joohyun was struggling. she was struggling to survive in the world where there was no point in living when most of the occupants were the undead. she saw how the years went by, slowly the abandoned cities were taken over by nature, the living population trying to maintain living. she describes herself to be lucky, lucky that she was still alive, not affected by the virus outbreak.

it had been exactly three years since the outbreak. 

an outbreak that one of her fellow co-workers caused. 

she had worked as a scientist. she was just doing her job until she heard screams coming from outside her laboratory. the alarms went off, she knew something went wrong. just from the door window of her lab, she saw people running away from something or someone. 

judging from the havoc running the whole workplace. she had to escape. she doesn't know what went wrong but seeing her co-workers running away with fear urged her to do the same. and she did. 

soon she found out what was the source of the panic. those creatures were only supposed to be in the movies. she saw them with her own two eyes. 

a zombie. its head was tilted to the side, the skin was scraped off from its own rotting body and showing the bare muscles and bones. some had multiple bite marks on their body indicating it was turned. they were covered in ragged clothes stained with blood. bloodshot eyes that stared into yours with no remorse, only with the idea of devouring you alive.

she had killed a couple with her current strength. she was weak. and having nobody except yourself with little power it was difficult for joohyun but she managed. she hasn't found any friendly survivors. most survivors had turned selfish. they had to be selfish to survive. joohyun thought that humanity is hopeless, groups of survivors from different areas can't work together. constantly raiding each other's supplies to have it as their own while the victims were left to start all over again.

that's why joohyun doubts of ever entering a shelter.

she only stands in the comfort of her own makeshift camp she sets up inside the empty gas station. the small convenience store of the gas station was ransacked. survivors have gotten here before her. still standing shelves holding nothing except a few useless and expired food. the floor stained with unknown liquid she doesn't ever want to touch. 

curled up in the storage area of the convenience store. the storage area was small, had a couple of shelves on each wall and held cardboard boxes with mostly nothing in them. joohyun cloaked herself in a thin blanket, she rests her head on the wall, staring at the slightly open door. she wanted an easy escape if either someone or something ever came inside. no sound of a panicked doorknob twisting open would be heard.

in her hand was a pistol she got from an undead police officer rotting on the streets. she had limited ammo but that would do for now. to protect herself. to survive—alone.

she sighs out softly, not wanting to make too much noise. she puts down the gun gently onto the smooth concrete floor, “i don't have to be too tense.. i can calm down..” she whispers to herself. she knew herself to be quite the jumpy person, just a tap on her shoulder would lead to a ringing scream. she remembers how younger friends of hers about it, ‘i wonder how they are. are they even alive still?’

her friends. are they safe? did they get into a shelter at least? she didn't want to be biased but the youngest, kim yerim—yeri, she was just a high schooler. she wonders if she was alive, yeri would be able to take care of herself. the maknae was able to pull off anything she sees that could annoy sooyoung. sooyoung, almost a graduate. she stuck to yeri even though they don't get on terms often.

lastly, seungwan. joohyun liked her.. not as a friend. seungwan sadly doesn't her return her feelings. “i—i didn't think of you like that unnie. i'm sorry! let's still be friends though?” she confessed after highschool. after being best of friends ever since middle school, they stopped contacting each other few years after the confession, exactly when joohyun got her job, ‘seungwan would be fine. she can do anything’

it was lonely during the first years of the outbreak. she considered ending it all once. she was weak and could barely survive at first but a certain scene that happened before her changed her mind.

‘unnie, please live for me?’

joohyun h