The unstable asphalt made Jaejoong’s body move side to side even though he had his belt on. Mr. S and Miss A shared small talk in the front seat that Jaejoong wasn’t interested about.

Beside the uncomfortable nausea, Jaejoong’s skin already started to prickle. It was his reaction against the sun, caused by the decrease of melanin on his skin.

With half opened eyes, he watched abandoned houses and infertile grass dividing space with sand and nothingness. Not even the wind decided to come out and make them company.

The car suddenly halted, and Miss A left out a hiss.

“I’m sorry, mm… I’m sorry.” Mr. S sounded panicked, “I think there is something wrong with the car.”

“Damn it.” Miss A looked suspiciously around her, “it had to be here? There are enough abandoned houses to have a changedhidden around.”

Jaejoong held strongly onto his belt. He was aware that the only thing the changedcouldn’t bear was light. It burned them out alive from their own flesh into ashes, but he also had heard about expeditions that had never made their way back into the laboratory.

The changedwere unpredictable. The chance of blood and eating human meat was a threat worth the risk.

“I-I’m sorry. We should take a look on the engine.” Mr. S hurried his partner out of the car, sending Jaejoong a small nod.

The young man left the car together with the doctors, making sure to step at the same places the older ones did. Any precaution was necessary at the Outside.

“I think I have a flashlight somewhere in my purse.” Everyone stopped to face back Miss A. “Just as a precaution.”

Hesitantly, she turned around and after some steps curled inside the car.

“This is your only chance.” Mr. S pulled Jaejoong forward.

“Excuse me?” Jaejoong imitated his tone, even though he didn’t know why they were whispering.

“You can run, run fast I mean.” Mr. S glanced back at Miss A, who wasn’t looking at them yet. “I will pretend I couldn’t catch you.”

Jaejoong lost the account of times that mates of his went out for expeditions and didn’t come back. They were called the gone ones. First, he used to think that this name was addressed to the ones who left the place they lived in. But later, he understood that it meant that they weren’t coming back in any way, or form, no matter how. The gone oneswere actually the changed. There was no life outside that lab.

Did Mr. S want him to become a changed? Was it really better than dying? Or as he thought before, when he was laid in the bed right after another other painful procedure, was it worthy to look for something else inside the unknown?

The answers didn’t come but Jaejoong’s feet started to drum against the hard asphalt that he hardly had the chance to run at. His legs fought with one another, in a race, betting which was faster and which would go further. There was a shout behind him, there was a noise that made his heart tremble inside his chest, and that sound was his own scream when he looked behind and saw nothing.

There wasn’t a single thing he knew around him, yet he shouted back to the nothingness.

Nothing could stop, hold, hurt, limit him anymore. The world was a nothingness and Jaejoong had never thought about it with so much delight.

His skin started to demand mercy, and not much later he could feel burning sensation enveloped him. It started from the exposed part of his neck, then to his cheeks and forehead. His hands were already reddish, but the young man kept running at the same pace. He never pushed himself that hard, and the thought that maybe the laboratory would accept him back if nothing worked and he proved he could hold more than they thought under the sun run through his head.

He slowed down later on, when the burning reached his lungs and his breathing decreased significantly. Time was immeasurable. The semi destructed houses and dead gardens started to leave space to houses, and buildings. They would practically reach the sky and provide shadow to put the harsh,melting asphalt to rest.

A small shadow could be helpful enough to make him regain his breathe, and when he reached the closest one, Jaejoong allowed the dark side that the sun couldn’t invade to swallow him completely and comfort him.

Four or five buildings followed ahead, and then Jaejoong could see a tree. Forcing his eyes, maybe two or three trees. Other than shadow, they provided fruits as well and Jaejoong hoped he could find big round apples just like those the lab kids would draw when they had the chance to.

Just ten more steps. Maybe nine.

He could do it.

“You move, and I shoot you.”

Jaejoong was paralyzed, even the activity of his lungs was also paralyzed. The voice resounded from behind him, and it seemed pretty much human. At the thought, Jaejoong’s head turned quickly to the direction of the sound, his eyes widening in shock and dazzle.

Not one, but two humans stood some feet of distance, one male, with a machine in hands. The female had long white hair and wore male clothes but didn’t seem to mind it.

