Just a moment before that alarm blared, the medic had returned to Bom’s examination room with the results of her test, confirming that she was indeed pregnant. She sat there frozen, paralyzed by a sudden fear that inched up her spine and grabbed hold of her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe.

“Are you okay?” the medic asked, upon seeing her face grow pale.

But Bom didn’t have a chance to answer. The alarm sounded at that moment, inciting both she and the medic to instinctively press their hands over their ears. “What’s going on?” Bom yelled.

Just then, Lieutenant Colonel Choi slammed open the door. He glanced at Bom and then turned to the medic. “The fence is down,” he said, his voice barely penetrating the siren’s wail.

The medic stared at Lieutenant Colonel Choi with wide eyes and then began tapping his fingers nervously against his sides as he looked around the room. “I have to go,” he said, his voice shaking. He took the stethoscope off from around his neck and threw it aside.

“Don’t go out there,” Lieutenant Colonel Choi said. “We don’t know what the situation is yet.”

“I have to… I have to,” the medic said, still jittery and unable to focus. “My wife… she’s in the civilian barracks.” He reached for the door, glanced back at Lieutenant Colonel Choi and Bom, and then left.

“Should we go, too?” Bom asked. Just as she said that, the siren began to slowly fade until all was silent again. “Does that mean it’s over?”

“No,” Lieutenant Colonel Choi said. He paused a moment, trying to listen for any sign that they were in immediate danger, but he didn’t hear anything, not until a snap of static came from his radio again, followed by Colonel Matthews’ voice urging all soldiers to surge forward and drive out the zombies.

“I repeat, surge forward!” Colonel Matthews yelled, his voice echoing with feedback. “Priority Eagle One. Mass Evac. I repeat, Priority Eagle One. Mass Evac. Over.”

“What does that mean?” Bom asked.

“They’re going to try to push the zombies out, but this base is no longer the priority,” Lieutenant Colonel Choi said. “The plane is the priority now. They’re evacuating.” He breathed in deeply, his heart sinking at Colonel Matthews’s call for sudden evacuation, knowing that there was no organized exit plan. “This place… and anyone left behind here… is expendable,” he said.

“They’d take that plane and just leave us?” Bom asked.

Her question lingered unanswered as Lieutenant Colonel Choi considered the situation in light of Colonel Matthews’ command. He understood the need to protect the plane, as that was their one chance at getting out of this country. If the surge to drive the zombies out failed, the base would be overrun, making it impossible to get to the plane then. They’d be trapped inside the buildings, safe for a while… until the ammo and the food ran out. But if they tried for the plane now while there was still a chance to make it, how many lives would be lost in the process? And what about the civilians? They didn’t carry radios like the soldiers and therefore weren’t privy to this information. If they didn’t happen to be standing near a soldier to overhear the command, they wouldn’t know to run to the airfield. In fact, their survival instincts would likely tell them to do the opposite – to protect themselves behind the thick walls of the base buildings, perhaps barricading themselves inside if need be. In that case, they would be unknowingly sealing their fate.

As troubling as this was, particularly because he knew that his son may be one of those left behind, what concerned Lieutenant Colonel Choi just as much was the chance that the research being done by the ZORT team on this base would be left behind, too. If that happened, the entire world would be doomed. None of the unaffected countries had scientists working on the cure, as they didn’t have access to the infection and therefore had no idea what they were dealing with. But they had the scientist here, who had been at the frontlines, working at the base for months to analyze the infection and develop an antidote.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi knew what was at stake. And the decision he then made was the hardest decision he’d had to make in his entire life. With his hand on Bom’s shoulder, he said, “There’s something I need to do. And there’s something you need to do, too.” He breathed in deeply and pulled out both his pistol and his flashlight, handing them over to Bom. “There’s a tunnel connecting this clinic to the airfield,” he said. “It was built to transport injured soldiers who were flown in…”

“No…” Bom said, her eyes welling with tears as she began to understand what he was saying. “Let’s just find everyone else and go together.”

“There’s no time,” Lieutenant Colonel Choi said. “I need to protect that cure above all else… above my life, above my son’s life… but I have a chance here to save your life… and the life of my grandchild.”

Bom’s mouth fell open at his mention of the baby. “How did you…?” But she couldn’t finish, as the shame she felt at that moment overwhelmed her. “Please don’t think any less of me,” she said, her tears streaming down her cheeks. “I love your son and I…”

“I don’t think any less of you,” he said. “I may be old-fashioned in a lot of ways, but not when it comes to love.”

