t/w (more towards the end of the chapter) - blood

Our group wasn’t doing too good. Doyeon had been taken last night and we couldn’t manage to save her. The people who took her had a car and we did not - it was useless to try to chase after them on foot. Yoojung, a girl whom I didn’t know very well, was torn and had recklessly tried to keep running after the truck. I, as the voted leader, had to run after her and stop her whilst the rest of them had to keep her from going once again, taking turns keeping watch on her during the rest of the night.

Although I didn’t know much about her, I knew that she and Doyeon were close. They were together when we first found them in an abandoned school, linked by the arms (which probably isn’t the best idea in the zombie apocalypse). We had taken them as the latest additions into our group ever since and now there was eleven of us. (Ten now that Doyeon had been taken).

“Are we not going to go after Doyeon?” Yoojung asked agitatedly as the sun rose, entering our choice of shelter through tinted windows. The living room we all slept in together began to turn a light orange grey and we could hear birds chirping. I had woken up an hour ago only to see Yoojung sitting on the windowsill, staring out into the world. She had stopped trying to go after Doyeon, probably realizing it was just a death trap to run out alone.

Her cheeks were stained with tears as she turned her head to look at me.

“Nayoung, aren’t we?” She whispered lowly, brokenly. I looked around towards the other girls who were all starting to wake up one by one. My eyes met with Sejeong, who just gave a tired smile.

“Girls, wake up.” I spoke loud enough for my voice to resonate through the living room. I sat on the couch and waited for all of them to get up and at least be in a sitting position. They were all tired and hungry, as expected. We had been short of food for about three days, sparingly giving each person a ration of one spoon at each meal time. We were all agitated and in bad moods. “Girls, wake up.” I repeated.

Yoojung seemed a bit pissed at me for brushing off her question as she turned and continued to stare outside with her jaw clenched. Once all the girls seemed awake enough to comprehend actual words, I began to speak.

“We should start moving again.” I announced. All the girls’ eyes seemed to widen and a few of them opened their mouths to complain. I held my hand up, effectively stopping them. “We’ve been on a shortage of everything.” I said even though they all knew of the struggles we had been through the past few weeks. “We need to keep moving if we want to stay alive.”

“Or if we want to die.” Yeonjung mumbled, causing Somi to shove her lightly, eyebrows furrowed and lips turned downwards. I just sighed, knowing they were going to be like this.

Since the group had become eleven, we had settled into the house with purpose on staying here and making this our official home. We had a schedule on which pairs would go out to scavenge for supplies, me being the only volunteer to go solo once it was my turn. That was about a year ago, if my marks on the walls are accurate. They had become accustomed to this house and this lifestyle and it was completely my fault for allowing them to get comfortable again in such a world.

“We are going to head in the direction the van took off in.” I could see Yoojung’s head snap over in the corner of my eyes. “We’ll take anything along the way and, hopefully, be able to find Doyeon.”

“Nayoung, we don’t even have proper weapons.” Yeonjung replied back. She was alone when we found her, hostile before and after we had taken her in. I don’t think I’d ever seen her smile and I’m pretty sure she had some sort of grudge against me. Why? I don’t know.

“Then we’ll get some.” I said, eyes scanning over the other girls sitting in front of me on the ground. “Staying here is not safe, especially after those men know where we are. We must move quickly if we want to find another shelter suitable enough for the eleven of us.” I was speaking smoothly, keeping my voice steady and raised. My eyes glanced outside. “We should leave before the morning ends.”

“You want us to leave today?” Sohye, one of the less survival-inclined girls, asked me with eyebrows raised. Sohye was my neighbor that I found in her bedroom, curled into a ball in the corner of her room. I couldn’t just leave her there, especially not after I murdered her two infected parents. And she had been with me ever since.

“I’m not taking any risks.” I said with a tone of finality. “Go pack any of your important, personal things. Sejeong and I will pack the food and water for the group.” I saw Sejeong nod and there was a moment of silence before all the girls got up and went to their respective rooms. I got up and waited for Sejeong to rise.

My eyes travelled over to the younger girl on the other side of the room. Yoojung’s legs dangled from the windowsill for a moment before she hopped off and walked towards me slowly. Without expecting it, Yoojung’s arms curled around my waist and she pulled me into a hug, head turned sideways against my chest as her eyes closed tightly. “Thank you.” She whispered.