“What part of ‘don’t move’ you didn’t catch? Don’t be dumb, I’m really good at shooting.” the male talked again, his machine covering part of his face.

“You are.... human.” Jaejoong’s words were a mere whisper but resounded in echo at the space.

“I guess asking you not to be dumb is a hard thing when you can’t help it.” The male lowered his machine, and his dark eyes stopped to Jaejoong’s.

The two stared at each other without blinking for some seconds, before Jaejoong dropped his gaze to analyze the other better. He was tall and muscled, it meant that he exercised. If there was another laboratory, they wouldn’t have time to work the muscles of their inmates. He also had a different hair from the female, remarkable individuality. He also didn’t show any apparent sequel from treatment, as much as the female looked as strong as him.

Jaejoong shook his head. “I didn’t know you exist anymore.”

The white haired and her partner exchanged an unsure look.

“Are you alone?” The female had a calm and soothing voice that made Jaejoong feel captivated to talk to her.

“Yes,” he answered. “Alone.”

“Why do you talk as if… you are not human?” The male’s voice came closer than Jaejoong expected and he jumped back into the sun. How had he moved so silently?

“I am.” Jaejoong’s answer wasn’t firm as he wanted, and he noticed that the other man heard the unsaid.

The machine was pointed at him again and Jaejoong wondered what damage it would cause to him. The next second, the lady’s hands were holding his shoulder, preventing him from leaving.

“He’s just a boy.” She checked out with her eyes, “not a stain of blood around. He wasn’t bitten.”

“I have never been bitten.” Jaejoong tried to retract from her touch, but her hands were like iron.

“We are taking him.” She directed her words at the other male, not leaving any space for discussion.

With his free hand Jaejoong held the woman’s arm, pulling it away from his body. He wasn’t being held captive again. Her reaction surprised him as she tried to hold him down again.The boy used his elbow to punch her jaw.

She fell back with a hand on , hissing. She looked at him, anger painting the irises of her eyes, but it didn’t scare him. He was used to be despised from head to toe.

“You little !” She screamed, the loud sound reverberating through the emptiness.

A flock of birds flew away in distress from somewhere behind them, but Jaejoong couldn’t see anything as the woman flew like a leopard over him, just exactly like the ones Jaejoong remember to have seen somewhere, hidden in his memories.

Her nails were an inch from his eyes when the other male’s body came in between them. His hands that earlier held a machine now held Jaejoong’s arm as to keep the boy behind him.

“Woah, woah, woah,” he said in between a laugh. “I haven’t seen her this pissed since Gary slipped his hand into the wrong pants”

“Shut up, bastard!” The woman punched her partner on the chest.

“I’m sorry, it was as he said… What was it? Unintentional.”

Jaejoong tried to step back, noticing that the woman’s irate eyes fixated on the other man. But his arm was still being held and he couldn’t go much further.

“Do you want me to kill you together with this ?” She glanced at the boy over her friend’s shoulder. “This little ing hit me, I am not just letting go.”

“You are.” Even though there was still hints of a smile on his face, his tone became serious.

He patiently pushed her forward with his free hand, but he rather seemed amused than worried about her currently state.

Jaejoong knew he shouldn’t have used violence with an unknown person that was clearly much stronger than him, but even before Mr. S could have warned him, he always kept in mind human beings were inconstant creatures that had to be dealt with in full awareness.

“Don’t worry.” The man finally turned to looked at him after he made sure his insane partner was discounting her rage on old glass bottles near them. She would throw them at the ground with so much focus, that made the boy shrink. “She has humor issues. She can be your sweetest dream and your most painful nightmare.”

Jaejoong raised one eyebrow at the comparisons.

“But I’ll protect you. She or anyone is not going to hurt you.”

“Thanks a lot.” Jaejoong looked at the other’s hand still touching him. “But I don’t need your protection.”

“Oh, you don’t?” The reply was doubtful. “It is getting dark in about an hour, what do you plan on doing?”

Jaejoong shook his arm, clearly annoyed. The hint made the other let go of the touch with a frown.

“I am going to hide.” Jaejoong replied in the most confident tone he could manage. “I am going to find food and shelter.”

His words came out slower than he wanted, what made him sound unsure. The sun back on his skin was painful, almost like constant scratches of a blade. He tried to step into the shadow again, but the other body block him, by planting himself in Jaejoong’s wished space.

