“Hell no. I’m not going to another funeral today!” Amber jumped up from the asphalt and sprinted towards Henry.

    The group exchanged panicked glances before running to help. As she approached, she saw him from afar balled up in the tall grass, trying his best to back away from the approaching herd with his pants pooled around his ankles. He kicked and screamed, eventually leaving the garment behind a foot away. As a zombie began to close the distance, he shut his eyes tight, only to hear the sound of a gunshot and feel his body being lifted from the ground.

   TOP stood with his pistol outstretched as the carcass fell, aiming at others as wisps of smoke came from the barrel. Amber and Chanyeol gripped each of Henry’s arms as they dragged him towards the cars. Hana made it over seconds later, helping to shoot down what monsters she could as Donghae and Kai helped to guide Henry into the backseat of the Jeep in his shocked and disoriented state. In the scene, gunshots firing and panicked voices screaming, Eunhyuk never moved from his spot on the hood of the truck. He sat there, eyes planted on the Jeep before him and Shin and IU’s silhouettes in the back, both of whom didn’t move to help in the commotion either and looked on in shock from their seats. His hands were balled up into fists when suddenly Donghae’s voice snapped him back to reality.

      “Eunhyuk! Come on! You’re driving, we need to go!” he said from the passenger seat.

     The dancer slid off the hood and jogged over to start the engine.

      “We need to-- BAM-- get back to the--BAM--car!” TOP urged, “All this gunfire will only draw more! We don’t need to kill all of them!”

     “Okay, I’ll cover you!” Hana said. TOP began to sprint away, occasionally shooting over his shoulder as Hana backed away and shot every zombie that was close enough to kill. They both made it back to the Jeep and once everyone was seated, they stomped on the gas and booked it down the road, leaving clouds of dust behind and a dozen zombies in their wake.

     “Oh my goodness, are you okay?!” IU asked from her seat in the back of the Jeep in between Henry and Shin.

     Henry turned to her and smiled in reassurance, but as he did so they went over a huge pothole in the road, sending the entire car in a surprise jolt. All of the watery contents of Henry’s stomach suddenly came rising up through his throat until it fell from his mouth and onto the floor of the Jeep in a wet splatter.

      IU screeched and instinctively leaned into Shin’s side. Eunhyuk gripped the wheel tight. Henry groaned as he wiped his mouth.

     “Watch the potholes, please, Eunhyuk” he begged as he slumped over against the window, his face a greenish tint.

      The entire trip, Eunhyuk’s eyes were more so on the rearview mirror than they were on the road. The group was relatively silent throughout the ride back home. Other than the occasional gag from Henry, the others simply looked out of the windows at the passing skylines and countrysides. Or in Kai and Chanyeol’s case, laid down in the bed of the truck and stared up to the sky with an expressionless face as the day’s events played back in their mind, pushing back emotion that threatened to show forth through a sob.

     After several miles, they sped through a small town, the area comprising of nothing more than strips of stores and overgrown greenery, when something caught Hana’s attention.

      “You see that?” she asked.

      “What?” TOP said.

     “That,” she said, leaning over the armrest to point out of TOP’s window. On the front of every building on the block, spray painted in bright red was the letter ‘D’ with a circle around it. It was huge, bold, and unavoidable; the single letter probably about 5 feet tall.

       “What do you think it means?”

        “Maybe someone’s marking their territory,” they continued to see the red symbol for a hundred more meters until they suddenly ceased, “It was probably nothing...I just thought it was odd.”

        “It certainly is,” TOP assured, pondering the possible origins.

       An hour later they pulled up to the Super Junior Playhouse. The physical and emotional toll of the day was evident on all of their faces, as they walked through the garage with bags of groceries and containers of gasoline that they had siphoned.

     “Hey, Shin,” Chanyeol said, putting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention before he could walk into the house, “Can we still work on the cabinet later today?”

     “Uhhh, yeah sure,” he said surprised, “I just would have thought you wanted time to...rest.”

      Chanyeol shook his head, “Resting will only make it worse. I need to be back on a schedule to help me...get through this. Make it seem more normal, you know?”

     Shin nodded, “Yeah. I’ll meet you back here at seven, okay?” he said with a reassuring smile before they both went in the house.

     The garage was almost empty with the exception of Henry stumbling into the house being carried by Donghae and Eunhyuk as vomit covered the front of his shirt.

