The zombies around Daesung and Minzy were closing in, the stench of putrefied flesh so pungent that it made the two idols’ stomachs turn.

“I love you,” Minzy said, as she clutched onto Daesung’s arm and stared at the surrounding zombies. “I love you so much.”

“Don’t, Minji-yah,” Daesung said. “Don’t say goodbye. Not yet.” He scanned the horde, trying to find a gap between the bodies, some way out of this circle of corpses they were standing in the middle of, but it seemed too late now… there was no way out. He thought then about what he had said to G-Dragon earlier, about how he and Minzy would be okay and would find another way into the clinic. Daesung had known, even as he was telling this to G-Dragon, that it wasn’t likely going to happen, not with how many zombies they had attracted from all directions.

He could’ve accepted that they were about to die if he knew the deaths would be peaceful, but they were about to die in what was perhaps the most painful way possible… eaten alive by monsters, their flesh torn and chewed off their bones, their blood gushing out of gaping wounds until there wasn’t enough blood left to sustain their life… and then, if their brain remained intact, they would return to walk the earth and continue this necrotic cycle of murder and utter annihilation.   

Perhaps it was time to say goodbye, he thought. He turned to hold Minzy just as she rested her palm against his bare chest, the two cherishing that last embrace, that last touch of her hand against his skin, and of his hand now brushing back her bangs from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” Minzy said, knowing that not only had he stayed behind because of her, but that he would now die because of her.

“I’m where I want to be,” Daesung said. “I couldn’t live without you.”

They tried to block out the sounds of the horror around them – the snarls of undead ire, the moans of primal hunger…

But then another sound cut through the cannibalistic excitement around them… the sound of a human voice, a woman’s voice…

It was Ji Hyo, but neither Daesung nor Minzy had a chance to register the voice because at that moment, a sudden explosion of gunfire rang out. Daesung instinctively grabbed Minzy and pulled her down to the ground, their hands covering their ears to block out the noise.

Although the gunfire only lasted a minute or so, it was so powerful that it had left Daesung and Minzy’s heads filled with an echo of the noise, the ringing in their ears making it difficult to hear afterward.

Ji Hyo, with her machine gun still in hand, stepped over what was now a circle of collapsed bodies around Daesung and Minzy. Jong Kook and Luhan, each holding half of Luhan’s broken broom like a club, followed closely behind.

Daesung and Minzy stood from their crouched position and stared in awe at their three saviors.

“Are you okay?” Ji Hyo asked.

“Did they eat your shirt off?” Luhan asked, confused as to why Daesung was topless.

“What?” Daesung asked. “No, I…” He instinctively looked over at Minzy’s hand, which was wrapped with the torn fabric of his shirt.

Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and Luhan followed Daesung’s gaze toward Minzy’s bandaged hand.

“She was bit?” Luhan asked.

Daesung nodded as tears filled his eyes.

Ji Hyo stared at Minzy blankly, her mong face the only expression she could muster upon hearing that Minzy had been bitten.

Jong Kook squeezed his eyes shut for a moment but then opened them wide when he remembered the door that he had seen inside the clinic. “Did you try to get in there?” he asked, pointing to the entrance to the clinic as he looked over at Daesung. “Did you try to get her to the scientists?”

“I tried, hyung,” Daesung said. “The entrance is locked.” Remembering that T.O.P. was going to shoot the door open, he pointed to Ji Hyo’s gun and asked if she had any ammo left.

“Let’s find out,” Ji Hyo said. She then gestured for everyone to stand back.

Everyone stood behind Ji Hyo as she aimed the machine gun at the front entrance to the clinic and let loose an assault of bullets that soon destroyed the entirety of the building’s façade. Afterward, they all walked to that now bullet hole-ridden door, which practically fell apart the moment Jong Kook and Daesung reached for it.

Behind that door, however, was an avalanche of desks and bookcases and chairs all piled up high and tight. Jong Kook stared at the barricade, realizing then that others must be inside. “Help me with this,” he said, as he got to work on pulling apart the barricade.

