The girls set out to perform their duties for the TREE Headquarters. CL drove the van which had in it seven people, seven different personalities. CL was focused on the mission and so was Nicole but the other people at the back had a different agenda. They had already slipped on their mission costumes, with Minho and Nichkhun donning casual yet easy to move in clothes.

Sohee in particular was getting more and more close to Nichkhun, especially since discovering that they both share a passion for music.

“What music do you like?” asked Sohee.

“Well I’m a huge fan of heavy  metal. Haha. Sure doesn’t show on my face, right?” he chuckled shyly, blushing a slight shade of pink. Sohee herself blushed.

“I like heavy metal too!” Minho overheard their conversation and butted in.

“Did you guys say heavy metal?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Sohee nodded gleefully.

“I love metal. But my favorite band, really is Rage Against the Machine.” Jessica overheard this and her heart skipped a beat. She turned to his direction and looked at Minho who engaged in a music conversation with the two.

He likes Rage? , this can’t be!!! He’s not worthy!!!! Jessica screamed in her mind. She faced front once again and frowned to herself.

“I’m a huge fan of Rage but what I admire the most is their activism. Their messages to the public. Very outspoken, I must say!” Minho, the young activist said. CL overheard him and smiled, pushing the ‘on’ button.

[song: “Bulls on a Parade” by Rage Against the Machine]

            When the song came on, Minho and Jessica both turned their attention to the radio and smiled. Minho rapped it out loud, garnering attention from his newly acquired peers while Jessica snobbed him, choosing to rap it in her head.

            “DAMN! I didn’t know you had this!” Minho told CL. “Didn’t know you liked Rage!”

            “Oh I don’t.” CL confessed. “We keep it here for Jessica’s sake. She’s the Rage fan.” Minho’s smile seemed to have disappeared and his happy face morphed into a pokerface. Jessica heard her name and looked away, raising her eyebrow.

            “Oh. I didn’t know that. It sure doesn’t show.” he said. Jessica wanted to snap back at him but thought it over and preferred to keep shut to avoid conflicts.

            While driving down in town, the darkness enveloped them, disabling them from seeing properly.

            “Where are we?” asked Jessica.

            “We’re in Seoul, silly!” Sohee said. Jessica was amazed at how dark and destitute Seoul had become.

            “Brighten the headlights, CL.” she told her friend. CL turned the headlights on even brighter and it enabled them to properly see the road. As they were cruising through very slowly, red sparks appeared.

            “What the ?!?!” CL used the wiper to wipe out the sparks that were hovering on the windshield but when CL did so, they came back more aggressive than ever, like a swarm of bees attacking them.

            “Oh God!” CL said. “We have to get rid of these.”

            “LASER GUN!” Sohee said. Sohee stepped out of the van with her silver gun and aimed at the darkness. The other girls stepped out of the van as well to help her.

            “Sohee what do you think you’re doing?” Jessica asked.

            “I’m trying to locate the perpetrators. Follow my lead.” Sohee replied. Jessica took out her gun and pointed it in the opposite direction of where Sohee’s gun was pointed. Soon, all of them had their guns out, including the guys.

            “Stay alert, guys. You don’t know when one of them could-“ then, faster than the speed of light came a dash of gray and red. CL whipped around and shot towards the right where it sped off. The bullets seized the gray object which only made it run faster.

            “What the hell was that?” Gahee asked.

            “I don’t know but I saw it. I ing did.” Minho replied.

            “Hold on.” Jessica said. She was facing the alley and noticed some slight movement. The girls were holding their laser light guns, enabling shooting in the dark.

            “Kind of hard to see.” Jessica muttered to herself. She put the gun in her pocket and took out her nightvision contact lens, put them in her eyes and blinked. Yes, she could see properly now. The pretty socialite tightly grasped her laser gun and slowly made her way into the dark alley.

            “Jessica, what are you doing?” Nicole asked, following Jessica with a gun in her hand. Jessica did not answer Nicole and just kept walking forward, pointing her gun at the dark space. Because of her contact lens, she could see what were lurking inside.

            “You can run but you can’t hide, motherers.” she said in between gritted teeth. “SHOW YOURSELVES!” Jessica placed her hand on the trigger the minute she sensed movement. Sure enough, her contact lens allowed her to see gray matter moving about in a fast pace, most of which charging towards her.

