“TAEYONG!” Jihoon shouted after him, running outside to chase the high school student. “Taeyong, stop running!” 

 

Taeyong stopped running, standing in the middle of the parking lot, watching Jihoon run up to him. “What do you want?” he asked quite harshly. “Just leave me alone-”

 

“Look, Taeyong, just- ah , I hate being short,” Jihoon mumbled under his breath, thinking for the thousandth time of his life how much he hated himself. If only the orphanage milk wasn’t nasty, maybe he would have grown a few more inches like Soonyoung who was always in the middle of some type of growth spurt. “Taeyong, can you stop running for a second and hear me out?”

 

Taeyong hastily wiped off the sweat and tears off his face. “Why? You don’t even know me.”

 

“Maybe not, but… you know, I guess this is the part in movies where the adult says some bull wisdom,” Jihoon said. “But just because I’m 26 doesn’t mean I know anything, I don’t even know what I had for breakfast this morning- actually, I think I ate a block of colby- anyways!” He stared at Taeyong, making eye contact with his puffy eyes. “Look, I’m going to assume you felt overwhelmed back there.”

 

Taeyong nodded. “I just don’t know why they are all wanting me to lead when, I mean, I don’t even know if anything will work, how do I know someone won’t get hurt, it’s just so hard, and I can barely lead the club and then there’s aliens to top it off, and I just want to go home and eat ice cream and forget about today.”

 

Jihoon nodded, he could totally use a bowl of ice cream right now. “Yeah, this whole day sounds like some bad fan fiction story, if I’m honest.”

 

The two stood in silence for a minute, both momentarily forgetting that there were aliens around the premises trying to kill everybody for some reason, but they were too busy in their own thoughts to think about it. 

 

“Look, like I said, I’m not really good with wisdom,” Jihoon said. “And I also don’t take advice well, despite my therapist giving me random to follow through every week so you might not pay attention to me, but… they're not harming you out of malice, just like you, their scared and want to head home and they trust you to do it.”

 

“But what if I can’t?” Taeyong asked. “I just don’t know why everybody wants me to do it."

 

“It’s not bad for them to want to trust you,” Jihoon explained. “I’m assuming they don’t realize how much pressure they’re giving you. Just- just talk it out to them, maybe they’ll get it-”

 

They heard someone behind them scream their names, causing the two to turn their heads, surprised to see Jaehyun near the entrance of the door, Soonyoung behind him. 

 

“I think your boyfriend is worried,” Taeyong told Jihoon. “You should head back.”

 

Jihoon frowned at him. “Soonyoung is not my- we can barely be friends, plus, you can’t go out there alone.”

 

Taeyong took a step backward, preparing to run. “I don’t want to put them in danger.”

 

“You won’t,” Jihoon reassured him. “You guys are a family, I promise you guys are going to be safe.”

 

Taeyong looked at where Jaehyun and Soonyoung were standing, gulping. “I can’t do it alone.”

 

No one can. “Trust me, everyone wants to do what’s best in this situation,” Jihoon said. “You 21 can do it together.”
 

***

 

“Since me and Taeyong are tired of everyone’s ,” Doyoung said, slamming a piece of paper on the reception desk, “we’re all going to do a vote. And be serious, please, I know it’s a very Gen Z thing to laugh in the face of death, but the last thing we need is more anxiety in this situation.”

 

At least three of them in the room wanted to yell boomer at them, but fearing an whoopin from Doyoung, plus the fact that Taeyong tried to run out of them, made them hold their tongue. They’ll say it later when they’re getting rescued from the militia and Doyoung legally can not kill them. 

 

“The important thing is that we all remain safe,” Taeyong said quietly. He still very much wanted to just run out of there and climb into his bed and sleep for the rest of the night, but what ultimately won him over was that he was still worried about the safety of all the students here. “And we have to decide things equally. You can’t be mad and do your own thing because someone went against what you wanted to do.”

 

Everyone nodded, so he took that as a sign to continue.

 

“Now, the most important question right now,” he said. “Do you guys want to head to our homes or… or fight back in the forest?”