One hand went to pat Yoojung’s head whilst the other went to squeeze the girl’s shoulder. “It’s no problem at all, Yoojung.” I replied, ruffling her hair lightly. She hummed.

She let go of me after a few seconds before heading off to pack. I turned to see Sejeong already holding a duffel bag with a small smile on her face.

She and I went to the kitchen and began to pack the few cans of water bottles and food we had left. We were silent as we worked, something that wasn’t so uncommon between us. Most people were uncomfortable with my silence, making the air around us awkward - but it wasn’t like that with Sejeong. She was a warm person. Her warm aura even during the apocalypse made me wonder how warm and friendly she was before the apocalypse.

Mina, a smaller girl we had found with Sejeong, had told me that Sejeong was and is still the nicest person she had ever known. She told me that there used to be another girl with them but she had turned. She said she had never seen Sejeong so down in the dumps. She said it was like a bright star had lost its light.

I wished to never see that side of Sejeong.

“Will we be taking the main roads?” Sejeong asked me as she placed a water bottle into the bag. I opted to ask for her thoughts on this.

“What do you think we should do?”

If I had to choose one person I trusted most in this group, it’d be Sejeong.

Sejeong just smiled when I asked her. “I think that you know best what we should do as the leader.”

She always liked to play that ‘As the leader’ card on me. Sejeong knew I wanted her to be the leader instead of me. It had been a vote split between Sejeong and I, with me winning with only one more vote. Mina, Somi, Sohye, Yeonjung, and I had voted for Sejeong whilst Sejeong, Doyeon, Yoojung, Chaeyeon, Chungha, and Jieqiong voted for me with Chungha switching sides three times before yelling “Ah! This is too difficult, Nayoung, you do it!” (Darn you, Chungha.)

I stared at Sejeong blankly before she let out a laugh. I let my the corner of my lips rise up a little before continuing to talk. “I don’t think we should go on the main roads because there would probably be more undead over there.”

“Just call them zombies for once, Nayoung.” She let out another laugh, zipping up the bag once we packed everything.

It was a thing all the girls made fun of me for but I had a very real reason for my dislike towards the word. Whenever I’d hear it, before and after the epidemic, I’d think of fictional stories and movies - but this was anything but fiction - this was real life and those monsters out there aren’t just actors in some show or movie thus explaining my dislike towards the word.

Sejeong lifted the bag with a grunt. “It sounds like a good plan.” She nodded to me. “I agree with you. I would always travel with Sohye down the forest instead of the streets. It made everything seem less scary.”

“So, you know the way?” I asked her as we walked back to the living room. She hummed.

“More or less.”

“Then you’ll take lead for the beginning portion of the trip.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” She saluted me. I rolled my eyes before walking deeper into the rest of the house, peeking my head in each room to check that the girls were doing what they were supposed to do, and they were. Despite the grudges some of them held for me being the leader and not Sejeong, they listened to me nicely (even if they did mutter complaints under their breath).

I looked into the room Yoojung shared with Doyeon to see her sitting on the edge of the single bed, staring down at her feet. Her backpack was opened but it was on the floor, seemingly empty. I entered the room and spoke to make my presence known. “Do you want to pack some of Doyeon’s stuff, too?”

She looked up at me with teary eyes, nodding like a small child. I gave her a comforting smile. “I’ll help you.” I kneeled down in front of the drawer that the two of them shared, opening the bottom one to be greeted with piles of old photos, mostly just containing the two of them but some of their old families and friends never to be seen again.

My hand scooped up everything, spotting a purple backpack in the corner of the room. “Is that her bag?” I asked Yoojung gently. She hummed, giving a sniffle. I took the bag and gently placed the photos inside despite knowing they would probably all get crumpled up along the journey. We were supposed to pack lightly but my heart couldn’t bear to leave a single photo behind.

Doyeon had a lot of personal things. She had a diary, a favorite stuffed animal, a favorite shirt, tons of photos, and little post-it notes from years ago, all signed by a small heart in the bottom right corner. I didn’t ask about anything but it did pique my interest as the notes all seemed from a significant other. Doyeon and Yoojung never told us much about themselves despite us all living together. They mostly spent their time alone and, even when we did have group chats, they never spoke up about their old lives.