“Quite smart.” The taller man tone wasn’t less superior than before. “Where do you plan on hiding?”

Jaejoong shrugged, looking around him. “In a house maybe.”

He could run to one of those right now, just if he had enough confidence in his legs that started to feel weak already.

“You don’t know anything, don’t you?”

Jaejoong sighed, his tiredness leaving clues on his manners. “What about you? Do you know everything?”

The other grinned, “pretty much.”

Jaejoong rolled his eyes, he believed enough in himself to keep on the path alone. He would find a shelter with strong walls and keep safe distance from the hungry changed. It couldn’t be that hard. At the beginning of his run, he had felt threatened but as the time passed by and nothing beside the sun and wind came his ways, his fears couldn’t be compared as before.

“I just don’t know your name.” His grin doubled, and he extended one hand.“I’m Yunho.”

“I don’t care.” Jaejoong dropped Yunho’s extended hand with a tap, “and if you excuse me…”

“You’re burning.” Yunho’s smile suddenly disappeared and his face closed with a frown.

He tried to touch Jaejoong’s skin but this one was able to dodge to one side.Nevertheless, a dizziness messed his view and he found himself landing towards the hot asphalt.

Yunho held him up with one strong arm and pulled him into the shadow.

“You’re welcome,” he said as Jaejoong made a clear attempt of pulling him off.

“Are you sure he is not bitten?” The woman walked towards them, seeming to be watching the scene from distance. “His skin is almost red.Isn’t it a reaction from sunlight?”

“I am not bitten!” Jaejoong made sure to pronounce the words correctly and loud enough, even though his breathing was slowing down again. “I have melanin deficiency.”

“Since when?” The woman asked, suspicious.

“Since always,” Jaejoong turned away from her, concentrating on the movement of his chest. “I was… born like this.”

“He is quite white indeed,” Yunho pointed out. “Far from me being a racist, though,” he added when Jaejoong side eyed him.

“We should go, then” The woman shrugged, turning to accept Jaejoong’s words after her partner’s comment convinced her. “The sun is coming down and the zombies are waking up.”

“Zombies?” Jaejoong mumbled the word, trying it on his own lips to see how they sounded.

“If you want to see them,” she said “stay here. Because I’m leaving.”

She turned around, starting to walk into the direction Jaejoong wanted to go at first before meeting them. He didn’t make any move to make it clear that he was following his own way this time.

He had been under someone else’s hold for far too long. He had it in mind that freedom had its price, and he would find a way to pay for it. All on his own.

“What do you plan fighting them with?” Yunho spoke, breaking the silence that were installed after the woman and her heavy steps left.

“I thought you had left with her.”

“Answer my question,” Yunho demanded, stepping in front of Jaejoong as if ordering the younger one to face him.

Jaejoong shrugged and opened his mouth to say anything that convinced the other to leave, but nothing came out. The words weren’t stuck anywhere, they simply didn’t come to his head. He had never seen a changed beyond his imagination before, and even though he kept in mind the sunlight would hurt him, how could the boy keep them away at night?

Stupid. He closed his eyes, accepting the defeat.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Yunho’s voice was firm, entering his ears even though he wanted to shut them. “I just want to make sure you’re going to be safe.”

“Can you?” Jaejoong asked, more daring than curious. “Keep me safe?”

“You have no idea of how awesome I am.” The smile was back again, surging from the side. “We got a car and you won’t believe,” he approached his face to Jaejoong’s, “that it has insulfilm.”

“I need food,” Jaejoong pointed out. “Healthy food, and darkness. Any kind of light can hurt my skin depending on the exposure degree and time.”

“Anything else, your highness?” Yunho stepped aside, giving way for Jaejoong to step forward.

“As soon as you can’t provide me these anymore, I’m leaving you.”

Yunho’s mouth opened up in a loud laugh that made his head hang back. Jaejoong had never seen someone exposing so much excitement in front of him before. He wanted to comment about this man’s behavior, but a cloud turned his vision foggy and he stumbled on his own feet as he stepped forward.

This time there wasn’t a hand fast enough to hold him still.

.

“I need his arm erect,” a male voice entered through Jaejoong’s ears, and he held his breath. He needed courage to open his eyes and receive the first shock of light through his skin.