At that moment, they both heard an explosion of gunfire outside. Knowing that their time was running out, Lieutenant Colonel Choi rushed her to the stairwell and instructed her on which way to turn to find the tunnel once she reached the basement. “You get on that plane no matter what,” he said. “If luck is on our side, my son will find his way there, too, and hopefully me and the ZORT team won’t be too far behind.”

On the other side of the medical clinic, Taeyeon and Krystal had been waiting just outside the counselor’s office for Gary to finish his session. When the warning siren went off, they rushed inside the office in a panic and asked what was happening; however, because the counselor didn’t have a radio, she hadn’t heard the news about the fence nor the orders that followed, and wasn’t able to answer any of their questions.

“I think our best bet is to stay right here,” the counselor said.

Taeyeon didn’t like the idea of staying there. She wanted information, not isolation. But then she looked over at Gary and Krystal, seeing how sad and helpless they both looked, and knew that she couldn’t leave them in search of answers. Gary and Krystal were the two people Jessica loved most, and Taeyeon felt that it was her duty to protect them. “If we’re going to stay here, we need to secure this place,” Taeyeon said. “We don’t know what’s happening. It could be nothing or it could be… it could be the end. We need to be prepared.”

The counselor opened the top desk drawer and pulled out her pistol. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s start by barricading the doors.”

Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and Luhan were alone on the officer’s floor of the soldier barracks. Like those in the counseling office, they didn’t have access to a radio and had no idea why the alarm had sounded.

“What was that alarm about?” Luhan asked. “Is that about the flight? Are we leaving?” He hated flying and could feel his anxieties begin to creep in.

Ji Hyo noticed that Jong Kook seemed to be distant and quiet, his eyes blankly staring off beyond them. Turning to Luhan, she said, “That siren can only mean bad news. The zombies… maybe they got through the fence or out of that lab… I don’t know. But I’m sure the soldiers will take care of it.” She forced a smile. “We’ll be okay,” she said.

Jong Kook seemed to snap out of it then. “No we won’t,” he said. He had been thinking about what the counselor had said regarding hypervigiliance. She had implied that hypervigilance was a symptom of post-traumatic stress, and maybe that was true, but Jong Kook realized now how ridiculous it was to diagnose someone with post-anything when they were still in the thick of things. Hypervigilance wasn’t a symptom in this case. It was a survival mechanism. “We can’t assume we’ll be safe,” he said. He looked over at Ji Hyo and wondered how she could trust the soldiers to take care of whatever was happening. He didn’t have that same confidence in them.

“So what should we do, hyung?” Luhan asked.

Jong Kook suddenly grabbed the broom from Luhan’s hands, eyed it for a minute, and then broke it in half over his knee. He then handed the broken off bottom half to Luhan. “You stab any zombies before?” he asked.

Luhan stared back with wide eyes. “Just one,” he quietly said, thinking back on that first day of the infection. “Kim Youngmin.”

“The CEO of SM?” Ji Hyo asked.

Luhan nodded. “I had no choice,” he said, pouting. “He tried to eat me.”

In the civilian barracks, just up the path from the largely empty and quiet soldier barracks where Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and Luhan were, the idols who had been in the first floor lounge with the two American soldiers had heard the radio call about the down fence, as well as Colonel Matthews’ order for the simultaneous surge and evacuation.

Since then, First Lieutenant Smith and Second Lieutenant Johnson had been debating as to how to proceed.

“I’m telling you, we can’t just leave,” Second Lieutenant Johnson said. “We need to go floor by floor and get all the civilians.”

“There’s no time for that,” First Lieutenant Smith said. He looked around at the idols – V, Jimin, Himchan, Yongguk, Daehyun, and Jackson – and then back at Second Lieutenant Johnson. “If we take this group to the airfield now, we’ll make that plane. But if we go around trying to save everyone, then no one will be saved. That plane leaves with or without us. We have to go right now.”

“Then we’ll split up,” Second Lieutenant Johnson said. “You take them to the plane. I’ll stay behind and try to get as many of the others as I can.”

First Lieutenant Smith sighed deeply and then nodded.