Once I seemed to have gathered everything of Doyeon’s that was deemed a necessity, I decided to use Doyeon’s bag to carry the small amount of personal belongings I had (With Yoojung’s permission, of course. If Doyeon wasn’t there for me to ask then the next best person to ask was Yoojung).

I walked back out into the living room where I often slept alone. The girls who were already finished packing sat on the ground, talking amongst themselves. I lifted up a cushion on the rough couch I slept on for a little over a year and scanned my eyes over my own belongings. I couldn’t help but feel a little less human than all the other girls. They all had pictures to remind them of their lives before and I didn’t have any pictures but instead, a leather journal I kept with me at all times filled with notes about what and what not to do mixed in with writing entries whenever things would get too rough and I didn’t want to confide in anybody else for comfort. Tossing the uneasy feeling in my heart, I opened to the page marked by a fold, finding a rough trace of the area we currently housed in.

My eyes scanned over the smudged black pen, trying to figure out which path was best to take with all ten girls. I opened the cap on my pen and drew a bolded line on the path I believed was best for us to take. My hand was shaking as I did this. These girls were depending on me to bring them to another safe shelter and yet I had no idea when the next safe shelter would be bestowed upon us. I took a deep breath and went with my gut instinct, stuffing the journal into Doyeon’s purple bag along with the pen.

I left the cushion up as I stood up, counting the girls in the room in my head. When I counted nine, I was confused for only a moment before remembering that Doyeon had been taken. My teeth gritted and I felt something light up inside me. “Are we all good?” I asked the group. There was a chorus of ‘Yes’s among them and I nodded. “We’re going to go through the forest. It’ll be safer that way - less of crowds to run into.”

“What about weapons?” Chaeyeon asked before Yeonjung nodded in agreement. “Yeah, what about those? How are we going to fight those things off?”

“We won’t have to if we keep moving and act wittily.” I responded coolly although I was also uneasy about the lack of weapons we had. Currently, we really only had about three weapons; a rugged baseball bat, a machete, and an old, rusty screwdriver. During the trip, I would have the baseball bat, Sejeong would have the machete, and Yeonjung, who Sejeong and I decided would be in the middle of the group, would have the screwdriver. “We still have our brains, girls.” I said to them. “Those things do not. Just stay with the group and we’ll be fine, okay?”

Low mumbles ensued and I sighed. “Let’s go, before it gets even the slightest bit dark. Sejeong will have one flashlight and she’ll be at the front of the group. I’ll have the second flashlight and I’ll be at the back.” I spoke as they all got up to their feet. It was a while since we all travelled as one group. One by one, they filed out of the front door and down the front steps.

The stench of death hit them all in a matter of seconds, the odor much stronger once you’re outside than it was when you were inside. We took off in a quick walking pace but not up to a jogging level. We needed to preserve our energy in case something actually happens, opting not to rush the journey.

It was only about thirty minutes until we reached the entrance of the forest. We had a few run-ins with the undead but managed to escape without any bloodshed from either side. The forest smelled much better than the town did but the smell of death lingered everywhere in the world nowadays.

“It’s going to take us about a couple of hours to get through this forest and come out on the other side.” Sejeong said to the group in a quiet voice, not wanting to attract anything.

So far, so good. Our flashlights weren’t on as the sun was still shining down brightly upon us. The twigs and leaves under our feet crunched with each step we took and I cringed every time it happened. Those things had surprisingly good hearing and the littlest noise could rile them up. I was starting to second-guess my decision to go through the forest but we were already halfway through it. Too late to turn back now.

“Wait.” Sejeong stopped walking, causing everyone else to freeze in their steps. “We can’t.” Sejeong turned around, spotting Nayoung’s eyes through the group of girls, shaking her head. She made a motion for the girls to walk back. “We can’t.”

I walked closer and took her arm, turning her around from the girls so we could talk quietly. I knew that what she had to say could ensue panic and distress into the rest of the girls. “What is it?”

“Do you smell it?” Sejeong asked me seriously, sweat dripping down her cheek. I took a moment to sniff and - it didn’t smell like anything out of the ordinary to me.

“It’s different.” Sejeong said. “It smells like they aren’t as rotten - that they’re new and hungry. It smells stronger… There’s probably a whole group.”

I tried to smell it once more and could finally understand what Sejeong was saying.