“Hold him,” the same voice resonated, this time more demanding. “I don’t want him to move and break the needle.”

The last word made Jaejoong jump out of his unconscious resemblance and sit straight on a metallic bed.

The only light in the room came from a row of candles at the opposite side that barely illuminated the number of eyes fixated on him. The smell of mold was strong and the air dryness irritated his nose.

“Where am I?” His voice came out weak and agitated.

“Don’t worry,” the man who was talking before appeared in front of his eyes.He had small eyes that smiled together with his slim lips. “You’re safe here. We just need to run some tests on you before-”

“No one is running tests on me.” Jaejoong’s tone, although being low, was imposing enough to erase the gentle smile from the other’s face.

“He is fine.” Yunho’s voice resonated from the crowd of eyes, and the contour of his body gained shape as he made his way closer to the light. “He talked to us for good minutes and was even strong enough to hit Yeeun in the face.”

Joke was always surrounding his words, and it eradicated any sign of seriousness in what he tried to convey. He would be able to keep Jaejoong safe? That was the real joke.

“He is weak enough for us to doubt him.” Jaejoong now noticed the man who wanted to run tests on him was using a doctor’s coat, and remembering what it meant had Jaejoong’sarm’s hair going up, his heart racing.

He was caught in another laboratory. They wouldn’t leave him alone if they knew what he was able to do. Jaejoong hissed to himself, cursing with all ugly words he had learn from Miss A. He entered in the trap like a mouse searching for a fresh cheese.

“Why did he punch my wife?” An angry voice emergedfrom the darkness, and he wondered if the man was a doctor too.

The doctors that got any type of criticism towards an inmate would play dirty on them. Jaejoong had been the target of some who injected him with dangerous medicines or purposefully inducted him into seizures. His body was indeed not as strong as years ago, just like Miss A had predicted. He wouldn’t be able to going through these things all over again.

“I’m sorry.” Yeeun, the woman who found him, approached his bed with semi closed eyes. “I had no idea you were in pain.” She changed her expression into a harder one to face the Doctor. “His skin is on fire. He has melanin deficiency. Look at those bubbles! Who wouldn’t pass out at this state?”

“Melanin deficiency,” the Doctor nodded. “I have imagined. We need cold water and towels for him, but only after a test. I am not risking my family because he is scared of needles.”

Scared of needles? Jaejoong tried to jump out of the bed, Yeeun helped him to plant his feet firmly on the ground. He didn’t know why she suddenly decided to be nice to him, but he appreciated her small demonstration of care.

“I was not bitten, I have never been.” Jaejoong held out a moan when he tried to reach the back of his long sleeve uniform. “Won’t a body inspection prove it?”

“Oh,oh, oh” Yunho came in between them again, and Jaejoong rolled his eyes at his heroism. “Does he really need to expose himself like that?”

“Do you want to take a risk?” The same voice from before showed up nearer to the candles, his slim body didn’t show any aspect of threat, nor he was a Doctor. “What if he turns in the middle of the night?”

“You know what the last one did to us.” A velvety voice complained back from the darkness, but the voice was too shy to demand or argue with the others.

“He is not turning into anything.” Yunho crossed his arms, posing to look serious. “He is a human just like us. He didn’t even know humans still exist until we saved him.”

“You didn’t save me.” Jaejoong pointed out. “We have a deal, remember?”

“Take off your clothes.” The Doctor asked, ignoring any protest voiced out by what he called “family”. “Everyone else can leave.”

Even if the sentence left out a corner of doubt, all figures there started moving further into the darkness, executing orders without any other choice. Of course, the Doctor was the leader here.

It could not be any different.

Jaejoong poked Yunho, sending him an annoyed glance.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

“Of course not.” Truism in his voice denoted that he was the one who made his own rules and Jaejoong didn’t know at which point was it good or not.

“Don’t mind Yunho.” The Doctor started to get impatient. “It will be good if he is present while we...talk.”

Jaejoong tried to exchange a glance with Yunho, but his eyes were focused on the -again, all-smile doctor. The boy pulled his long-sleeved shirt up.Even the slightest touch of the fabric on his skin would make him wince. The pants were of the same fabric and color- white. It was the uniform for all the inmates, combined with white sneakers and no socks. The only different thing in life he could remember of wearing was clothes for surgery.

