Everything was going wrong.

It had been twenty minutes since Sandeul and Dongmin had arrived at their location, but no one was here. 

Correction: no one was coming here.

Dongmin, in particular, seemed more paranoid than Sandeul. Sandeul was casually typing something on his laptop, messing around with some codes or something. Dongmin could care less. All he cared about was where his teammates went and how long he could stand being with Sandeul. He looked friendly, but his attitude certainly said otherwise.

"Are you sure you have them the right location?" Dongmin asked.

"I'm sure. Can you sit still or go outside to check if they're coming?" Sandeul snapped.

Dongmin sat still. He couldn't trust Sandeul just yet. If he stepped out the there, there was a possibility that Sandeul would lock him out and leave him to be eaten by the zombies.

Sandeul sighed. "Are you really not going to check outside for them?"

"I'll do it after they arrive."

Sandeul rolled his eyes. "So you don't trust me."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm Eunha's friend?"

"I can't trust my friend's friend just because they're friends. I need to judge each individual personally," Dongmin said.

Sandeul didn't seem like he was in any disagreement. He only shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay, but the one who's feeling more anxious will be you, and if the time comes for you to think properly, you better hope that you're going to be okay," Sandeul said. 

Dongmin didn't say anything. He leaned against the back of the wall, waiting for the others to arrive.

They soon heard footsteps. Sandeul stared at the door and so did Dongmin. Dongmin pressed his back against the wall and stood behind Sandeul, who was prepared to attack with a gun. 

The door swung open. Sandeul let out a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon.

"Jungkook! Binnie!" Dongmin exclaimed. "Mingyu! You guys are all okay!"

"We had IU. There was no need to worry," L said, even though Dongmin wasn't interested in his well-being. "Binnie, Cha Eunwoo. Clear some space so that we can let Mingyu rest. Jungkook, hold onto Mingyu with IU for a minute. I need to go grab something."

He passed Mingyu's shoulder to IU while walking for to Sandeul, exchanging a few dialogues.

Mingyu examined the room. It looked pretty much the same as their other room, except this room was slightly smaller and dirtier. Despite its size, it seemed safer to stay in compared to the other location.

"Where's Eunha?" Mingyu asked.

"Not here yet," Sandeul said as he gave L a bag. Mingyu made a face. "She'll be here. I promise."

"Rest, Mingyu," Binnie said in a small voice as she finished clearing a space on the floor. Mingyu hesitated, but finally laid down on the floor, wondering when Eunbi was going to come back.

* * *

"Oh. I have a friend, too," Park Kyung said. "He's been with my ever since I fell. Apparently he's been hiding out here until I fell in."

Park Kyung looked to the stairs. Eunbi and Jin waited until they heard footsteps coming up. A familiar figure popped up from the ground. The man widened his eyes for a few minutes, scared that he was having invaders. However, when he looked at Eunbi, he beamed.

"Eunha?"

"D.O?" Eunha called.

"Oh, perfect! You know each other!" Park Kyung exclaimed, laughing.

"I still don't," Jin muttered.

"D.O, this is Eunha and Jin. Jin, Eunha, this is D.O," Park Kyung said, doing the introductions. 

"I can't believe it! You're actually here!" D.O exclaimed. He smiled. "It's good to see a familiar face."

"How did you two meet?" Eunha asked, still baffled at D.O's sudden appearance.

"Once the game started, I was immediately chased down by the zombies. I managed to lose them and ended up hiding in the room below this floor. Once I felt that the zombies were gone, I came up to scout the area. I stood here for a while because I thought this was the safest place since there was a window for me to jump out and everything. While I was hiding here, something fell down and I thought it was a zombie. I was ready to kill it until I realized that it was a human."

Everything seems to be like a coincidence, Eunha thought, amazed.

"Seems like a coincidence, right?" Park Kyung said as if he was reading her mind. She blushed and shyly nodded. 

Jin noticed her unusual behavior. He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"So she's wrapped up all over his fingers, huh," Jin whispered to himself.

"Did you say something?" Park Kyung asked.

Jin shook his head. "Nothing. I was trying to think of a way to leave this place. A lot of zombies followed us around this area." He looked at Park Kyung. "By the way, we decided to move locations. Sandeul should be there by now. I think L and IU are heading over."

"It should be easy to get there with a gun—"

"IU took mine," Jin said. He made a deep frown. "She didn't trust me to keep it."

