He startles awake, confused at first but remembering all the stuff that’s happened pretty quickly. His neck hurts from the awkward position he fell asleep in and his legs are completely asleep. Looking around the room, he realises he fell asleep in the same spot he had been talking to Junmyeon in. Luhan is across from him, sleeping on the couch with Jongin. Soojung is not with them. 

Soojung is not here.

He gets up quickly, not letting himself panic yet, and starts checking every nook and cranny he finds. Soojung had a habit of hiding when she was little so Minseok became an expert at finding her.

He has to stop for a minute as his legs begin waking up. This is horribly inconvenient.

Once he’s able to move again, he checks the kitchen and the entire living room. Then moves into the small hallway where he finds a door ajar. He opens it to find Soojung fast asleep on top of several blankets and Kyungsoo sleepily rubbing his eyes.

“She was crying,” he says.

Minseok lets out a breath. She’s fine. Just sleeping.

“Thank you, Kyungsoo. You’re a good boy,” Minseok tells him. The boy blushes but smiles. Minseok can’t help ruffling the boy’s short hair.

Confident they will be fine, Minseok gets back to the living to wait out their time before they are picked up.

--

“There’s something we used to always say whenever we were on the field,” Minseok says. He’s sitting down with the couple who welcomed them, Kyungsoo as translator, while Soojung keeps Jongin occupied. Minseok is sure she’s not missing a word, though.

As Kygunsoo repeats everything back to his parents in Korean, Luhan squeezes Minseok’s hand in support.

“Movement is life,” Minseok adds. He repeats it again in Korean, hoping that the couple will be convinced to go with them. Staying here is too dangerous, especially seeing the unpredictability of the infected people’s actions.

“Thank you. We stay,” the man says. His wife nods, agreeing with him.

Minseok smiles at them sadly but doesn't try to convince them. He knows it’s futile. The family still helps them get everything ready to leave. It’s nearly sun up so they need to hurry. They give them knives and rope to not get separated from each other. The man even helps Minseok strap some magazines on his arms to avoid getting bit by one of those things.

They say goodbye before opening the door. Luhan ruffles Kyungsoo’s hair while the boy smiles at them.

“Be safe,” Luhan tells them. 

Minseok is the first to walk out. He has more experience with guns and is a pretty good shot. The kids go in the middle while Luhan guards the rear with a kitchen knife. It’s all they can do to try and keep themselves safe.

They walk down the hall slowly, and reach the door to the stairs very quietly. When Minseok opens the door, the loud creaking alarms the infected nearby and they all come rushing.

“,” Minseok says. “Run! Everyone, to the rooftop!”

He cuts his part of the rope and makes Luhan take the kids up while he starts shooting up infected on the staircase. There aren’t many, but all it takes is one to end your life. As he runs up the stairs, he can hear people screaming in the distance. He hopes Kyungsoo and his family are ok but odds are stacked against them.

There’s a large filing cabinet someone must have dumped here that becomes very useful in killing infected. Two bodies end up squashed underneath it as he runs but a third one climbs over and lunges for Minseok. Up one floor, Luhan is herding the kids though the rooftop door. 

“Go!” Minseok shouts as he tries to fight off the thing that used to be a person. “Get them out!”

Somehow, he manages to get the rifle and shoot the bastard in the face, but not without blood dripping all over his face. Heart racing, he pushes the body away only to see Kyungsoo climbing over the cabinet looking scared out of his mind. Guessing as to what might have happened, he grabs the boy and pulls him towards the roof.

He can see Luhan has already lit the flares that will guide the chopper towards them. Minseok directs Kyungsoo to Luhan’s side and runs to the edge of the roof. He scrubs the blood away from his eyes and mouth and waits. He’s not sure how long it takes for someone to turn, but it can’t be over fifteen seconds. As he counts, he can hear Luhan and the kids screaming for him to step away from the ledge.

“Papa!”

“Minseok, stop it!”

“Papa, you’re gonna fall!”

But he doesn't move. He doesn't move until at least twenty seconds have gone by and he feels fine, not like he’s about to turn into a biting, wild creature. When he’s done counting, he steps away from the ledge and wipes stray tears from his eyes.

“It got into my mouth,” he explains.

“You’re fine,” Luhan says, or more like commands, as he hugs Minseok tight.

They hear the sound of a chopper coming closer at the same time as a hoard of infected try to enter through the rooftop door. 

Minseok runs to try and stop them from exiting the building while Luhan takes the three kids towards the chopper.

Thankfully, they came armed. Two soldiers step off the chopper and start shooting at the infected mercilessly, which gives Minseok the opportunity to run towards his family.

The soldiers are effective and deadly and, when they are ready to return, the machine guns on the chopper are able to clear a path long enough for everyone to get back to safety.

Luhan straps Jongin and Kyngsoo to the seat before strapping himself while Minseok takes Kyungsoo and does the same. The boy is shaken, trembling the entire time Minseok makes sure he’s safe and, when Minseok himself is ready, he pulls the boy into his chest and lets him cry.

Kygunsoo weeps the entire ride to wherever they’re going.