“So, what? Do we turn back?” I asked Sejeong, feeling fear creep into my veins. We were doing so good and now this.

“Nayoung.” A voice whispered harshly from the group. I could see the girls were all starting to lower their bodies, eyes seemingly paralyzed in horror. My head turned to see two of the undead walk out from behind a couple of trees just a couple ways down from the group. It wasn’t long until two turned to five and five turned to ten. It was the most amount of undead that the majority of the girls had seen at once. I gripped Sejeong’s arm tighter. “Give me the machete, take the bat. Bring them in another direction, quick.”

We swapped weapons and Sejeong rallied the girls and they took off. I stayed crouch, not letting the group get too far from my sights but not letting those undead out of my sight. I could see that a few of them veered their directions towards the group and cursed under my breath. I felt a drop of sweat fall onto my upper lip and I wiped it away before jumping up from my crouching position and yelling at the top of my lungs.

After successfully signing my own death contract, I gripped the handle of the machete tightly, head turning to the direction the group had headed off into. They had all stopped and turned back to look at me. I caught Sejeong’s eyes and gave her a sharp nod. She said something to the group and they continued on, continuously looking back towards me with each step they took. I counted the seconds as the horde continued to walk towards me. There was a bunch of them and I surely couldn’t kill all of them. Once they were close enough for me to see their rotting faces, I took off running as fast as I could in the opposite direction of the girls.

I really hoped this would work. The horde followed me, most of them tripping over roots and branches. Hell, even I tripped over a few fallen trees and branches, creating a small gash in my left arm. It stung but I got up and kept going.

This continued for almost an hour before I suddenly made a beeline and hoped the horde wasn’t smart enough to figure out which direction I went. The trees were denser now and you could barely see through them, the setting sun wasn’t aiding in my struggle to escape. I squeezed through rough bark and scratched my entire body up as I did so but the adrenaline was rushing through my veins and right now my only want was for the girls to have found somewhere safe and away from the horde.

Eventually, I had circled back to the original spot with the horde nowhere in sight.

‘Good job, Nayoung.’ I thought to myself as I struggled to regain my breath, taking off in a slow, lazy manner in the direction the girls had went off in. The moon was out by now and I clicked the flashlight on. My legs felt like they were burning and the cut on my arm was throbbing, a trail of blood going from the cut down to my palm. I tightened my jaw and kept going. I had to find the girls first before I do any sort of first aid (mainly because I had no clue how to do it).

I reached a clearing in the forest and froze, brain completely ignoring the corpses lying there lifelessly. My eyes scanned the area and looked around for any sort of sign. There were no signs and I felt defeated. I leaned on a nearby tree and felt the sudden urge to cry. I had no idea where to go and it was already dark out. I lifted my flashlight and ran it back and forth along the treeline. There was no way I could know where the hell to go. I began to panic, feeling my stomach churn.

I had to find them.

My feet began to move quicker even though they were still worn out from the marathon I had ran earlier. I stumbled over roots and nearly stabbed myself with the machete as I tripped and fell. My breaths were coming out short as I stopped suddenly and looked around with my flashlight. Everything seemed the same - all the trees looked identical. I felt like I was going in circles.

I kept going straight before it got too dark to see with my dim flashlight. I sat between two trees that had grown right beside each other and closed my eyes, feeling tired yet awake at the same time. I fell asleep that night just hoping that the girls were safe, even if I was not.

-

When I had awoken, I got up immediately and headed in the direction I was originally heading towards. It was a gamble for me to take off in such a random direction with no clue where the girls had gone, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

Finally, I found my way out of the forest and onto an unfamiliar street of the next town over. I was a mess physically and emotionally. I dragged my feet down the empty, abandoned streets of the town, eventually getting out of the residential area and finding the shopping area.

It was then that I found a group just down the block. I could see them through the front windows of the market, they were all gathered around a checkout lane. I walked closer, heart being fast as I hoped that those were my girls. I then spotted the dufflebag Sejeong and I had used to pack the food and water on the ground next to them.

I felt an overwhelming sensation of relief flood through my body as I hurried towards them. I entered the market through the broken automatic door and the girls all looked at me with wide eyes. It was silent as my eyes ran over each and every one of them, making sure none of them were injured.

