Kyung Eun stood there, frozen, her arm that was supporting her son’s weight slowly losing strength.

Eun Ju rushed over to her and reached for the boy. As she took little Ji Ho from Kyung Eun, she glanced back at Hyun Suk. “I think it’s best if I take the children upstairs,” she said. “I’ll stay up there, keep an eye on them.” She called out to Yoo Jin and Seung Hyun then, both of whom came running from the table and then followed her upstairs.

CL approached Kyung Eun and carefully reached for the gun in her hand. “It’s okay,” CL said. “You can let go.”

Kyung Eun let her hand fall open. She appeared to be in a daze.

“I’ll get her some water,” Daesung said.

Ji Hyo passed the baby to Jong Kook and helped Kyung Eun sit down on the couch. She sat beside Kyung Eun with her arm around her, trying to console her.

While Kyung Eun sipped the water that Daesung had brought her, the others talked in the dining room.

“Who saw Jae Suk today?” Jong Kook asked.

“Daesunggie and I did,” Minzy said. “We were passing by his house. He asked if we were on fishing duty.”

“We saw him on the path,” Krystal said. “It must’ve been after you two saw him.”

“I think he was going fishing,” Thunder said.

“Did he say that?” Hyun Suk asked. “That he was going fishing?”

Thunder tried to think back to their conversation on the path. He had been so happy about the rockfish that he hadn’t quite paid attention to what Jae Suk had said. “I think… I think actually he was going to fish, but then changed his mind?”

“Yeah, he didn’t say that, but that’s what it seemed like,” Krystal said.

Hyun Suk glanced over at Jong Kook. “You went fishing this morning. Did you see him?”

Jong Kook shook his head. “There was no one there but me. But if he was taking the path, then he was heading up here to fish, not down by where I was.”

“Either way, the last place anyone saw him was the path, right?” Se7en asked.

Everyone looked at each other, hoping that someone had seen him since, but no one had.

“We need to get a group together, go search for him,” Hyun Suk said.

“I’ll go,” Minzy said. “I have my gun with me. I’m a good shot.”

“Krystal, you’ve gotten good at tracking, right?” Hyun Suk asked.

Krystal nodded. The chickens that she and Thunder had been taking care of often found ways out of the makeshift coop that they had built, and Krystal had become somewhat adept at finding their prints in the woods and tracking them down. “Those woods can get dark even in the daytime,” she said. “He probably just stepped off the path and got lost.”

“I’ll go, too,” Jong Kook said. “He’s… my best friend.”

The others looked at Jong Kook, seeing the pain in his eyes and trying to keep their own pain at bay, hoping that it was like Krystal had suggested, that Jae Suk had just gotten lost. But it had been at least eight or so hours since he had last been seen on that path, which was a long time to be in the woods alone.

“I want to come, too,” Gary said. Jae Suk had been his mentor. He wanted to be there to find him and bring him back home safe.

Ji Hyo had been listening to their conversation from the couch as she sat beside Kyung Eun. She brushed back some of Kyung Eun’s hair from her face and said, “They’re going to find him. Don’t worry.”

Kyung Eun didn’t respond. She just looked down, staring at her trembling hands.

Hyun Suk had given the four of them flashlights, which they all now, as they stood outside Hyun Suk’s house and stared at the woods across the road. Krystal and Minzy had their K2 assault rifles on them, which was the weapon of choice for both women, while Jong Kook and Gary carried standard pistols and hunting knives.

“Don’t shoot unless you have to,” Jong Kook told them.

The others understood. They’d been dealing with zombies long enough to know that gunfire, or any noise for that matter, only drew more zombies their way.

Krystal led the way, with Jong Kook following immediately behind and Minzy and Gary bringing up the rear. They walked across the road, finding the trailhead and entering the woods. It had been dark before with just the moonlight, but under the canopy of the trees, it was pitch black.

