Worn-down boots carefully stepped through the aisles of an abandoned supermarket.

Some aisles had been knocked over, cans of food and broken glass littering the floor. Jaehwan slinked through the store, grabbing a bit of everything he that he might need in the future. Recording items in a mental list, he kept stock of all the supplies he took.

As his pack became bulkier and heavier, Jaehwan heard slow, wailing groans from near him, accompanied by uneven steps, and he turned rigid, like a wooden board. The Infected were near, and getting closer. As Jaehwan slowly pulled out his gun and pointed it in the direction of the sound, a large wave of screaming undead knocked over the shelf of food in front of him, and he leapt away before it could crush him. It landed with a loud crash, and more corpses were attracted to the sound. Jaehwan didn’t have enough ammunition to spare on an entire horde of them, but he didn’t know what to do otherwise, since he had never been attacked by more than a few small groups at a time. He took a deep breath, before ramming his knee into an Infected’s gut and, using his fist, punching straight through its head. Rotting brain matter splattered everywhere, and the smell was horrific.

As the undead closed in further, he moved even more quickly, tearing off heads and busting through brains. Jaehwan’s hands were slippery with gore and greyish, thick zombie blood as he blindly reached for the sauce containers on nearby shelves. He broke a glass container of Vietnamese fish sauce over one Infected’s head, caving it in. It let out a miserable groan, before falling to the ground in a puddle of its own blood, brain matter, and fish sauce. Jaehwan hurled the sharp remnants of the bottle at the crowd of zombies, knocking one’s head off. Cold sweat sheened his pale skin as the undead only moved closer.

“Get out of the way, please,” a feathery-soft voice came out from above Jaehwan. Another person leapt off the top of the shelf behind Taekwoon, and before he knew it, bashed in the head of almost every Infected around him using a massive baseball bat. The mysterious, bat-wielding stranger landed almost laughably on the linoleum, slipping on the zombie innards and spilt sauce. Jaehwan’s dark eyes widened when he came face-to-face with the other man.

His appearance was reminiscent to a doll, except it was a doll that was outgrown and thrown away by its owner, with white skin stained with undertones of blues and yellow, lifeless chocolate eyes rimmed with fading eyeliner, a narrow nose, and a very thin build. The stranger’s hair was dyed a dusky pink, falling over his eyes from time to time.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” the stranger grinned at Jaehwan, eyes creasing up and dimples appearing on his cheeks. “My name is Hongbin, and you are…?” “Why did you do that?” Jaehwan stared at Hongbin, didn’t say anything. He noticed that his own voice was hushed and a bit raspy from not talking for such a long time.

Hongbin felt that that question was self-explanatory, so he didn’t answer. “Can we get out of here, now?” He gripped his baseball bat a little tighter, and his eyes kept scanning the area. “Since when did we agree that we were a team?” Jaehwan furrowed his eyebrows. “Since we found each other. I’m lonely, and I really only saved you because you… Well, you were the only actual living person around that I had seen in a really long time, and when you were surrounded by the Infected, I really felt that I had to help you…” Hongbin lowered his head.

Half of Jaehwan wanted him to grab Hongbin and go home, but the other half screamed at him about how Hongbin could’ve just made the whole story up and was trying to trick him into something.

Jaehwan ignored the latter. “Let’s go to my place, then.”

They walked in silence through the deserted, dusty streets to Jaehwan’s hideout. It was at the very other side of the city, and the walk was long, but Hongbin didn’t complain. Jaehwan’s shelter wasn’t anything particularly impressive, in his opinion. It was just off a narrow little side path through some dense trees, at the very edge of the drop that lead straight into the ocean. When he saw Hongbin’s look of amazement, however, Jaehwan felt confused. “Wow!” Hongbin grinned so wide, Jaehwan thought his face would crack apart. He ran over to the little shack, looking at it as if it were the grandest castle in the world. “Can I go in?” Hongbin asked, with such a large smile that Jaehwan felt that he couldn’t deny him. “Go ahead,” Jaehwan shrugged, smiling at Hongbin, much to his own surprise. Hongbin ran around the small shack like a hyperactive mouse, looking for food. He dug through every cabinet and box he could see in the shelter. “You have the best shelter I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Hongbin beamed at Jaehwan with such sincerity that Jaehwan felt odd. He wondered how Hongbin was able to change emotions so quickly.

“Want some tea?”

“You have tea?”

“Not that much… But I can spare some for a guest,” Jaehwan pulled out tea bags from a small shelf he had made out of attaching wooden box frames to the wall. “I have some leftover hot water in a thermos… Now I just have to find cups…”

After fifteen minutes of searching and thinking, Jaehwan serves tea to Hongbin in his own mug and drinks his tea out of a chipped bowl. “What were you even doing in the supermarket, anyways? I didn’t notice you there,” Jaehwan watches Hongbin quietly sip the tea out of the old mug.

“Just getting supplies, I guess. Just like you,” Hongbin shrugs, savoring the citrusy aroma of the tea. Earl Grey, he guessed.

The two men sat on the dusty, faded green couch together in silence for a while. Jaehwan couldn’t say that the silence was unwelcome; instead, it was calming, just to be in the company of another person after months- or years- of solitude.

“What’s your story?” Jaehwan blurted, inwardly cringing at the wording. Hongbin didn’t seem to notice, however.