It was then that I caught Jieqiong’s eyes connecting with mine. Her eyes were glossed over with tears and memories of our lives before the virus broke out came hitting me like a truck. My own eyes began to water as the familiar girl walked closer.

The machete fell loose in my hand and clattered onto the tiled ground as Jieqiong’s arms wrapped around my shoulders tightly. I melted into her hug with my arms circling around her waist and face burying into the side of her neck. A shaky breath came from me as I closed my eyes, the fatigue hitting me all at once. The earlier adrenaline had worn off and the fear that coursed through my entire being disappeared as Jieqiong tightened her hold on me.

I didn’t even care about the cut on my arm because Jieqiong’s embrace made me feel safe, enveloping me in comforting silence. I hadn’t realized I was crying until one of Jieqiong’s hands reached up and ran her fingers through my hair, shushing me softly. I could faintly hear Sejeong telling the rest of the girls to head back into the storage room of the market to give us some privacy.

A hiccup came from me as my tears drenched Jieqiong’s shirt. I hadn’t felt that alone and terrified in over a year. It was a scary thing to come back and experience again.

“We thought you didn’t make it.” Jieqiong whispered. I sniffled and pulled away. “But you did.” She said quietly, eyes scanning over me. She gasped when she saw the cut on my arm, reaching for my wrist as her eyes zeroed in on the gash. “Let’s go get this cleaned and bandaged up.”

I stopped her, causing her eyes to come back up to meet mine. Our eyes flickered between each other’s before Jieqiong’s lips pursed and she smiled, reaching a hand up to cup my cheek. “You saved all of us, Nayoung.” She said, thumb brushing away the tears on my dirtied skin. I felt my chest tighten at the way she looked at me - the way she looked at me had never changed from since before and after the epidemic. She seemed to sense my thoughts as she lowered her hand and took a step back, eyes fluttering to the ground before coming back up to meet mine, a sort of fake, refined look in them now.

“We have to take care of your cut.”

But my cut wasn’t the only thing hurting.

I nodded and she led me to the back of the market, into the storage room where the rest of the girls were.

“You’re a .” Yeonjung said as soon as I entered the large room. I took a small step back at the statement, slightly taken aback. Yoojung punched her arm but Yeonjung just narrowed her eyes, standing up from the ground. “You could’ve died.”

Jieqiong placed a hand on Yeonjung’s shoulder, keeping her from coming any closer to me. “Yeonjung, stop.” Yeonjung looked over at Jieqiong before back at me.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Her tone softened only the slightest bit so I didn’t feel like she’d stab me with the screwdriver in her pocket. “We could’ve done something together, you know?” She shrugged Jieqiong’s hand off of her shoulder, shooting a glare towards the girl. “We’re a team.” She said sternly, the hostility building up again. “You can’t just - “

Sejeong intervened. “Nayoung took one for the team and she’s still here.” She wrapped an arm around Yeonjung, the girl scowling. “We both panicked and we didn’t know what to do. Nayoung took things into her own hands and acted upon impulse - which didn’t turn out too badly.” Yeonjung’s agitation seemed to simmer down. Sejeong always knew what to say to stop things from escalating.

Sejeong’s eyes then looked down onto the cut on my arm. “We have to get that cleaned before you get infected.” She said, turning and reaching into the duffel bag.

“It’s not a bite, is it?” Chaeyeon asked quietly and the other girls quickly turned silent. I saw Sejeong stop searching through the bag to look at me. The girls stared at me with wide eyes.

“I fell.” I replied, voice coming out in such a monotone that even I was surprised by it.

It caused a bit of laughter to come from the group of girls and Sejeong continued to fish through the bag for the first aid kid. Somi stood, throwing her arms up. “Our Stone Nayoung is back!” She announced with a giggle. Jieqiong let out a whoop and Mina clapped while laughing. I rolled my eyes even though I was smiling and felt my chest swell up in happiness.

These girls were all I had now and I intended on keeping every single one of them close to me - even if that means going up against a group of deranged, kidnapping men to get one of them back.

WOO chapter one is done! the story is only getting started! i had a dream about zombies and when i woke up the dream was still very vividly in my brain so from seven in the morning to ten in the morning i wrote this! actual feedback on the chapter and the characters are appreciated instead of comments just consisting of ‘update soon!’ but, ofc, all comments are appreciated. <3

-dd.