He’s just getting out of the shower when he hears the baby crying. Why is there a baby crying? Who’s got a baby?

It’s all very confusing.

Maybe if he just ignores it, the sound will go away?

It’s worth a shot.

So for the next fifteen minutes he ignores the crying, shaves, smoothes a coat of aftershave on his skin, brushes his teen, and runs a comb through his hair. He’s looking absolutely presentable when he hears a heavy door open. Thudding footsteps follow.

“Gyu! I’m back!”

Sunggyu spokes his head out through the bathroom door and relays to Woohyun, “There’s a baby crying.”

Woohyun’s face is red from the cold outside, and he wastes no time in stripping off his heavy scarf and jacket, telling Sunggyu, “It’s just Tomo. You didn’t read the post-it, did you?” Woohyun points a finger back to the bathroom, then disappears around a corner, heading towards the crying.

Back in the bathroom Sunggyu squints at the vanity mirror. There’s definitely something on it, but without his glasses he can see very well. It takes a quick trip back to bedroom to get his glasses from the bedside table before he’s ready to read the note scribbled across a tiny yellow square.

Aloud he reads, “If you hear crying that’s Tomo. You love him. He’s your son.”

Huh.

“You okay?” Woohyun asks, appearing in the mirror behind him. He’s got a chubby baby balanced on one hip who’s now wildly on a pacifier. He’s completely adorable with a round face, bright brown eyes and sweeping, baby fine hair that rests across his forehead. He’s dressed in a onesie that … that Sunggyu remembers buying for him almost a week earlier.

“Of course,” Sunggyu replies a little snappishly, rescuing Tomo from Woohyun’s arms. “I’m not an ineffective parent like you.” He pats Tomo’s back gently, rocking down into a bobbing motion that the baby is especially fond of.

Woohyun crosses his arms and snorts. “Being the mean parent doesn’t mean you’re the more effective one. It just means you’re the mean one.”

“Whatever.” Sunggyu breezes past him, asking, “You went to the market this morning?”

They settle into their every day routine, the one that Sunggyu’s fought tooth and nail to be alive for. He sets Tomohiro down in his cushioned high chair and reaches for a jar of puréed fruit and vegetables. Tomo’s still nursing with a bottle, but Sunggyu’s been reading up on how soon to introduce actual foods to his diet, and at nine months, he’s ready.

Across the kitchen Woohyun portions out two bowls of rice and says, “The market was completely packed. Eight-thirty in the morning and I was fighting for pork belly with ninety year old ladies who had no shame beating me with their walking sticks.”

Sunggyu throws him a grin. “Next time I want to go with you. I have to see this.”

“You’re so mean,” Woohyun says, putting a bowl in front of Sunggyu then dropping a kiss to the top of his head. “I don’t even know why I love you. I might stop.”

Sunggyu flashes him a rude gesture, his medical alert bracelet jingling around as he does.

Woohyun slides into his own chair and says, “We need to talk about Tokyo.”

Sunggyu responds right away, “We’re not talking about Tokyo. We’re not going to Tokyo.”

“Gyu.” The look of patiently hidden disappointment is something Sunggyu can see so easily on Woohyun’s face, and it eats away at his stomach like acid. Not even prying Tomo’s bottle away from him in order to start him on green bean puree is enough of a distraction. “We promised we’d go see Hoya and Sungjong this year. They’ve had to come to us every time before. You know that’s not fair, and they really want to show us around Tokyo.”

“I just don’t see the point,” Sunggyu says, carefully guiding the spoon to Tomo’s mouth. Tiny, sock covered feet kick out at him, but the baby is hungry enough that he doesn’t’ fight losing his bottle. “Dongwoo’s here. Sungyeol and Myungsoo and Jiyeon are here. Why should all of us have to go to Tokyo when Hoya and Sungjong can just come to Oshima?”

“Because this isn’t really about traveling.”