 

Throughout the group, it was easy to see the division even though they weren’t speaking. Those who wanted to fight the aliens were more pumped up, full of energy, not backing down while those who just wanted to sleep and forget about this god awful though looked more scared, terrified of the idea of fighting. 

 

It was weird to think only one of those things was going to happen. 

 

“Ten votes or more will mean we will go forward with this decision,” Taeyong said. “But who is in favor of just heading home?”

 

He counted the hands going on up. One, two, three…

 

Up to nine. 

 

Nine.

 

Remind Taeyong why he came back here again?

 

Right when everyone was looking at each other, ready to argue and defend their opinion, Doyoung spoke up. “Hey, we said no fighting guys-”

 

“It’s just- can’t we go in groups or something?” Jisung said. “My arm really hurts, I don’t think I’m in the position to fight.”

 

“We can’t split up, remember?” Hendery told him. “We have to be in a group-”

 

“I just want to beat their asses, if I’m honest,” Yuta muttered. 

 

Doyoung squinted his eyes at him. “You lunged at them once and then became unconscious-”

 

“Guys, no arguing,” Taeyong reminded them. The last thing he needed was for everyone to start speaking at each other all at once. 20 plus people in the tiny school office debating on what to do next? Not exactly pleasant. “We’re going to fight back.”

 

The group quieted down, thankfully, so Taeyong grabbed his bag of supplies that he had dropped earlier and took out a pencil. Why he had it with supplies, no one knew but him. 

 

He drew some lines on the paper that Doyoung had put on the desk. “So it’s assumed they’re in the forest,” he said, drawing some nicely drawn trees. “Thankfully, it’s not that big and shouldn’t take like hours or something exaggerated to go through it, so if they’re hiding in there somewhere, we’ll be able to find it.” He drew some lines representing roads around the trees. “Also, if I remember google maps correctly, if we ever get lost, we can just run straight in one direction and find a road eventually.”

 

“How long does it take to travel through it, though?” Chen Le asked. “Like what if we get tired?”

 

“I don’t think it takes more than half an hour if you go walking,” Haechan said, shrugging. “I go walking in there all the time.”

 

Mark frowned at him. “We’ve never gone walking there before.”

 

“Not with you, you get scared too easily,” Haechan corrected himself. “And don’t you dare scold at me, I don’t want to hear the ‘I just want you to be safe’ argument.”

 

Mark, who had opened his mouth to speak, closed it again when Haechan finished. 

 

“Okay, but how many plans have we done in the past hour and not gone through with them?” Ten said. “If we do one, everyone has to stick with it, no matter how dumb you think of it. No one cares about your opinion right now, we’re trying to stay alive.”

 

“Uh, this is a democracy, Ten, not sure if you forgot,” Yangyang said, pointing at him. “We have the right to an opinion-”

 

“Guys, no fighting,” Doyoung warned them again.

 

Taeyong just shrugged. He was tired of these damn plans anyway, this wasn’t a test he was trying to study for. No matter how good a plan they make, it all boiled down to everyone’s fight or flight reaction. 

 

“The plan this time is simple, just head to the forest,” he said. “And kill all the aliens on sight.”
 

***

 

By the time the group of 21 students plus 2 adults who managed to get themselves in this situation managed to go outside, it was getting dark. 

 

Thankfully, they were still able to see, but it was those instances where there was no more sun and nightfall was going to fall in less than half an hour. If Haechan was truly right and going through the forest only took half an hour, if they didn’t waste their time, they should be out by the road during nightfall and be safe. 

 

Why did the school district choose to put the school building next to a forest again?

 

Since they were a big group, it was certain that they were going to unintentionally cause some noise, especially since it was so quiet outside. It was Friday, there weren’t going to be people around the school, anyways.

 

And since they were going to be making noise, aliens were going to be finding them more quickly. 

 

There must have been some aliens surrounding the school from any commotion they have made earlier. They have inferred that once an alien sees you, they’re going to remain in that spot until they see or hear you again. Explains why the alien outside Mr. Park’s room, for example, never moved for the hour that it was there. 

