G-Dragon slowed the cruiser down as he stared at what was left of the city ahead.

Those in the back stood up, clutching onto the sides of the boat as they, too, stared at the fires just beyond the series of bridges before them. There were still blue skies where they were with little indication of horror on the land at either side of them, but ahead, it seemed to be nothing but horror. Black skies. Black smoke. The land burning away.

Jong Kook looked up at the next bridge ahead of them, the Haengju Bridge, where he saw hundreds of zombies shambling across. It had been a long time since he’d seen a horde that big. The zombies, upon hearing the motorboat approaching, all stopped and turned toward the noise on the water below.

“They’re looking at us,” Jessica said, cringing. She clutched onto Gary beside her.

“Don’t worry,” Gary said. “We never have to get off this boat. We can take this water route the whole way.” He held Jessica closer. “Don’t worry,” he said again.

They passed underneath the Haengju and then underneath the next bridge and the next, seeing the zombies on each bridge turn to stare at them. Soon, the skies above were no longer blue but gray, and the shores no longer hid the horror. The southern half of Seoul to their right, where they had seen the start of some fires and smoke when first leaving the city two months earlier, had since been completely destroyed. All of the buildings had collapsed, the fires having died out long ago, leaving nothing but decay and debris in its wake. The shores were covered in this debris, with parts of the city floating in the water alongside them.

They continued slowly forward, passing what was once Haneul Park at their left – that green haven that some had cut through after running from the World Cup Stadium – but nothing green was left, the grass having been burnt to a crisp and the buildings beyond in flames.

Ji Hyo tried to avert her eyes from the land and focus on the waterway, noticing then the red steel of the Seongsan Bridge ahead.

Thunder noticed the bridge, too, as the harrowing memories of that day he and Lee Joon had jumped from it came rushing back. He could see the silhouettes of the zombies on that bridge now slowly coming into view as the boat got nearer. Like the others zombies on the bridges before, the ones on the Seongsan Bridge all stopped to stare at the oncoming boat.

And then, one fell from the bridge, dropping hard into the water in front of them.

“Oh my god,” Krystal said.

And then another fell, and then another.

“What’s happening?” Daesung asked, standing up now to get a better look at the bridge ahead. “Why are they falling like that?”

“Are they all trying to drown themselves?” Dara asked.

“No,” Minzy quietly said, her eyes reflecting the red steel of the bridge. “I think they’re trying to get us.”

More zombies fell into the river, the water bursting out in giant splashes all around them from each impact.

Everyone took to the sides of the boat, staring into the depths of the Han to see if any of the zombies would surface.

“They can’t swim, can they?” Bom asked, looking over the side. Suddenly, a gray arm came up out of the water, its twisted fingers clutching onto Bom’s shirt. Bom cried out as the zombie tried to pull her overboard, her feet slipping on the deck.

T.O.P. grabbed onto Bom, as did Jong Kook, the two pulling her away from the side, but the zombie wouldn’t let go. As the two men let out one final heave, each holding onto her waist, they ended up pulling the zombie up, too, seeing its mangled head emerge from the water as a guttural growl escaped its rotten lips, its diseased eyes staring at Bom and its fingers still clutching onto the front of her shirt.

CL fumbled with her gun and then pressed the muzzle against the zombie’s temple, blasting a single bullet through its brain. The zombie reeled back, its hand free of Bom’s shirt as it fell back into the water.

G-Dragon, hearing the gunshot and not knowing what was happening behind him on the deck, grabbed the throttle and the boat forward fast and hard, causing everyone in the back to fall over each other. “Go see what’s happening, Seungri-yah!” G-Dragon yelled.

Seungri, his face covered in fright, quickly nodded and turned to see those in the back trying to pick themselves up off the deck floor. “What happened?” Seungri asked. “Is everyone okay?” He saw that Bom was crying as she tried to return to her seat.

No one answered him. They had all turned to look back at the other zombies now surfacing in the river behind them, their flesh-stripped arms reaching out of the water as if still trying to grasp at their prey.