In a way, however, Sunggyu supposes it is. It’s about feeling safe, and Sunggyu can’t lie and say he feels safe anywhere that an overly large population of people exist. Tokyo isn’t safe. It’s too bit, with too many people, and too many things waiting to happen.

“They’re not going to come back, Gyu.”

Them. Zombies. The thing that almost wiped out the human race.

“You don’t know that,” Sunggyu says quietly, and believes his own words with every inch of his heart. There hasn’t been an incident of infection in six months, the longest time period since, but in the six years since the initial outbreak, Sunggyu has never felt safe a day in his life. Granted, three of these years were spent in a coma, but he can’t willingly take his son where he doesn’t feel safe.

“I do know that,” Woohyun urges quietly, his hand resting on Sunggyu’s thigh. “And I would never let anything happen to you, or to Tomohiro. You believe that, don’t you?”

Sunggyu sets the baby food down and reaches out to push back some of Tomo’s hair. It’s getting a little long and it may be time for a haircut. Woohyun’s the overly emotional parent, but Sunggyu’s got a lock of hair from Tomo’s first haircut in a scrapbook in the living room. Maybe emotions are different when you have a baby of your own, and Sunggyu has had Tomohiro almost since his birth.

“I … believe you’ll try.”

But Woohyun can’t outrun an infected, and he can’t predict where the next outbreak will happen.

Right now they have a beautiful, perfect house less than three minutes away from the water where they own a small boat. And if the worst should happen, Sunggyu knows he can make the run in a minute an a half. He’s not risking Tomo or Woohyun because Hoya and Sungjong have chosen to live on mainland Japan.

Someday, Sunggyu believes, South Korea will be home again. Some day Sunggyu will get to visit the place he grew up in, and see the school he used to attend. Someday it will be safe again. Sunggyu will feel safe again. Today is not the day.

“I’ll more than try. Nothing will ever happen to you again.”

Sunggyu really tries not to think of the years Woohyun spent by his bedside, carrying on one sided conversations, hoping and hoping and hoping, wasting years of his life doing absolutely nothing.

It’s possible because he’ll also think about the loyalty Woohyun has in him, refusing to abandon him, and the utter dedication to the love they share that is proven each and every time Sunggyu looks at himself in the mirror and knows he’s alive because Woohyun refused to give up on him.

It’s something Sunggyu can never repay.

“All right,” Woohyun says with a sigh, taking Sunggyu’s silence for decisiveness. “I’ll call Hoya and tell him we’re not coming. But Sunggyu, you know it’s easier for your brother to get leave to a hot spot like Tokyo, and less so here.”

Sunggyu says pointedly, “He can take the ferry.”

Breakfast is eaten quickly, and Tomo needs another diaper change before the doorbell rings.

“Who’s that?” Sunggyu asks, sliding Tomo’s arm carefully through his new outfit for the day, deft fingers working quickly to avoid fussing.

The audible sound of a lock turning startles Sunggyu. Who else has a key to their home? His heart nearly leaps into his throat at the thought, but the saving grace is how Woohyun doesn’t move a muscle. He’s watching Sunggyu from the doorway, leaning a bit on the frame, a wide smile on his face.

“You look so hot, you know?”

“I smell like poop and I probably have it on me too,” Sunggyu says, discarding a soiled diaper in the nearby bin. “That’s not attractive, Woohyun. It’s unsanitary.”

“Taking care of our kid like that? So hot.”

Sunggyu feels his face heat. Still, after so many years, Woohyun’s greasy comments can make him feel so cherished and loved.

“Oppa! Oppa! Gyu Oppa!”

Sunggyu tries not to startle as a young girl, dressed in a navy school uniform skids into view, her schoolbag clutched between tight fingers.

Gently, Woohyun asks him, “Are you ready to walk Jiyeon to class?”

