"We should avoid fighting for now. We need to save our energy," I said and they nodded. We peered out and made sure there were no monsters nearby before heading towards the broken parts of the bridge. 

 

"How do we get down there?" Minhyuk asked and we looked around before our eyes seemed to fall onto the handcuffs. 

 

"That's a bad idea," Kihyun said but what choice did we have? It wasn't like we had ropes. 

 

"We could try to jump down but it'll make too much noise without something to cushion the fall," Baekho said and Kihyun groaned. 

 

"Fine. I'll go down first," he grumbled as if cursing his fate for being the smallest sized among us. "Just don't drop me." 

 

"My life is on the line here too," Minhyuk chuckled as Kihyun lowered himself. He took a deep breath and grasped the cuff with his other hand as well, letting go of the concrete as all three of us worked together to lower him down slowly. At some point, Minhyuk was also leaning forward too much but thankfully, Kihyun touched the ground. He showed us a thumbs up and opened his arms. "I really gotta jump, huh?" 

 

"We don't really have much of a choice here...," Baekho responded and I blinked, just patting him on the back for encouragement. 

 

"Alright. Catch me, Ki!" Minhyuk chuckled and pretended to hop. Kihyun reflexively covered himself. 

 

"Alright. Don't joke around. Grab on," Baekho chuckled and Minhyuk nodded, clutching the chain of our cuff as he hopped down into the hole as well. Kihyun tried to grab hold of him once he was lowered enough. Once they were down there, they both lifted their arms, prepared to catch us. 

 

"You first," Baekho said and I nodded, climbing down and lowered to proper platform. "Okay... I can do this." 

 

Baekho sat at the edge and hopped. All 3 of us cushioned his fall since our shoes would make too much noise if we landed upright. 

 

"Oh god. I never want to do that again," Baekho squeaked as he stood up straight again. 

 

"Let's hope we don't have to," I said and smiled, glad we made it without alerting those little creatures. 

 

"Let's go." 

 

With weapons still in hand just in case, we started heading towards the direction of the city. Water roared underneath us, covering our footsteps hopefully as we rushed across as quickly as we could. It was quite dark under the bridge but we stuck close to the brighter side and hoped nothing would jump out at us too. 

 

"So, Minhyuk, what do you work as in the real world? You seem to really know a lot about games...," Baekho said and Minhyuk glanced back at us before shrugging.

 

"I was a game tester. I played a lot of games which is probably why it seems like I know how this game works."

 

Something felt off to me as Minhyuk answered the question but yet, I couldn't quite put a finger around it.

 

"What about you, Kihyun?"

 

"Mmm? Me? I was studying to be an engineer. Which was sort of why I picked up the book on bridges..."

 

"There it is again," I muttered without realising until I realised Baekho was staring at me with a confused look.

 

"What is?"

 

"Huh?"

 

"You said there it is again... What is?"

 

I halted and they slowed down to a stop too.

 

"Don't you guys feel like... This is way too... Weird?" I questioned and they only looked bewildered. 

 

"What's weird?" Minhyuk asked and tilted his head.

 

"Everything is too... Convenient," I said and chewed on my bottom lip.

 

"Like what? How has anything about this been convenient?"

 

"Like... How... You know about games and how Kihyun read about the bridge somehow...."

 

"Minhyun, are you alright?" Baekho asked and I groaned.

 

"I am... Just give me a little more time. I feel like I'm recalling something," I said and they nodded worriedly but continued walking. It didn't take too long before we had to stop as there was nowhere for us to walk ahead of us. The path wasn't broken per say but there was just no path. There was just whiteness in front of us. 

 

"This doesn't look good," Kihyun said and Minhyuk nodded. 

 

"Seems like we entered an area that wasn't built...."

 

"Wait. You're not saying we have to go all the way back and go pass the monsters again, right?" Baekho gasped and Minhyuk frowned. 

 

"Well... We shouldn't be affected but there is no saying what will happen if we go through this... Chances are we might fall into oblivion or there is actually a path and we make it across..." 

 

I stepped to the front and placed a foot onto the whiteness. Baekho gasped and tried to pull me back but I placed a hand on his arm. I took another step and glanced back at them. 

 

"Seems like there is a path." I blinked, taking notice of their stunned looks. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?" 

 

"Huh? No, nothing. Just thought you seemed pretty cool for being so bold," Minhyuk said with a chuckle. 

 

"Yeah," Kihyun agreed and I looked at Baekho who broke into a tiny relieved smile. 

 

"Let's go then." We stepped into the whiteness together, going straight ahead as far as we could before we saw the end. "Look, guys." 

 

We started climbing upwards on a grassy slope to our confusion but kept going until we reached the top. 

 

"Over there is the bridge," Minhyuk said as he pointed at the bridge. I looked at it and there weren't any white stuff that we had just walked pass. It looked just like a regular bridge so what was that really? "Probably some incomplete area." 

 

"Huh?" I blurted out in surprise.

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Oh nothing...."

