“W-Where’s mom?” I asked, my voice catching in my throat. They all paused, looking down. I ran up to the car and looked in the back to see that she wasn’t there. I went over to my father and looked him in the eye.

“Dad. Where the hell is mom?!” I yelled, starting to panic. As I watched him I saw him do something that I hadn’t seen for a long time. He started to cry.

“S-She’s gone, Av.” He whispered. “We were grabbing food and she opened up this door that was locked. We were thinking that it wasn’t a good idea, but she is stubborn…you know that. So, she opened it…a-and,” He stopped, not being able to finish the sentence. Tears started to form in my eyes, not wanting to believe a single word of what he was saying.

“No. T-that can’t be true,” I said, shaking my head. “She wouldn’t just die like that! She wouldn’t die…she can’t.” I looked at all of them in disbelief, feeling anger form inside of me. How could they let her do that, I thought. My father reached for me.

“Don’t touch me,” I spat, sounding harsher than I meant, the tears now falling onto my cheeks. “I… need to be alone.” And with that I walked back into the house, passing by everyone who tried to stop me. I walked up to the bedroom and closed the door. I had no idea how to react or what to do so instead, I just crawled under the covers and stared at the wall.

Thoughts started to circle around in my head, bringing back the memories of her and what she looked like before she left. My eyes started to water at the image of her smile, and how she kissed my head before leaving. I breathed out, trying my best to stop the tears. But when I heard my sister screaming downstairs I lost it. Our mother was gone and she was not coming back.

I could hear Bomi crying from the living room and my heart started to break into pieces. Next thing I knew, Bomi came into the room, slamming the door behind her.

I immediately sat up and started to wipe the tears from my eyes. She looked at me and I looked at her. It was as if we understood each other at this moment. We didn’t words to understand that we were both not okay. We didn’t need to tell each other what we were feeling and how angry we were at our father. We just knew that we were both not okay.

She came running over and went into my arms. We both cried, as we hugged each other tightly, mourning the loss of our parent. No one came to disturb us, knowing that we probably need some time to ourselves.

We fell asleep like that, holding each other as the tears still fell from our eyes. And it was right before I fell asleep that I was going to make sure that nothing would ever harm Bomi. Nothing would get to her… even if I died trying.

~~~~

Jimin heard Avri and Bomi crying upstairs and did not know what to make of the situation. He was upset as well as he loved Ji-Eun. She was like a second mom to him and hearing that she was one of them now made his heart hurt.

But he didn’t cry. No. He had to stay strong for everyone else. For Avri.

Avri’s father was crying at this point as well and the others were a mess. It was silent as we sat in the living room, no one wanting to say a thing. All that could be heard were the cries of her two daughters, painful and heart-wrenching.

Eventually, Jimin went and started to unload the food from the cars into the house. His mother came to help him, just walking in silence.

They had found a good amount of food but it wasn’t going to be enough. It would last them maybe a week at best. And then Jimin knew that this would never stop.

There would always be more runs, more zombies, more danger. He couldn’t help but think that the next run was going to go as this last one had. He was determined then to go next time, wanting to make sure that everyone was okay and that if anything was to happen, he would be there to help.

He would make sure everyone else got out safe and that they would get the stuff they needed no matter what would happen.

Even if he died trying.