She’s talking a mile a minute, switching so easily between Korean and Japanese that it’s almost scary. Her hair is done up in a fancy French braid, one that she claims proudly is the result of Myungsoo Appa, and she’s bouncing on the balls of her feel so impatiently that she may actually hit the roof at some point. It seems a little unclear.

“Gyu?”

Jiyeon? How is this Jiyeon? Jiyeon is a sweet little baby Tomo’s size.

A headache is already building between Sunggyu’s eyes and he has to stop thinking entirely for a minute. The world blurs around him as his confusion mounts, and all of the sudden he feels like he’s going to be sick. He has to sit down. He has to get to a bathroom. He has to …

“You’re okay.”

Sunggyu opens his and looks up at the ceiling.

“You’re okay,” Woohyun says again. “Just breathe slowly, okay? I’ve got you.”

Sunggyu in deep, even breaths, feeling the way Woohyun cradles him in his arms, taking security in the embrace.

A second more and Sunggyu is aware that he’s sprawled out on the flood of Tomo’s nursery, legs twisted out awkwardly, with Woohyun tucked under him as if he’s cushioned Sunggyu’s fall.

“I’m okay,” Sunggyu says, because there’s nothing else to say. The confusion is fading, the dizziness as well.

After a second more Woohyun is moving, helping him to his feet. “No seizure this time.,” he remarks with relief. “Just a little dizziness. We forgot your carbamazepine with breakfast. Let me go get it now.” There’s a horrible look of guilt on Woohyun’s face as he disappears from sight.

“Gyu Oppa?” Jiyeon asks, her tiny fingers slipping into his and tugging a little. “Do you remember me today?”

He cuts her an odd look. “Of course I know who my favorite person ever is.”

Jiyeon flashes him a wide smile, a couple of baby teeth missing. “Oppa, can we get ice cream on the way to school?”

Sunggyu pulls a squirming Tomo into his arms and leads her from the nursery, lecturing, “You know you can’t have ice cream this early in the morning. There’s too much sugar, and the last thing you need to have running through your veins before being expected to sit in a chair all day long, is sugar. And what about your teeth? Cavities are no--”

“Oppa,” Jiyeon sighs out, swinging her bag around widely. “Yeol Appa and Myungsoo Appa already told me this.” Probably when she tried to worm ice cream out of them both, too. Jiyeon has a horrible sweet tooth. One that may cause her trouble down the line.

“Here,” Woohyun says, trading Tomo for a large pill and a glass of water. And Sunggyu doesn’t miss how Woohyun watches him carefully until the pill is swallowed down and gone.

“I’m going to be late!” Jiyeon calls out, dragging Sunggyu towards the front door.

It takes Sunggyu a half second to recall that it’s Tuesday, and on Tuesdays Sunggyu walks Jiyeon to her elementary school because Myungsoo and Sungyeol both work early. Woohyun takes her on Thursdays. Dongwoo picks her up almost every day after school, probably just so Dongwoo can have a valid excuse to go play at the local playground.

“I love you,” Woohyun says, pressing a kiss to Sunggyu’s mouth before Jiyeon can pull him fully out the door. Sunggyu most certainly feels Woohyun slide something into his pocket, but Jiyeon is stronger than she seems and she’s got him through the door before Sunggyu can even give Tomo a proper goodbye.

Jiyeon’s school is only around fifteen minutes away, and the walk is almost all downhill. Jiyeon fills the time it takes them to walk with idle chatter, telling him about her school work, how much she can’t wait for winter break, and what she thinks she’s getting for Christmas.

“A baby sister,” she says certainly, almost causing Sunggyu to trip. “I think that’s what I’m getting.”

“Why … ah … why would you say that?” Sunggyu asks, and this is certainly the first he’s heard of this.

“Because,” Jiyeon drawls out. “Yeol Appa went to see Ms. Tuskino. She’s the lady who gave you and Woohyun Oppa Tomo, right?”