Daesung immediately reached into the entrance and began pulling out what he could from the pile of furniture. With each desk he yanked out, seeing light from inside peeking through the barricade, he felt his hope returning, as he was sure that it was the ZORT team who had set up this barricade and that the scientists were still inside.

But the ZORT team hadn’t piled all that furniture up against the door. Rather, it was Gary, Taeyeon, and Krystal, under the direction of the counselor, who had barricaded themselves inside. After they had locked and sealed off the entrance, they had returned to the counselor’s office where they had remained hidden throughout much of the chaos. They hadn’t heard G-Dragon’s pounding on the front entrance earlier, but they had heard the gunfire just now and had since come out of hiding and ventured toward the lobby, thinking that they were potentially being rescued.

Gary peeked his head out from the hallway and stared at the barricade, seeing that someone on the other side was taking it down. For a moment, he wondered if whoever had shot off all those bullets had been killed and if these were now zombies trying to get in. “Who’s there?” he asked, hoping to hear a voice rather than a grunt.

Those on the other side of the barricade heard Gary call out and stopped what they were doing. “Gary-ah?” Jong Kook asked.

“Hyung?” Gary called out in return. He looked back at Taeyeon, Krystal, and the counselor standing behind him in that hallway and then slowly stepped out into the lobby. “Jong Kook hyung?”

Jong Kook couldn’t see him through the mess of furniture between them. “Yah, it’s me! Hurry and help me get this stuff out of the way!”

Gary, Taeyeon, Krystal, and the counselor immediately got to work on removing the barricade from inside while Jong Kook and Daesung continued to do so from outside.

Ji Hyo and Luhan, meanwhile, watched for any zombies heading toward the clinic. They were sure, with all that gunfire, that more would come soon.

Minzy wanted to help but she felt dizzy and weak and could barely keep her eyes open. It was like she was losing herself, as if she could feel her conscious state slowly dissipating. She looked down at her hand. The bandage was nearly soaked through with blood, the sight of which made her even dizzier. She fought hard to maintain control over herself, to stay awake and alert and… alive.

After everyone tore down the barricade, they gathered inside the lobby of the clinic, their hearts racing.

“What the hell is happening out there?” Gary asked.

“Is the whole base overrun?” Taeyeon asked.

Ji Hyo nodded. “You were in here all this time?”

“Yeah,” Krystal said. “Where were all of you?”

“We were at the soldier barracks,” Luhan said. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re gone,” Daesung quietly said. He looked around at all of them, realizing then that they didn’t know about the plane. “A soldier came to get us, said it was now or never, that we had to get to the airfield...”

“They left without us?” Krystal asked. “How could they just leave like that?”

“We stayed behind,” Daesung continued, lost in his thoughts. “We tried to find Bom but… but then Minji… she…”

Everyone glanced at Minzy, who was resting her head on Daesung’s shoulder, her eyes fighting to stay open.

“She got bit?” the counselor asked, staring at the bloody bandage wrapped around Minzy’s hand.

“We need to get to that lab, hyung,” Daesung said, looking up at Jong Kook. “I don’t know how much time she has left.”

The moment that Daesung had mentioned the plane, Jong Kook had begun strategizing on ways to get there, hoping that there was still time. He had seen one remaining ambulance parked out front and was just thinking about the possibility of taking that to the airfield, but when Daesung just now mentioned the lab, Jong Kook knew that his first priority had to be Minzy. While the chances were slim that the scientists had in fact developed a cure that could possibly save her, he couldn’t ignore the possibility. “Okay, then let’s go,” he said.

They rushed through the clinic and found the hallway that led to the door marked Quarantine: Restricted Access, which was slightly ajar. Finding this unusual, Jong Kook gestured for the others to slow down. They began to creep down the hallway, taking it slow, not knowing what to expect. When they reached the end, Jong Kook slowly pushed open the door, his eyes widening at the sight.

The walls inside the lab seemed to be made of tarnished steel, which would have made the entirety of the space look dark and rusty if not for the lights hanging from the ceiling above the exposed pipes and beams, which tinted everything in pale amber. As Jong Kook stepped farther inside, he saw the laboratory set against the far end of the space. The group walked over to the lab area and began to naturally stray from each other, looking all around, their eyes drawn to different areas.

