Chapter 1

 

                                                                                                                          The air turned chilly from the unclosed drafts in the cafeteria and all that did was make the situation worse for the two brothers and one guy who had no family relation to the other two. The eerie sound of wailing could be heard from outside the broken glass windows that made the youngest of them all cuddle against his brothers chest, his hands gripping onto the body that he hoped would protect him. Baekhyun’s brother, Baekyoung smoothened the young boys' hair in hope of comforting him when he, himself, had no idea what they were supposed to do next. They had been in the same place for 3 days without a goal of where to go and what to do. All sources of communication were cut off and before they knew it, they were joined by a stranger who seemed just as clueless as they were.   “Chen.” That was the first thing he said as he introduced himself, his shoulders rising into a shrug when he had climbed into the cafeteria with a huff, taking Baekyoung and Baekhyun by surprise.  Baekhyun had immediately taken a step backward with no intention to help the stranger but Baekyoung was the total opposite. Byun Baekyoung had quickly grabbed a chair, rushing to one of the open windows while climbing onto it to give the newcomer a helping hand. Baekhyun, who was staring at the guy who had introduced himself as Chen, squinted at the figure unable to hide his distaste. The fact that the cafeteria had food was good, however, most of the things they had were spoiled and there were very few canned foods left. The addition of a stranger would be a burden to him and his brother and the small structured boy hated to think that it would last them a limited number of days.   But different from his younger brother, Baekyoung was carefully hoisting the new guy towards the cafeteria table and running to get him a glass of water. Once taking a gulp, Chen passed a smile to Baekyoung with a small thank you. “Were you bitten?” Baekyoung asked, his eyes scanning the new guy. If Chen was bitten, it was no doubt that it would put him and Baekhyun in danger. Chen’s white jacket had turned a brownish-maroonish color that made the two brothers wonder if he was infected. “No, but I fell into a pool of blood running from the left wing.” Chen answered, rubbing his head. “The situation out there is very bad. I could not find a single normal person other than the other two that were with me. When they said evacuate, I thought lightly of it until the power got cut out today. Not that I have a place to evacuate too…” Chen nodded, biting his lip. “But once I stepped out of the music building, these people that I recognized started running after us...” “Why did you come alone?” Baekhyun asked, curiousity sparking up in his eyes and Chen drew a breath, giving one more a shrug. “One got bitten, and the other ran towards another direction. I have no idea where they are right now. I ran into a couple of them but took a U-turn near the fountain and climbed the tree up front. Now, here I am.” Another shrug and Baekyoung nodded grimly. Chen looked around the big cafeteria that was for the ‘Nursing and Medical’ students. The faculty had a huge amount of students compared to the other faculties, so the cafeteria was two times bigger than any other building.   “It’s big in here. Nursing students are so lucky.” Chen mumbled, trying to strike up a conversation and Baekhyun merely looked at him from the floor. Baekhyun had sat a good distance away, not wanting go any closer. To him… How could he be sure that this Chen guy could be trusted?  “They are…” Baekyoung said, coming back holding a plate with canned fruits and placing it in front of Chen making Baekhyun frown. He did not like the fact that his brother was sharing the food that they were supposed to save for themselves. “I’m not a Nursing student though. I’m from Commerce.” Baekyoung continued and passed a smile to Chen. “My name is Byun Baekyoung and this is my brother, Byun Baekhyun. He’s the one in Nursing.” “I’m Chen, as I said, from Music and Sound.” Chen his lips and took a bite of the canned fruits before asking. “So you were here the past 3 days?” “Yeah. Baekhyun injured his leg a few days ago so I came to this building to take a look at it when the signal of evacuation happened but no one could bring us home. Our parents…” Baekyoung’s voice weighed down before continuing his story. “Our parents told us to wait here and they would pick us up so we did. But…” “They never arrived?” Chen asked. “They are coming, it’s just that the phone lines are all cut so they can’t find us yet.” Baekhyun interrupted and Baekyoung gave a small smile to Chen. “That is what we hope. How about you? How did you survive the past three days?” Baekyoung inquired a