"Well, that's IU for you," Park Kyung said. "Well, no need to fear. I brought a bunch of stuff back." He pulled out a set of keys. Eunbi recognized the keys as the car keys she had when she drove the van earlier. "Not to mention a sweet ride."

"A car?" Jin said. He had a very skeptical look on his face.

"It's a few blocks away from here," Park Kyung explained. "I was going to get you guys and we could've traveled to the van."

"Amazing! I can't believe you found a working van!" D.O exclaimed.

"I'm the best, right?" Park Kyung asked, smirking.

"…Why didn't you drive the car to our hideout?" Jin asked slowly. 

There was a moment of "Oh" in the air. Eunbi and D.O looked at Park Kyung, who looked a little bit puzzled, even though he was still smiling. Park Kyung made a light chuckle and looked at Jin.

"Because that would've attracted the zombies," Park Kyung said in a matter-of-fact tone. "These zombies would have no trouble hearing the car and running after me. It was less of a risk for me to park the car somewhere safe and pick you guys up." He continued to smile. "Unless you think that I'm wrong?"

Eunbi and D.O weren't sure what was going on, but there was tension between the two. Jin grimaced and clicked his tongue.

"No, I don't have anything else to say," Jin said.

"That's what I thought," Park Kyung said happily. 

"How did you find the car, Park Kyung?" Eunbi asked him.

Park Kyung made a painful expression. "Well… To be honest, there were already three guys in the car. I… had to eliminate them."

"For a car?" D.O asked. He looked a bit scared for his own life.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't hurt you, D.O. You've been good to me," Park Kyung assured him. He took a deep breath. "Now, if we're going to the second location, it might be better to get into the car."

"How? Aren't you injured?" Jin asked.

"It's not so bad. If you think about it, this is all just a game. I can bear the pain for a while." Park Kyung slowly rose up. He shifted most of his weight to one side, but when he had to walk, he made a difficult expression. He hissed quietly to himself. D.O and Eunbi were quick to try to assist him, but he held his hand up. "I'm fine. I swear, I'm fine."

"There might be something to help you downstairs. I'll go look," D.O said.

"I'll go with you," Jin said. The two men started heading downstairs, hoping to search for something useful.

It took Eunbi seconds to realize that she would be alone with Park Kyung. A soft blush appeared on her cheeks as she grew more nervous. She could hear the zombies and walking rapidly outside, searching for someone to kill and infect. Still, she couldn't help but think that her situation was a little romantic. It had been such a long time since she had last seen Park Kyung. She had no clue what he had been doing and what he thought of her now. She smiled at the thought of their coincidental reunion, but made a small frown when she remembered the last game she had with him and what had happened before she won the game.

Park Kyung, seeing her fallen expression, was easily able to guess what she was thinking. 

"Eunha," he said, causing her to look up at him. "I don't hate you for what you did a long time ago. You did what you had to do. Everyone knows that you did the right thing."

Eunha almost felt tears swell up in her eyes. "I'm… I'm really sorry."

"Don't think about it anymore," he said. "It hurts more to think about the past, about what we couldn't do." His eyes softened. "We should just look forward…"

Before she had the chance to say anything else, Jin came up the stairs. He gave Park Kyung a very cautious look.

"Park Kyung, where did you last park the car?" Jin asked.

"Not too far from here. It's around a five minute walk."

"I'm thinking that I should get the keys from you and drive over here. I checked on the first floor of this building, and there's no zombies. I can park really close to the entrance of the building so that when it's time, you guys can jump in without getting worried about the zombies."

The idea seemed plausible, but Park Kyung didn't like the idea.

"I don't trust you," he said flatly.

"It's our only chance, isn't it?" Jin reminded him. "We get in the car and drive to the second location. Someone can let the rest know that we have a van and bring everyone in."

"Do you think all eleven people will fit in?" Eunbi asked.

"Eleven?" Park Kyung repeated, widening his eyes.

"Yes. I have a new team and they come with me," Eunbi told him.

Park Kyung seemed a bit troubled, but he smiled. "You really grew up, didn't you, Eunbi?"

She turned red, flattered. 

"Everyone should fit. If not, we can squeeze for room," Park Kyung said.

"So give me the keys," Jin ordered.

"But I don't trust you."

"Then I'll take Eunha with me."

"I won't allow that," Park Kyung said. "I need to know that Eunha is safe."

Jin scowled. "You're not giving me a lot of options, Park Kyung."

Park Kyung paused. "Let me send D.O."

Jin glared. "You trust D.O more than me?"