 

"Come on. We have to find Shownu and Jooheon," Kihyun chimed and we hurried along. Our first few steps were slow and confused as the sight before us was completely different from before. The biggest difference being that there was no snow. No ice. No big chunks of icicles. It still had the same post apocalyptic look but this time, it looked as if it was summer. We took off the winter jackets and kept them just in case as we continued wandering around, scavenging for food and water. Thankfully there was a convenience store that had some canned food and water tucked away.

 

"I feel sorry if we took someone else's stash...," Baekho muttered as we munched on the food. Unsure if it was even edible or safe, we had to just to ensure our survival. It didn't taste like much or maybe there wasn't any taste at all but oddly enough, it did fill our stomachs enough to keep going. We stashed the remaining into our bags and surprisingly, we found sleeping bags as well which Baekho and I carried since we didn't need actual backpacks to carry things around. 

 

"I guess it's just all in the game system to make us replenish our hunger or stamina like an actual survival game," Minhyuk said.

 

"Say, how sure are you that we will meet your friends there?" I asked Kihyun who grinned.

 

"Trust them. They'll make it. They won't go down that easily. Especially if it's fighting."

 

"Sounds like you really trust them," I said softly and he nodded.

 

"Of course I do. We have been friends for so long. Why wouldn't I?"

 

"How long?" I asked and Kihyun flicked his eyelashes before his face became scrunched a little as if he was thinking hard.

 

"I can't say for sure... But just long."

 

I slowed down so I was walking beside Baekho again. He noticed it and smiled, gently brushing his hand against mine.

 

"Thinking hard?" he said and I sighed, just gazing into his brown eyes for a bit before having to make sure my attention was to the front or I'll bump into the others.

 

"Yeah... How long have you known Hoshi, Baekho?"

 

"Huh? How long?"

 

"Yep. How long...? You... You do know, right?"

 

Baekho frowned and rubbed his neck. "Uh... I'm quite sure it was for two... Years? Give or take...? Why? Is it important?"

 

"The thing is... If I had participated in this game before... How long have I been here? How long have we been playing? We were only judging based on the day since we woke up but what if I have been here way longer than that? What if my memory just kept being wiped over and over again? If they did it once, who is to say they wouldn't do it again? And we are actually just stuck in a cruel loop..." I felt warmth in my hand and realised Baekho had held my hand. 

 

"Sounds heavy to handle alone. Whatever it is. Let's face it together, okay?"

 

What if we were all just programmed? To think and feel like humans? To entertain. Just like a real toy. A real game. 

 

To love.

 

"This is too cruel," I whispered.

 

"I know. That's why you have me... Or us. We can get through this, Minhyun and we will get Prism to let us all go. We will end this game."

 

"As heartwarming as you two are being right now, we have company," Minhyuk said and we darted behind a roadblock. A zombie looking person wandered the street aimlessly with weird twitching motions exactly like those from a game. "This is a really weird game. There's no fixed theme to it."

 

"What if like you said, it's incomplete?" Kihyun replied him. "These random enemies, the weather."

 

"Will there even be a way to win then?" Baekho asked as no one knew the answer. We were thrown here without warning or a choice after all.

 

"There has to be," I said softly just to try to keep my focus in the game despite having my thoughts all scrambled. Then, what about the player that Jonghyun mentioned? Or what Prism said about us being favoured? Everything seemed to make lesser sense the more I thought about it.

 

"We just need to get to the tower. There's no reason to engage with one zombie," Kihyun said and we agreed. We already came this far without fighting again. It was best we stayed away too or it might attract more creatures or who knows what.

 

"I've been thinking but we haven't seen anyone else since we made it here," Minhyuk whispered as we snuck past the zombie to a more compact street. There were even more zombies wandering around but there were cars to hide behind this time and they weren't very active hunters either. We tried not to speak much, only using sign language as we went closer to the tower just in case it could trigger any of them which was much easier somehow than it seemed to be in video games or shows. For one, they weren't super sensitive to sound and they couldn't sniff us out either. So as long as we stayed as quiet as we could and out of line of sight, it didn't seem that difficult. Halfway there or maybe even lesser, we decided to enter a restaurant to take a quick break. We looked around to make sure there were no surprises to jump out at us before settling behind the counter to rest and recharge. 

 

"We have been walking the whole day and the only things we have seen are the zombies. Here, food."

 

"Thanks."

 

"Do you think no one else made it?" Kihyun said softly and instantly Minhyuk shook his head.

 

"No way. We agreed to meet them both at the tower, right? Surely they'll make it especially since they're closer to it than us."

 

"Its evening now. Best not to wander around...," Baekho said but Kihyun seemed antsy.

 

"You think so? I think we can make it if we ran there. We should probably group up with them as fast as possible."

 

"We don't know what else lurks in this city, Ki... We can't go around carelessly."

 

"But don't you want to meet them faster? Plus the more people, the better chances of survival right?"

 

~~~

 

Two against one. And you? 

 

> Group up

 

> Rest