 

The aliens managed to find them, around ten or so. It was uncertain how many aliens existed or if they were multiplying, but one thing was certain, they had to deal with this now.

 

Kun, who has been terrified the entire time and still wants to go home, was the first to notice them, looking back at the school when he saw them. “Guys, there’s some aliens behind us,” he said to the group. He would have pointed but since one arm was around Xiaojun and the other curled around some blades, he couldn’t exactly do that. 

 

Most of them turned around to see them, with Doyoung, clearly the most fearless one in the group, stepping forward. “So I guess these are going to be gone first.”

 

“We haven’t even stepped foot in the forest and they’re already chasing us,” Yuta mumbled. God, he should have voted for heading straight home. 

 

“These es really don’t know how to take a no,” Johnny said, cracking his neck. “So do we send one person per alien or everyone at once-”

 

“I’m not fighting those- those things!” Jeno screamed. 

 

Wrong move on his part. 

 

Loud noises seemed to provoked the aliens, cause this soon sent them in a frenzy, unintelligible screeching as they ran towards the group. 

 

Half of them sprinted forward, ready to deal with the bastards, while some stayed back, mainly the younger ones. There was a lot of commotion as to who should do what, people pulling some back while others pushing them forward. 

 

Mark, one of the sane ones who had voted going home, didn’t want to leave Haechan’s side at all, so when his boyfriend (yes, boyfriend! He couldn’t believe he had gotten a boyfriend during this whole situation) seemed to have no respect for himself and ran forward to kick some alien , Mark had no choice but to follow him and make sure he was safe. 

 

He had been given a knife for the whole ordeal, so when one of the aliens was about to reach for Haechan’s neck, Mark sliced his arms off, ignoring the annoying screeching it was emitting while falling on the ground.

 

“I know they said no jokes, but can I make a knight in shining armor one right now?” Haechan joked. 

 

Mark glared at him, pointing the knife at him. “Stop getting in danger-”

 

“MARK!!” he turned around and saw an alien with a knife in his stomach, falling to the ground to reveal Johnny behind him. “Man, you play a lot.”

 

“I WASN’T DOING ANYTHING-” Mark screamed at him, only to step backwards, holding onto Haechan’s arm when he saw another alien running up to Johnny. “DUDE, BEHIND YOU-”

 

Doyoung slain the alien running up to Johnny, green liquid spewing everywhere. “Only you guys would have an argument while we’re fighting, can’t you just shut up for thirty minutes!”

 

“It’s not that hard to kill aliens,” Haechan said, noticing another one coming up to him. “Look, I can get that one easily-”

 

“Donghyuck, no-”

 

Haechan stabbed the alien with both blades in hand, piercing his chest. “See?? Easy!!”

 

The green blood thingy was really sticky, almost like Mark’s from earlier- oh, right, he forgot they ed earlier. Wait, first he lost his ity and now he was killing aliens?! What an eventful day it was. 

 

His still kind of hurt, but that was a convo for another day. If they lived to see it, that is. 

 

“Clearly, we need to stop playing video games,” Mark said, grabbing Haechan’s hand. He looked around, seeing no more aliens attack them. “Well, that was actually easy-”

 

“Cause, like, ten of us ran to fight them,” Yuta said. “Do the math, idiot.”

 

“Don’t you mean Chittaphon ran?” Yangyang said, laughing at his own joke. “Get it?! Chittaphon-”

 

“Yangyang,” Ten said with a smile. “Don’t you forget all of us have knives here?”

 

Renjun raised the blade and syringe with acid in his hands. “Finally, someone who speaks my language.”

 

“All this killing is getting into everyone’s head,” Jaehyun said. “Guys, let’s head back to the forest-”

 

“Uh, Jaehyun?” Lucas said, pointing to something in the distance behind the school. “We might want to hurry, there’s more of them coming.”

 

“These aliens really don’t want me to have my ING YOGURT!!!” Si Cheng screamed, provoking them again.

 

“Babe, let’s not scream at them- ah, , they’re coming, they’re coming!!” Yuta shrieked, grabbing Si Cheng’s hand and pulling him away. He didn’t want to fight anymore, he realized. 

