They’re Zombies, We’re Survivors - Season 2 Chapter 9

                                                                              It took a moment for everything to register to everyone, the silence of the room slowly suffocating Kris before he whipped his head around, a hand trembling as he pointed at the girl on the screen. That was is daughter, and seeing that she was alive again was sending him waves of emotion. “That’s my daughter.” He breathed. Suho, sensing the turmoil that his friend was going through at the sight of his daughter in a cage, stepped forward and laid his hand on Kris’ shoulder before pulling him back a bit; but Kris did not budge.

Kris swatted Suho’s hand away and the abrupt motion made the whole room move, the guards suddenly had guns up, pointing at them as if Kris had now turned into a threat and not an ally. Everyone in the group had went through so much that even this did not truly come out as a surprise. Each twist and turn that had happened seemed to have prepared everyone for this moment and once the guns were out, all of them moved into motion and stepped forward, shielding Kris.

Leeteuk looked troubled, but not alert as all of them were. The older man simply nodded before waving a hand in order to motion his men to stand back. All it took was a wave of his hand and with a click, the guards all had their guns lowered to the ground.

“I understand. I assure you that we’ll do our very best to extract her.” Leeteuk began but Kris shook his head, a foot placed forward until Yixing reached out to pull him by the back of his shirt. 

“You don’t understand. That’s my daughter. I want to be on the team to extract her too. I’ve been looking everywhere for her and I can’t—“

“That’s not possible, Kris. We’re a team of professionals and we work under strict orders. By putting you on the team, you may jeopardize the whole mission and—“

“Professionals? Are you serious? I have gone through hell and back just to be here and now I want my daughter back.” Kris hissed and everyone in the room jumped. The sudden pike in his voice seemed to raise the panic in all of Leeteuk’s minions, all of them suddenly taking a step forward.

They have seen Kris mad, of course. They have seen each other go through every possible emotion there was to feel but this— this was different. Kris’ fists were clenched, his eyes were bloodshot and he was deadpan on doing something. Everyone knew one thing, whatever Kris wanted, he would get it done. Ellie stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder and for a moment he softened under her touch but not until Leeteuk began speaking again.

“Again, this isn’t something you should even be bothered about. We will be discussing plans and we’ll share with you anything that we have in order to give you a peace of mind, but for now, do get some rest.”

And before Kris could even say anything, Leeteuk had walked out of the room and his armed minions had began to usher all of them out.

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Kris was pacing around the room, his hands wringing as he hung his head and stared at the ceiling. The man just had too many thoughts in his head, it was clouding his judgement and he knew that they were right. He being on the mission would be jeopardizing the whole process and he had no idea why he acted that way. He knew that he had to trust them— besides, what could go wrong?

“Sit down, Kris. You’re giving me a headache.” Baekyoung murmured before sighing heavily. “I know you’re worried, but please— you know there’s nothing you can do unless you believe that praying is going to give them luck in getting your daughter here alive.”

“I know, I know.” Kris walked to his side of the room and plopped himself down onto his bed. “I should be happy she’s alive, but why am I worried?”

“Because you know it’s dangerous out there. But have you seen them? They have machine guns and trained people. She’ll be fine.”

“You’re right.”

The room was plunged into comfortable silence again until Baekyoung threw him a pillow and Kris caught it with ease when a sound of knocking on the door sounded. It was a very suspiciously frantic knock that made the two men look at each other with worry before Baekyoung yelled out a “Come in!”

“What’s wrong, guys?”

Yixing came into the room, his hand holding the robot that he fixed back in the island. He carried it around all the time, it was like a 5 year old’s teddy bear— except it would sometimes pick up signals. He was then followed by Suho who seemed like he had the world on his shoulders. Yixing was unusually pale and reluctant, Baekyoung automatically felt the worry radiating from the hacker.

“You okay, Yixing?”

“Uh…” Yixing began before he sat down on the floor in front of them, his fingers fiddling with the robot.

“You know, theres a chair over there. Is something wrong?” Kris questioned, his eyebrows starting to furrow at the man in front of him. Kris’s gaze bounced back between Yixing and Suho.

“It’s just…” Yixing begun before pursing his lips and going straight to the topic. As eccentric as he was, he knew time was of the essence. “I accidentally heard it. Kris, haven’t you wondered why they didn’t ask to check on you? You’re related to your daughter, you’re the father of the child that doesn’t turn. Or why they haven’t gotten an antidote yet even though Tao was also once a zombie and is now human? There are so many people here who never turned and the ship itself hasn’t gotten an antidote yet— you know why?”

Kris raised an eyebrow at the guy before him, waiting for his response. He knew it wouldn’t be good, he was ready for it.

“It’s because to get an antidote, you may need to kill someone.” Suho was the one who spoke this time, his voice soft as he stared at Kris. He was scared of Kris’ reaction to this new information. Meanwhile, Kris felt his stomach drop and he sat up, knowing that he should have trusted his gut. It was too good to be true. Life was too good to be true these days, he knew that it wasn’t over just yet.

“I have to get her.” Kris said the words everyone in the room knew they would hear. “I need to go and get her myself. But if I do that, I won’t be able to come back.”

“What are you saying? That you’ll go alone and get her and never come back to this place?” Baekyoung’s voice was skeptical of Kris’ idea of a plan.

“You know I can’t bring her here if I were to go and save her. These people are people pretending to be good people. I’m going to go and get her and bring her somewhere safe. You guys stay here so you enjoy your safety—“

“Woah. So you mean, you’ll leave us and go off living with your daughter somewhere dangerously back in Korea?” This time it was Suho who was worried. “How do you know you’re even going to succeed?”

“I don’t.”

The sinking feeling increased and Kris knew this wasn’t going to end well, but he knew that he would never be able to forgive himself if he didn’t try. It also was the only way to save his daughter and keep all of them safe- they didn’t have the same reinforcements that Leeteuk had, and he wouldn’t be able to concoct a plan that would make sure all of them would be safe. They were better off on the ship.

“Well, if you want to do that, the submarine is leaving tomorrow night. There are two submarines leaving, one is for the extraction team and the other is some VIP submarine. If you were to save your daughter, you should go to the first one, be in the extraction team and once they try to extract her- you create a diversion and leave. ” Yixing mumbled under his breath, his head down. He then peeked up at Kris and sighed. “I understand it’s your daughter and you have to do what you have to do. So if you ever need help, I’m here.”

“Thank you, Yixing.” Kris replied before motioning to Yixing’s robot. “You’re saying you heard their plan from the robot? Why would they have a VIP submarine?”

“Yeah, it still picks up signals. And none of the signals here are protected because we’re in the middle of the sea. Beats me.” Yixing answered, referring to Kris’ question. “I know it’s going the same route as the extraction team so maybe it’s just a different team with a different mission.” Yixing lifted the robot up like his first new born child and offered it to Kris who shook his head.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be even more suspicious if I were to walk around with a robot in my arms.”

Kris shuddered at the idea of him walking around with a robot in his arms be