Jong Kook and Ji Hyo had wandered to what appeared to be the main testing area, where much of the equipment was. They looked over the microscope and the slides scattered around it, and scanned the test tubes lined up in the rack, not exactly knowing what they were looking for. They had expected to see scientists in the lab but had instead found it apparently abandoned. Not wanting to give up, the two continued to search.

Daesung had set Minzy down just inside the lab, as she was too weak to continue walking, and was now searching through the cabinets behind the main testing area, hoping, like Jong Kook and Ji Hyo were, to find something that resembled a cure, but he couldn’t even find one sample of anything. “You two find anything yet?” he asked, glancing behind him at Jong Kook and Ji Hyo.

“Not yet,” Ji Hyo said. All of the slides, test tubes, beakers, petri dishes, and other such paraphernalia were empty. They checked everywhere, but whatever had been tested here seemed long gone, just like the scientists themselves.

Gary and Luhan, meanwhile, found a door at the far corner of the space and peeked inside, but it was too dark to see anything.

Taeyeon, Krystal, and the counselor, all of whom had been wandering together, noticed Gary and Luhan at that door and quickly made their way over there.

“Let me go first,” the counselor said, pulling her pistol out. She cautiously led the way inside the dark space. There were small emergency lights on the floor that lined a path from the door, but although they provided some light – enough to see the path, at least – the red tint they gave off was a bit unsettling.

The counselor continued deeper into the space, unable to see much around her. “Feel around the walls and try to find a light switch somewhere,” she said.

At that moment, she thought she heard something to her left and began walking that way, her hand reaching out to feel her way there. And then she made contact with something – something that felt cool to the touch and a bit rough like old leather.

Luhan suddenly found a switch and with that quick flick, all the lights in the room . Unfortunately for the counselor, he was a second too late, for just then, the zombie whose face the counselor had been touching bit down on her fingers and began chomping its way down her hand. As she screamed out, the others began screaming, too, having just seen, now that they had light, all the zombies chained to the walls.

Hearing the screams, Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and Daesung ran to the source, finding themselves, like the others had, in the middle of that dungeon-like chamber.

Gary and Taeyeon had since run to the counselor’s aid, trying to pull her away from the zombie, but it was still ferociously biting away at her. Jong Kook and Daesung ran over to help and were both horrified to see that the zombie, despite its arms and legs chained to the wall, was able to continue attacking the counselor with just its teeth, pulling her hand ever deeper inside its mouth.

By the time they dragged the counselor away from the zombie, she had lost most of her hand and had passed out from the shock. Jong Kook continued dragging her back down the path and through the door to the laboratory. The others, with the exception of Daesung, followed.

Daesung stayed for just a moment, looking around at the zombies chained to the wall. He noticed that there were numbers written in black marker on each of their arms, and realized then that the zombies were test subjects. If a cure had been developed, it hadn’t apparently worked on these subjects, which left him with more questions. Had the cure been tested on them before or after they had turned? If after, did that mean that there was still hope for Minzy, who had not yet turned?

There were no answers to these questions, unfortunately, not unless he could find the ZORT team. 

What Daesung and the others didn’t know was that earlier, after Lieutenant Colonel Choi had sent Bom into the tunnel, he had come to the lab to try to save the research that had been done. The ZORT team wasn’t so much a team as it was one scientist under the protection of two soldiers. With the help of the soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Choi had worked to gather all of the scientist’s work – the pages of research, the logbook of tests conducted, the slides of infection samples, and the vials that each contained a trial stage of the cure.

Since then, Lieutenant Colonel Choi, the scientist, and the two soldiers had gone down into the tunnel and were now about twenty minutes behind Bom. When they reached the hatch door, Lieutenant Colonel Choi pushed it open, hoping that the plane was still there so that he could get the scientist and the box packed with his research to people who could work on manufacturing and distributing the cure. If the plane wasn’t there, he hoped that at least Bom had made it in time.