G-Dragon, cruising even faster now, headed underneath the Yanghwa Bridge and looked off to the side to the marina where they had all met after having been separated at the stadium. Nothing was there now. No marina building, no boats… nothing but thick smoke. He continued on under that black sky, the motor running hard as he sped underneath the Seogang Bridge and then the Mapo Bridge.

Just past the Wonhyo Bridge, as the others sat on the deck all shaken from what had just happened, they heard a loud boom and then looked to the land on the right, where they saw the top of the 63 Building explode. They all looked with wide eyes at the flames shooting out of the gaping hole and the black smoke pouring out into the sky.

Ji Hyo covered , thinking that it looked just like footage of the World Trade Center building in New York City after the hijacked plane had flown through it.

Dara rushed across the deck to join G-Dragon at the helm. “Just keep going,” she said, her eyes stinging with tears as she collapsed into the seat beside him. “Hurry, just get us out of here.”

G-Dragon pushed harder on the throttle, the 63 Building now behind them as they passed underneath the Hangang Bridge and then the Dongjak Bridge in that southernmost hook of the Han before it curved around the busy Ichon and Itaewon neighborhoods. Up ahead, past three or so more bridges, he could see the start of the tributary that headed north, parting from the Han as the river continued eastward. “That’s it,” he said, nudging Dara. “See that up there?”

Dara could only see smoke, but when that cleared somewhat, she could see what appeared to be the narrow tributary that they had located on the map. “That’ll take us all the way to the base?” she asked.

G-Dragon nodded. But as they got closer, he saw that the highway bridge that crossed right over the entrance to the tributary had collapsed and that the water was filled with debris, so much so that it appeared almost impenetrable. It was hard from that distance to tell exactly what was in the water. There seemed to be pieces of the bridge, like metal poles and broken blocks of concrete and… bodies? He looked closer, seeing what indeed appeared to be corpses floating in the water. “Dara-yah, look at the map,” he quietly said as he slowed the boat down.

Dara reached for the map on the console and stared at it. “What am I looking for?”

“Another way north,” G-Dragon whispered, hoping to keep their conversation private from the others on board.

“What? What are you saying? Why can’t we just plow our way through?”

“Just look at the map, Dara-yah. I’ll take this boat slowly up that waterway, but if we get stuck, we need a backup plan.”

“Oh my god,” Dara said, her hands shaking so much that she couldn’t keep the map straight. She didn’t have to look long at the map to know that this was the only waterway north to Uijeongbu. The only other option was to continue east on the Han, but that would only lead farther way from the base and they’d have to backtrack across land. It made no sense. “We have to go this way,” she said. “There’s no backup plan, Jiyong-ah.”

“Okay, okay, just don’t say anything to the others for now,” he said. “Let’s just try to get through this.” He slowed the boat down even more as the Han veered east, with their boat instead heading north for that congested tributary.

By then, the others in the back had seen the collapsed highway bridge with its middle section completely gone, the two ends protruding out all jagged-like. Jong Kook stood up to get a better view of the water beneath that bridge. He didn’t see the bodies that G-Dragon had spotted, but he did see the tops of some cars that must have fallen into the water when the bridge collapsed. Rushing now toward the helm, he said, “Watch for those cars sticking out of the water. See them? Try to go around.”

“I am, I am,” G-Dragon said. They were moving slowly, carefully, the motor practically at an idle as they began to pass underneath the collapsed bridge.

Back on the deck, the others stared at the city alongside them. The fire hadn’t yet spread to this part of Seoul, but the thick smoke was everywhere and the buildings that were still standing, once white, were now black because of the soot.

Suddenly, the boat grinded to a halt. Everyone in the back stumbled and grabbed onto the sides to hold on.

“What did we hit?” Gary asked.

G-Dragon pushed the throttle forward but the boat just revved.

Jong Kook pushed G-Dragon out of the seat and took control, thinking that he could rock the boat forward like a car out of snow with a series of s and releases until they had built enough momentum to pass over the debris beneath them, but they were caught good and weren’t moving. Jong Kook tried to give it one final push, not knowing what a dire mistake he was making. The bridge debris below them was scraping against the bottom of the boat, and that final push caused a rip in the hull, sending a crack cutting through the deck.

