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Finding her current spot on the map was fairly easy; it was trying to find the military base that was hard.

Eventually, through all of the small print of random cities and intersection names, she found it. Camp Humphreys. About 42 miles from her current location.

She made her way down a highway, where she began to see the streets flooded with cars, and nobody in them, which confused and worried her.

What exactly happened?

Upon closer inspection, she saw that most keys were still in the ignition, and were switched “on”.

“Why would people leave their car on and then leave?” She asked herself, but she felt like she knew the answer, and it unsettled her.

She kept walking through the cars, looking for any sign of life.

Soojung’s mind started to race. Is there a war going on? Is that why the military was evacuating everyone? Soojung gasped. Is there a zombie apocalypse?

Currently, anything was possible to Soojung; no human interaction for two weeks. She was basically stranded. There might as well have been a zombie apocalypse.

Soojung took a couple more steps before she started to smell something – something terrible; rancid. She wanted to throw up; what was that smell?

A few more hesitant steps, and she saw the source of the smell – a body. Bodies. Multiple of them. Dead.

Soojung gasped in fear; she couldn’t believe her eyes, yet her nose was telling her that yes, this is real, you’re smelling it ­– and she wanted to faint from the sight.

She couldn’t even cry; she was too shocked. How did they die? When did they die? Why has no one helped them?

“Hello?” Soojung called out weakly, hoping for an answer.

No response.

Of course. She was talking to dead bodies. Dead bodies don’t respond.

Unless they were zombies.

Zombies aren’t real, idiot. Soojung thinks to herself.

She takes a small step closer to the bodies, plugging her nose as she examines them.

She sees an exit wound of a bullet hole from a man’s shoulder blade; meaning that they were shot in the chest.

Soojung was grateful that the bodies were lying face down, so she wouldn’t have to stare face-to-face at a dead body, but she was more scared and confused.

“These people were shot to death?” She whispered to herself. “So there is a war?”

Before she could take another step, she feels a sharp pain in her abdomen before she hears the gunshot go off. She cries out in agony, falling to the floor next to the dead bodies.

She can’t die.

Not like this.

She needs to find her parents. She needs to find Eunwoo. Jieun.

It would be pointless to die like this.

She tries to hold her breath as she hears faint footsteps against the gravel. That was probably the person who shot her.

She slowly reaches for her gun from behind her waistband, and weakly switches the safety off.

Her heart was racing from the adrenaline coursing through her body.

Once she saw the person in her sight, she froze.

It was a man. He was wearing plain clothes, just like her.

“Please don’t kill me!” She cried out in fear. “I’m just a girl!”

She noticed that he did not lower his gun, and she was afraid. She was afraid that he was going to shoot her and kill her, but she was more afraid that she had the ability to shoot and kill him too.

“Why are you doing this?!” Soojung screamed out. She didn’t want to shoot this man.

Instead of lowering his gun, the man smiled, and it irked Soojung to her core.

“We need your planet.” The man finally speaks, and there was something unsettling about his voice.

Before he could fire his gun, Soojung quickly lifts out her arm and shoots.

The sheer force of the gun startled her; but she kept firing at the man. She only stopped firing when the man fell to the pavement, in a pool of his own blood.

As if the gun was on fire, Soojung quickly dropped the firearm in fear, as if she could not believe what she had done.

Tears started rolling down her face. She killed a man.

She was a murderer.

She sat up; she couldn’t stomach the sight of another dead body; after all, she was probably shot in the stomach.

She slowly got up, and picked up her gun, switching the safety back on, and slowly made her way towards the man she shot down.

She wiped her tears as they blurred her vision. She stared at the man who tried to kill her.

“Why?” She started to mutter at the dead body. She counted the bullet holes; one in the arm, two in the chest.

She couldn’t believe it; she was the one who did that.

“Why did you make me do this?” She cried out. “Why did you want to hurt me?”

She grabbed the gun from the man’s hand, wondering if she should take it or not; after much consideration, she placed it carefully in her backpack.

She walked back over to where she dropped her map, noticing the blood splatter on it; most likely hers.

She looked down, and noticed the blood starting to spread through the fabric of her shirt. She pressed down with her hand, and groaned out in pain when coming in contact with the bullet wound. She pressed down harder to stop the bleeding, gritting her teeth from the pain.

 

 

 

 

Soojung began to make her way into the wooded area next to the highway; after all, she felt safer in the woods than the road; she didn’t want to be target practice for someone else, and the woods provided more cover.

Unfortunately, the more steps she took, the dizzier she got. Soojung deducted it was from the lack of blood; it did look like she was losing a lot; after all, a lot of blood was oozing out from her hand.

She took another step, before feeling faint, falling on the floor, crying out in pain.

Her head dropped to the floor, her eyes drooping closed.

She heard shouting and a few dark figures in her blurry vision before everything out.

 

 

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