Both of his hopes were crushed, however, when he saw that not only was the plane gone, but that Bom had been left behind.

Bom was far across the zombie-filled airfield. She was standing atop one of the Black Hawk helicopters, her weight balanced precariously on one of the rotor blades, and was shooting down at the zombies surrounding her.

Seeing his daughter-in-law fight for her life and realizing that he had put her in this situation, Lieutenant Colonel Choi felt a lump rise in his throat, which rendered his voice somewhat shaky as he then ordered the two ZORT soldiers to shoot their way over to her.

The soldiers did exactly that, pulling out their machine guns and shooting all around them as they pushed their way forward, with Lieutenant Colonel Choi and the scientist following closely behind.

Bom, who had almost given up earlier and, now that she was low on ammo, was just thinking about giving up again, was startled to hear the gunfire erupting across the airfield. When she saw that it was T.O.P.’s father coming for her, she couldn’t help but cry – partly out of relief, partly out of craziness, but mostly out of love. While her own father was likely dead, she had since come to know this new father, who would soon be a grandfather to her and T.O.P.’s baby. It was like she had a real family, and that feeling of belonging to a familial unit warmed her heart.

The soldiers continued to shoot everything in sight, the bodies dropping like dominos all around them until, finally, nothing was left standing. In the aftermath of that massacre, a calm silence prevailed, interrupted only by the whoosh of a strong breeze circulating the airfield.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi walked up to the side of the helicopter that Bom was standing atop of and held out his arms.

Bom wiped her tears and crouched down on the rotor blade with her arms extending down toward her father-in-law and her body then falling into his embrace. She cried against his chest, thanking him over and over again through her sobs.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi was not the type of man who gave hugs often or engaged in many intimate connections with people, and so he was slightly taken aback by how tightly Bom had wrapped her arms around him, and how tightly he was holding her in return. But despite the happiness he felt, there was this lurking sadness deep within him over not knowing what happened to his son. Thinking that Bom must be feeling that same sadness and hoping to console her, he said, “I’m sure my son is safe somewhere. Don’t worry.”

Bom, her cheeks streaked with tears, looked up at him. “I’m not worried,” she quietly said. “He made it. He’s okay.”

Lieutenant Colonel Choi’s eyes widened. “He made it to the plane? He’s… he’s safe?” He felt himself begin to choke up again and fought hard against it.

Bom nodded. “I know he is,” she said. “I can feel it in my heart.”

Although Bom had not personally seen his son get on the plane, Lieutenant Colonel Choi trusted her instincts and felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

“What do we do now?” Bom asked.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi pointed to the Black Hawk. “I know how to fly, remember?”

“But I thought Australia was only letting in that one plane,” Bom said.

“True, but…” Lieutenant Colonel Choi glanced behind him at the scientist standing between the two soldiers and said, “They wouldn’t say no to the one person in the world who might be able to stop this infection.”

The scientist, a short man in his mid-sixties, set down his box of research and bashfully stepped forward to introduce himself.

Bom bowed in return and smiled.  

Just then, they heard what sounded like a vehicle approaching and all turned to see an ambulance emerging in the distance and barreling toward them. The two soldiers instinctively stepped in front of the scientist as a means of protection while watching the ambulance continue to speed their way.

Jong Kook, in the driver’s seat of that ambulance, looked over at Ji Hyo sitting beside him and then at the others in the back of the ambulance. “There’s the airfield straight ahead!” he yelled.

“Is the plane still there?” Luhan asked. Earlier, when they had all given up on finding the ZORT team anywhere in the clinic, they had decided that the airfield was their only hope. Minzy’s life – and now the life of the counselor, too – depended on the chance that the plane was still there, and that the scientists were on board.

“I don’t see it, but there are some helicopters…” Jong Kook’s voice trailed off when he saw the multitude of dead bodies covering the airfield. “Yah, hold on back there,” he said. “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

Daesung squeezed past the stretcher in the back, which was being shared by both Minzy and the counselor, and crouched just behind the two front seats to look ahead. He saw then what appeared to be a group of people standing beside one of the Black Hawks.