“Stop there.” Yunho cleared his throat when Jaejoong started pulling down his briefs. “This much is not necessary.”

Jaejoong frowned. “It’s just a body,” he wanted to say.

He was convinced to think of his whole intimacy and individuality as nothing more important or different than any other person around him had. Maybe different organs, but they weren’t the objective. The true treasure and particularity of one person was their organism and what their response would be to determined stimuli.

“This much is enough, indeed.” The Doctor seemed to be pleased with Jaejoong’s willingness.

The Doctor approached his body with caution, bringing him one of the candles on standby from the corner.

“Won’t the light hurt you?” Yunho asked aloud, not trying to be discrete.

“It’s alright.” Jaejoong nodded to the Doctor. “Candle’s light is not that strong.”

“Better than needles, right?” The Doctor winked at Jaejoong once, before his eyebrows furrowed and he started to move the candle up and down around his body.

“Appendicitis?” The Doctor asked, probably illuminating his hips’ area and getting a glimpse of his scar.

It was going to be a long inspection.

“Yes,” was Jaejoong’s only answer.

“Kidney problems?”

“Yes.” Jaejoong looked up, thankful for the inexistence of fluorescent light bulbs in this place. “The left one was removed around two years ago.”

“Two years ago?” The Doctor’s posture was erect again, he stared deeply into Jaejoong eyes, searching for the answer the boy didn’t let to escape yet.

“I broke my ankle while running six years ago,” Jaejoong said, before he was asked. “Also got surgery. And chemotherapy, but I was 9 back then. I also have a scar on my right wrist, someone tried to cut me while I slept about a year ago.”

The young man suddenly halted the air circulation inside his lungs when fingers started tracing lines on the back of his neck. He tried to move away, but the answer didn’t come from his neurons.

“A tattoo.” Yunho pointed out from behind him. “What do these numbers mean?”

“M-my birthday.” Jaejoong made a slight movement with his head. Effort that had Yunho’s finger withdrew from him quickly.

Jaejoong looked down again to the Doctor who was still trying to decipher him with his eyes.

“That was also my identification, from where I come from.”

“But you have a name.” was Yunho’s protest.

“I am different.” Jaejoong shrugged, trying to make it all sound unimportant. Just unimportant enough.

“Where do you come from, Boy?” Was the Doctor question, stepping back, indicating that this time he would take Jaejoong’s words as honest ones.

Jaejoong turned around and watched that curiosity was also dancing around Yunho’s expressions, that this time, didn’t hold any threat of fun.

“A laboratory.” Jaejoong hesitated at first, but it clearly couldn’t hold anything bad against him as much as the potential risk had he controlled what he said. “It was my house, but at the same time it wasn’t.”

“Why would a laboratory exist at times like this?” The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. “Was it like mine?” Looking around, he pointed at the corners barely illuminated but one could see medical tools in a pile along with buckets containing books.

“You can’t think this is a laboratory.” Jaejoong was careful not to sound too arrogant. “I am talking about white walls, different floors and elevators. Special surgery rooms and medical equipment of high quality. Fluorescent lamp bulbs everywhere and doctors all around.”

Doctor’s eyes started to sparkle, the kind of glitter that Jaejoong usually saw when his own doctors stared at his cardiac monitors after a procedure. A sparkle of success.

“It’s not possible.” Yunho’s interference came unwanted “Electricity is off. For years now. And a luxurious construction? I believe we would have known about it by now.”

“Do you think I am lying?” Jaejoong tried to control his exasperated tone. “Where do you think I would have taken it all from? I didn’t even know that humans, except the doctors, still exist!”

“You were what there? Cursing medicine? And how did the practical classes go? Ah maybe opening a zombie abdomen on Monday, and kissing their on Tuesday?”

Jaejoong’s mouth opened in pure disbelief. He stared at the Doctor in search for some support, but even the other man seemed to be divided between believing or not.

“I was an inmate!” Jaejoong declared, gazing the two, feeling disgust raised to his throat. “I was tested by dozens of doctors for years in search for cure of diseases I can’t even describe about! I can barely remember the time I lived with my mother in a house and ate real food that tasted something nice.” He faced Yunho and pointed an accusing finger into his chest, even if their height difference didn’t make him a threat to the other. “If youare not even able to open up your head to think further like I did to be able to run away of that place, how dare you treat me like a liar when you were the one who proposed to bring me here and more, pretending to be interested enough to offer me protection. You think you are really funny but the truth is that you are a joke yourself.”

