After another half an hour drive, the city finally came into view. Sowon looked around in awe as she took in the situation of the city. The others were asleep. Loud snores could be heard coming from the manager, his mouth agape. From the rear view mirror, Sowon could see the others, sleeping on each other’s shoulders. She glanced at their manager, almost laughing out loud when she saw a trail of drool from the corner of his mouth down to his chin.

Outside, the city was like a ghost city. Sowon slowed down the car as she analysed the side of the roads and the buildings nearby. Cars could be seen toppled over one another, a three car collision. Some shops nearby with shattered windows, almost like someone broke in. And the most noticeable, blood. Lots of blood. She was sure that the wheels of the car was soaked already by now. Bodies could be seen lying on the floor, lifeless.

There wasn’t even a single human being that could be seen. Not even a stray animal. It was like as if the whole human race had suddenly vanished. Sowon had no idea where to go. It was quite hard for her to accept the reality right now. The cold harsh reality.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the manager moving slightly, waking up. He yawned and stretched but his knees hit the  dashboard, forgetting about the limited amount of space he had. He hissed in pain as he rubbed his knees.

“Ohhh we’ve arrived,” he said after while easing the pain.

Neither spoke after that.

“So what are going to do now?,” Sowon asked after a while.

“Hmm…..we should probably look for a new vehicle. A much bigger and comfortable vehicle to travel in,” He replied.

Sowon nodded and continued driving. Her eyes wandered around at the roads and buildings in front of her, hoping to find an abandoned vehicle. But to no avail, there weren’t any.

The once bright city was now lifeless. Roads and streets that were always busy are now filled with dead bodies and blood. Blood. Sowon hated blood. Blood reminds her of death. Death, to her, meant goodbye and she hated that. That’s the reason why during fanmeets, she would always say ‘see you soon’ instead of ‘goodbye’. She hated saying goodbyes.

She drove around aimlessly for another fifteen minutes before slowing down to a halt.

“We’re going nowhere,” she stated without looking at the manager.

The manager pondered for a second.

“Alright...how about we check the parking lots. You know, the multi-storey ones,”

“Good idea...let's go,”

Sowon drove around for a while before she saw a parking lot. It had a total of 4 levels. It looked somewhat abandoned. But then again, almost all of the buildings looked abandon when they entered the city.

She drove in. It was dark and empty. The lights flickered on and off. Besides sunlight, that was their only source of light. She turned off the headlights so as to not draw any attention because who knows. There may be beings just lurking around in the parking lot. She drove the car at an extremely slow speed too. That way the engines wouldn’t make as much noise.

As expected, the first floor was empty. Just pieces of plastic and paper scattered and flying around due to the wind.

Sowon went up a steep ramp to get to the first floor. This time, she saw a few vehicles. There were 2 motorcycles and a car. But the car was much smaller compared to the car that they were in. Switching to that would be the worst and dumbest idea ever.

Seeing that there was no luck, she went up to the third floor. There were definitely more cars compared to the previous floors. There was a van, three cars of similar size with their car and another motorcycle.

They decided to check the last floor, which is the fourth floor. Maybe they could hit jackpot and find a better and bigger vehicle. When they reached the fourth floor, Sowon immediately stopped the car. A loud screech echoed through the whole floor. But they didn’t hear the screech. Who are the ‘they’ you ask? Well, they are none other than the undead beings.

At the dead end of the floor, there was a vehicle. A big RV. It looked like the one that campers always use. (A/N: Search for a picture of a camping RV to get a visual presentation of the kind of vehicle I’m referring to.) Sowon smiled in victory. That would be the perfect vehicle for them.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on their side. There were at least three or four beings roaming around the RV. It was like as if they were protecting the said vehicle.

“I guess we’ll just have to get rid of them then,”

“Ok then...I’ll wake the girls up first,”

Sowon reached her hands towards the girls behind, tapping them to wake them up.

“Girls! Girls wake up,” she said hurriedly.

After a few minutes of intense tapping, the other girls finally woke up. The groaned tiredly as they stretched their limbs. They yawned as they rubbed their eyes.

"Umm girls..I know you guys are still tired but we might have to get rid of certain beings right now,” Sowon explained, referring to the mob of beings before them.

The other girls widened their eyes. They gasped in horror as they finally realised what Sowon was referring to. If they were half asleep just now, they are most definitely fully awake now.

“You guys see that vehicle there?”

“You mean that RV behind them?” Yerin asked.

