”

Behind him, the rest of Winner slowly entered and peeked around inside.

Each room inside the civilian barracks was crammed with four bunk beds. The Big Bang boys and 2ne1 girls were sharing this room. The second room designated for their group, just next door, was being shared by Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, Thunder, Krystal, Gary, and Taeyeon.

“What’s wrong?” G-Dragon asked, as he swung his legs over the side of his cot.

“Nothing,” Jinwoo said. “Just wanted to wake everyone so you have time to get ready.”

“Ai, always the diligent one,” G-Dragon said, smiling. He jumped down from his bed, landing with a loud thump on the floor.

Daesung abruptly sat up, the puffy slivers of his eyes searching the room. “What was that noise?” he asked. Everyone else, too, was awakened by G-Dragon’s loud thump and now began stirring about and rubbing their eyes.

“Time to wake up!” G-Dragon yelled, as he walked over to the front door and flipped the light switch on.

“Aish,” CL said, as she buried her face in her pillow.

On the cot below her, Seungri sat up and looked around, dazed. “What time is it?”

“It’s seven,” Minho said.

“There’s only one bathroom,” Seungyoon said. “We thought the girls might want to hurry and use it first.”

“Yeah, before the EXO boys take it over,” Taehyun said.

Last night, during their reunion in the hallway, Jinwoo had told everyone about the many other idols there. When he had mentioned EXO-M as one of the surviving groups, he also mentioned that EXO-K was presumed dead. Everyone had the unfortunate duty then of confirming this to Jinwoo, as they had been at the stadium when EXO-K met their end.

Bom suddenly sat up. She normally wasn’t one to wake up early, but her stomach was tied in knots and she felt sweaty and sick.

Seunghoon saw Bom holding her stomach. “Are you okay?” he asked. He walked over and put his hand on her shoulder.

T.O.P. sat up from behind Bom and stared at Seunghoon’s hand. He remembered that Seunghoon had flirted with Bom before and was growing more jealous with each second his hand stayed on her shoulder.

Seunghoon seemed oblivious to T.O.P. “If you want to go to the bathroom, I can take you there,” he said to Bom. “I’ll even stand guard so that no boys come in. Especially that Xiumin. He’s always the first one in there.”

Bom immediately rushed out of the room and ran down the hallway.

Seunghoon was about to chase her, but T.O.P. grabbed his arm.

“You don’t need to protect her,” T.O.P. said. “That’s my job.’’

Seunghoon blushed furiously and bowed to his senior. “Sorry, hyung. I didn’t know you two were…”

G-Dragon teasingly elbowed Seunghoon. “Didn’t you notice they were sleeping in the same bed?” he asked. “Aish, so dumb.”

Minho was tapping his foot on the floor, impatient.

“And what’s your deal?” G-Dragon asked, quite comfortable with taunting his juniors.

“Just hungry,” Minho said, with a slight pout. He was anxious about getting down to DFAC, the dining facility, before the lines for breakfast got too long.

Just then, they heard a scream from down the hall, and then another scream right afterward. G-Dragon and everyone in his room ran out to the hallway at the same time that Jong Kook and everyone in that second room ran out.

They all turned to look down the hall toward the source of the screams and saw Xiumin backing away from the bathroom door, bowing and apologizing as he did. When Bom had screamed, Xiumin had instinctively screamed as well. He hadn’t expected to see a girl in the bathroom. For these past two months, there had only been boys on that floor.

All of those boys on that floor had heard the screams, too, and were now just starting to emerge from their rooms.

The rest of EXO-M – Kris, Lay, Chen, Tao, and Luhan – peeked out from their doorway, all sleepy-eyed and curious as to what was going on with Xiumin in the hall.

V and Jimin from BTS and Jackson from GOT7 hurried out from the room next door and looked around, confused.

Down the hall, the remaining survivors of B.A.P. – Yongguk, Himchan, Daehyun, and Youngjae – also stumbled out of their room, colliding with the crowd.

“Everyone okay?” G-Dragon asked.

Fortunately for Xiumin, the embarrassing incident with Bom was overshadowed by the sudden meeting of all of those idols in the hallway. Other than Winner, none of the other boys on that floor had known about the group’s late arrival last night and the hallway was now filled with exclamations of surprise and joy as they all excitedly greeted each other. 

The fourteen newcomers to the base and the eighteen boys who had been living there these past two months followed the path north that led from the civilian barracks to the dining facility. Like the soldiers walking alongside them, the idols were dressed in their cammies, but there was no mistaking these idols for soldiers, not with the way they were carrying on, full of smiles and conversation.

The dining facility was a large cafeteria space lined with long metal tables. Buffet stations were set alongside one wall, for which a line had already formed. After everyone eagerly filled their trays with plates of the Western food being served, they found two empty tables at the back of the cafeteria and sat down, their conversation continuing uninterrupted.

“Like I was saying, this base was going to close next year,” Lay said, as he spooned a mouthful of cereal. “So, there weren’t many troops here. And then, when this whole thing started, the government was panicking and trying to establish rescue centers.”

“Like the stadium,” Ji Hyo said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lay said. “This started out as another rescue center. But then ZORT established this as their base and–”

“What’s ZORT?” Jong Kook asked.

