The two helicopters lifted off and flew together in tight formation over what remained of the base as those on board stared down at the graveyard Camp Stanley had become. The late afternoon sun casted long shadows that darkened the grounds considerably, but the zombies could still be seen creeping throughout. Taeyeon caught sight of a pack of them all piled atop each other and knew that somewhere deep underneath that pile was someone who had been left behind, a civilian most likely. She thought about Minzy then and turned her attention away from the window to the back where the semi-conscious Minzy sat slumped with her eyes closed and her head resting on Daesung’s shoulder. The scientist was sitting at her other side, observing her.

“You need to know something,” the scientist said, looking over at Daesung. “I can see that you love her, but you need to know that if this doesn’t work, if this batch is a failure and more research needs to be done…”

“I know,” Daesung said, interrupting.

“If this doesn’t work and she turns, we have to put her down… immediately,” the scientist continued. “We’re in a tight space here, we’re enclosed… she could bring down this entire aircraft…”

“I know,” Daesung said again, looking down. He rubbed his arms, feeling slightly chill, as he still had no shirt on. His skin was covered in goosebumps. Looking back up at the scientist, he said, “If that happens, if she… dies, then I’ll take care of it myself.”

The scientist nodded and then unbuckled his belt and stood up, leaving Minzy in Daesung’s care as he made his way out from the back, past the middle seats where Gary, Taeyeon, and Krystal were, to the cockpit.

The two ZORT soldiers were piloting the helicopter. The scientist whispered to the co-pilot, asking him for his knife, and then made his way back to Daesung.

“Here,” he said, handing over the knife. “Just in case.”

Taeyeon glanced back at the scientist. “You don’t seem to be too confident in your work,” she said.

“I’m confident in my research and where it can lead,” the scientist said. “Each batch has taught me something about this infection… how it reacts, how it mutates, and how it reanimates the brain after death. This latest batch is the culmination of everything I’ve learned.” He paused a moment. He had been about to say how serendipitous the situation was for him because had Minzy not been bitten, he would have left the country with his research but with no actual test conducted to prove the efficacy of this latest batch. But then he reconsidered those words, realizing how insensitive they seemed, and decided to say nothing more about it.

Taeyeon turned her attention to the window again.

Gary, sitting beside her, studied her face for a moment. “Minzy will be okay,” he said.

“You don’t know that,” Taeyeon said, feeling haunted by those she had lost along the way.

Gary reached for her hand, gently squeezing it.

Taeyeon looked down at his hand on hers and then met his gaze.

“You have to have hope,” he said. “Hope is… it’s all that’s left of humanity now.” He sighed, his expression softening as he stared at her. “All my life, my head has just been filled with these verses, I can’t explain it. It’s like I think in poetry. I used to release all that through my music, but now… well, I had a notebook for a while but when our boat crashed into that bridge debris, my notebook was ruined in the water. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m telling you this…”

Taeyeon wasn’t sure why he was telling her this either and turned her attention back to his hand still holding hers.

“I guess I just want you to know that there were times when I lost hope. Long before we found you, we had been at this rescue center and the whole place was overrun just like this base now. Everyone I was with died and I was left on my own, just walking through the city wasteland, having pretty much given up on myself. But my words got me through it. This one verse in particular, it just stuck with me…”

“What verse was that?” Taeyeon quietly asked.

“Repetitions of ups and downs. Repetitions of joy and sadness. Repetitions of love and separation. My life turns and turns…”

Taeyeon thought about those words as she and Gary sat there quietly for a moment.

Gary bit his lip and slowly let go of Taeyeon’s hand.

Taeyeon couldn’t explain it, but the moment his hand left hers, she felt a sense of warmth leave with it. All she could think about was how much she wanted his hand on hers again.

“I was alone and surrounded by nothing but death,” Gary quietly said. “That was a bad time. But then I found the others and I found Jessica and everything seemed to make sense again… until I lost her and felt everything revert back to what it was… but now, things have changed again… do you see? It turns and turns. Ups and downs. Joy and sadness. Love and separation…”

Taeyeon understood now what he was saying. Life was a cycle, and perhaps they were now in the upswing, traveling on the momentum of hope. She wanted to believe in that… and she wanted to experience it, to feel real joy, even if only for a fleeting moment before the world came crashing down again. In some desire to induce this, she reached for his hand and pulled it back atop hers.

Krystal, who had been sitting at Gary’s other side, hadn’t been listening to their conversation until she heard Gary mention her sister’s name. She glanced over at the two of them just as Taeyeon reached for Gary’s hand and saw them smile ever so slightly at each other. 

The other helicopter was being piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Choi with Jong Kook sitting as co-pilot, and was carrying the remaining three in the group – Ji Hyo, Bom, and Luhan.

Luhan was sitting in the back between the two women, his eyes squeezed closed as he tried to fight his fear of flying.

“It’s okay,” Ji Hyo said, trying to comfort him. Even though Luhan was terrified with his face all scrunched up in anxiety, Ji Hyo thought that he still looked adorable. “Maybe we should talk about something,” she said. “Something to get your mind off of flying.”

Luhan, his eyes still squeezed tightly closed, quickly nodded.

Ji Hyo looked across Luhan over at Bom and shrugged. “Any ideas?” she asked.

“Something to talk about?” Bom asked.

“Yeah, just something to distract him.”

“Well, I’m pregnant, so, erm, there’s that.”

Both Ji Hyo and Luhan opened their eyes wide in shock as they stared at Bom.

“You’re…. huh? A baby?” Luhan stammered.

