Eight
Phoenix[CONTENTID1]Phoenix[/CONTENTID1]
[CONTENTID2]Chapter Eight[/CONTENTID2]
[CONTENTID3]
“Byun Baekhyun! Where do you think you’re going?”
Seri appeared in the hallway with crossed arms and a challenging glare. Chanyeol and Sehun paused, their gazes moving from her to Baekhyun. Five days had passed since he had gotten injured, and within this period, Seri had watched over him like a lioness. He had listened to her for the most part and avoided arduous tasks (his docility had amused Sehun and Chanyeol). However, he seemed to have changed his mind this morning…
“We’re heading out to go fishing. I need to accompany them,” Baekhyun explained.
“I won’t allow it!”
His eyes narrowed. “You said I only have to rest for five days, and it’s been five days! You can’t make me stay home all the time.”
“Watch me,” she said and came towards him. “I’m your doctor and when I say you still need rest, then you rest.” Thankfully, she was accustomed to patients who had ants in their pants, just like Baekhyun. Such people had to be faced with insistence.
“My rank is higher than—”
“Do I look like I give a about ranks? I don’t care if you’re a captain or not. You’re staying here.” Her fierce stare was loaded with determination, and yet something unmistakably soft was hidden in it. “I’m sure Sehun and Chanyeol can handle it on their own. Isn’t that right, boys?”
Their eyes widened in a panic, not having expected to be pulled into the argument. The surgeon’s intense stare made them stiffen. “Yes!” they said in unison.
“See? Stay here, Baekhyun, please.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again after a moment. Baekhyun couldn’t stand being told what to do, but under Seri’s scrutiny, he caved. A disgruntled sigh left him. “This is an exception.”
“Go back to bed right now!” she ordered which caused him to groan. Sehun and Chanyeol watched in amusement as their captain’s ears turned red. To spare himself further embarrassment, he fled to his bedroom.
“He’s stubborn,” Seri remarked. She hadn’t expected him to give in without further discussions, so this was a positive surprise. “I could accompany you instead,” she then offered the two soldiers.
Sehun chuckled nervously. “No offense, but the captain would kill us if you did that.”
“Why?”
“Seri, come on. He cares a lot about your safety! Besides, haven’t you noticed that he’s got a huge soft spot for you?” Chanyeol grinned. “He doesn’t let anyone boss him around like this.”
“If I spoke to him like that he would make me run a hundred laps around the house,” Sehun blanched and shuddered.
“Maybe you got a point,” Seri nodded. A warm sensation budded in her chest. “I wonder why…”
“What’s there to wonder? He already lets you sleep in his bed, the rest should be obvious,” Sehun joked, flustering her.
After Chanyeol and Sehun had left, she headed to Baekhyun’s room and knocked before she entered. Baekhyun sat on his bed, his back facing her as he stared out the window and watched snowflakes float from the sky. She gazed at his dark hair and noted that it had gotten longer since she first saw him. They had been traveling together for while. Although he was aware of her presence, the captain ignored her tenaciously.
“Baekhyun, are you sulking?” she teased. Still no reaction. Seri approached the bed and kneeled on the other side. “Hey, captain? Are you there?”
He didn’t react. Seri pursed her lips and huffed. It couldn’t be that hard to get a reaction out of him. She had learned how to push his buttons and knew what ticked him off. Smirking evilly, she crawled over the mattress and sat behind him.
“I don’t like it when you ignore me.” Seri reached out and hugged him from behind, mindful of his injury. Her arms coiled around his stomach. She laid her chin on his healthy shoulder and hummed a melody. The tips of her fingers danced across his abs ever so gently. A grin bloomed on her lips when his muscles tensed in response to her touch. Gotcha!
“Baekhyuuuun.”
“What?”
“Oh, so the mighty captain knows how to speak!” she joked with a dash of sarcasm. Thanks to his proximity, she didn’t notice the cold temperature in the room. “I’ve been graced by your wonderful voice,” she babbled in hopes of receiving a reaction from the soldier, and she succeeded.
“Seri, stop it,” he groaned.
“Aye, aye, captain.”
“I’m not a ing pirate,” he reminded her and raised his eyebrow, “And I’m still angry at you, stop clinging to me.”
“But it’s cold and you’re warm.” She snuggled up to him and closed her eyes. “Don’t be mad at me, please. All I want is for your injury to heal as fast as possible. You’re not invincible, Baekhyun, but you tend to forget. If you don’t take care of yourself, I’ll do it for you!”
He let out a long breath, his body slouching. “Shhh, I’m trying to stay mad.”
“So you’re not mad anymore.” Seri smiled and let go of him. She crawled over the mattress and sat next to him, their thighs touching. Although she considered herself to be a distant person, when it came to him, closeness wasn’t awkward. Not anymore. They had left that stage behind long ago.
“It’s boring to stay at home,” he complained.
