Act 5 “Numbness”

“Please…” Yoochun muttered in his low hoarse voice full in pain,” I can’t---“

“Chunnie?” Junsu called the name as he examined Yoochun; this time the surgeon was burning on fever and unconscious. It’s been like half hour after Yunho and Changmin gone but none of them had returned, they couldn’t help but beginning to lose hope little by little.

“He’s having a nightmare,” Jaejoong spoke as he prevented Junsu,” Don’t wake him up, it’s better to let him unconscious.”

“Why?” Junsu dared to ask as he wiped his dried tears; he had giving up crying and trying to help Yoochun felt anyway better; he tried everything he could think of till he could only held Yoochun’s hand and embraced his childhood friend.

“Because, he will be in hallucinating-stage soon enough,” Jaejoong answered from his experience,” First his temperature drops like it did and then he’s burning of fever with nightmares. Then, the pain gets worse till he wakes up and starts to hallucinate…bad things. That’s why we should let him asleep as long as possible because trust me, you will regret if you wake him up.”

Junsu gulped as he couldn’t dare to imagine how much pain Yoochun would suffer if they didn’t get out in time. He couldn’t help but to blame himself more and more. Silence came to them as Jaejoong was on guard if some zombies spotted them. In his deepest mind and soul, he still knew how inhuman the stage of transforming into a zombie could be.

[FLASHBACK]

“Are you okay?” Jaejoong asked a man white shirt as he was pushed aside till he landed on the floor.

“Of course not! Can’t you see I’m bitten?! I’ll turn into those monsters!!!” the man screamed his lungs hysterically as he suddenly screamed in pain, causing everyone in the room moved away and hid behind anything they could fine. They’re in some kind of waiting room in the airport and there’re only five survivors there, excluding the bitten man.

“We should dispose him!” Another man, who’s a security of the airport, spoke up,” We can’t risk any of us turn into those monsters too!”

“No! Daddy didn’t do anything wrong!” a small girl, aged around ten, spoke up as she cried and crawled to his daddy’s side. Crying and she was scared, but no one cared enough to listen to her.

“We should do the best,” a business woman spoke as she pulled the girl away from his dad. The security was dragging the man in pain to get outside; just before he thrown the man outside, the man attacked him and bit him on his neck. Blood splashed all over the door as it was wide open, revealing horrible view of zombies outside.

Jerking up, Jaejoong got another young boy rushed to the bathroom and hid themselves there.  Before they close the door, they could see the business woman’s and the girl’s scream when they’re torn apart by those monster.

Banging sound echoed all over the air as Jaejoong pulled his only survivor friend, the boy, to hide behind the wardrobe. They could barely kept their sanity till the sound stopped and the zombies seemed to move away from the door; heading to another direction.

“Are you okay?” Jaejoong asked the boy. Yet, he didn’t get any answer. He tried to look at the boy’s face as he realized how cold the skin was and how pale the boy was. The boy was around fifteen or something and terror hit Jaejoong when he saw a bite mark on the boy’s leg.

“Cold…” the boy murmured incoherently,” Please…the pain….don’t hurt me…”

The boy felt asleep and lost his consciousness. Jaejoong was frozen; he didn’t know what to do or what to believe anymore; it’s like his whole hope being torn apart in front of him. He was just a normal oncologist and he felt terror everyday because his practice, yet, nothing compared to the one he felt right now.

Suddenly, the boy became feverish and had nightmares. Jaejoong shook him, trying to wake him up from it. The boy suddenly opened his eyes wide as he screamed his lungs. It didn’t take any second than one till Jaejoong jerked away from the boy’s scream. The boy was crying and screaming like hell. Jaejoong got away as far as he could and curled like a ball in fear. The poor boy started to get up and smacked anything he could; even bumping his head on the floor few times as blood splashed.

Time passed and the terror continued; Jaejoong was almost losing his sanity when suddenly the boy fell down on the flood. Breathing was hard as Jaejoong could barely breathe from his rapid heartbeat. The boy’s eyes were staring at him in soulless look and Jaejoong could feel his spine shivered. Hoarse soft cry could be heard as the boy suddenly got up and crawled to Jaejoong’s direction.

“NOOO!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!!” Jaejoong screamed as he managed to avoid the boy’s attack and opened the door. He was about to run but too bad his legs were caught. He kicked the boy on the broken head as he ran as fast as he could. Did not aware of his surrounding, Jaejoong tripped over a dead body as the boy kept chasing him. He swore his life could have end that second but suddenly the boy fell on the floor after a gun shot. Jaejoong looked up and saw a man in black suit, completely armed; the man he knew as Jung Yunho and his savior.

[END OF FLASHBACK]

Jaejoong cursed as he promised himself to never let Junsu or Yoochun suffered the same terror he did. He crawled next to Junsu as he examined Yoochun. The man was barely breathing and his eyes moved behind the eyelids fast. It wouldn’t take long till Yoochun woke up and freak both of them. Thinking hard, Jaejoong sought any idea he could do to save Yoochun from his suffering or maybe to lessen the pain and buy more time for them.

“Junsu, what’s Yoochun’s blood type?” Jaejoong asked.

