"Look, you've even got Anna believing that a cure exists!" Casper said, sighing at Shin. Seyoung seemed to drop his aim slightly, still pointing the gun at Takuya but now looking at Anna.

"Explain. How come you never mentioned this before?" Seyoung said, with an emotion in his voice that even he couldn't place.

"My mom was a scientist. She worked in a lab a few streets over and when the outbreak started, the priority of the lab was to try and find the cause and potentially a cure. A few nights before she disappeared, she told me that she had nearly found it and that it still had to be tested. She gave me her notebook the day before she disappeared. It has her notes in it, she updated it every day. You can use them." She explained, they all look from one to the other. Shin then moves to push down Seyoung’s gun and look him in the eye.

"Let's try it, please. If it doesn't work, we'll do it if we have to. Just let me do it. I at least owe him that." Shin said, Seyoung looked at Takuya, struggling against Yongseok’s hold and nods.

"Okay, Yongseok, Sangmin and I will go look for her stuff. We'll be back soon. The rest of you, keep an eye on him." Seyoung says, walking out of the cell. He taps Casper’s arm and says low enough for just Casper to hear "If anything happens, don't hesitate, just shoot." Casper nods before going back to read his book again.

"I know where my stuff is, shouldn't I be coming with you? It'll be easier if I take you there." Anna says, pulling on Seyoung’s pant leg.

"We've already got one casualty. We don't need another. Just tell us where it is. We'll find it ourselves." Seyoung said, she slowly nodded and explained where she had been hiding. It was only a few rooms away from their original room.

The scouting team moved slowly down the hallway, heading towards the room where the girl had stayed with her mother. So far the only zombies they had encountered were shot dead on the floor.

They stop and hear a light tapping of footsteps behind them and they turn, guns raised to shoot. They notice Anna a few metres behind them. Yongseok runs over, grabs her hand and pulls her over to them. In her left hand was one of Shin's pistols.

“What are you doing here Anna? We told you to stay behind. And why do you have that?” Yongseok asks, sounding like a nagging mother, whilst looking at the pistol held tight in her hand.

“You don’t know where you’re going. Come on, I’ll show you where to go.” Anna pulls Yongseok by the hand back down the hallway. Seyoung and Sangmin quickly follow, not wanting to leave those two unprotected.

Before they could follow them round the corner, they heard a scream and two gun shots. They run faster to see Yongseok has fallen backwards over a dead zombie whilst Anna was pointing the pistol at another zombie that was lying dead on the floor.  Sangmin was storing this in his ‘ways to embarrass Yongseok’ mental folder.

“Come on, I don’t think we need an explanation, Yongseok. We all heard that girly scream. Now get off your and get moving.” Seyoung said, looking at Yongseok who just sat there like a goldfish with his mouth half open. Sangmin grabbed his wrist and pulled him up. They walked in silence until Anna found her old room.

She quickly ran to a pile of blankets and took a worn journal out from underneath and put it in the bag Sangmin was carrying. In the bag, she also threw a few personal items, like photos and clothes. Yongseok saw a small white rabbit with a disproportionately big blue bow around it’s neck. He took it and put it in Sangmin’s bag to give to Anna later. They quickly hurried back to the new base with the others.

Shin immediately started to dig through the bag when they returned. He found the journal and started flipping through it, reading page after page trying to find anything that he could do to reverse Takuya’s suffering. He flipped through and stopped after reading something that immediately caught his eye.

“OH! OH! OH! GUYS, COME LISTEN TO THIS! LOOK!” He shouted, a little louder than he probably needed to. Everyone gathered around, looking between Takuya and Shin.

“Listen to this.” Shin said before he started to read.

”’Just like the cures from many diseases come from the disease itself, I think we should look for the solution with the problem in mind. Like treating a snakebite, you use the venom to create an anti-venom. Maybe a similar logic can be applied here, to treat a zombie bite, you might be able to isolate the venom from the bite to create a cure.’ This was one of the last things, written in here. So judging by this and what Anna told us, I think she might have been onto something here.” Shin explained, remembering how Anna said that her mother wrote in the journal almost daily.

“That actually sounds quite logical. Maybe we should try that. Yongseok, you said you had plans for some experiments right? Does this fit?” Seyoung asked, looking at the younger for a response.

“I think it could fit, Sangmin and I were planning tests on different antibiotics and antivirals but I think we could try it with something extracted from a zombie, maybe a saliva sample would work.” He explained, Sangmin nodded alongside him.

“Okay, that settles it. We’ll head out to the lab again tomorrow. Get some rest. We move out early in the morning, whilst Takuya is still docile enough for us to move him.” Seyoung said. Shin again went into Takuya’s cell. He never wanted to leave Takuya’s side. Whilst Takuya was there, he felt calm and safe, as weird as that might sound right now. He wanted to be there for his friend, especially now that he was vulnerable. They all slowly drifted to sleep, Takuya still wake and struggling against his bindings, ready for the next day of moving and initial experimenting so that they could work to save their friend and, let’s not forget, the rest of the planet.