“Yeah That's what we want. But there are beings surrounding that RV. So we have to get rid of them,”

All of them agreed with Sowon’s plan. Besides, they’ve sort of got used to the beings. They know the weaknesses of the beings. They quietly got out of the car, heading behind the car. They opened the trunk of the car and took out their weapon. Their weapons were still quite bloody as they had rinsed it off with water only for a little while. Umji noticed that Sowon kept checking and touching the side of her hips. But she decided to shrug it off, thinking that maybe her hips were just aching from sitting for a long period of time.

The beings hadn’t noticed them yet. Yuju went first and crept up behind a being that was little bit further than the rest before hitting it on its head with her bloody wrench.

*ting*

The sound of metal could be heard as the wrench made contact with its head. It stumbled back and tripped, falling to the floor with a loud thud. The sound must’ve attracted the other beings as they turned towards the sound. Quickly spotting Yuju, they went towards her. Their arms stretched as incoherent noises came out from their bloody and messy mouth. Sensing the situation, the others charged towards the other beings, already swinging their weapons around.

Yuju stabbed the being first before helping the others. She cringed as she saw the blood drip from the tip of the pen knife. She had already gotten used to the stench of blood but she could never get used to the sight of it. Maybe someday she would get over it but that is not today.

The others were swinging their weapons to no end. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered. It was now nine beings against the seven of them. They had no idea where the other five beings came from. Maybe from the levels below. They didn’t panic though, and decided to deal with them calmly. They moved around in circles, their back against one another as the beings started surrounding them. They had their fighting stance ready and their weapons held in front of them. They made sure not to let any of those beings out of their sight.

As the beings began approaching, they stepped forward even more. They began to separate as they fought hard for their lives. Sinb and their manager had take on two of those beings. Sinb used every muscle and energy she had to kill them off. It’s a good thing that those beings don’t have a sense of balance. That made them fall easily just from nudge or kick. Sinb swung her bat at one of the beings before quickly turning her attention to the other one. She could not afford to be careless. Being careless just for a second could kill someone. Their lives are on the line right now.

She delivered a high kick to the other being roughly on its chin, making it stumble to the ground. It tried getting up but Sinn was already hovering above it, a pen knife in hand. Without hesitation, she pierced the knife through its heart, killing it instantly.

Just as she was about to catch her breath, another being, whom she had forgotten about, came charging towards her. She was soon cornered against a wall with no weapon at all to protect herself. She had dropped her baseball bat after killing the other being. It was about to attack her when a distant sound of a gunshot could heard and the body fell on the floor, landing partially on her shoes. She immediately shook her legs, trying to get it off her shoes. She looked up and saw Sowon standing in front of her with shaky hands holding a pistol.

Sowon’s face was extremely pale. She immediately dropped the gun. Her knees were like jelly as she fell to the ground. Not only Sowon, the other girls were shocked too. They gathered around Sowon before hugging her tightly. Even Sinb. Their manager stood behind them. He was a holding a suspicious looking black duffel bag.

“H-how di-...What was th- I don’t understand what’s going on right now!!,” Sinb raged.

Her sudden outburst shocked everyone.

“*sigh* Let's head inside the RV first then I’ll explain alright. It's not exactly safe out here,” he told the girls, gesturing for them get inside.

The girls nodded their heads and one by one they went in. Their manager was the last one. He looked around carefully before shutting the door tight. Thankfully, the RV was unlocked and the keys were still in vehicle. Unfortunately, there were stains of blood on the floor of the vehicle.

“We might have to clean that up later,” he muttered to himself.

The girls sat down on comfy chairs, more like sofas. The girls stared at the manager, waiting for him to explain himself. Except for Sowon who had her head down. Her hands were still trembling but not as bad.

“Ok girls this was what happened,” he started.

Flashback

While the girls were still fighting with the undeads, he decided to go into one of the cubicles (A/N : Is that what they call it? TBH I really do not know) and searched for weapons. He saw two pistols. It was a SIG Sauer P226. The kind that most law enforcements and also the military uses.

From his past experience of working with the military for a span of four years, he was equipped with more than enough knowledge about guns. He quickly retired before becoming one of the managers of Gfriend. Equipped with exceptional combat skills, it was no wonder that he got hired immediately. He could protect the girls as well as manage them as the same time.

He took both the pistols before stuffing it into a bag. He went to the next cubicle amd searched everywhere. This time it was a semi-automatic pistol. A HS2000. There were three of them. He quickly stuffed them into the bag, not forgetting about the ammo. These weapons would be very useful for them. By the time he got to the last cubicle, the bag was filled with at least seven pistols. There were only pistols unfortunately. He quickly went out and returned to his original position.