Second Lieutenant Johnson saluted him. “I’ll see you at the airfield,” he said. Knowing that time was of the essence, he didn’t wait for a reply. He rushed out of the lounge and hurried through the lobby to the stairwell, climbing up the stairs as fast as he could.

First Lieutenant Smith, now alone with the idols, glanced around at them all. “You might as well keep that sword,” he said, looking over at Jackson. “You’re gonna need it.”

Jackson gulped. While he had put on that show for the others earlier, demonstrating his fencing techniques, he had never actually used those techniques to fight the zombies. In fact, he hadn’t had to fight the zombies at all yet, as he had been fortunate to have been picked up by the soldiers and brought to the base on the very first day of the outbreak.  

“The rest of you, just stay close,” First Lieutenant Smith said. He gestured for them to follow him as he made his way out of the lounge and through the lobby to the front entrance.

Himchan, Yongguk, and Daehyun huddled close together as they followed the soldier.

“Where’s Youngjae?” Himchan quietly asked.

“Didn’t he have cleaning duties at the fitness center?” Daehyun asked.

“Let’s just hope he’s headed toward the plane, too,” Yongguk said.

V and Jimin walked closely behind the three B.A.P. boys, followed by Jackson, who was holding the handle of his sword so tightly that his knuckles were white.

Upon opening the front door, they saw what could only be described as chaos. Civilians were running across the base grounds every which way, all with their necks arched in search of that which chased them. The zombies, although slow-moving, were large in number and seemingly coming from all directions.

The group stood outside the front entrance of the civilian barracks for a moment, paralyzed by the chaos, and then they all saw one of the civilians, whose head had been turned to look behind her as she ran, collide with a zombie right in front of her. The zombie clutched onto her head and ripped it back as it dug its teeth deep into her neck, the woman’s scream gurgling out to a slow fizzle.

Three patrol vehicles sped by at that moment, each with soldiers hanging onto the backs, shooting whatever zombies they could target. First Lieutenant Smith tried to wave and holler to get their attention, hoping for transport, but the soldiers were following the surge protocols, which required them to keep pushing their way through, killing as many zombies as they could without stopping.

Knowing that they were on their own, First Lieutenant Smith was about to turn and tell the idols to just stay close and run straight to the airfield with him, but as soon as he looked back, he saw a zombie creep up behind the group and immediately clamp its rotting teeth onto Jimin’s shoulder. Jimin screamed out in pain as his blood squirted all over V. The zombie then dug its teeth in even more, eating up the length of Jimin’s clavicle.

First Lieutenant Smith tried to push the other idols aside so that he could get a clean shot at the zombie’s head, but Jackson beat him to it, ing his sword directly into the zombie’s skull. He then yanked the sword back out as a gush of brain matter splashed onto the ground below. The zombie, with its teeth still gripping Jimin’s flesh, then fell to the ground, the two bodies hitting the grass together.

V stood over the bodies, his blood-splattered face stark and blank upon seeing his friend’s life so quickly vanquished. Jackson, knowing what it was like to be the last surviving member of a group, empathized with V, but he also knew that they had no time to mourn and so he grabbed V’s hand and pulled him along as they all fled the scene in an effort to reach the airfield in time. 

Far up ahead, just outside the fitness center, Thunder, Youngjae, Kris, and Chen had almost been run over by one of the speeding patrol vehicles, which swerved out of the way just in time. One of the soldiers in the back of the vehicle yelled at them to run to the airfield, the same direction their vehicle was now heading. But Thunder refused to go.

“You three go without me,” he said. “I need to go back to the medical clinic and find Krystal.”

“Are you crazy?” Chen yelled. “You can’t go back there. You’ll die.”

“I love her,” Thunder said. “I can’t leave her.”

Youngjae thought about Taeyeon then, knowing that she was also there. “I’ll go with him,” he said.

Thunder was about to tell Youngjae not to come, as he also wanted to check on Dara back at the civilian barracks and couldn’t ask Youngjae to risk his life by following him around, but at that moment the thunderous sound of nearby gunfire seemed to vibrate the ground and they were all quickly shaken out of their conversation.

"Fine," Kris said. "We'll go back, but let's make this quick!"

The four began to head back the way they had come, quickly darting through the chaos. But then something grabbed Chen and he fell face first onto the ground.

The others heard him yell out and turned to see a man lying on the ground with his face half-bitten off and its hand extended out, tightly gripping Chen’s ankle.

