[CONTENTID1] CHAPTER FIFTY THREE - SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

“Grab my hand,” Yongguk orders, staring down at me from the exit of the tunnel. We’ve finally reached it but the Infected are right on our asses, having gotten into the tunnel. 

They’re close now; we need to get out of here.

I grasp Yongguk’s hand and rush up the ladder, letting him put his arms around my waist to lift me out of the sewer. I then get to my feet, still trying hard to ignore the pungent stench of the sewage water that has soaked into my trousers.

I worry that my legs will get infected now — and not necessarily with La Folie.

“Come on, hurry!” Yongguk shouts down the sewer. He reaches down and continues to help the rest of my friends up. I take a moment to look around. We’re in the middle of the city of Wonju. The tunnel led us all the way here.

I spot an Infected, though it’s yet to see us. Well, smell or hear us, I guess.

.

“We need to hurry,” I hiss. I continue to glance around, my eyes hastily searching for more signs of danger. Zelo is standing with the twins, helping Youngmin keep his younger brother stable on his feet. Himchan is carrying a paralysed Bora, Sunny is on her knees, calming an upset Daeho and Minki is talking to himself, looking very frantic.

There are four other people I do not know and Karim. He’s sitting on a boulder, his elbows on his knees and his head hanging down. His curly hair is as messy as it used to be, before we were captured by Hyorin’s people. 

“Karim,” I call out, though not too loud in case I’m heard by any of the Infected lurking about. Karim looks up and, for the first time, his green eyes are not full of raw innocence. Instead, there’s a streak of darkness in them…and not the temporary kind. The bright green colour has dulled slightly and his pupils are larger. “Baby.”

“I’ll live,” he tells me, reminding me exactly of myself. It scares me. Then, he soothes my worries by smiling with the same radiance that I’m used to from him. “I just…need to take it all in.”

I nod, “Okay. Do you have a weapon?” He looks around and picks up a large rock, twirling it in his hand. 

“Now I do,” he replies, his lips pulling into a childish, carefree grin. “Don’t worry about me,  noona, I’ll live. For you.” 

I can’t help but grin back, “Since when do you use Korean honourifics, huh?” I walk over and ruffle his hair. He stands up and puts his arms around me, nuzzling my stomach. 

“I don’t want to just call you Hyerim anymore,” he murmurs into me. I tut and curl my arms around him, hugging him warmly. “So I’ll call you noona. No one else.”

“I’m okay with that,” I say with a bright smile. “I—” 

“GET OUT THE WAY!” 

We all snap our heads in the direction of the screams and screeches. A car zips into view and Karim and I exchanged looks. We nod and leap out of the way just as the car zooms past us. It spirals out of control and eventually crashes into a wall. 

Screams follow — and not human ones.

“Oh, me,” I groan, looking down at my battered, shot up legs. I have no idea how I’m gonna run through this. I’ve been pushing my luck up to now. If I keep this up, I face never recovering, thus forever slowing my team down.

But there’s no other way. 

“We need a plan, NOW!” Julien barks, grabbing his hair and yanking it frantically. We look up at the same time when the sounds of shrieking get louder, closer. Dozens of Infected come into view and dozens more can be heard from below us, in the sewers. Daehyun and Tao rush over and throw the sewer grate back over the hole. Hakyeon then rolls a boulder over it, just as Infected start clawing and bashing from beneath the grate.

“,” Hyoyeon shudders, slowly raising her hand to point behind me. I turn around, holding my breath. 

“Wait, where’s Jungkook?” I hear Bora ask from Himchan's arms. I freeze but my eyes fly to Julien. He slowly shakes his head at me, implying I keep my mouth shut for now. “Guys, where’s Jungkook?”

“Oh my God,” I say as I look ahead, the breath I was holding in rushing out. Military vehicles are heading towards us, soldiers sticking out of them as they pelt the creatures running after them. Hundreds upon hundreds of Infected start rolling down the street. They appear out of every alley, every house, every store. “, , .” 

How do we get out of this one?

“Any bright ideas?” Kyuhyun asks, clenching and unclenching his one hand. “Coz in case you guys haven’t noticed, we have about fifty million Infected coming at us, along with military trucks and .”

“Okay, exaggeration,” Hyoyeon snorts and he shoots her a glare. “But Handy has a point. If we’re gonna move, we need to do so now.”

“But where do we go!?” one of the slaves, a girl, asks. “The city is probably infested with those things, there’s nowhere for us to hide.”

“And we’re in no position to run,” Youngjae adds, specifically looking at those of us in worse conditions. “Besides, we’d attract too much attention with a group this big.”

“Then, we split up,” Sehun says as he keeps a hand over the hold in his chest. He looks pale — or paler than usual, with a blue tinge having made its way into his pigmentation. He looks close to passing out.

“What the— are you insane!?” Zelo exclaims, jerking away from Kwangmin, almost causing him to fall. Thankfully, he has his brother at his side. “You never split up, haven’t you ever watched a horror film? , even an action movie?”

I smile subconsciously, thinking of how much he sounds like BamBam right now.

“I hate to say it but the human is right,” Hakyeon pipes up, stepping forward. The screeching of cars and Infected are getting louder by the second. In less than a minute, those things will be upon us. “We need to split up if we want any chance at surviving.”

“But how will we find each other again?” Karim asks, looking at me as opposed to anyone else. He grasps my hand and squeezes it tightly. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

“We’re in Wonju, right?” I ask no one in particular. Yongguk nods.

“Smack bang in the city centre, by the looks of it,” Himchan adds.

I nod, “Alright. What’s a well known place in Wonju?”

Sunny clicks her fingers and points at Hyoyeon, probably thinking it’s me, “Chiaksan National Park! I’ve visited it a lot with my family…you know, before. It takes, like, ten minutes or so to get there by bus. So…almost two and a half hours by foot?”

“Alright, we’ll split up and try to make it through the night in our groups,” I declare, addressing everyone. I glance over my shoulder, my fear spiking when I see how close we are to being mauled. “By the day after tomorrow, everyone has to be at the Chiaksan National Park. From there, we’ll decide what to do as a team. Arasso?”

“Ne!” they all respond.

“Ne,” I sigh. “Right, split up. There are...twenty seven of us so split into groups of no more than six but no less than three! GO, GO, GO!” Karim latches on to me and Sehun grabs my other hand, tugging me towards him. Yongguk steps towards Daehyun and Youngjae but he stops when he sees them running over to me. Hyoyeon joins us, along with Kyuhyun. 

“Wait, that’s sev…” I shut my mouth when Hyoyeon shoots me a look.

“Alright, let’s move!” Julien shouts and, just like that, we all split. 

Karim reacts first out of all of us, pointing to a high-rise building in the distance. “There!” We immediately dart off, not giving it a second thought simply because we have no time for that. We manage to reach it, all of us in one piece. There’s just one problem…

KEEP OUT

INFECTED INSIDE!

It’s written in big, red ink that looks more like blood than anything else. I swear under my breath but Sehun grabs a metal scrap from the floor, swinging it down on the silver chains keeping the groaning Infected inside the building that looks more like a hospital now.

BamBam would instruct us to steer clear; hospital scenes in horror movies never end well.

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