       “I’m okay, I’m okay,” he could be heard saying.

       TOP turned off the engine and was about to get out the car when he noticed Hana staring out the windshield, looking on at the scene before her with apprehension.

      “Are you coming in?” he asked, eyes boring into the side of her face.

      “This is really bad,” she whispered.

      “Yeah that was a close call. He could have been killed today. He must have been really shaken up to be throwing up so much--”

      “Henry’s not throwing up because he almost died, he’s throwing up because he drank nearly an entire liter of liquor this morning alone.”

      “What? How do you know?”

       “I drank out of his water bottle this morning thinking it was exactly that...but I was wrong.”

       “He put liquor in his water bottle?” TOP asked in shock, leaning back in his seat.

       “Just think about it. When do you ever see Henry drinking anything other than alcohol during meals or around the house?”

       TOP scoffed at the fact that he had never noticed before, “Never.”

       “We can’t forget what happened at the hospital...and now what happened on the road. ”

       “This is a problem.”

     “So what are we going to do to fix it?”

        A while later, the two of them finally walked into the house. They heard water running in the kitchen, and rounded the corner to see exactly who they were looking for standing at the sink with a fresh shirt. He slyly reached into one of the drawers, pulled out a small travel bottle of an unknown liquid, took a swig, and put it back in the drawer. Hana and TOP exchanged a look before calling his name.

         “Henry.”

       The man jumped and turned to see the two of them standing in the entryway, eyes planted on him in assessment, “H-heyyy you guys! What can I do for you? You got any requests for dinner tonight? I’ve got some ingredients now that’ll make your taste buds explode,” he said, using his hands to demonstrate.

       “No, but can we talk to you for a second?” TOP said.

       His face immediately dropped but then was followed by a forced smile, “Oh...yeah sure.”

       They lead him to the laundry room in the very back of the house and closed the door.

       “Maybe it’s best if I do the talking. You aren’t always the best with words,” TOP whispered as Hana rolled her eyes.

      Henry stood there, hands clasped before him nervously as the two stood in front of the door. 

      “So...what do you two want to talk about?” Henry asked.

       “I think you know,” TOP said simply.

       Henry raised his hands as if in surrender, “Look...if this is about what you found in my bag at the hospital, I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to keep all of it to myself if that’s what you were thinking. I was going to offer it to the rest of the group in case we needed something to lighten the mood, you know? I was doing it for the group,” he slurred.

        “Bull,” Hana said under her breath.

      “But no bottle of alcohol is worth risking your life for, even if it was for the group, Henry, and that’s the issue,” TOP said.

       “I know,” Henry sighed, “Now that we got that settled, can I go now?”

         “No, wait,” TOP said. Henry leaned against a dryer and huffed, “Henry you put yourself and the group in danger twice on this run alone. There’s something...wrong with that.”

       “I’m sorry,” Henry said simply, “I messed up, okay? I didn’t mean for it to be that bad.”

      “But it was,” Hana said, agitated.

     “And I’m sorry!” Henry repeated, “I really am! It won’t happen again, I promise. I’ll...be more careful next time.”

      Upon hearing the words “next time”, the two by the door exchanged another glance, which Henry didn’t miss.

       “What?”

      “Henry, we think you have a...problem,” TOP said.

     “A problem?” Henry scanned their faces in obvious confusion, “So what are you saying?”

     TOP paused, trying to find the right phrasing, but failed to do so after several seconds. Hana sensed this as she tapped her foot in frustration. She was tired of the games. They had been beating around the bush for too long. Before he could utter a word, Hana spat it out.

       “Henry, you’re an alcoholic.”

      The room was silent.

       TOP sighed and Henry’s eyes rounded into saucers.

        He finally scoffed loudly, “What? Me? No way! Sure I like a drink here and there, but who doesn’t? Why would you even say that?”

       “Henry, you risked your life yesterday to get a backpack filled with nothing but whiskey. I know you keep alcohol in your water bottles,” she listed, seeing him stiffen in fear, “You went into the woods alone and drunk earlier, and could barely walk, let alone run away from the carcasses you brought back to the group. Your judgement is going to ...hell, you’re even tipsy right now!”

        “I’m not!” he shouted, “I...don’t have a problem, okay? I’ve got everything under control. Almost everyone drinks in this house, why am I being singled out here, huh?”

        “Because you’ve taken it too far,” Hana said.

