BANG

She heard a gunshot be fired and when she opened her eyes, the zombie’s head had been ripped apart and disfigured. Aeiyong turned her head to try and guess who could have been the one who has just saved her life.  She was surprised to see a younger boy, shaking with a gun in his hands. He looked to be in shock, his whole body and wide brown eyes quivering.

“I-I… I did it…” He murmured, somewhat proud of himself but still nervous. Aeiyong quickly stood up, annoyed at being saved by the boy. Although he looked small, was it possible that… She was still smaller?! This annoyed her further. “Are you alright?” The boy managed to steady his voice before looking up at Aeiyong. She hesitated, but shook her head.

“No one can be alright right now… That’s a pretty silly question.” She ended up frowning. What was she doing? She was being so rude to this boy who she didn’t even know. Even worse, he saved her life. If anything she should be grateful. “No… Jeez, I’m really sorry… I… I’m just panicking right now…” Aeiyong frowned then turned to him. “W-Wait… perhaps you can help me…”

“What is it?” The boy looked up at her, confused. She took a few breaths to try and calm herself down.

“My… My brother... He’s hurt and… I don’t know if I can do anything for him… I’m not very good with medicine… Do you think you could help me?” Aeiyong found herself pleading again. She hated relying on others, but what other choice did she have?! She wasn’t about to just sit beside and wait for him to die! No, there had to be someone, somewhere in this mall who could help her.

“Someone is hurt?!” A voice cried behind the boy, which caused both Aeiyong and him to turn around quickly.

A normal looking girl stood quite a ways behind the boy, seeming to have just arrived at the mall. The girl was panting, looking at the scene in front of her, taking it all in and trying to comprehend it. Her wavy hair slightly wet from sweat.

“My brother… Yes…” Aeiyong responded, frowning. “H-He’s been shot… I don’t know what to do anymore… I-I…” Tears began streaming down the girls’ eyes. She gritted her teeth, not liking the fact that she was crying. Dammit, she needed to toughen up.

“Oh no, that’s terrible!” The girl shouted, before walking closer, the boys’ eyes still glued onto her. “I don’t know if I would be any help but, my mother is a doctor, I may know a few things.” Aeiyong’s face lit up.

“Please! Anything will help!” She took the stranger’s hand and pleaded. “Will you help my brother?” The young woman nodded.

“Of course!” She nodded, Aeiyong let out a breath of relief. The three ventured up the stairs, which left Aeiyong a little confused as to why the boy was following them, but didn’t question it.

She led them into the room where her brother still lay asleep on the couch. The boy turned and locked the door and seemed to guard the door, watching for others through the windows as the woman took a look.

“I’m An Kyungmi.” She introduced herself and smiled.

“A-Ah! I’m Li Aeiyong.” The smaller girl looked down, embarrassed that she forgot to introduce herself. Kyungmi just remained smiling before pulling the blanket off of Chinho. The fragile boy’s body was pale and sickly, his blue shirt stained in blood. Aeiyong had to turn away.

“Oh dear…” Kyungmi looked over the boy and rolled up his shirt to reveal the already soaked bandages. “He’s been shot, right? Not… bitten by one of those things.”

“No, no, he was shot… I wouldn’t…” Aeiyong bit her lip. She was going to state that she would never let Chinho get bitten by one of the creatures… But she had also promised that she wouldn’t let anything happen to him, and look at him now.

“Alright, have you removed the bullet yet?”

“No…”

“Good, if you had removed it right then, he would have lost way too much blood. That’s the only thing that’s preventing it from spewing out all over the place.” Kyungmi began unraveling the bandages to reveal the small, bloody hole in Chinho’s stomach. Now that the initial bleeding has gone down… We remove it.” I think… Kyungmi thought, nervously. “Hey! Get me the first aid, will ya?” She quickly dispersed the thought from her head. She knew she had to be doing something right.

“O-Of course!” Aeiyong got up and ran to get the first aid. Luckily it had a scalpel inside it. Kyungmi made a small incision and began her search for the bullet. Aeiyong threw up twice, once when Kyungmi began and the second when Chinho woke up, crying.

“I-I’ve failed…” Aeiyong found herself murmuring. She was leaning against the far wall, away from the couch which her brother resided on. The boy noticed the hopeless words that fell out of and walked over to her.

“You haven’t failed at all…” He murmured back. Aeiyong looked up at him, surprised to find someone responded.

“Huh…?”

“You searched long and hard for someone to help your brother. You wouldn’t rest until you found that someone, you even almost got yourself killed looking for someone to help him. You haven’t failed at all, Aeiyong. You’re just tired and it’s been… Well to say the least, a long day for everyone… A lot… of people have died…” The boy looked down, sadness clouded his eyes. “You’ve actually been able to do something about it… And you have… You haven’t failed… So don’t give up just yet…” The boy attempted to reassure her with a slight smiled. Aeiyong blushed and looked away.

“Thank you…” She murmured.

“I’m… Nam Sungyeong. Pleasure to meet you.” Aeiyong looked up at him, his face remained neutral.

“Nice to meet you… Ah! You’re from 7Days…” She commented, recognizing him from a magazine. “Um… If you don’t mind me asking… Why did you follow Kyungmi and I? I’m just wondering…” Sungyeong looked down and sighed.

“It’s not like I’ve got much choice on where to go…” He replied, his face turning grim. Aeiyong frowned; obviously he was hurting as much, probably even more than she was. “Besides, I don’t enjoy the outdoors. Zombie apocalypse or not.” She giggled a little bit, knowing what he meant. She was definitely more of an indoor-type of person as well.

“I got it!” Kyungmi shouted with a smile. Aeiyong looked up to see Kyungmi holding the small bullet. She put it down quickly before turning back to Chinho, going to give him stitches. Aeiyong let out a huge breath of relief.

“He’s… Going to be okay…”

~~

“Oi... Why did the ghost cross the road?”

“I thought I told you to shut up…”

“To get to the other side! Haha, get it? The afterlife?”

“I swear, I need to gag you.”

“Aw, don’t be so rude- Ah! Zombies! Hide!”

“Relax. Just be quiet and they won’t touch us. We have enough blood on our bodies, they won’t notice us.”

“Nn… Hey, we should check out the mall. It’ll have a lot of supplies.”

“Oh! The mall! Let’s go!”

~~

Why hello again~

I'm sorry, this was supposed to be up on Halloween to give you all a scare...

But as usual, I was lazy.

Let's welcome our wonderful new characters!

Our lovely Psych student An Kyungmi by: Keychained~

And our lovable maknae Nam Sungyeong by: sadlifeQQ~

I really hope I got all your character's personalities right!

I had to change a few things to make the story move along, hopefully that's okay.

Are you all cheering for Chinho's health?

Hopefully he gets better soon...

And what about the two just arriving?

Have we all forgotten about Daemin and his group?

Keep reading for these questions to be answered!

Thank you so much for reading~!

~Ami-chan

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