"Eunha, you can vouch for D.O, right?" Park Kyung asked.

Eunbi paused. "Well, I don't know him too well, but I know him enough to know that he's pretty trustworthy."

D.O came up the stairs with a piece of wood. "I tried to find something like a cane, but all I found was this wooden plank. There's not much to scout around here. You can use it if you want, but it doesn't seem like it's tall enough for you to lean on."

"D.O, it's fine. I don't need that," Park Kyung said, "but I do need a favor from you." He gave D.O a serious look. "I want you to go find the van and bring it here."

D.O widened his eyes. "Me?"

"Yes."

"Out there?" He paled. "With all those zombies outside?"

"D.O has a point," Jin said, crossing his arms. "These zombies are a lot harder than the normal zombies. Distracting them will be difficult. He needs to have back-up."

"Then let's just all go together," Park Kyung finally said.

"In what condition?" Jin asked, pointing at Park Kyung's twisted ankle.

"I'll use the plank."

"Park Kyung, be realistic!"

"I can go," Eunbi said. Park Kyung frowned. "Really, I can." She took the keys from Park Kyung. "Give me five minutes." She looked at Jin. "Bring Park Kyung down the stairs in five minutes. I'll go out with D.O and get the car."

D.O laughed nervously. "Are you sure you guys want me to go out? I'm not very good with zombies…"

"Take Jin, then" Park Kyung told Eunbi. "You're the least closest with him compared to me and D.O. It'd be better for you to take Jin and sacrifice him if you need to."

Jin scowled. Eunbi only nodded.

"I'll bring him alive," she assured him.

Park Kyung's expression softened. "You really did grow up, didn't you?"

She laughed nervously. Park Kyung explained where the van was located and gave her strict instructions to start driving towards them quietly. He gave her advice on the key and how she had to wait thirty seconds for the van to work. Once she confirmed the plan with him, she grabbed Jin and the two started heading downstairs.

"If Park Kyung gave the proper instructions, it shouldn't be far," Eunbi whispered.

"Why does he want us to be quiet in the car?" Jin murmured to himself.

"Probably because he doesn't want too many zombies to start running towards us when we try to bring him to the door," Eunbi said, answering Jin's question. 

"It doesn't seem right," Jin told her.

The two didn't exchange any words for the rest of the trip. Eunbi got the sense that Jin didn't like Park Kyung very much and she didn't want him to keep badmouthing about him. Jin, too, realized that Eunbi highly favored Park Kyung and didn't seem like to be in the mood to argue.

Surprisingly, the trip to the car was quiet and smoothly executed. The zombies didn't seem like they were too interested in looking around. When it seemed like the zombies were going to turn and look, the two were swift enough to hide without making any big sound. Not only that, but there weren't a lot of zombies in the path. It was as if someone had cleared the path earlier and intended for something like this to happen. 

It wasn't hard to find the van, either. It was at the center of an empty area, surrounded by trees. 

"I'll drive," Jin whispered, heading towards the driver's seat. Eunbi nodded and got into the passenger's seat. Jin started the engine and the car started running.

As Park Kyung said, he drove slowly and as quietly as he could, making subtle movements. Zombies seemed interested, but when the two ducked and hid their faces from the zombie's eyes, they looked away and continued their hunt for flesh.

"This is almost way too easy," Jin murmured.

"Will you stop being paranoid?" Eunbi asked.

But she knew that he was speaking the truth.

They arrived safely back at the building. D.O and Park Kyung opened the door a little, checking to see if any zombie was chasing after the car. When everything seemed like it was clear, the dashed to the back of the seat. The boys got into the car and closed the doors without any problem. When the door closed, the sound seemed to have attracted some zombies, who were starting to skitter their way.

Park Kyung quickly motioned Eunbi to sit in the back. She obeyed, switching places with Park Kyung. Jin was about to change gears until Park Kyung turned off the engines and took out the key. 

Jin stared. "What are you—"

"D.O, drive," Park Kyung ordered.

Jin stared at him. "You can't be serious. There's a ing mob of zombies about to chase after us and you refuse to give me the keys?"

"D.O. Please drive," Park Kyung said.

D.O blinked his eyes and looked at Jin, who gritted his teeth.

"Fine. You get your way this time because I'm desperate," Jin snapped. He made eye contact with D.O and gestured him to switch. D.O nervously nodded and climbed to the front as Jin climbed to the back of the car to sit next to Eunbi.

D.O took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm driving, right? I'm a bit rusty, but…"

"It's fine," Park Kyung said. He plugged in the keys again and started the engine. "Let's go."