Krystal shined her flashlight on the ground ahead, a bit unsure of her tracking abilities. It was one thing to look for the chickens – finding chicken prints when she knew where to look and had the light of day was quite easy – but this path was worn down with the shoeprints of all who’d journeyed back and forth this way. She had no idea how she was going to distinguish Jae Suk’s tracks from the others, and to do so in the darkness with only the narrow stream of light from her flashlight. Still, she tried anyway, not wanting to disappoint the others.

When Gary and Thunder had found Jessica and Krystal in that rowboat floating in the inlet between Sindo and Sido, the sisters knew that they owed their lives to them. Since then, they had tried to be useful members of the group, doing everything they could to contribute. It was hard at first. Although they had suffered somewhat since the outbreak, their experiences couldn’t compare to what the others had been through. Because of that, they hadn’t become as hardened as the others; they were still very much the same girls they had been before the outbreak. And because the others had been through so much, they had formed a tightknit group by the time Jessica and Krystal joined them. The sisters, at first, had felt like outsiders, like they didn’t belong.

But soon, with some training, they learned how to survive in this new world, a world in which there was no room for scared little girls. They learned that sometimes, what seemed to be the more difficult tasks were in fact the easiest – like weapons training, which they likened to dancing in that it was a skill that could be perfected through practice. But then there were tasks that seemed easy but weren’t, like fishing. Both had fished before, but only with the assistance of their managers and staff, who would set up their fishing poles and even attach the bait for them. The girls had to learn to do things on their own, and with fishing in particular, they had to learn to be patient.

These past two months, whenever Krystal was scared or thought she wasn’t brave enough to survive like the others, she thought back on her experience in New Zealand last year, when she had gone skydiving. She had been so scared and nervous back then, reconsidering her decision to do it all the way up until the moment she actually jumped from that plane, soaring down afterwards through 15,000 feet of blue sky. She knew that if she had managed to be brave enough to actually go through with that despite her fears, then she could do anything. Fear, she realized, was self-created. It wasn’t real.

As she led the others down the path now, she kept her focus down on the ground, trying to avoid looking off into the dark woods that bordered their way. She didn’t want her imagination to run wild with thoughts of what could be lurking in those woods. Instead, she concentrated only on the slight variances in shoeprints etched into the soil, hoping to try to isolate Jae Suk’s tracks.

They continued deeper down the path without seeing anything out of the ordinary until Krystal noticed a section where the shoeprints stopped; in their place were long impressions through the soil, as if someone had slipped. “Look,” she said, gesturing for the others to come over.

Jong Kook peered around her, seeing the mess of impressions on the ground.

Krystal aimed her flashlight around her and saw that some of the dirt had been swept off the path and into the woods, as if someone had stumbled away from the scene, but she didn’t tell the others this. She didn’t want them to know that Jae Suk had most likely encountered some trouble in this spot and had run into the woods. She didn’t want them to lose hope. Instead, she pursued that dirt trail into the woods without saying a word, knowing that the others would quietly follow.

It was easier than she thought to track Jae Suk through the woods. Unlike the path, the woods were rarely traveled through. All she had to do was follow the snapped twigs and disturbed soil.

The others stayed close behind her, not questioning her direction.

They traveled far into the woods, and after some time, Krystal began getting nervous, thinking that she had lost the tracks somehow. But then she spotted a splash of blood on the ground. “Oh no,” she said, shining her flashlight on it.

Jong Kook, standing behind her, shined his flashlight on it, too, feeling his small eyes well up with tears. “Maybe… maybe he just got hurt somehow,” he said. He tried to imagine ways in which Jae Suk could have hurt himself, but all the ways he thought of were somewhat improbable. There were no thornbushes that he could have brushed up against, no big rocks that he could have fallen on. There was only the ground and the trees around them.

“Maybe it was an animal attack?” Gary asked.

They all looked at each other for a moment, barely able to see each other’s faces because of the darkness but all already knowing what sort of expressions each other was wearing – expressions of doubt, of hopelessness.