“Calm down, Boy, calm down.” The Doctor called him out in a dragged and controlled voice.

“My name is Jaejoong.” He said, still staring at Yunho who didn’t move a muscle. “I have a name.”

“Kill him or put the virus on him.” Yunho pushed Jaejoong roughly forward. “I don’t give a .”

“Wait.” The velvet and calm voice from before surged from inside the darkness that didn’t show any clue to have a start or an end. “This laboratory… It has a name?”

“Thyss Corporation.” Jaejoong mumbled, starting his own flame to battle with the one in Yunho’s eyes.

“Thyss!” A long-haired girl surged from the dark, holding a bucket in a hand and white towels in the other. “Do you remember, Doc?” She sounded nervous, her eyes revealed her surprise.

“Of course.” The Doctor nodded, firmly and full of confidence. “Of course, I remember. They became famous few years before the infection spread. They were a transnational corporation and declared the end of medicine tests on animals. It was an evolution on medicine back then.”

“Bastards.” Yunho hissed, laughing with no sentiment. “You mean they stopped testing on animals to start testing on humans?”

“That’s what Jaejoong is describing,” the girl said, formed a thin line.

“Now you believe me.” Jaejoong confirmed, feeling quite upset of being rejected even if they were the one who insisted he should open up.

“I’m sorry JJ,” Yunho shrugged. “But you have to admit it sound totally ridiculous from our side.”

The boy snorted. “Youare totally ridiculous. And my name is Jaejoong, do you have hearing problems?”

Yunho smiled, but his eyes didn’t. “It was a nickname, Darling. I was trying to sound nice.”

“I’m sorry but you can’t sound nice, not after what you’ve said.”

“You two.” The Doctor interrupted the rising discussion. “The way you call each other isn’t what matters right now.”

“Well,” Yunho sighed. “It is to me. Jaejoong just broke my heart and I don’t think it can be fixed anymore. I need time to absorb the pains of one sided love, and of course, a good dose of whisky. If you'll excuse me,” he bowed to the Doctor but stopped to look at Jaejoong. “Love of my life, you’ve hurt me. You’ve broken my heart and now you leave me…” He sang at the end, something Jaejoong couldn’t understand.

“Leave. Now.” The girl shook her head. “It’s embarrassing.”

Yunho imitated that laugh, throwing his head back, and made his hair mess up completely.

Before leaving, he kissed the girl on the forehead, and Jaejoong noticed her getting red.

“Don’t mind him, Jaejoong.” The Doctor made a sign so that the girl could approach him. “Let Somi take care of your skin wounds first, so we can resume our talking later.”

.

They were dividing a table in a much larger and illuminated space this time. Candles were plastered all around the corners, and everyone’s face was visible. Not just the few people from the so-called laboratory sat down to have dinner, but some elders and children were around too, and also other adults. Not even through imagination Jaejoong would have imagined so many humans were still fighting to survive in the outside world.

The place they were in, after leaving the dark cavern and going up a row of stairs in the darkness, was an enormous salon, almost like a ballroom that resembled what he had seen in animated cartoons in his childhood. But the wood table that thankfully embraced every person to have a sit had a limited number of canned potatoes.

“We have a potato format the back of the building.” Yeeun sat by his side, while the boy stared at the empty plates. “It’s our only assured food. Canned are getting harder and harder to find, though. But anyways, we just have to hang on for a few more days.”

“Soon we’ll be heading to The Bahamas.” Somi commented, peeling of one of the boiled potatoes on her plate. “Do you know that place, Jaejoong?”

The boy shook his head, and the sweet girl smiled at him while she lunged over the table and exchanged their plates.

“It’s in the other side of the world, literally. A small island, in the middle of the ocean.”

Jaejoong retributed a thankful smile.

“We are getting there by ship.” Yeeun said before he could have time to ask. “There’s one waiting for us in Japan sea. We’re departing in two days so we’ve been saving up food for the trip, I hope you understand.”

“What is the point in going there?” He finally asked, still staring at his untouched food. “Isn’t all the world in the same state as here?”