D.O nodded. He began to drive down the road, with Park Kyung in the passenger's seat and Eunbi and Jin hanging out in the seats behind them. Park Kyung gave him instructions, telling him where to turn and where he should prepare to go next.

"Go right," Park Kyung said.

He did.

D.O turned right, but immediately stepped on the brakes. Eunbi felt her heart race a little while Jin frowned.

"Let me drive," Jin said anxiously. "I drive better than him."

D.O nodded. "Please d—"

"Stop," Park Kyung said, grabbing D.O's arm to prevent him from leaving his spot.

Jin furrowed his eyebrows. "Seriously, what is up—"

"Drive back," Park Kyung whispered.

"Okay, just let us switch—"

"Reverse!" Park Kyung shouted to D.O. He quickly pulled the handle to "R" and pointed at D.O to step on the pedal. Without thinking, D.O stomped on the pedal, going backwards in a rapid speed.

The four looked straight ahead and noticed that the zombies—who were at least a few meters away—were charging towards them at an insane speed.

"Left!" he instructed. 

D.O nervously shifted the gear and stepped on the pedal again, turning left and driving forward. As he drove, D.O began to yell a little, trying to calm himself as he tried to focus on what was on the road.

"New plan! We're not going to our second location!" Park Kyung yelled. D.O panicked and screamed as Park Kyung continued to raise his voice. "We're going to go on our own! That area is infested with zombies—" He turned his head to talk to Eunbi and Jin, but stopped. His eyes widened and he pointed behind them. "Who let that in here?"

Jin and Eunbi whirled around. Then, they both screamed when a zombie rose up from the back of the seat, its eyes covered with a piece of black cloth and its ears plugged with sticks. It seemed like the zombie remained unconscious earlier because it was properly blocked from its sight and hearing senses, but as the car moved around and as the group got louder, the cloth fell loose and the zombie could hear through its clogged ears. It snarled and snapped at them before lunging itself towards Jin. 

Jin widened his eyes and grabbed its forehead, pushing it away from him and trying to avoid its bites. When the zombie realized that Jin was too difficult to eat, it locked eyes with Eunbi and went for her instead. Jin grabbed the zombie's hair, preventing it from reaching Eunbi. The zombie looked back Jin and tried to go after him, but there would be a repetitive action of blocking the zombie and bringing him back, blocking and bringing him back.

"There's a zombie in the car!" Park Kyung yelled, alerting D.O about the situation. "D.O, swerve!"

D.O cried out a panic, swirling around and locking his eyes at the rear-view mirror, hoping to throw off the zombie. Eunbi crouched as far as she could, trying to avoid the zombie from reaching her. Jin continued to wrestle with the zombie until he turned his head to scream at D.O and Park Kyung.

His eyes widened.

"CLIFF!" Jin screamed.

D.O's eyes shifted from the mirror to the front. His eyes turned incredibly wide. Eunbi screeched as D.O tried to swerve away. 

Instead, the car spun and flew off the edge of the cliff. 

It rolled and tumbled, colliding with the ground. Windows broke. Glasses shattered. Bodies flung around. Heads were crashing against each other as the vehicle continued to roll what seemed to be an endless downhill journey of hell. 

For Eunbi, she out.

* * *

Eunbi woke up with her entire body in incredible pain. She heard fire cracking and the engine hissing. The scent of burned tired and scrapped metals filled the air. She managed a small cough, followed by two sets of cough. She felt bruised and broken—maybe she was bruised and broken.

She heard a loud moan. She managed to roll her eyes upwards and flinched when she saw a zombie only centimeters away from her face. She quickly scooted away, using all her energy to move away from the zombie.

She heard  a loud battle cry and saw the zombie's head punctured with a sharp piece of metal. The zombie growled and was about to attack its attacker until a stick with flames was forced into its mouth. The zombie screeched and started burning from the inside. A few moments later, the zombie stopped moving, rendering dead as the flames ate up its tattered body.

Eunbi finally picked herself up. She clenched her teeth and looked at her savior. Jin, who was bloody and bruised like her, collapsed on the ground, exhausted after he set the zombie on fire. He looked at her with an annoyed expression before changing it into a stern look.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Eunbi managed a nod. She tried to speak, but she couldn't find her voice yet. It had been a long time since she felt so vulnerable, so threatened. She turned her head and saw the vehicle, squished with all the windows broken. Every scrap of metal on the van was dented in some way and form. It was difficult to see where the steering wheel was, but once she was able to detect it, her eyes widened at the sight of a body pressed between the wheel and driver's seat.