“There are no animals left,” Minzy said, verbalizing what the others were already thinking. “Squirrels and rabbits, maybe, but nothing big enough to… to produce that much blood.”

Krystal breathed in deeply and continued on, now following the blood trail. There were a few small drops sprinkled on some leaves, and then a few feet ahead there was a single line of drops as if the blood had been dripping from a wound. Further up, the leaves on the ground had been kicked around, exposing a clear patch of dirt where they saw a scattering of shoeprints.

She saw something briefly reflect the light from Jong Kook’s beam and shone her flashlight in that direction. It was Jae Suk’s glasses. She covered as Jong Kook rushed toward the glasses and kneeled down before them.

When Jong Kook saw that the lenses were cracked and covered in blood, he collapsed from his kneeling position and fell forward onto his hands, as if bowing before the evidence. Because of how close he was to the ground then, he noticed something else: Jae Suk’s 9mm. He crawled forward to reach the gun and then held it in his hands, examining it as he stood up. “Someone shine your light here,” he said, pocketing his flashlight as he looked over the gun. He couldn’t understand why Jae Suk wasn’t able to defend himself if he was armed. Everyone had been training for two months and Jae Suk had become one of the best shots they had.

Upon closer inspection, with the light of everyone’s flashlights on the gun in his hands, he saw that it had jammed. A bullet was lodged in the barrel. Jong Kook looked up at the others, their faces illuminated by their collective lights in the middle of the group, making each of them appear somewhat Halloweenish. “It jammed,” Jong Kook said. “He must’ve tried to fire at something but…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. He still couldn’t bear the thought of Jae Suk being dead. Not caring about anything now other than finding Jae Suk’s body, he trekked forward on his own, following the blood, as the others scrambled to catch up behind him.

And then they saw a body. They crept slowly upon it, seeing that it wasn’t Jae Suk, but a zombie. It was lying on its back, its head caved in so deeply that the head appeared flat and somewhat splayed out. Next to the head was a small rock completely covered in blood.

And then they heard a voice up ahead in the woods, telling them to go away. It was Jae Suk’s voice.

Ignoring the warning, everyone ran in the direction of the voice. They found Jae Suk sitting on the ground, resting his back against the trunk of a tree. His wrists and ankles were tied together with what appeared to be shoelaces. His face, without his glasses, was streaked with tears, which cut clean paths down his dirt-covered cheeks.

Everyone stared at him for a moment, confused by the scene.

“Please,” Jae Suk said, squinting away from the beams of light on his face. “Please, just go away.”

Jong Kook rushed to Jae Suk’s side and reached for his wrists to untie the knots, but Jae Suk yanked his hands away. “I said go away, Jong Kook-ah!” He kept his tied hands as far away as he could from Jong Kook as he stared at his friend’s small, tearful eyes. “I’ve been bit,” he said. “Go away.”

Gary began to cry. “Hyung, no,” he sputtered. “No, you’re okay, hyung.”

“I’m not, Gary-ah,” Jae Suk said, holding his bare arm up to the light, which was bright red with blood and embedded with deep teeth marks.

Minzy stared at the wound and then looked back toward Jae Suk’s tied wrists and ankles. “You… you tied yourself up?” she asked.

“I knew I was going to turn and I…” Jae Suk’s words trailed off as he tilted his head back against the tree trunk and squeezed his eyes closed, releasing more tears. “I would have just killed myself but I dropped my gun earlier when it jammed on me. I just… I thought if I tied myself up, I wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone when I turned into… one of those…”

“Shh,” Jong Kook said. “Okay, it’s okay.” He was breathing quickly and began looking around as if he could find something with which to fix this situation, but he knew that it was hopeless. Filled with this mix of utter rage and bitter sadness, he tried to unclench his fists but couldn’t. They had lived two months on this island with no deaths. He couldn’t help but wonder why this had happened now, after all this time, and especially after they had just learned that the rest of the world was still out there, that there was hope. He looked over at Gary, Krystal, and Minzy, all of whom were softly crying. “Go back to the path,” Jong Kook said.