“Heeelp,” the man croaked, as he spat out blood. With his one hand still gripping Chen, he used his other arm to try to crawl closer to the idol.

Chen tried to kick himself free. The others, having no weapons, didn’t know what to do. Had it been a zombie, they would’ve stomped on its head until its brain was destroyed, but this was a man… someone still alive.

“Get off him!” Kris yelled. He dove to the ground and tried to pry the man’s fingers off Chen.

Thunder looked around, seeing the zombies around them getting close. “Come on!” he yelled.

“I’m trying!” Kris yelled back.

Just then, the man seemed to pass out. His head slumped over and his fingers naturally loosened out of their grip.

Chen stumbled back, trying to stand, and then nearly bumped into another body standing right behind him. But it wasn’t a zombie. It was Tao.

Standing behind Tao were Lay and Xiumin. The two groups were now meeting for the second time on that path, yet both heading in a different direction than before.

“Why are you guys running back?” Tao asked. He pointed north to the airfield. “You should be running that way!”

“We were going back to the clinic,” Thunder said.

Another group of soldiers on a patrol vehicle sped their way then, gunning down the zombies that had been inching closer to the idols. One of the American soldiers in the back yelled at the idols. “Don’t just stand there! You’re going to get yourself killed! Go to the airfield now!”

“Come on,” Xiumin said, gesturing for them all to run.

Thunder deeply sighed, his tears stinging his eyes as he gave up on his rescue plan and followed the others.

Back at the civilian barracks, G-Dragon, Dara, CL, Seungri, Daesung, and Minzy had dashed out of their room and into the hallway upon hearing the siren, where they were soon joined by T.O.P. and the Winner boys. Since then, they had been arguing as to what to do, but this arguing suddenly ceased when they all heard what sounded like a stampede in the stairwell.

Second Lieutenant Johnson had just rounded up all of the civilians he could find and was just now making his way to the top floor. With nearly twenty civilians in tow, he slammed the stairwell door open, startling the idols, and then ran down the hallway to them, shouting as he did so.

“Hurry!” he yelled. “We have orders to get to the airfield.”

“What’s going on?” G-Dragon asked. “What was the siren about?”

Second Lieutenant Johnson tried to catch his breath. “The fence is down. No time to explain. We just need to get to the airfield.”

Minzy looked around at the others, trying to gauge their reactions, and then noticed that Bom wasn’t with them. “Wasn’t Bommie with you?” she asked, looking at T.O.P.

“She left,” T.O.P. said, his deep voice cracking as he gulped down his fear. “She had cleaning duties at the dining hall.”

Second Lieutenant Johnson was already ushering the civilians back to the stairwell and now beckoning the idols to follow, but they were all hesitating upon hearing that Bom was gone.

“Just go,” T.O.P. said, looking around at all of them. “Do what the soldier says. I’ll stay behind and try to find her.”

“If you’re staying, I’m staying,” G-Dragon said.

“Me too,” Dara said.

CL, Seungri, Daesung, and Minzy also nodded then.

“I’d like to stay and help find her, too,” Seunghoon said.

“No way,” G-Dragon said, as he started grabbing the Winner boys and pushing them down the hall. “You boys are too young for this Indiana Jones stuff.”

“Indi-what?” Minho asked.

“But we’re YG!” Taehyun said. “We’re a family!”

“That’s why we’re looking out for you,” Daesung quietly said.

“You can’t just send us away!” Jinwoo said.

“Yah!” Seungri yelled. “Don’t you dare defy your hyungs!” He smiled, enjoying his role as bully.

Seungyoon looked one last time at his seniors and then turned and led his boys down the hall, following Second Lieutenant Johnson and the civilians to the stairwell.

After the echoes of their collective footsteps inside that stairwell died down, CL turned to look at G-Dragon curiously. “Indiana Jones?” she asked.

G-Dragon shrugged. “You know, the whole good guys on an adventure thing.”

Minzy looked confused. “But he didn’t have a group,” she said. “He was just one guy and…”

“Yah, it’s not like I really thought out the whole Indiana Jones thing, okay?” G-Dragon rolled his eyes.

“We need to find weapons,” T.O.P. said, trying to steer the conversation back on track.

“Indiana Jones had a whip,” Seungri said.

“Yeah? So?” G-Dragon asked.

“Nothing,” Seungri said. “Just… wouldn’t it be daebak if we had a whip?”