“How do you think I feel when you make me stay home all the time? Now you know what it’s like!” she countered without sympathy. “Next time we’re going out, we’re going together.”
“Persistent,” he shook his head with a hint of frustration, but his lips twitched in amusement.
“I miss the freedom and safety of my old life. If this stupid pandemic hadn’t happened, I could have done so many things instead of being cooped up,” she sighed and stared at the ceiling. Her lips curved down.
“Like what?”
“Attend my weekly hapkido lessons, have coffee after work with my colleagues, and visit my parents during the weekend. All of that is over and won’t ever come back. The virus changed everything.”
“It has. I’ve been working for the military for many years, but my job got significantly harder after the outbreak… I haven’t accomplished anything noteworthy so far.”
“That’s not true! You’re doing your best to stay alive and you saved my life too. Several times even!”
“I could have done more. My old team in Incheon died while I was supposed to lead and protect them. I failed at the most important part of my job,” he muttered. “They all got infected.”
“A virus is an enemy you cannot fight with regular weapons. Baekhyun, it’s not your fault they got infected. Neither you nor anyone else has the knowledge and the equipment to cure the infected or to prevent the spread of the disease.”
“I know, I know, but I can’t help it. I still feel guilty because I’m the only member of my team who made it out alive.”
Her eyes became misty. She swallowed the thick lump in and fought the rising tears. “I know what it’s like. It . You want to meet them, but they’re not coming back. You feel sorry because it’s not fair that you’re still here when they’re not.”
Baekhyun’s subtle nod was followed by a deep frown. “Yes, precisely. How do you know?”
“I lost my co-workers and friends too, remember? Except for me, none of the hospital staff escaped. I used to be bitter about it because I saw no meaning in living on in this world. But later I realized that my life still has a purpose. It’s too valuable to throw away,” she explained with a faint smile. “And yours is too.”
He gazed down at his hands with a thoughtful expression. Seri had no idea what was running through his mind, but when he looked up at her, something had changed.
“I suppose I found a new purpose too. Or maybe she found me,” he answered and smiled.
“H-Huh? What’s that supposed to m—” She cut herself off. Seri paused and tilted her head. “Did you catch that?”
“Catch what?” He hesitated and listened. Noises could be heard, very familiar noises. These sounds had haunted them throughout the past two months. The eerie clacking of a zombie’s teeth when it was out for blood.
Baekhyun jumped up and strode to the window, checking the surroundings of the property. He didn’t like what he found. “Give me my gun,” he growled with a look so ferocious that she flinched under its intensity. The gun was on his nightstand right next to her, so she took it and handed it to him. While he cracked the window open, Seri gazed outside, dread eating at her.
A zombie stood at the garden gate. Its claws were wrapped around the iron bars as it pushed and pulled at them. The lock held up against its efforts to break into the property. It clacked its teeth, foaming at the mouth. The tattered suit it wore led Seri to believe it had once been a businessman, but now it was hard to even recognize its facial features.
Baekhyun cocked his gun and the subsequent noise alerted the zombie to their presence. Its sickly face snapped up to the window and fixated on them. Something akin to recognition twisted its ghastly exterior. It opened its jaw and let out a disturbing howl. Her eyes were glued to the morbid sight—even after Baekhyun shot it. He was an excellent shot and hit it between the eyes, taking it out fast and efficiently without wasting bullets. It dropped to the ground and was dead in an instant.
“Why is that thing out here? So far away from the center of town?” Baekhyun’s icy eyes glared at the zombie. “Something’s changing and I don’t like it…”
“More importantly, why did it try to get in? It didn’t even see us at first!”
“I don’t know how smart these things are, but this is alarming. This one was clever enough to make it here on his own.”
“How creepy,” she whispered and nervously tucked a lock of her brown hair behind her ear. Restlessness overcame her. She sought Baekhyun’s gaze. “Are we still safe here?”
He couldn’t answer her question.
December arrived too soon and brought along a terrible snowstorm and more zombie sightings close to their home. Oftentimes, the question arose whether they should leave and move to a different area. Not that this would be a good idea, given the terrible weather, but the zombies’ increasingly strange behavior was an indicator they couldn’t stay here forever.
Whenever a zombie appeared near the house, Seri felt less safe in their four walls. Her friends also were unsettled by this development. They were tight-lipped about their concerns, but their actions demonstrated what was on their minds. For instance, they started carrying their guns at home and kept them close even when they slept. Seri herself didn’t know how to properly use a firearm. Although Sehun had shown her the gist of it, she hadn’t been able to practice because they had to save their ammunition for when they really needed it.
Due to her anxiousness about the frequent zombie sightings, she refused to stay at home all alone while the others left the house. Sehun and Chanyeol wanted to go fishing later today, and Seri was eager to accompany them. Since Baekhyun had recovered from his injury, he would come with them, but he was reluctant to let Seri join. He couldn’t help it, the urge to protect her was too strong.
“Please, I want
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