Because the supplies on the deck floor hid the crack, no one realized how extensive the damage was at first. But soon, Krystal spotted some water at her feet and she tugged at her sister’s shirt, speechless as she pointed to the deck floor.

Jessica fell to her knees on the floor, pushing aside the backpacks and boxes and seeing the water coming up through the crack. She looked at the others, all of whom then saw it, too.

“Just… just cover it,” Seungri said. “We can just plug it up.”

“He’s right,” Thunder said. “We can seal it.” He tried to remain calm as he searched through the supplies for his bag, in which he had packed duct tape. The others all let out breaths of relief when they saw him pull the spool of duct tape from his bag, but this relief didn’t last long. The water was rushing through the crack too fast and the glue of the duct tape wouldn’t stick with all that water on the surface. If they had gotten to the crack before the water came up, there might’ve been a chance to seal it, but now it was too late.

Meanwhile, Jong Kook, G-Dragon, and Dara up front were talking about sending someone into the water to inspect the boat from below.

“Maybe we can move whatever it is down there,” Jong Kook said, but he couldn’t hide the doubt in his voice.

G-Dragon and Dara just stared at him, sensing his doubt and not knowing what to say.

“I’ll do it then,” Jong Kook said. He left the front of the boat but stopped when he saw that the deck was covered in what was by now an inch or so of water. The others were scrambling around, some trying to dry off their backpacks while others were strapping them on, all except for Ji Hyo. Neither Jong Kook nor Ji Hyo had a backpack, as they hadn’t decided until that last minute to leave Sido. Ji Hyo was instead trying to pick the boxes of food up off the deck and move them onto the seats. The bottom of the box she was holding now was completely drenched, the cardboard soggy, and before she could toss it onto the seat, the bottom fell open, with everything inside pouring out onto the deck.

The boat was a mess and everyone aboard was panicking. But what Jong Kook was most worried about was the apparent tilt to the boat. The very end of that deck was significantly lower, the hull already filling with water and weighing down that end. They were going to sink. There was no doubt left in Jong Kook’s mind about that now.

“We have to swim,” he said.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Jong Kook, their mouths open. Some turned to look then at the decaying city on both sides of that waterway, the thought of being stranded there just completely unfathomable.

“Our weapons would be ruined,” Krystal said, remembering how long it had taken for her gun to dry after G-Dragon had thrown her into that swimming pool back on Sido.

“This boat’s sinking,” Jong Kook said, “We have no choice.” He tried to think quickly but remain calm, hoping to keep the others calm, too. “Fill your backpacks with whatever you can,” he said. “You can shove the smaller guns in there. The bigger ones, like the K2s, we’re just going to have to try to swim with one hand while holding those out above the surface.” He looked at all of them, seeing how scared they were. They’d had training on the island, but not for anything like this. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll stick to the water and head north just like we planned and eventually, once we swim past all this debris, we’ll find another boat.”

Everyone nodded, some feeling a bit more relieved at the thought that they still wouldn’t have to step foot on land.

G-Dragon and Dara left the helm, having heard what Jong Kook said, and now joined the others as everyone rummaged through the supplies.

“Jiyong-ah, you better dump that soju and fill your bag with food,” T.O.P. said.

G-Dragon rolled his eyes. “Since when do you tell me what to do?” he asked.

T.O.P. arched his eyebrows.

“Yah, stop with those eyebrows! Of course I’m dumping the soju, aish.” While he emptied the soju out of his backpack, Dara sorted through the food, trying to choose which seemed to have the most water-resistant packaging.

Jong Kook and Ji Hyo, meanwhile, sorted through the loose guns, distributing the smaller pistols out for each to squeeze into their packs. All that was left were the K2 assault rifles, which they would have to try to do their best to keep above the surface of the water.

By the time they were done, the end of the boat was completely swallowed by the water. Everyone was crammed together at the top of deck by the helm, all staring down at the dark depths bestrewn with debris.

“Okay,” G-Dragon said. “Let’s go.” He moved forward first, nearly sliding down the sunken deck. He held onto the sides of the boat as he lowered his body into the cold water, the bag on his back floating atop the water as he then swam out with one hand, holding his K2 above the surface with his other hand as Jong Kook had instructed. Dara then followed, as did the others, one by one.