CHAPTER VII  

 

                        She was more silent than the grave it arose from, staring with heavy lidded eyes and a slack mouth. Her cheekbones accentuated the skeletal look and in her gaze my mind was robbed of emotion. Instead of running, or screaming he stood more still than the mossy statue in the heart of the graveyard and just as cold. She beckoned with fingers that rapidly faded to only a suggestion of form. She was as blind as if her eyes had been gouged. Her body washed cold.    “Stella..? Stella. Answer me. It's your brother!”   He attempted his best to brace up and held both side of her shoulders, shaking her as much as he could to think she'd be awake and everything could possibly turned back normal. However, things went worst when she sniffed his scent to almost biting off his arm and snarled at him, indirectly warned him to stay away. The size of his teary and glossy eyes widened at the unexpected sight of his younger sister to be pushing him away.   Then a familiar voice spoke, reverberated across the dark room which only shone a light in the middle of nowhere.   “Daniel-ah... We believe in you. Go, go. Go, my child. Find your way out of this mess. You are not alone, my child. We love you...” It was no other than his adoptive mother but there were no trace of her around, except for the sign of her silvery light voice.    When he looked back to where he saw his sister, she has disappeared. He got his knees with his palms pressured against the surface of the imaginary road as the droplet of his tears fell onto the ground and nearly moisted it.    “Will... I ever make it?”   Once he dropped a single question fueld with full of insecurity, he felt a hand aggressively pushed his shoulder aside and he gasped to see a horrifying figure were groaning, hungry for his flesh. He froze in his place, not knowing what to do. Until a man suddenly stabbed through the living dead's head with a sword. A light obstructed him from seeing the face of the one that was in the verge of rescuing him as his bandaged hand extended out, providing help.   Before he could even had the chance to peek at the person's face, everything went darkened and woke up from his sleep to sit up straightaway with chest pumping for a good air to gasp on.   He closes his eyes while pressing his palms against his own face, covering them all.   “What a dream...,” he muttered under his breath.   He switch his gaze toward the still sleeping Woojin on his side then glances over his wristwatch. Lack of batteries to know if the time reads accurately of the current time he is sitting on. Probably around four in the morning if judging from the dimmed darkness when he silently sneaks out of the tent to take a small peek on the situation outside the entrance of the cave they reserved for themselves. To not bothering the younger in his sweet slumber, he put on his combat boots and goes to approach the passageway.   The nature sound of babbling brooks and small tiniest river crossing by the front of the cave peacefully.    He stretches out his cramped limbs from left to right repeatedly then he does a few more exercise around his body parts before transferring into a push-up, counting from zero to fifty.   In the middle of doing the counts, targeting to reach for sixty, but a presence keep on giving him a stare from behind that makes him stop and stand back up on his feet to turn around. It was the less talking guy, Donghan.   “Good morning,” he greeted first.   Donghan bob his head once then assembling words to be formed into a whole simple two sentences, “It's still early. For the fifth time.” Defines the translation of asking why did Daniel woke up pretty much earlier than the rest could.   Based on the second sentence, it was referring to how long they have been in the cave; five total days. Survived with him and Chris went out for hunting animals, seeking woods, and filling bottles with the clean water from the decent river. He recalled those days when he had a hard time with Chris to handle some abandoned camps to steal the kettle and bring it to boil the water they have gathered from the river— close-to-be-dead adventure if they are allowed to produce a title.   Daniel just shrug his shoulders, “Dreams. Nightmares. Beloved people dying.” he uttered while pursing his lips together into a thin line. “What about you?” He return the question back on Donghan who were taking a clear note and begin to get away from leaning against the walls toward the direction of where Daniel has been standing at.   “What if it's the same reason?”   It makes Daniel chuckle, nodding his head afterward. “Well, could tell it is normal among us now.”   Silence breaks in as they enjoy the chilly atmosphere coming all the way from the forest, including the phenomena of the physical world they were barely involved with, except if they joined a camping trips or some kind of boys scouting experience then they would be revisiting the forest once a month. But now, they don't have to participate on any activiites from school since they could just explore by themselves without the guidance of their teachers and securities.   “The sun is almost rise. I need to wake Chris up,” said Daniel, wanting to go for the second tent but a hand blocking the way.   “Is it okay if I'm the one accompanying you today? I mean, we can let him rest for a day.” Donghan suggested as he offered himself to be volunteering on the scavenge duties, taking over Chris' position. Daniel could agree with that since he could guess from the look of Chris being exhausted when they have to run from troubles.   “Then sure. Go and get ready. We need to move when the sun started to rise,” he ordered and Donghan obediently nods before jogging back inside his tent shared with Taehyun.   Daniel goes to the second tent belong to Chris and Felix and seeing how his best friend has already woke up results him to heave a sigh in relief. “Today is your off-day. I'll go with Dongha