       Henry took a deep breath after a moment of silence, “So what now?”

         “We’re getting rid of all the alcohol in the house,” TOP said reluctantly.

      There was a sudden intake of breath before Henry started to stutter, “Y-y-you can’t do that...”

              “Henry--”

             “No. You can’t do that to me,” he said with so much confidence and assertion they had to question themselves.

            “You’re hurting yourself,” TOP said in a careful voice, “It’s starting to hurt the group...we can’t let you do that.”

             “Please….it’s the only way...the only way I can deal with it,” he said in a near whisper.

“Deal with what?” Hana asked.

“This pain,” he said, “I can’t take this pain,” he said with downcast eyes.

         “Henry, we know it hurts. There’s not a single person in this house that isn’t hurting. But it’s what’s best for you,” TOP said.

         “How the hell do you know what’s best for me!?” he suddenly screamed, a torrent of hot tears falling down his cheeks, “Who are you to tell me what’s best!?” he took a bottle of washing detergent and threw it across the room with a shaking hand.

              “Henry--”

         “If I want to drink myself to death, I can! I should have a choice, dammit! If I don’t have a choice in anything else, I should be able to chose that! It sure as hell sounds better than being torn apart!” he said. 

          “Henry it’s the alcohol talking, you can’t really mean that.”

          “But I do!” he said, “I don’t have control of my life anymore. I can’t even chose if I’ll be alive tomorrow because things happen so damn fast. Everything just happens so fast,” he said. Henry sunk to his knees before Hana and TOP, breathing shallow as his tears continued to hit the floor and his voice cracked, “My friends are dying. Life as we know it has gone to . I sit in that room alone every night and remember that those bottles are the only things that will be there for sure when I wake up the next day. You’ve got to understand that...”

       TOP sighed, “We do Henry...we do.”

     “Just please...don’t do this to me. It’s all I have...it’s all I have,” his body was bent forward as he gripped his knees in agony, silent sobs shaking him.

        The two standing by the door looked at one another, their silence speaking volumes as it was clear that they were beginning to question their own plan.

       “Look...how about this? We won’t take it all immediately. We’ll give you a little bit just to make it easier...so you won’t have to go cold turkey...but after you’re done with that, there won’t be anymore, okay?” TOP said.

      Henry looked up with wet eyes before slowly moving to his feet, “Fine. Take it all, I don’t care, “ he said in a flat voice, “I can live without it and I can show you.”

       He walked towards the exit, forcing TOP and Hana to part and Henry to walk out of the laundry room door.

       After a moment of deafening silence, TOP said, “”Henry, you’re an alcoholic?”” he mocked in a flat voice. Hana looked up in slight fear, only to see TOP’s eyes were vaguely amused. Despite telling her earlier to let him do the talking, he couldn’t even be upset. Even though it didn’t end like they originally planned, they ultimately achieved their goal.

       Hana shrugged, “It was the truth, wasn’t it? And you weren’t getting to the point fast enough..I just thought I’d help you out a bit. I didn’t think it would end like that though..”

    “Oh you got to the point alright,” he said, “I just think you forgot the fact that he’s the one that feeds us.”

      “Meaning...?”

     “Let’s just hope he doesn’t poison our food tonight.”

     Hana sighed, “Do you think we...did the right thing? He did have a point. He’s a grown man, who are we to tell him how to live the rest of his life?”

    “I can’t say I’m sure. I think it's for the better, though. I just hope our caring hearts don’t come back to bite us in the .”

_____________________________________________________

       The garage was empty despite the two boys hunched over a pile of wood and sharp tools. The cabinet was slowly coming together; it was in its final stages and the end was slowly evident. They would need 2, maybe 3, more sessions before it was complete and ready to use and Chanyeol smiled at the idea.  It was 7:25pm. They had just began working less than a half hour ago and were moving seamlessly. They worked in comfortable silence, the only time any of them spoke was to ask the other to pass a tool. The rapper felt warm in that moment, like things were somewhat normal now that they were back at home and in the swing of things, like the past 24 hours didn’t happen...like he didn’t lose one of his best friends. The only indication of otherwise was an unusually empty seat at the dinner table, but Chanyeol tried not to think about it or else he knew he’d lose the grip he had on his emotions.

       “Oh, shoot,” Shin said suddenly, looking up at the clock.

       “What?”