“There is different.” Gary, who seemed to be Yeeun’s husband, approached the table but didn’t share any kind of kindness with Jaejoong. “They are clean of any infection, they also have active agricultural production. They communicate with us every Sunday morning through radio, we caught their message more than 5 times.”

“They also talked about the ship.” Somi commented while she started to peel her own potato. “I just hope we can arrive before it leaves.”

“We can.” Yeeun’s voice was firm. “We will, and then we will come back and take with us the rest.”

“Can’t everyone go together?”

“We can’t” Gary pointed out. “Only some of us are skilled with guns. That’s essential to survive the nights out.”

“How to find shelters on the way is our biggest challenge.” Yeeun sighed, resting her head on Gary’s shoulder. “If there are few of them, we can work it out. But the worst is that when they are in flocks. It gets almost impossible to escape then.”

“By ‘they’ you mean…”

“Our future trip can be reserved for later.” The Doctor, who earlier had introduced himself as Leeteuk, sat in the chair right in front of Jaejoong, interrupting the boy without any courtesy. “What we are really interested about is on how you got trapped into Thyss Corporation.”

The ball room was transformed in a hall of silence at the Doctor’s words. Jaejoong could feel the once uninterested eyes now turned to look at him, unsure voices hushing children to make them be able to hear his voice.

The boy uncomfortably sent a glance to Yunho who sat at the end of the table and didn’t pronounce a sound since he had arrived. Jaejoong expected a humorless joke from him, enough to turn the environment less focused on his presence and what it meant. But Yunho didn’t even look up to deny Jaejoong’s silent ask.

“I was eight or nine, maybe.” Jaejoong sighed, giving up of trying to get an answer from Yunho’s eyes. “I have few diseases from my childhood. I used to be sick a lot, to the point that my situation was considered incurable at certain age. My mother was a geneticist at Thyss, she believed they could revert my situation.”

“What kind of disease did you have?” Leeteuk asked, too focused to get any interest in eating.

Jaejoong took the potato to his mouth, giving a small bite before resume talking.

“Cancer, I don’t know what kind. The chemotherapy was the most complicated thing I remember of going through and that’s what most of my memories are about. I would throw up multiple times a day, I had a good amount of fainting too. I was too weak to move by myself, and they pushed me around with a wheelchair.”

Someone left his cutlery fall down and Jaejoong looked around to stare at horrified expressions directed to him. Pity maybe, or just shock to imagine someone like him could have survived.

Yunho finally had his eyes on him too, but it was not pity drawn on his expressions. Instead, frown and slight wrinkled nose made Jaejoong wondered if he was in pain.

“Thyss cured you?” Somi interrupted before Jaejoong could be sure that Yunho was feeling okay.

“Yes,” he turned to look at the young girl. “Somehow. One day I woke up and rose on my own feet.”

“And your hair started to grow blond and your eyes got this clearer pigmentation?” The Doctor insinuated.

Jaejoong nodded. “It was slower though. They told me they put me under several tests that allowed the cells to keep on reproducing with defect, it also means that at anytime in my life they can resume the process.”

“What can destruct a defected cell…” the Doctor sighed, “is a virus.”

Jaejoong heard people holding their breaths, and the others gasped.

“It’s not like Thyss has produced thevirus.” Yeeun’s tone was confident. “We know the first case came from the north and not from us. They have their stupid nuclear production and it doesn’t surprise me that they produced biological weapons too.”

“Yeeun’s right.” Yunho’s voice finally resounded in its calm and positivity. “What the laboratory, corporation or whatever was it, even though played with people to unknown results, they have saved Jaejoong.”

“At least,” Somi mumbled, “at least they did something good.”

“And then you had never left?” Leeteuk asked Jaejoong, still sounding doubtful.

“My recuperation was fast, but the tests were never ending on me,” Jaejoong shrugged. “My mom also never came back to pick me up. Time to me has never meant much. Eventually the doctors would leave and never come back… I naturally started to understand life outside the laboratory wasn’t safe until I got the conclusion that there wasn’t life anymore. The doctors convinced us, other inmates like me, that we were the solution to save humanity if we donated ourselves. In the end it wasn’t a choice. People would enter and become ill easily, or doctors would give life to newborns since it all had a bigger reason.”

“They would give away their own child?” A woman Jaejoong didn’t know the name yet asked, perplexed to her bones.

The boy nodded. It was natural.