“What? Hyung, what for?” Gary asked.

“Just go,” Jong Kook said. “Just wait there.”

The three of them looked at Jong Kook for a moment, all weighing the implications of his words and feeling more pain build up inside of them. They slowly stepped backward, unable to look away, but then eventually turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Jong Kook waited until he could no longer see their flashlight beams and then sat closer to Jae Suk against that tree. Neither man said anything at first. They just rested their backs up against that hard trunk and sat in silence.

After a short while, Jae Suk breathed in deeply and said, “I’ve lived a good life, Jong Kook-ah. I have no regrets.”

Jong Kook tried to keep himself from crying. “I’ll never forget all that you have done for me,” he said. “You always took care of me and have always been such a good friend to me.”

Jae Suk squeezed his eyes closed and smiled. “Ai, Jong Kook-ah. We’ve had some good times.”

Jong Kook nodded, thinking back on his fondest memories of the two of them.

“I still can’t believe that you pulled my pants down that time on Running Man,” Jae Suk said, laughing. “You remember that? Trying to raise my stress? You pulled my pants right down!”

Jong Kook covered his face as he thought about that early episode. “Aish, Jae Suk-ah! I was so embarrassed after that! I’m so sorry, hyung! I was just caught up in the moment.”

“Ai, don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was funny.” He paused a moment and then said, “We brought laughter into people’s homes. We did good with our lives.”

Jong Kook smiled, his mind racing with memories not only of the two of them, but of all the Running Man members now lost to this horrible world. He thought then of Kwang Soo, who had died at the base of a tree just like Jae Suk was about to. Kwang Soo had gone peacefully. He had fallen unconscious, during which time Jong Kook had destroyed his brain, ensuring that he wouldn’t return as a zombie. Jong Kook wondered now if Jae Suk, too, would fall unconscious. As he was thinking this, he looked over at his sunbae, seeing that his head was hanging low, his eyes closed. “Hyung, hyung, wake up.”

Jae Suk blinked quickly and opened his eyes. “I’m dying, Jong Kook-ah,” he quietly said. “Please tell Kyung Eun and my boy that I… that I...”

“Of course,” Jong Kook said, crying now. “Of course, hyung.”

With no words capable of quelling the painful emotions they all felt, the four of them followed the path back to Hyun Suk’s house in silence. Jong Kook, at the rear of the group, was carrying Jae Suk’s limp body.

After Jae Suk had fallen unconscious, Jong Kook had taken out his hunting knife and had done to Jae Suk what he had done to Kwang Soo months earlier – he had pierced the brain to spare his friend from becoming one of the undead.

As he carried Jae Suk’s body now, he felt this overwhelming guilt for still being alive. Jae Suk didn’t deserve to die, he thought. He had a wife and a child. Although Jong Kook had Ji Hyo and Dream, he knew that they would be able to go on without him. Ji Hyo was strong and Dream was still so young. Kyung Eun, on the other hand, wasn’t as strong and her son was already four-years-old, old enough to remember and miss his father.

It should’ve been me, Jong Kook thought. But he knew that death didn’t work like that. It didn’t target those whose families would best be able to handle the loss, and it didn’t make judgments about who deserved it and who didn’t. It just came, usually without warning, and eventually it got everyone.

Gary, Krystal, and Minzy made their way toward Hyun Suk’s front door, but Jong Kook continued on past the house to the stretch of land beside it. The others watched him go, realizing what he was about to do.

Jong Kook set Jae Suk’s body down on the ground and grabbed the shovel that was propped up against the side of the house near Eun Ju’s garden. He walked back over to Jae Suk’s body and leaned against the shovel for a moment, catching his breath as he stared ahead at the dark sea and the reflection of the white moon rippling across the water.