“Let’s see… I was born in Seoul, in 1993.”

“You should call me hyung, then. Jaehwan-hyung,” Jaehwan’s eyes were fond. It was these small things that Jaehwan really missed after being alone. “I was born in 1992, in Seoul.”

Hongbin’s smile was forced, eyes downcast. “OK… hyung. Anyways, then, everything was normal until the Outbreak. I…” He faltered, hands gripping his mug a bit harder. “My parents were the first to get Infected, in my family. I… I shot them that night, using a gun my dad kept in the attic. They were about to attack my sisters, and I couldn’t let that happen. It was kinda useless, though,” Hongbin sighed miserably. “They were attacked the next day, by other undead. I was alone, so I left with some clothes and some food. I also brought my cat, but she ran away and I never saw her again after that. For a few months, I was on the run with a… friend, Chansik. Everything was fine for quite a long time, actually. He was good with knives. We had a shelter, deep in the city, and plenty of supplies. One day, sometime in the winter, Chansik and I were walking through the snow. A group of Infecteds, larger than the one you encountered today, surrounded us. Chansik helped me fight them off, but he was drained by the end, trying to protect… me. Just as he was catching his breath, another horde of them showed up. I think his body just couldn’t hold up. The snow was deep, making it hard to move. It was frigid outside, too. He was Infected, and I ran. I couldn’t put him to rest. I couldn’t bring myself up to it,” Hongbin’s head was completely lowered, and his hands were shaking so hard that some of the tea was spilling out onto the ground. 

He took a deep breath, voice trembling as he continued. “I know I’m a coward. It was my fault he was Infected. I l-loved him, Jaehwan, I did. He was like a brother to me, always on the lookout for me.” Hongbin’s hands were gripping the armrests of the sofa so hard his knuckles were white.

“That’s the real reason I saved you. I swore to myself that night that I would… save anyone I saw, so they wouldn’t end up like Chansik did. I… also vowed to become a better fighter, so I wouldn’t fail anyone like that ever again. I felt that someday, maybe I would be able to end this ‘apocalypse’ myself. No more Survivors would suffer anymore.” Hongbin in a breath sharply.

“So, that’s it to my story. Then, I met you. The story continues.”

Jaehwan turned the bowl around in his hands, having finished all the tea. In a way, he pitied Hongbin. For chasing after this impossible dream, seemingly alone and unprepared for anything. But in another way, he admired Hongbin. For having a goal, driven by pure ambition and dripping with rage.

Hongbin held cooling tea in colder hands, eyes focused on the pale-colored tea in his mug. “I said too much, didn’t I? My life’s just another sob story, cliche as , just like in all the storybooks.” He chuckled quietly, wide smile appearing on his face again, only his eyes were bitter this time.

Jaehwan shook his head, not knowing what to say. “You know, I feel… fortunate...now. For me, no one died. No one was Infected. I lived in an orphanage for my entire childhood. After the Outbreak, I was overjoyed, because the orphanage owners told us they couldn’t take care of us anymore. We were free to go. I was one of the oldest at the orphanage, so I left alone with some possessions and food. I’ve been living at this shack since I left. All of that might have ended today, though, if you hadn’t been there. I mean, seriously, I was outnumbered, using things like Sriracha for weapons. I’m really grateful I met you, even though you’re a brat sometimes…”

Hongbin glanced up at Jaehwan, expression unreadable.

Jaehwan sighed, glancing out a mildewy window. The sun seemed to be setting, although it wasn’t clear since it was cloudy outside, so he got up and closed the makeshift curtains around the windows. “Can’t afford to have them see us,” he explained, before barricading the door and lighting small candles around the shack. “You look hungry. I’ll fix us some dinner,” Jaehwan headed toward the kitchen area.

“Can I help?” Hongbin asked almost inaudibly.

“Do what makes you happy,” Jaehwan replied, thankful. By the time it was fully dark outside, Jaehwan and Hongbin had created an odd concoction of Spam, cheese, and pasta, and they shared it in one large casserole dish. Each one of them had a small container of strawberry milk, which Jaehwan had kept inside his evaporation fridge. They sat on tree stumps Jaehwan had found lying near the shack when he first inhabited it, eating on a table made up of an upside down plastic milk box with a wooden plank drilled onto it. A sticky PVC tablecloth was carelessly tossed on top of it, sides slightly frayed because he had messily cut around it, using the excess cloth to make curtains. Hongbin glanced at the windows, eyebrows furrowed as he ate his pasta.

“Hongbin-ah, you can stay the night if you want. It’s pretty dangerous around here at night, and you don’t know the way,” Jaehwan tried to look reassuring at Hongbin.

“YES. Please. Please let me stay,” Hongbin suddenly looked panicked, attitude completely changed.

“You probably have to, anyways. Listen,” Jaehwan glanced at Hongbin expectantly. The clink, clink of raindrops’ impacts on the shack’s metal roof, echoed by the crash of thunder, was suddenly deafening. Hongbin sat up so suddenly on his seat, he knocked over his empty container of milk. It landed on the ground soundlessly. Hongbin was sitting as straight as a pole, hands shaking in his lap and sweat sheening his colorless skin. “Hongbin?” Jaehwan could almost feel the tension, rolling off Hongbin’s body in waves.