Ten
Four ShotsZELO POV
Daehyun hisses out a grunt of pain, and squeezes his eyes shut. Jongup is hovering over him, and Youngjae is kneeling next to his as well. Both of them are staring at a claw without a body, hooked deeply in the skin on Daehyun's back.
"Huh." Jongup experimentally pokes the black, obsidian-like hook with a finger, and Daehyun winces. "That's really in there, isn't it."
"Yeah, that freak must have been very attached to you," Youngjae says, and Jongup snickers.
Daehyun, splayed on his back, manages to mutter out "not helping."
The two completely ignore him.
We've somehow managed to find shelter, a alcove from an overhanging rock deep into the woods, and maybe a mile away from the bat freaks. But even though we all were able to shake off all the creatures, Yongguk's still wary, so Himchan's been sent out to keep guard, with his multiple cuts and notches were the freaks got ahold of him already treated by Jongup. Since Jongup has only minor wounds, he's been ignoring them for now as he went to Yongguk first, and then me, since we both had the most major wounds. But halfway through treating me, Daehyun found a claw in his back, apparently an inch deep, so an emergency surgery was called to session.
Since Jongup, by the time the claw was discovered, had already found and cleaned my worst cut, a line tracing up my shoulders to my neck, he gave Yongguk a swathe of something white and a bottle of water, with the instructions to "fix him."
My nose is still throbbing from the wings of the bats, but I don't think my nose is broken or even sprained, which is lucky. All over my arms are little marks from where the claws or teeth met my skin, but it only hurts when I move. I'm shaken, scared of every little sound, but I'll be fine. It's my fault, after all, that the bats attacked and Yongguk came after me. It's my fault, so I don't get to say a word of how I'm hungry, and tired, and cold, and how I just want to go home. We all want to go home; there's just no home anymore to go to.
But this safe place that Youngjae said he knew existed. What about that? What if we go there, and we can live there? We can eat, sleep, go to school, even. Get jobs. Live a normal life. Because right now, that's all I want.
All I want is to go home.
But home doesn't exist, so why not make another?
"Okay, so here's what we're gonna do," Jongup starts, huddled over Daehyun with Youngjae, heads together. Yongguk stops picking at his nails and flicks his eyes up at the two. "I'm gonna need your knife."
With a sigh and a gust of mutters about his knife and how he didn't want to waste it on Daehyun, Youngjae retrieved it and handed it to Jongup, who held it, point down, over Daehyun's shoulder blades. Yongguk turned slightly green.
"I'd look away, if I were you," he muttered to me, but didn't tear his eyes from the "operators", so I didn't either.
"I think I'm gonna stick it in, then kinda... tilt it, I guess." Jongup bit his lip, while gesturing with the knife above Daehyun. Youngjae caught on soon enough.
"So you're gonna try to, like, flick it out?"
Jongup nodded. "Yeah, like get the tip under the... claw, and... do this," he explained, flicking his wrist.
Youngjae bit his lip, studying Daehyun's and the black claw. "Okay. I think that's better than just pulling it out. But what if the knife gets stuck in his back? I mean, I can't really fight with him holding it."
Jongup blinked, like he hadn't thought of that. "I'll try to to get it stuck, then."
Daehyun let out a groan, but Youngjae only slapped his shoulder lightly. "Oh, calm down, Dae. We won't kill you."
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Himchan shift himself further out of the little nock, and Yongguk turned me around, so I was facing the wall. I didn't want to see it anyway.
The whole prossedure, at least from the view of my limited senses, including Daehyun yelling out in pain only once, some kind of panic about the claw being longer than they thought, the general back-and-forth of Jongup and Youngjae that started to sound friendlier and friendlier, and the click of the stone hook, finally, on the floor.
"Okay, it's good," Yongguk said as soon as I heard the click, and when I turned around, his face was turned a darker shade of green. Youngjae and Jongup, on the other hand, looked rather happy with themselves, Youngjae cleaning up the knife and the claw, and Daehyun starting to examine where the claw used to be. Daehyun had his face in his hands, and he was letting out muffled sounds of pain as Jongup, once again, poked and prodded at his back.