Ji Hyo noticed this too, and as they got closer and were able to distinguish between the faces, she yelled out, “It’s Bom! I see her!”

“Who else is there?” Krystal asked. “Do you see Sanghyun?”

Ji Hyo shook her head. She recognized T.O.P.’s dad and saw that he was with two soldiers, both of whom were blocking her view of someone standing behind them, but whoever that was behind them seemed too short to be Thunder. “Sorry,” she said, looking back at Krystal.

Krystal returned to her slumped position in the back.

“It’s okay,” Taeyeon said, putting her arm around her. “I’m sure he made it to the plane on time.”

Luhan looked over at Krystal, understanding exactly how she felt. Throughout all of this, he had been wondering about Kris and the others. They were like his brothers. To not know if they were alive or dead filled him with so much pain.

Jong Kook began easing off the gas as they approached the group on the airfield.

“You think that’s the scientist?” Daesung asked, pointing to the older man behind the soldiers.

“Let’s find out,” Jong Kook said, as he pressed down on the brake and brought the ambulance to a full stop.

He stepped out and quickly ran around the side of the ambulance to open the back and let the others out. Ji Hyo, meanwhile, stepped out of the passenger side and ran up to hug Bom.

“Unni!” Bom squealed, as she returned the hug. “Who else is with you?” She heard Daesung’s voice then and rushed toward the back of the ambulance just as Daesung and the others were pulling out the stretcher on which Minzy and the counselor were sprawled. “Oh no!” Bom yelled, immediately caressing Minzy’s face. “Minj… wake up!”

Minzy moaned. She had been in and out of consciousness during the ambulance ride and had little strength left to stay awake.

The scientist quickly ran over. “How long ago was she bit?” he asked, as he reached for Minzy’s wrist to check her pulse.

“Can you cure her?” Daesung asked. “Please, just do something! Please…”

“Hypothetically,” the scientist said, as he reached down into the box that he had set down earlier and pulled out one of the vials.

“Hypothetically?” Gary asked. “You don’t know if it’ll work?”

“I don’t know for sure, if that’s what you’re asking,” the scientist said. “I haven’t been able to test this latest batch. But it should work… hypothetically.”

Daesung remembered the zombies he had seen in that back room of the lab. He could only hope that this latest batch to which the scientist was referring would be more successful than his previous batches.

The scientist inserted a needle into the vial to draw the medicine and then injected Minzy with it. He then ran to the other side of the stretcher to check the counselor’s pulse. “This one’s gone,” the scientist said, after being unable to find the counselor’s pulse. He looked down at her arm, seeing that she was missing her hand and that the stump was covered in blood. “Likely from blood loss,” he said.

Jong Kook looked up at that moment and saw that the horizon was filled with the silhouettes of the staggering dead, all headed toward the airfield. “We got more zombies coming!” he yelled.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi took charge then and then ordered everyone into the Black Hawk.

One of the ZORT soldiers grabbed the research while the other helped the scientist aboard. Gary, Taeyeon, and Krystal got on next, followed by Daesung, who was carrying Minzy in his arms once again. “You’re going to be okay,” he whispered. “Don’t give up yet, please.”

Jong Kook, meanwhile, approached Lieutenant Colonel Choi. “Do either of those soldiers know how to fly or are you the only one?” he asked.

“Why?” Lieutenant Colonel Choi asked.

“Because we’re going to need to take two helicopters to have room for everyone,” Jong Kook said.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi looked at him curiously for a moment, not understanding why they needed extra room when one helicopter could carry them all, but then he understood. “Sido?” he asked.

Jong Kook nodded, his eyes pleading.

When Jong Kook had first asked about Sido back at the soldier barracks, Lieutenant Colonel Choi had regrettably said no because he was under orders. But now he was the one in charge and there were no more rules. “They have fuel over there?” he asked, with a hint of a smile.

Jong Kook nodded and bit down on his lip to hold back his happiness, knowing already that Lieutenant Colonel Choi would say yes this time.

“Then it looks like Sido is our first stop,” Lieutenant Colonel Choi said.