"Oh my god. D.O!" Eunbi shouted. She crawled over to the burning bus. While Jin shouted for her to be careful, Eunbi went ahead and slowly pulled out D.O from the bus. She dragged the bloody boy out of the van and away from the fire. Shaking, she pulled him to a nearby wall and had him sit against the wall. She kept whispering, "Please be alive, please be alive…"

"He's in pretty bad shape," Jin muttered as Eunbi tried to clean up the blood to find the wounds.

"W-Where's Park Kyung? P-Park Kyung can help—"

"I don't know," Jin said regretfully. "I tried to find him, but he wasn't with us. It's possible that his body flew down even further."

"O-Okay. Okay, I can do this," Eunbi whispered. "Zombies are scarce here. I-I can help him—"

Before she had the chance to say anything, Jin quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Eunbi widened her eyes and stared at him, about to yell at him for getting in her way until Jin gave her a stern expression and pointed carefully to his neck. She followed his index finger and noticed something: a bite mark.

D.O was having a hard time breathing. His fingers started to twitch, then his arms flailed around a little. His eyes rolled back and he could barely utter a proper word. 

"He got bitten," Jin said.

"No way," Eunbi said in a small voice. "No! He was almost done with the game!" 

"It's only a matter of time until he turns into a zombie," Jin told her. "Then he'll get a game over."

"It looks so painful," Eunbi murmured.

Jin saw a pebble drop from the sky. He looked up, then widened his eyes.

"Eunbi, watch out!" Jin shouted. He pulled her back and took several steps away from D.O, almost falling at the edge of another cliff.

Eunbi, startled, looked at Jin then up at the empty sky until she heard the sound of bones breaking. Blood splattered on the two, landing on their clothes and face. Eunbi was about to look at D.O because she didn't hear him breathing anymore. Before she had the chance, Jin covered her eyes with his cold hands.

"D-Don't look," Jin instructed.

Eunbi had a sense of what happened, but she still wanted to confirm it. "W-What happened?"

Jin swallowed. "…A large rock fell from the cliff. D.O's head is completely smashed."

She could only imagine how disgusting it looked. She could already smell the blood reeking the air. She gulped nervously, nodding her head, a bit thankful that Jin was covering her eyes for her.

Then, they heard a portal opening nearby. Jin uncovered Eunbi's eyes, where she saw a portal between the two and D.O. 

"The game is over," Jin said. "The Timekeeper's game is over." He looked at the portal, but Eunbi knew that he was looking at it as if he was staring at D.O. "He was the last one who had to die."

"Just one more person and it had to be him," Eunbi murmured. "I hope he didn't lose too much Timeticks."

"…I'm going to go on ahead," Jin said. He looked at Eunbi, then at the cliff above. "It was rough, huh? You don't know what happened to the rest of your teammates or to Park Kyung."

"I'm sure my team is fine," Eunbi said. "I'll explain everything to them when we get back to reality."

"Yeah. They probably are if it was those three." Jin paused. "Don't send me a friend request. I'm going to reject it."

"Are you sure? It might be helpful in the future—"

"I don't want to be associated with anyone related to Park Kyung and the rest of them," Jin said. "They're too dangerous. I feel more nervous when I get closer to them, even though they're really good players."

Eunbi frowned. "I don't understand why you hate them so much. Did they do anything?"

Jin didn't say anything. He shrugged his shoulders like he didn't know the answer and walked into the portal. Eunbi paused, then walked into the portal, returning back to the real world.

When Eunbi came back, she found herself at home, lying on her bed and the dead of night. She checked her phone right away, seeing what time it was and the date. Her eyes widened when she discovered that the game took three days to complete. She heaved a sigh and began to check the game. The first thing she noticed was that Yuju was still in a game, causing her to grimace. She then checked her team, who seemed to still have all their points. She sighed in relief and continued to check her other friends. When she tried to look for D.O's name, his name wasn't there.

She sat up on her bed and kept scrolling.

It was gone.

No, Eunbi thought, shaking her head. "No, no, no!"

She finally found his name. Her heart almost stopped beating and her face paled when she saw the big fat "0" next to how many Timeticks he had.

In one game, D.O had lost all 22 Timeticks. 

He had lost his Rights to Existence.

She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but she kept recalling a familiar sense of guilt that she had often faced during her earlier days of Timepiece.