"Why are you the one that always has the worst injuries," Jongup mussed as he dribbled a little water, or something, onto Daehyun's back.
Daehyun let out a little yowl of pain. "It's a talent."
Youngjae, on his way to sitting next to me, gave him a little pat on the head, to which Daehyun sent him a deathly glare. "It certainly is."
Yongguk reached out and picked up the claw from where Youngjae had left it, shiny new. The point was curved, so sharp that when Yongguk raised his finger to it, a light tap raised a bead of blood. It was about as long as half of my middle finger, gleaming dully. Yongguk raised his eyebrows in appreciation and set it back again, careful now to avoid pricking his skin, or worse.
"Okay," he said finally, when everyone was up and gathered around. Jongup was still poking around Daehyun's back and his leg, but other than that, everyone was focused on this stranger that had became our leader in just two days. Two days, that, admittedly, have been the worse of my life. But stil, two days. And we're already looking up to him.
"We don't really have a choice but to go to Youngjae's place. Right?" He pauses here, making sure tha no one else had an idea. They don't. He continues. "So by tomorrow, the ash and everything will have probably cleared enough for us to see the sun. You said it's northeast, along the coast?" He asked Youngjae, who confirmed it with a nod. "So the sun sets in the west, rises in the east, so we'll have to go a little more east than usual so we don't have to go far in North Korea, just in case. We want to stick to the coast.
"Then, well, just... keep walking, I guess. Once the food and other stuff runs out, we could probably go inland to find an out-of-the-way place that hasn't been hit to restock. Everyone okay with this?" We all look at each other, but no one speaks. Finally, I nod, and so does Himchan. Daehyun, Youngjae, Jongup. Nothing else to do but to follow.
"Guys, I know this might be too much to ask," Yongguk starts again. "But... I want to ask you guys to trust each other. I know it's been two days, and Youngjae hasn't even been here that long. I know we just met. I know. But I need us to trust each other. I need us to be able to rely on each other, because that's the only way we'll have a chance of staying alive.
"I'll trust you, but I need you to trust me. I need you to be able to help each other, to know when something happened to anyone else. Okay?"
Okay.
That night, we try to sleep below the overhang, but I hear enough noise to know someone still awake. I stay up, staring at the foggy, dark sky. Trust. I can trust these people.
I can.
I'll try.
I'll try, mom. I miss you so much.
I miss you so much. I love you so much.
I'll try.
***
The next morning, the rest are just starting to move around when I wake up. I stay still, relishing the fact that my cuts have yet to hurt, and my nose only throbs a bit. I know as soon as I move they'll flare up.
Finally, when Yonnguk sleepily shakes my shoulder, I reluctantly crack open my eyes and sit up slowly, my back protesting along with the rest of my hurts about the night spent on the rock-spotted dirt.
Himchan is bending over the backpack of food, blearily counting out what we have left. Jongup is checking his arms and legs, looking for any infections in between a turn at taking out some kind of sliced fruit out of a can he was sharing with the others. Daehyun was awake, cautiously his back, eyes raised up unconsciously as he searched for the wound. His left leg was in front of him, straightened out, as he examined his injuries. Youngjae was leaning against the wall, eyelids dropping down every so often, before he snapped them back up.
Slowly, without a word, we packed up. Finished up the can, and another, for breakfast. Tried unsuccessfully to clean the dirt and dust and stains from our clothes. Checked our wounds, with the help of Jongup and a little from Youngjae.
Finally, silently, with a little bit of hope of what we would find, a little bit of anticipation for the journey ahead, and a lot of fear for what our paths held for us, we set out.
So I know this is a really late update I know I KNOW but I have three other of my stores I'm currently trying to wrap up, so I've been focusing on those. But after I get those done, this'll be practically my only other story so ll be able to update a lot!
And I would love it if you update. I know it gets annoying when I say this every chapter, but please please do. I would just really love it if I heard from some more of my readers:)
Thanks!
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