He watched her taking her own kid into her arms and left the room in a hurry.

“If you entered there at 9,” Gary wondered, not interested in the woman who just left, “how old are you now?”

“I was born in 1998,” Jaejoong lowered his tone, shy to admit he didn’t know his own age.

“You are just ing 20 years old?” Yunho exclaimed from the back, making some people laughed.

Jaejoong was too busy shocked with the information to feel offended in any way by that.

“Ten… It has been ten years?

“We are of the same age,” smiled Somi.“But you look older than me.”

“It has been seven years, Jaejoong,” Leeteuk rose from his seat, “since the infection break out.”

The fact that Jaejoong had been facing life under fluorescent light bulbs, needles, sedatives and pain during ten years didn’t sound fair. Where was his mother when he was finally well enough to go back home, to go back to school? Why did he have to try to save himself not aware to be in a world that human anatomy had been changed to kill their own species?

Was he really being held safe inside the laboratory doors, or did it just merely reduced the time he could have shared at least a little bit of normal life he had never had the chance to try?

“I bet you haven’t seen any zombie yet.”

The word made Jaejoong’s breath stuck halfway to his lungs.

“A zombie?” he confirmed with Leeteuk.

“I’m going to show you,” he extended his hands, inviting Jaejoong in, “how life has changed since you were 8.”

.

Yunho followed behind them as they traced a dark and tricked way. Stairs were missing in some ladders, and doors would need a kick to open.

“We are at the underground room of an old factory.” Leeteuk apologized as Jaejoong felt in a hole that consumed half of his body and had to coop with Yunho’s unending laugh. “Please, understand.”

“I do,” Jaejoong wiped his hands on the new clothes he was given to. “I just wonder why does he-”he signed with his head “have to come along with us.”

“Because I’m awesome.” Yunho declared, not holding back any hint of humility. “And you’ll need me. Everyone does.”

“He is right.” Leeteuk had them stopping before an iron door. “Yunho is in charge of our security here.”

“Poor you.” Jaejoong commented and was glad enough not to hear Yunho’s laugh this time.

The noise was really getting to his nerves.

“Seriously though,” Leeteuk smiled. “What you are going to see now is dangerous. If anything happens, I want to make sure Yunho is here to protect not just you but me too.”

Yunho excused himself so he could move himself to front of the door. From a belt around his hips he took out the machine he was holding when he met Jaejoong earlier.

“What is that for?” He asked in a low tone.

“For killing, Baby.” Yunho turned back to send him a quick wink. “For your own safety.”

“It’s a shot gun.We use gunpowder to shoot them straight on the head.” Leeteuk explained more specifically.

“Isn’t light enough?” Jaejoong stepped back, insecure. “To kill them, I mean? To turn them into ashes.”

“Sunlight.” Leeteuk held Jaejoong in place with a hand on the shoulder, trying to send him some confidence through the touch. “The radiation containedin it hurts their skin to the point it burns, and after a chain reaction of the still unknown components in their anatomy they burn to ashes. They have no melanin at all in their bodies, Jaejoong. But their bodies have the capacity to regenerate and, even from the ashes, they come back to life again once the darkness is restored.”

Jaejoong shook his head, completely surprised. “I had no idea.”

“You don’t know a lot of things, Baby.” Yunho smiled at him.

“Please don’t call me like that,” Jaejoong asked, trying to hold onto the last strings of patience he still had.

“I will. I will make you get used to it to the point you will miss me calling you like that.”

Leeteuk was the one to laugh this time and let go of Jaejoong’s shoulder.

“Are you ready?” Leeteuk asked. “Ready to face a zombie?”

No. Jaejoong wasn’t. He wanted to shake his head, turn back the offer with hands up in the air and ask them to lead him the way back to the ballroom. But sooner or later, he knew one of the changedwould come his way and he didn’t want the surprise to drain the time he should be fighting for his life.

Yunho would shoot him straight in the head on that street if he showed one expression less than human. He believed that the man’s ability to shoot might me so much better than his friendly manners, or they would be lost.

“I’m trusting you.” Jaejoong whispered, loud enough for Yunho to understand his hesitance.

It is not that Jaejoong needed his protection.

The young man just would borrow it until he could fully protect himself.

And right when he didn’t need Yunho anymore, he would throw him away, just like he had promised before.