 

“Now would be a GOOD TIME FOR A GUN!!” Hendery yelled, hiding behind Yangyang. “Do something-”

 

“Guys, just head to the forest!!” Taeyong shouted at the whole group, grabbing Chen Le and Jisung’s hands. “Go, go ,go!!”

 

***

 

When Taeyong said to run to the forest, that was what Jihoon was planning. 

 

However, despite being the second-oldest (curse Soonyoung for being older than him) of the group of whatever amount of people there were, you have to remember that he was, well… 

 

The shortest. 

 

Luckily, this aided a lot during combat (combat, wow, he was doing combat now?!?! Ha! This must count as practice for kickboxing class, am I right? At least exercise or something). He was able to dodge lunges from the aliens quickly and slice their stomachs, so he had not been harmed during the whole experience. 

 

Unluckily, with all the running this group was doing, this was proving to be a disadvantage. 

 

Jihoon, for one, had never been athletic ever in his entire life. He didn’t participate during gym class in high school, he has never participated in any curriculars during high school or college, and he certainly didn’t listen to any advice of exercise when it came to his therapists. Yes, he put effort in whatever else he suggested to get rid of fatigue or not, but the most exercise Jihoon would do was rushing to the frozen food aisle to get the forgotten pizza rolls or dance to 2.5 music videos in his living room before getting bored and stuffing his mouth with muffins. 

 

So, no, he didn’t exercise much. 

 

He had been getting extremely tired this whole day, and you have to remember that he came to this woods to find the coordinates right after work which is when they were dragged to this whole alien mess. He was CRANKY and he wanted a nap!

 

His legs were giving out, trembling the entire they had been outside. He had been thankful for the adrenaline flowing in his blood, however, keeping him more awake than he should have been, but this was a dangerous situation when the group headed into the forest, filled with bumpy grounds, broken branches, and animals hidden everywhere, causing him to do the unfortunate seen in every cliche action and horror movie. 

 

He tripped.

 

Despite running with knives, he thankfully managed to not impale himself, dropping it when he fell, but he landed on the ground with a loud thunk, scraping his palms and hurting his head in the process. Plus, there was a sudden intake of pain coming from his ankle that he just wanted to cry out in pain. 

 

He screamed when he fell, disoriented for a couple of seconds, looking behind him. He had tripped on a large branch, and now he was apart from the group, with a close to zero chance of being able to get up, with a large number of aliens running behind him. 

 

Jihoon tried to crawl away from the path, whimpering in pain, when he saw that Soonyoung, who must have noticed him missing, ran back to get him.

 

“Oh, no, Jihoon!” Soonyoung yelled, dashing towards him. It looked like he was the only one in the group to have noticed that Jihoon had fallen behind, since they had been at the very end. “Don’t worry, I’m coming-”

 

“Soonyoung, no, go with them, please- ow!” he cried out, clutching his sprained ankle. “Ah, !”

 

Soonyoung wrapped his arms around Jihoon’s waist, lifting him up. He always scolded him for being so light but he was thankful of that for this one time. “Hey, I got you, I’m not leaving you behind, don’t say that again, it’s a cliche-”

 

“Soonyoung, stop talking and get us out of here!!”

 

“Right, right!” Soonyoung spun in a quick circle, trying to find a hiding place when he noticed some fallen tree trunks, running towards them and setting Jihoon down first. “Get in, quick.”

 

Jihoon, despite his pained hands, crawled in the tight space, with Soonyoung getting in after them. They had to have their necks craned and were squeezed in, but it thankfully provided them a place of shelters.

 

The aliens soon caught up to them, scrambling to try to get ahold of them. It was a good thing they didn’t have brains to try to remove the tree trunks, Soonyoung said, though the fact that they could break wood was making him worried. 

 

He cut off any arms of those reaching into the opening, getting disgusted at the green liquid falling on his face, but he managed to kill all the aliens that had crowded in their space.

 

They heard more noises outside, though, so Soonyoung covered Jihoon’s mouth, the two refusing to speak, realizing that they were going to be stuck there the entire night.