“Uhh?...It’s O,” Junsu answered as  Jaejoong got one crazy, insane, dangerous, life threatening, but at least it’s an idea. Jaejoong took his jacket off Yoochun to get some stuff. There’re some tube with needless. Junsu didn’t know what Jaejoong would do till the man used the needle to transfer his own blood to Yoochun.

“Hyung!” Junsu was shocked and didn’t how to react when Jaejoong used another tube to transfer Yoochun’s blood into his.

“I don’t want to be a burden because lack of blood, I need to be able to walk,” Jaejoong spoke as he felt some pain on his vein as the virus blood entered him,” I’m adding more time for all of us. Maybe another half hour….”

“Uhh…” Yoochun muttered incoherently till he opened his eyes one minutes later. He was still weak but he somehow felt a lot better and he swore he had the power to walk or even run again. Yoochun began to realize the situation he was in and how Jaejoong helped him. The terror hit him as he pulled the tube out and cursed Jaejoong to help him that way.

“It’s all I can do,” Jaejoong’s voice turned weak as he collapsed. Yoochun got up and stopped all the blood transfer as Junsu tried to wake Jaejoong up. Suddenly hoarse voices could be heard from the tunnel they came in. Acting fast with his recovered mind and body, Yoochun pulled Junsu and Jaejoong to hide behind barrels. They could hear the zombies’ step came closer and closer.

“Hyung,” Junsu called Jaejoong again as the oncologist finally opened his eyes, smiling,” I’m fine, don’t worry. Make sure your weapon is ready.”

Yoochun gave a forced nod as they got their gun pointed on the edge of the tunnel, ready for the zombies. Yoochun hated the way Jaejoong helped him but maybe he should be thankful and did his best to not let any of them got bitten for now.

Gunfire echoed through the air as the men shot every zombies they spotted on the head. Junsu threw a grenade he saved before and made the zombies exploded like bunch of balloons. Just when they thought they had won the fight, a roar caught their ears. They knew so well what that meant. The monster they fought at the elevator before, which huger than any zombies, came closer and closer. Yoochun tried to shot the legs to lessen the speed as Junsu and Jaejoong were busy shooting the head. Some of the bullet reflected back to nearby zombies, killing them.

It’s no used; the monster kept approaching fast. Yoochun cursed as he threw his last grenade; they ran in the meantime to the tunnel Changmin took. They didn’t get deep enough, just few turns till they could shot the monster in safe distant. Yet, every struggle they did, didn’t work.

“Damn it!” Junsu wanted to be free from all of this terror; he’s sick of it. He had almost lost Yoochun and now, they’re fighting a monster in his nightmare. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible to get Yoochun and Jaejoong treated but instead, they were running their bullet out with useless struggle. He wanted everything to just stop and maybe if this was a dream, he wanted to wake up from it immediately.

“Get down!” Jaejoong spoke as he threw fire dynamite to the monster; they laid flat on the wet ground as hot air burnt above them. It took them almost half minute to get up and get back to their sense. They peeked and saw no zombies moving. All of them were burnt into ashes, the same like the monster. Sighing, the three men collapsed on the floor, trying to get some fresh air.

“Jaejoong!” a faint shout from the round room echoed as they saw a figure came to them. They couldn’t see clear but Jaejoong knew it was Yunho. Jaejoong prayed Yunho would be just fine and his pray was answered. The man rushed to his side, asking if he’s okay.

“I’m okay,” Jaejoong spoke as Yunho examined the others; he realized Yoochun was way better than he thought the man could. Jaejoong was so dead afraid Yunho knew he did stupid thing in order to safe Yoochun. The man would hit him for sure.

“Yoochun felt better suddenly, we should get out while we can,” Junsu lied as he got Jaejoong’s signal. Yoochun wanted to protest and tell Yunho there’re two infected person there but Junsu prevented him.

“So is it a dead end in your way?” Yoochun finally gave up his real statement and asked a question.

“No, it’s the way out,” Yunho declared as horror was shown on the others’ eyes; Yunho knew what he should ask next,” Where’s Changmin?”

“He hasn’t returned yet,” Jaejoong answered.

“We should get going,” Yunho ordered as he pulled Jaejoong but the man didn’t want to move.

“Are you saying we should abandon him?!” Jaejoong broke up, shouting for the first time at Yunho.

“Jae, he knows the consequences like we did promise before splitting up,” Yunho spoke in stern voice,” Come on, we can’t waste any minute, Yoochun’s life is on the line!”

Junsu pulled Yoochun as they got Yunho’s signal to proceed to the tunnel ahead. Yunho had made sure he cleared most of the area he passed to make their going out easier and faster; that’s why he took too much time to come back.

“I won’t leave him,” Jaejoong’s answer was final too. Yunho slapped Jaejoong as the man shocked to bits; he never imagined being slapped by his only savior.

”Changmin won’t want his sacrifice be in vain. I will come back to search for him after I get the three of you out safely.” Yunho finally spoke; just to get Jaejoong shook his head again.

“Come or not to come, it’s your choice,” Yunho let go of Jaejoong as he walked passed him with final saying,” I need to get Yoochun out for the treatment before it is too late...”

And what about me?! I’m also dying here! And Changmin! Jaejoong wanted to scream but he didn’t.