“You’re smarter than people give you credit for,” Sunggyu tells her, almost bursting with pride. Tuskino is the name of the adoption specialist he and Woohyun used to become parents. And there is only one reason Myungsoo and Sungyeol would be talking to her.

“What if it’s a baby brother?”

Jiyeon makes a face. “I already have Tomo. He’s sort of like my brother. I need a sister now. We need more, um, girls around here.”

Sunggyu smoothes a hand down the back of her hair. “Too smart for your own good.”

Jiyeon is safely delivered to school just in time for the first bell, and he lingers at the school gates to give he a final wave. Then he turns on heel and heads back home. Woohyun will have to leave for work soon, even if he only has to work a half day, but Sunggyu wants to get as much time in with him as possible. Sunggyu loves Tomo, and won’t give him up for anything in the world. But it’s hard to be intimate with the man he calls his husband, when a baby is crying for attention or food or a diaper change every fifteen minutes.

He’s almost forgotten about whatever is in his pocket by the time he passes the florist stand a block away from home. He shucks a hand into his pocket, upset he’s forgotten his gloves, and feels the paper folded over.

It says, ‘Your name is Kim Sunggyu’, and goes on to list his address, Woohyun’s full name and place of employment, several emergency contact numbers, and a brief message urging him to remain calm, breathe, and remember not to panic.

It’s humiliating.

How many times has Woohyun done this? Every time Sunggyu leaves the house? Every time they’re separated?

How many times has he had to use the information?

Taking a seat on a nearby bench, Sunggyu bows his head forward.

Sunggyu is not stupid. He is fully aware that he is suffering from brain damage. He knows that six years ago he caught the flu, and for whatever reason at all, he developed a case of secondary bacterial pneumonia. This is something he doesn’t remember at all, like it never happened. And Woohyun’s only told him once, after hours of begging and pleading, and under the condition that he never asks again.

His brain damage is either from his lack of oxygen over a significant period, or his too high fever, or maybe a combination of them. Maybe even a little from the added shock of going septic, and his body turning on itself.

Regardless, he has problems with his memory. He forgets things, important things, and the idea alone is terrifying. Some mornings he wakes up and doesn’t remember who Tomo is, or Woohyun. Sometimes he doesn’t know why he’s on Oshima, or that zombies turned out to be a very real thing. And the worst part is, the absolute worst, is that when it all comes rushing back to him, like a freight train, it’s like he never forgot anything at all.

The seizures aren’t much better. Endless pills for his epilepsy and compromised immune system and his kidney that is just barely hanging on.

Some days Sunggyu feels like falling apart.

Some days he hopes he will.

“Gyu.”

Sunggyu looks up to find Woohyun standing not too far from him, a concerned look on his face. He’s got Tomo tucked comfortably into his jacket, the baby wearing a wooly hat and resting quietly.

Sunggyu is so tired of seeing the look on Woohyun’s face.

“I got worried,” Woohyun says, sitting carefully next to him. “I thought …”

“That I wandered off like a bumbling idiot?” He so damn angry. “Maybe you should put a tracking device in me, like Jiyeon’s puppy.

Woohyun drags his fingers gently across Sunggyu’s jaw. “No, actually. I was worried you had a seizure. This morning could have been a precursor, and we got your medication into you late today. I was worried you had a seizure and the people around you didn’t know to get you into the recovery position or call for an ambulance if necessary.”

Sunggyu leans into Woohyun’s fingers, unable to fight to feeling of comfort they provide. They also seem to make him honest, because he manages to choke out, “I hate this.”

“Hate what? Walking Jiyeon to school? She try to get ice cream out of her favorite Oppa again?”

“Ha-ha,” Sunggyu says sourly. “You know what I mean. I hate this. I hate being broken.”

“You are not broken,” Woohyun says fiercely, his fingers catching Sunggyu’s jaw firmly. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that again, either. You are not broken.”

A little childishly, Sunggyu responds, “You can’t tell me what to do.”