            “Where are they, Jessica?” asked CL. Jessica smirked as the zombies detected them and started going mad, running towards their direction. CL needed no verbal answer and neither did the others as they were sure it was zombies making that charging, growling noise headed their way.

            “It’s coming for us! Run!!!!” Gahee panicked. Jessica stood in her way with her other gun out, the regular one.

            “Not on my watch we don’t!” Jessica feistily said. She pointed both guns at the zombies and with her, the rest of Operation TREE did the same.

            The only problem was, the zombies were all over the place and weren’t just coming from one direction. It was coming from all corners of the street. While all 7 were getting ready for action, Jessica took an evasive one as she fired both guns continuously and killed four zombies.

            “Girls, do the same.” Jessica urged. “Put your contacts in your eyes. Boys, do it too!” All of them snappily put on the contact lens but Nichkhun, the newbie, had some trouble with his. Sohee sensed his weakness and used this opportunity to get to his side and aid him.

            “Dammit! I dropped them!” Nichkhun grunted. Sohee ran to his side with her gun and shot some zombies.

            “Don’t worry, I got you!” she winked. The zombies came charging at them, faces torn apart, smelling of blood and garbage. Their graying skin dry and scaly-feeling. They weren’t the usual zombies that you’d see on TV rather they were far scarier and far more deadly. They had the power of the devil inside of them, thanks to the Brown Eyed Girls and possessed a great deal of strength.  

            Three zombies went after Jessica who, after several shooting rounds, decided it was time to test the strength of these ghouls. She kept her guns in her pockets and faced the zombies, prepared to fight them with her bare hands. The zombies came at her, enraged and roaring while Jessica remained collected and prepared. One leapt at her but she blocked them with her arms and kicked them. The other charged at her but she punched its stomach, making it bend over.

            “Here’s to ya, chump!” Jessica said. She grabbed its head and snapped it. Hard. When the zombie died, she wasn’t content with just the neck snapping. She twisted it around, 360 degrees, nearly snapping its head off. The others looked at her toughness and were greatly impressed.

            Sohee and Nichkhun worked together to eliminate the zombies. They came to them by the fives and were charging really aggressively towards them. Sohee let out her cute battle cry and shot them continuously like a mafia madman. Nichkhun watched in amusement and he joined her in the rapid shooting. The zombies died instantly but one was able to dodge the bullet and made its way towards Sohee.

            “Woah...” she said terrified. CL caught sight of this and jumped in the way, exercising her fighting skills by kicking and punching away at the zombies. Nicole jumped into the scene and snapped some shots of the zombies with her camera, distracting it and blinding them.

            “AUUUUGHHH!!!” screamed the zombie. Jessica saw the derailed creature and instantly shot it with her gun but from what she saw, two bullets hit the zombie. Turns out Minho was also about to save Nicole from the zombie which was about to eat her alive. The awkward moment came when Minho and Jessica suddenly looked at each other and turned away.

            I had it first. Jessica competitively said in her head.

            Pretty soon, the place was plagued with zombies and Operation TREE knew they had to work harder if they wanted to get past the zombie army.

            “Guys...” Gahee started. “I think we’re gonna have to hurry. There’s more of them coming for us!” Nicole looked behind her and saw a fleet, a battalion of the living dead. They all backed up and prepared for what would happen next. A zombie attack.

            “Back up guys. I got something that’ll end this for sure.” Jessica took out some of her acid perfume. Minho looked over his shoulder and saw her holding the bottle in her hand.

            “Make it quick!” he scolded her. Jessica did as told and sprayed the perfume on the zombies. The monsters reacted violently to them, their faces being burnt and eaten by the acid the perfume contained. Jessica had three more bottles in her bag, pulled them out and tossed them over to Nicole, CL, and Sohee, the three members she was closest to.

            “NOW GIRLS!” Jessica gave the go signal. Along with her, they sprayed the perfume at the zombies, causing their faces to burn and peel off. Since Jessica decided it was time for evasive action, she tossed the perfume bottle and watched as it dismantled in the faces and bodies of the zombies, resulting in the corrosion of their being. Nicole and CL did the same while Sohee decided to do it double time.