“What? Are you calling me a baby?” Bom asked, teasing him.

“I mean you’re… you’re going to have one!” Luhan exclaimed, his eyes still wide.

“Oh my god,” Ji Hyo said. “I didn’t even know you and Seunghyun were, erm…”

Bom blushed and looked down.

“Congratulations,” Ji Hyo said. She thought of Dream then and how she and Jong Kook would soon be reunited with him. It all felt so unreal and she couldn’t help but think that maybe it was unreal, that maybe it was all too good to be true and that something would give at any moment to ruin their chances of rescuing the others in Sido and starting a new life in Australia. “Are you scared?” she asked Bom. “About having the baby, I mean… considering…”

“I was scared at first,” Bom said. “To try to survive with a baby in that world would’ve been impossible… but that’s behind us now.” She shook her head and smiled as she thought about Australia. “Isn’t it crazy that there are people in this world who are just living normal lives? Like, just waking up and going to work and coming home and eating dinner… never having to deal with what we’ve been dealing with?”

Ji Hyo hadn’t thought about that before. She knew of course that there were parts of the world to which the infection hadn’t spread, but she hadn’t thought about what people’s lives were like in those countries. For all she knew, Bom was right and those people were just living life as they always had been, with this infection just something covered in the evening news. While it was strange to think about that, what Ji Hyo found even stranger was how hopeful Bom was and how she was already speaking of the infected world as something far behind them. But it wasn’t far behind them. It was directly underneath them.

They traveled in somewhat of a direct line from Uijeongbu to Sido, which placed them just north of Seoul. They could see the city in the distance, the smoke from the fires still rising and contributing to that ever-growing black miasma hovering above.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi radioed the ZORT soldiers who were piloting the other helicopter. “Dove One, this is Dove Two. How’s the flying, boys?”

“In need of a top off but holding steady,” the ZORT co-pilot responded.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi checked his fuel gauge, noting that the tank held enough fuel to get to Sido but not enough to then fly to Australia. “Roger that,” he said. “We’ll get a top off upon landing. Hold steady.” He released the mike button and looked over at Jong Kook. “I need to know the lay of the land,” he said. “Where are Hyun Suk and the others in relation to the fuel?”

“Knowing Hyun Suk, he probably called for everyone to move closer to him after we left,” Jong Kook said. “He’s at the very northernmost part, right on the shoreline. You’ll see this halfmoon shape to the land. I can point it out when we get there.”

“And the fuel?” Lieutenant Colonel Choi asked.

“Ai, that’s in the center of the island near town. There’s a gas station there that we’ve been using.”

“Is there space to land there?”

Jong Kook nodded. “Yeah, were you thinking about getting fuel first?”

Lieutenant Colonel Choi breathed in deeply as he considered a plan. “We need to minimize the time we spend on the ground,” he said. “We don’t have time to waste. The sooner we get to Australia the better.”

Jong Kook understood. “There might be a pickup truck at that station. If you want to stay and work on refueling the helicopters, I can take the truck to Hyun Suk’s house and pick everyone up.”

“That might work. We’ll see.”

They continued to head southwest, now just past Goyang and traveling over the Han toward Gimpo. The rural outskirts of Seoul were dotted with trees, and at that high altitude, they couldn’t see the zombies beneath that foliage. Because of that, the country below looked somewhat normal, serene even.

When they reached the coast and began flying over water, the spirits of those aboard the two helicopters were high, with everyone feeling like the worst was over. Even the two ZORT soldiers, both of whom tended to be somewhat stern military types, were making casual talk with each other in the cockpit, having relaxed somewhat. They could see the Bukdo chain ahead, the three islands each a splash of greenery in the dark blue water. After confirming with Lieutenant Colonel Choi on the radio that their target was the middle island, they began dropping altitude, cruising at just two hundred meters above the surface.

As the ZORT scientists focused on the island just ahead, those in the back were still watching Minzy, whose condition had not changed… until now. Without warning, she suddenly began convulsing, her body violently spasming.

“What’s happening to her?” Daesung yelled.

The scientist grabbed her arms, trying to hold her down. “Grab her legs!” he yelled.

Daesung did as told and tried to keep Minzy’s body steady, but she was flailing beyond his control and he kept losing his grip.

Gary, Taeyeon, and Krystal all unbuckled their belts and got up from their seats to help, but there was little they could do but stand and watch in fright.

“Is she dying?” Krystal asked.

Minzy’s eyes rolled back, her head jerking side to side, but then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Her body relaxed and she lay still. The scientist reached for her wrist to check her pulse, which was now beating normally as opposed to how faintly and slowly it had been beating before. “Gong Minji?” he asked. “Can you hear me?”

“Wake up,” Daesung cried. “Please, baby…”

“I’m awake,” Minzy whispered, her eyes still closed. “What time is it?”

Daesung looked at her confused. Did she think she was just waking up in her bed, as if it was morning?

“Do you know where you are?” the scientist asked.

Minzy tried to open her eyes, her lids fluttering for a few seconds before opening wide. “Where…? Are we at the base?” She tried to sit up but felt too dizzy.

“Just relax,” the scientist said, biting on his lip to hold back his smile. He glanced at Daesung and nodded.

The relief that Daesung felt at that moment was so overwhelming that he felt like crying, but he held back for Minzy’s sake, not wanting to alarm her. “You’re okay, Minj…” he said, his voice trailing off as he rested his head down on her chest.

At that moment, as Sido came into full view, those in the cockpits of the two helicopters saw a small explosion on the northern shoreline – what appeared to be a burst of earth and shrapnel… and bodies.