Woohyun’s voice puffs out in front of him as he says, “I absolutely can tell you what to do, when you want to be self deprecating like this. You are not damaged okay? You are a survivor. And the true survivors, the ones who’ve gone through hell and back and made it, are the ones who carry scars as reminders. Your epilepsy and memory loss are scars. I know they , I hate that you have to deal with it, but they mean something important to me. They mean that you’re alive and you’re with me.”

Sunggyu’s shoulders slump. “I also hate you’re stuck with me like this. You deserve better.”

Woohyun chokes out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? Sunggyu, I never for once second imagined someone so strong and brilliant would ever give me the time of day. Especially when I tried to woo you in the beginning and failed miserably. So don’t you dare think I deserve better, because the fact that I get to have any of you, let alone your love, is almost unimaginable to me.”

Tomo fusses a little for a second, then settles down, and Sunggyu feels so guilty for Woohyun having to bring the baby out in the cold weather.

“You can’t even trust your son with me,” Sunggyu says.

“I would never trust him with someone else more.” Woohyun’s fingers turn Sunggyu’s head so they can kiss properly. Woohyun’s lips are cold, and the air is too frosty for much heavy kissing, but it serves to take the edge off and relax Sunggyu.

“I love you,” Woohyun says. “I love you no matter what we have to deal with or go through, because it’s nothing compare to where we’ve come from. I was prepared to spend my life sitting next to your hospital bed, and look at us now. We have a home and a family. We have each other. How can you not be grateful for that? Sometimes I’m so grateful I can barely breathe.”

Sunggyu lets out a long breath, and when he focuses on Tomo once more, he’s fussing and blinking up at him.

Sunggyu remembers the day he came home with them, barely the length of Sunggyu’s forearm, swaddled in a soft blue blanket, nameless and all theirs. Sunggyu remembers holding him and swearing to him that he will always be loved and cared for, and feeling like his heart can’t possibly get any bigger than it already is.

“Doesn’t it bother you I won’t ever get better? That I might get worse?”

“Nah.” Woohyun stands and pulls Sunggyu to his feet. “I thought you might never wake up at one point. This isn’t so bad in comparison. Now come on, we have to get home. Tomo’s going to catch a chill and I have to get to work.”

Sunggyu lets Woohyun take him home, even though he certainly remembers the way. Tomo gets put down in his playpen, the spoiled baby surrounded by toys, and Sunggyu pulls Woohyun towards the shower for a quick warm up.

Nothing, Sunggyu decides, feeling Woohyun’s mouth against his neck as the water sprays down around them, will ever make him feel better about the situation. He doesn’t understand how Woohyun can trust him with Tomohiro, when Sunggyu can’t trust himself. And he doesn’t know how Woohyun can constantly care for him, when Sunggyu gets tired of himself sometimes.

But when Woohyun’s hand snakes down between his legs, him to hardness, mumbling how much he loves Sunggyu against his skin, Sunggyu is so, so damn thankful.

They do not go the mainland for winter break. Sunggyu absolutely holds true to his fear and won’t let Woohyun even entertain the idea of taking their baby near so many people. Instead they stay on Oshima, Hoya and Sungjong come to them, and they have their annual Christmas party at Myungsoo and Sungyeol’s home.

Hoya comes with a brand new haircut and pictures of the girl he’s dating, and Sungjong comes with his high school diploma and college acceptance letter. When he’s got his back turned to the group, Hoya whispers at Sunggyu, “Make sure you ask him about manning up about Sakura. Kenji’s been pushing at them to get serious, considering they’ve been dating for over three years now. Kenji won’t let them live together until they do.”

Sunggyu has to ask Woohyun who Sakura is. The only saving factor in the whole mess is that Woohyun never lets him feel like forgetting things is his fault. So when he mumbles back that Sakura is Kenji’s little sister, and Sungjong’s girlfriend, Sunggyu doesn’t completely feel like a fool.