The girls had been so busy trying to fend of those beings that they didn’t notice him going in and out of the cubicles. He sat down and watched them hugging each other in a group hug. That was when he saw the last being charging towards them.

Suddenly Sowon came and knocked off the last being with the car. When she went out of the car, he quickly shoved the bag under the dashboard at the passenger’s seat, not wanting the girls to notice the bag. He will tell them about it later.

As they got in the car, he quickly rushed to the passenger seat. Sowon started driving and soon the girls were asleep. Only Sowon and him were awake. He silently ped the duffel bag. He could sense that Sowon glanced at him for a second, wondering what he was doing, before turning her attention back on the road.

“Hey umm can you uh...stop the car for awhile? I need to talk to you about something,” he started.

Sowon nodded before stopping the car slowly to a halt. She looked at him, wanting him to say what he wanted to say.

“At the border just now, I managed to pick up a few weapons. And they aren’t just any weapons. They have ammo,”

He showed Sowon the pistols he managed to find. He handed Sowon one of the pistols. It was a BODYGUARD 380. One of the lighter pistols amongst the rest in the bags. Sowon could only stare in awe as her jaw dropped.

It was her first time seeing a gun in real life. She had only seen them on TV and movies. Seeing one in real life felt surreal. She accepted the gun with shaky hands. She analysed it in curiosity, careful not to pull the trigger. She adjusted her grip on the pistol with both hands to get use to it. She pointed it to the front.

“Let’s not tell the other kids first...They might freak out. For now let’s just keep this between us,”

“But they’ll find out sooner or later,”

“I know..I know but I’ll explain to them when the time comes alright. For now just hide that thing,” he said, pointing to the gun.

Sowon nodded before keeping it in between the waistband of her leggings and her shirt. Her oversized jacket managed to completely hide shape of the gun. After making sure that it was safely hidden, she continued driving,”

Back to present

“Yeah so that's what happened,” He said while placing the said bag on the table.

The other girls crowded around the bag closely. Taking the initiative, Yerin swiftly ped the bag. They gasped when they saw what it contains. Like Sowon, they’ve never seen those in real life either.

“OK guys let me just take these away for now,”

Their eyes never left the bag. They kept following it until their manager kept it inside a cupboard.

“No one touches that bag until i say so,” he commanded in a strict voice.

The girls nodded ams returned to their seats. Their manager checked the interior of the RV. The front part of the RV is the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. Behind the seats, there’s a sofa bed on both sides of the RV. Along the way, there is a foldable table, which can be folded when transforming the sofas into beds. At the rear end, there's a bunk bed that can fit at four people. There’s more than enough space for everyone. The pillows are kept in a cupboard next to the beds. Near the bunk beds, there’s the toilet. It was quite spacious. It comes with a shower too. In between the sofa bed and the toilet, there’s a fridge hidden in a cupboard. On the countertop, a microwave is placed beside a basket of snack.

“Girls..I’ll go out and get the stuff in the car. Stay put,” he instructed before opening the door.

He looked around before stepping out and shutting the door. He jogged towards the car. He quickly took out the bags and jogged back towards the RV. Luckily, there were only two bags. He went in and placed the bags on the table.

Inside, he saw the girls scrubbing on some stains on the floor of the RV. They were using a cloth that they apparently found in the RV’S toilet.

He walked towards the front of the RV and sat on the driver’s seat. He made himself comfortable and buckles his seatbelt. He made sure that the girls were seated. He then inserted the key into the ignition and the engine roared, echoing throughout the whole level. He first check the amount of fuel the RV had left. Luckily, there’s enough to last them for at least a day. Sowon sat next to him at the passenger’s seat. Fortunately, the RV is fully equipped with a heater and an air conditioner.

Their manager started to drive. Right now, their priority is to get proper food. Canned food would be the most ideal for now as they can last long. He intend to find a supermarket nearby. Hopefully a gas station too. The fuel for the RV is completely different from the fuel they used for their previous car.

As he drove out of parking lot, he checked the rear view mirror. The girls at the back was talking and eating at the table. They seemed happy.

“You know...you can join them at the back if you want...I’ll be fine driving alone here,” He said without looking at Sowon.

“Its fine...I wanted to sleep anyways and I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep at the back while the kids are making such a ruckus,” She replied as she leaned against the window, preparing to sleep.

“Suit yourself,”

They took off. A destination in mind.