“Jungkook!” Jimin gasped in relief, launching himself at the younger and wrapping him in a tight hug.

“Hyung, I’m a mess!” Jungkook chuckled, before gently pulling away and wiping the gunk off his face with his sleeve.

“I tried to call you, and you didn’t answer your phone. I thought that you…” Jimin trailed off, though, the implication was rather obvious.

“My phone?” Jungkook patted his pockets curiously, and then let out an annoyed groan. “Aish… it must have fallen out in all that chaos earlier.”

“Looks like chaos happened here alright. Where were you?” Taehyung asked, before sheepishly glancing at Jimin. “Jimin and I uh… probably slept through it all.”

Jungkook nodded reflectively, his smile gradually vanishing. “You guys are fortunate. It was someone’s birthday, so we all stayed back after our last lecture to celebrate. That was when ‘they’ swarmed in…”

Jungkook shook his head in an attempt to remove from his mind’s eye the images of half his cohort brutally dying right in front of him while the rest were scattered, but they were burned into his memory. He could only hope that those who had gotten away were currently safe. Seeing the trauma written on his roommate’s face, Jimin pulled him into another hug.

Taehyung gave Jungkook’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “We’re really glad you’re okay. Let’s get out of here.”

Jungkook handed the other two the baseball bats he was holding, and then stooped down to a narrow carrier strapped to one of the infected he had just beaten to a pulp. He pulled a hockey stick out of the carrier and stood back up, his gaze lingering on the corpse for a moment.

“I’ve actually seen him around,” he commented sadly, before smacking the stick against his palm as he turned to the older two. “Let’s hope we don’t have to use these on the way out.”

Jimin gestured to the staircase right next to the balcony. “This leads right to the reception area. If we make it past there, we get to the carpark and we’re out. Hang on, I’ll check if we’re good to go.”

Jimin scurried down the stairs, and then right back up while shaking his head. “There are several down there. I don’t think we can take all of them. What now?”

Jungkook watched as Taehyung made a quick text on his phone, and an idea came to mind. “Taehyung hyung, do you have the front desk number for our university saved?”

“Yes, why do you- Oh…” Taehyung replied, catching on to Jungkook’s plan. “Right, I’ll have it ready.”

The three quietly made their way down the stairs and peered around the corner to the reception area. Just as reported earlier, a small horde stood between them and the exit. The boys glanced to one another and nodded, ensuring that they were all ready to move, before Taehyung hit the call button. The shrill ringing of the front desk phone echoed through the reception area, immediately drawing the attention of the infected within the radius. With violent shrieks, the creatures swarmed over to the source of the ringing, clearing a path from the staircase to the exit.

Seeing their chance, the boys silently but swiftly made their way across the reception area past the frenzied horde clawing mindlessly at the desk in the corner while the phone continued to ring, and they were relieved when they managed to reach the double doors unheard and unseen. However, they were in for unpleasant surprise when they discovered that the doors were locked. It was only then when it hit them that students had regularly been instructed to exit by the back after a certain time. They did not often leave so late, and they just realized that it was probably because the reception area doors would automatically be locked shut.

Registering this, the three stared at one another in horror, trying to think of a way out of their current predicament. That was when things only got worse. The ringing stopped abruptly, presumably due to the phone getting knocked off its hook by a member of the rabid swarm, and it only took a moment for a few of the infected to spot the boys from the other side of the area and alert the rest with those dreaded screeches.

Jungkook cursed under his breath and turned to the other two. “Smash them! Break the doors, get us out of here!”

He then darted towards the advancing horde, using his hockey stick to hold the infected off for as long as possible while Jimin and Taehyung put all their strength into breaking one of the doors, repeatedly slamming their baseball bats against it. They knew that they were making progress as cracks started forming and propagating across the glass panel, but there was no time too soon for them to be able to leave.

Jungkook was getting overwhelmed and began to panic. “Uh, guys?!”

“We’re almost through!” Jimin yelled back, right before the glass shattered. “Go go go!”

The students dashed out into the carpark with the mob of infected close behind them. The activity unfortunately attracted several more which had been wandering aimlessly outside, and the boys found themselves being attacked from the front and sides as well. Jimin and Taehyung fought off the newly-drawn ones, clearing them a path to the gates while Jungkook had their backs, keeping the ones chasing them from getting too close for comfort. Not that anything about their current situation was exactly comfortable.

Just like the inside of the building, the carpark was pretty much in a mess, telling of the havoc that must have taken place during the attempted evacuation earlier. The wrecked vehicles and other large items that were strewn about helped to slow the infected down, but also allowed them to stay hidden and catch the boys by surprise. How long they could continue to hold out was uncertain, but all of them were for sure not going to give up without giving their all, especially when they were nearing the gates.

Suddenly, a couple of jarring honks sounded from up ahead, and light flooded the area. Their source, a car speeding straight through the open gates, caught the attention of most of the horde attacking the three, and the infected raced over to the approaching vehicle, which had its high-beams activated. The boys quickly took out the last couple of stragglers, and then watched as the car collided head on with the swarm, knocking most off their feet and even running over a few. Several left still chased after it, and it promptly reversed, slamming into them.

Finding the car to be familiar, Jimin and Taehyung turned to each other knowingly. While many of the run-down infected began to recover, the vehicle swerved around and slowed to a stop in front of the boys. The front window rolled down to reveal Jin in the driver’s seat with Namjoon next to him in the front passenger’s seat.

“Get in, all of you!” Jin snapped.

The students did not have to be told twice, and hurriedly packed into the back seats of the car. As soon as the back doors slammed shut, the vehicle took off through the gates and down the street into the night.