“Zombie Outbreak Response Team,” Youngjae said. He was usually the type of person that liked explaining things, but he felt incredibly bashful in front of Taeyeon, who was sitting beside him, and quickly bowed back out of the conversation. He had always thought of her as one of the best singers in the country and was a bit starstruck.

Taeyeon didn’t notice Youngjae’s nervousness. She sat quietly, just listening to everything being said.

“ZORT is kind of like this government team of scientists and special military people,” Kris said, almost nonchalantly, as if unimpressed. “They hang out in the med clinic doing all sorts of tests.”

“Tests?” Gary asked. “What kinds of tests?”

“On zombies,” Luhan quietly said, in almost a near whisper. He didn’t feel comfortable talking so openly about this and leaned forward then with his hand to his mouth as if telling a secret. “It’s scary there,” he whispered. “It looks like a dungeon.”

“In the medical clinic?” Jong Kook asked.

Luhan slowly nodded.

“We went down there once,” Jimin said, gesturing toward him and V. “It’s not in the main part of the medical clinic. It’s down this hallway in this big room that looks like a warehouse kind of. It has all these exposed beams and pipes instead of a ceiling and the light in there is kind of yellowish.”

Jong Kook thought back on last night when they had their exams at the clinic. He hadn’t seen any sort of entrance to a special testing wing of that building, but then again, he hadn’t really been looking.

“We got in trouble,” V said. “We weren’t supposed to be down there. They kicked us out before we could see what was happening in there.”

“There are rumors that they’re working on a cure,” Lay said.

“That’s what we heard,” Ji Hyo said. She looked at Jong Kook. “Didn’t Hyun Suk-ssi tell us that?”

Jong Kook nodded.

On the other side of that long table, Big Bang and 2ne1 were sitting with Winner. Jinwoo had just asked about Hyun Suk and whether anyone knew what happened to him. G-Dragon then told him and the rest of Winner about Sido.

“What about Youngbae-ssi?” Minho asked. “I didn’t see him. Is he back on Sido?”

Daesung looked down. “He’s gone,” he said. Taeyang’s death was still, after all this time, difficult for Daesung to deal with.

Minzy reached over and held Daesung’s hand.

“How did you all get here?” CL asked.

“There were these Humvees going around on the day of the outbreak announcing this rescue center here,” Seungyoon said. “Hyun Suk-ssi had given us the day off. I think because you were filming Running Man. So we were all together and were talking about going to Everland.”

“But then we heard the soldiers on the loudspeakers outside,” Taehyun said.

“The same thing happened to us,” Seungri said. “Except they told us to go to the stadium.”

“From what I heard, they started out with four or five rescue centers,” Jinwoo said.

“But now this is the only one left,” Seunghoon said.

Bom pushed away her tray of food. She hadn’t eaten anything.

“Are you okay?” T.O.P. asked, rubbing her back.

Bom nodded. “Just don’t feel like eating,” she said.

At the other table across from them, Himchan was already drinking his third cup of Americano and was explaining to Thunder and Krystal about the rumors they had been hearing lately regarding the negotiations between this base and the unaffected countries.

“I think it’s going to be Australia that takes us in,” Himchan said. “This is an American base and they’ve been helping, sending supplies, but the soldiers around here are always talking about Australia being more open to the idea of us coming there.”

“You would think the States would be more open, considering that they have people here,” Krystal said.

Tao, his mouth full of scrambled eggs, quickly swallowed and said, “There are protests there, I think. We heard something about how the Americans are divided. Half want to help us. The other half is too scared of the infection spreading there.”

“But we’re not infected!” Krystal said.

Chen shrugged. “Guess they just don’t want to take any chances.”

“Maybe they think that one of us may be bit and will just hide it,” Xiumin said.

Daehyun ate another bite of his pie and stole Himchan’s coffee to wash it down. “Australia’s closer anyway,” he said. “It’ll be easier to get there.”

“What’s going to happen to this country, though?” Thunder asked. “If we do get out of here, then what?”

“I think they’re going to bomb it,” Yongguk said.

“You don’t know that,” Jackson said. “That’s just a rumor.”

“Maybe they should,” Krystal quietly said. “I mean, what else can they do? This country is just… there’s nothing left.”

No one knew that Lieutenant Colonel Choi had left his table, where he had been eating breakfast with the other officers, and was passing by at that moment, catching the end of their conversation. He stopped now and looked at all of them. “If that happens, it’s not the end,” he said. “When we fought with North Korea, our country was left in ruins. It was almost completely devastated. But we worked hard to rebuild.” He breathed in deeply and stood tall. “We Koreans are hardworking people. We’re strong and we’re tough and we can rebuild again.”

A/N: I don’t usually leave author notes at the end of my chapters because I don’t like to interrupt the narrative, but I figured that some of you might ask why I decided to keep EXO-M intact with their original members. I chose to include all of the original EXO-M members despite Kris and Luhan leaving because the first K-Pocalypse was set back in March/April of this past year, which was before either of them left. So, I’m considering that point in time as where my story diverges from real life. That’s why I’m also not mentioning Taeyeon’s relationship with Baekhyun, as news of them dating came out after that point.

Aside from that, I just want to say how grateful I am to all of you for subscribing, reading, commenting on, and upvoting this story! Your feedback and support keeps me going ^_^