            “Nothing like acid and silver to get rid of you monsters!” she said. The feisty artist pointed the gun at them as well as the perfume and simultaneously shot it at them. Seeing them being defeated and not being able to fight back because of the power of the substances was adrenaline pumping and gave them the energy to continue.

            Gahee, Nichkhun and Minho physically combatted the zombies. Being taller people, it was easy for them to use their bodies in defense. Gahee’s long legs were the perfect weapon when it came to kicking .  The zombies couldn’t even get past her toned, lengthy thighs. Nichkhun and Minho used their knowledge on fighting in the streets with bullies. Two zombies were charging at Nichkhun and Nichkhun punched, kicked and karate chopped them. Minho on the other hand trained at a dojo when he was a young boy.

            “God, I hope I still remember those karate moves.” Minho assumed a karate pose and waited for the perfect timing to get the zombies and attack them but they were too quick. The goons leapt on Minho and started to try to eat on his flesh. Minho tried to pry them off by pulling them and scratching but it did them no harm.

            “GODDAMMIT! GET THEM OFF!!!!” the newly acquired spy was having some trouble with the enemy. Jessica glanced behind her and saw him struggling to get the zombies off of his body. Though he was a tall fellow, the zombies were strong and demonic enough to get him own on his knees and make him fall on his back. They started ripping some of his flesh off, resulting in scabs and wounds. Jessica saw that he needed help and put all aggravations aside, choosing to help a fellow man.

            “GET OFF HIM, YOU ERS!” Jessica shot them one by one with her acid bullet, a secret bullet that she smuggled in from the secret compartment of the headquarters’ artillery area. The acid bullets were thrice as dangerous as the acid perfume which meant she had to be careful not to hit Minho who was already badly scarred. Good thing Jessica was a great marksman and knew how to get her target.

            “BLAST THEM! NOW!!!!” Minho cried for help. The pain the zombies were giving him was way too much. Jessica quickly got rid of all them, watching them burn on the ground. The acid was too strong for them to handle and it resulted in them flaming up. Minho was all scarred and bloodied but Jessica refused to help him, rather concentrated on putting out the fire to avoid a conflagration.

            “Use this!” Gahee handed her a water gun whilst doing some kickboxing on the zombies. Jessica grabbed Gahee’s wrist, stalling her.

            “What are you doing?” Jessica opened up Gahee’s palm and handed over her acid gun.

            “Weapon switch.” Jessica said. The pretty socialite leapt back into action with the water gun Gahee gave her and started to shoot. Unlike other water guns, this one emitted water in huge quantities, enough to make a flame die down. Gahee always kept it with her in case of situations as such and yes, she too smuggled it from the artillery lab of the headquarters.

            Jessica was busy putting out the flame while Gahee and Nichkhun double teamed on the zombies. CL noticed right after killing her last zombie that Minho was on the ground and injured. She quickly rushed to his side.

            “Minho. Are you alright?”

            “Yeah.” Minho looked anything but, though. He could barely stand up and was covered in wounds. CL felt sorry for him and decided to stand aside, stop the fighting for a while and tend to his wounds.

            “Those zombies were true motherers.” Minho said. “Let’s get em.” He was about to stand up but CL prevented him by holding him back.

            “Don’t.” she said sharply, a faint squeak in her voice. “You’re hurt.” Minho appreciated the concern CL had for her and his heart softened as he looked into her eyes. He had a girlfriend but the care CL gave him was something that not even the kisses and hugs his girlfriend gave him could level.

            “Alright. But you guys need help.” he retorted.

            “We can handle this. We’ve been through worse.” CL smiled. “Go rest in the van.”

            “I’ll be on the lookout.” Minho got up to his feet and mustered what little strength he had left in him to run to the van. CL looked back and smiled delightfully. She hated to admit it to herself but she was falling quickly in like with Minho. Yes, in like.

            Save yourself the heartbreak, CL. It’s not worth it. She reminded herself, recalling that she had just recently broken up with Ji Young.

            Jessica on the other hand was all business. She was shooting here and kicking there, Jessica was on a roll.

            “Take this you slimy son of a !” Jessica performed a roundhouse kick on the zombies. With the help of Nicole, Sohee, and Nichkhun, she was able to eliminate the last of them in the city. The streets soon looked like a graveyard except without tombstones. The badass she was, Jessica blew the top of her acid gun and walked away together with the rest. They had finished one obstacle together.