Jiyeon in all actuality ends up getting her new sibling, though it’s most certainly not a girl.

“We could have held out for a girl,” Sungyeol explains, his eyes never leaving Myungsoo who’s across the room, precious bundle in hand. “It would have only been another year or so, but they had a boy ready to go right away, and we decide to leap for once, instead of looking and debating.”

Sunggyu wonders sometimes about Myungsoo and his abrupt discharge from the military. As far as Sunggyu knows, it’s an honorable discharge, with fully papers to prove it, but there’s always been something a little off about it. Sungyeol surely knows, but he’s never said anything, and Sunggyu is just happy enough to see his friends together that he doesn’t question it. But Yunho’s involved some how. Sunggyu doesn’t now how, but his brother most certainly has pulled strings for Myungsoo.

“Hey,” Dongwoo announces, catching all of their attention as he holds up his hands for silence. “I have an announcement!”

Dongwoo’s apparently going all in with his love for food, determined to open his own restaurant and become a small business owner. They all pat him on the back, wish him the best, and Sunggyu wonders if he’s the only one not doing something with his life at the moment.

Yunho doesn’t quite make it for Christmas, he’s a day and a half late, but when he does come, it’s with so many presents for Tomo and Jiyeon that he’s promptly forgiven.

“You look so good,” Yunho says wrapping Sunggyu up into a tight hug. There’s something a little too guilty about Yunho’s face whenever they see each other, which unfortunately is more like once a year now, twice if they’re lucky. He’s tried to ask Yunho before, but it’s hard to get across what the feels when he sees the looks Yunho gives him, and has thus far given up.

“Of course he does!” Woohyun announces loudly, dumping Tomo into his arms. “Here. Spoil your nephew for a while.”

Sunggyu observes the silent communication between Woohyun and Yunho and knows he’s the subject, but he also knows getting the content out of either of them is a loser’s folly.

Yunho tells them all about the effort to take back South Korea from a combination of the lingering infected and North Koreans. He promises they’re only years away from putting a civilian population back on the land.

“You’ll have a house waiting for you,” Yunho says, tickling Tomo and then tossing him up in the air. “Sunggyu the minute it’s safe to come back and you do, you’ll have a house and a job and anything you need.”

Sunggyu crosses his arms and points out, “I can’t have a job right now.” Maybe ever. His mind can’t be trusted with anything significant, even just showing up every morning for work. No employer will hire him. Sunggyu understands the reality of the situation.

“At least not a traditional type of job,” Woohyun says, his arm going around Sunggyu’s shoulders. “We’re still considering our options.”

Yunho, thankfully, doesn’t press the issue. All he says, lifting Tomo into the air one more time, is, “How is it possible you two ended up with such an adorable kid?”

“Lucky?” Sunggyu asks.

“We’re deserving,” Woohyun says instead. “It’s a universal truth that only the cutest kids go to the most deserving parents, ergo, you have your answer.”

Yunho gives Woohyun a playful swat. “Then where’s my kid?”

Sunggyu teases, “Maybe when you stop being married to that ship of yours, you’ll have room for a kid in your life.”

“Not likely,” Yunho laughs. “But as long as I get to come visit my insanely adorable nephew, I’m okay.”

Because they live in the real world, and not a fairytale where everything always works out perfectly in the end, Sunggyu continue to struggle with forgetting. He cycles through medication like candy, and some days can’t even remember his own name.

By Tomohiro’s second birthday Sunggyu needs a kidney transplant, for which Yunho is blessedly a perfect match.

And a year afterwards, the infection that’s thought to be completely eradicated, pops back up in Uganda of all places, spreading through Africa until it’s trampled to death three months later.

It’s during these times, when they get the occasional post card from Kenji, impossible to kill Kenji, that Sunggyu feels the smallest spark of hope that things can and will be okay.

However, It’s not until Yunho’s asking him, nine years after the first outbreak, if he wants to move back to South Korea, that Sunggyu realizes he’s not afraid anymore. Tomo’s in school, Sunggyu and Woohyun have a new baby in the family, and for the first time ever, they go to mainland Japan for winter holiday.

“Do you want to?” Woohyun asks him in bed at night, their skin sweaty and slick from making love, both of their children sleeping in their bedrooms. Woohyun rubs his fingers across Sunggyu’s back and wonders, “Will going there be good for you? We don’t have to even consider it, if you don’t want to. We can stay here. I’m perfectly okay with staying here.”

“I want to think about it,” Sunggyu says. He isn’t hesitating because he’s scared any more. He’s hesitating because it’s taken a lot of work for Woohyun and himself to get to where they are in their lives.

Tomo has his school here, and the baby, Emiko, has only ever known Oshima. Sunggyu has his part time volunteer work at the local community center, and Woohyun has his full time job at the bank. They’re both fluent in Japanese now, and if they leave Oshma, they won’t just be leaving their home, they’ll be leaving the friends they considering family.

Finally, days after Yunho’s proposition that they go back to South Korea, Sunggyu sits next to Woohyun on the sofa and says honestly, “I want to stay. I am South Korean in my heart. I was born there, my parents raised me there, and I do want to go back one day and visit. But this is our home now. This is everything I’ve ever wanted, and I don’t want to leave. Do you want to go home to South Korea?”

Woohyun gives him a genuine smile, kisses Sunggyu deeply, then says, “You’re wrong about South Korea being home. Home is where you are for me. Home is where our kids are and our friends and everything that makes us happy. If you want to stay then I want to stay. Understand?”

The flush of love that rushes through Sunggyu when he looks and Woohyun is almost ridiculous in its intensity, and he gives Woohyun a shove and says, “I’ll never understand how you can be so greasy.”

Woohyun tackles him, kissing him again and again. “You love it when I’m greasy.”

Sunggyu wraps his arms around the back of Woohyu’s neck, and just for a second, lets himself admit, “Maybe just a little.”

“A little?” Woohyun teases.

“I love you,” Sunggyu responds, pecking him on the lips. “Don’t push your luck.”

Woohyun laughs and Sunggyu can’t help agreeing with his earlier statement. This is home. Woohyun is home. Their friends turned family are home. Their children are home. And everything else is unimportant.

And so that’s it. My baby is done. Honestly, I wrote this story on a whim, to fulfill a plot bunny of my own. And I wrote it knowing that it was writing in a genre that is hit or miss with a lot of people. I knew there was a chance that the story wouldn’t be warmly received, simply because zombies are not for a lot of people even a story telling device. So I tried to focus on the human aspect, and make this more about the people surviving, and less about the threat they’re dealing with.

I want to say thank you so much to EVERYONE. I have received some of the nicest, best comments I’ve ever gotten on any story, and the level of interaction has been amazing. You readers have been so supportive, whether you’re simply coming back chapter after chapter, or leaving a few kind words. I write first and foremost for myself, but to share it with others, and have them receive it warmly, is something incredibly wonderful and humbling. Thank you all so much, for being a part of this.

Now, this is the only time I will ever ask for feedback. TELL ME what you thought. I want to know, with a complete picture and all the chapters, what your experience with this story was. Drop a comment with your favorite things, any questions you might have, something you wanted to see but didn’t, or just a word or two telling me that you were here and your liked what you read. This is the moment. Take three second and drop a comment with your thoughts. It’ll mean a lot!

Also, quickly, to fill in a bit of the story points where Sunggyu and the others weren’t present, I’ve written a couple of additional bonus chapters. There are three of them, taking place at various points in the story, and they’re told from three different perspectives. They’re going to come out every couple of days, much faster than the regular chapters, and should offer just a little more insight into other characters. Please look for them very shortly.