       “It’s almost 7:30. I...told Jongin I’d help him do laundry now,” he said, the statement almost sounding like a question, “I’ve got to go. But I know you’ve got it. It’s okay if I leave right?” he asked, not waiting for an answer before he got up and began to make his way to the door.

      Every other time this happened, Chanyeol always muttered a soft “yeah” in response, so Shin expected nothing less this time around. But when Shin opened the garage door to leave, there was the sound of a wrench falling to the floor.

      “No. It’s not.”

       Shin stood there for a second, wondering if he was hearing things, but the statement was soon followed by the sound of approaching footsteps coming behind him. Chanyeol had gotten up and was now stalking over to Shin with fists clenched by his side. Shin turned around in shock and began to back into the house, “What’s wrong?”

       “”What’s wrong?”” he laughed dryly, “Oh, let’s first start with your bull excuses.”

       “Yeol, what are you talking about?”

       “Where are you even going, Shin?”

        “I told, you, I’m going to help Jongin fold clothes.”

       “I thought you said you were helping him do laundry,” Chanyeol said.

      “Yeah! That’s what I meant,” Shin laughed, “Geez, why are you so mad?”

       “I’m mad because whenever we have plans to go and work in the garage, you always walk out at the same time and leave me hanging to do everything. You volunteered for this job, we’re supposed to be doing this together, bonding or whatever and you just get up and leave!”

        “My bad, things just come up!”

      “But everyday at 7:30? Come on, bro! You think I don’t notice a pattern? You think I’m dumb or some ?!”

      “No, not at all, Yeol,” Sjin was taken aback by his abrasive nature, as the guy before him was not the collected person he always knew.

      “Now that we’re on the topic of your disappearances, I’d just like to let you know that I see how you leave in the middle of the night, too,” he declared. By this time, Chanyeol had backed the oldest cousin into the open foyer, “You think I don’t, but I do,” he said, “Where the hell do you even go at 3am every night?”

      Shin was now standing there, frozen in his spot in the middle of the floor, searching for an answer in the marble tiles, “I go to the bathroom...”

       “For two hours?” Chanyeol scoffed, “Wow, you actually think I’m dumb.”

      “I don’t! I...I don’t know what to tell you, Yeol.”

        “I thought we were friends, Shin. You know you can tell me what’s going on, so why are you lying, man?” surprisingly, tears slowly began to trickle down his round face. All of the frustration he had pent up over the last couple weeks were now coming out and being blown up due to the events of the last 24 hours.

       By this time, a few of the housemates that were casually hanging around the lower level had come to see what the commotion was about. Many looking at each other in confusion to see the two boys that were seemingly the best of friends in a fight over the unknown.

       “I’m not lying, man! I just...have a lot going on right now. I can’t explain it.”

        “I just don’t understand why you can’t tell me what’s going on. I thought we were friends. And at the time when I need you the most you’re not there! Who even does that?”

        “I am there for you!”

       “Then stop disappearing and tell me what the hell is going on!”

       “Hey, hey, hey! What's the problem with you two?” Amber asked as she approached them.

       Chanyeol scoffed, “I don’t know, ask him,” he said before nodding towards Shin and turning away to storm up the stairs.

      Amber turned to question him, but Shin had already turned in the opposite direction and disappeared down a hallway.

      Eunhyuk watched the situation from the top of the staircase, Chanyeol flying past him before slamming his bedroom door closed. He watching Shin’s retreating figure and replayed the scene in his head as things began to click.

       He immediately went after Chanyeol, flinging his door open and seeing him strewn across his bed with a pillow over his face.

       “Leave me the hell alone!” he screamed.

       “Chanyeol I need you to tell me everything you know,” Eunhyuk said, forgetting his junior’s attitude as he slowly closed the door behind him.

       Chanyeol raised the pillow in confusion upon hearing Eunhyuk’s voice, and became even more questioning when he saw the look in his eyes, “About what?”

        Eunhyuk sat down on Shin’s bed across from Chanyeol and leaned in, “Everything that Shin does when he leaves at night.”

        “I don’t know what he does, he just leaves.”

       “Do you have any idea where he goes? Which direction?” Eunhyuk asked.

         As Chanyeol looked into the dancer’s face, he saw a type of desperation and and urgency he didn’t know was possible. And it kind of scared him, “Uh, I think I hear footsteps going downstairs sometimes--”

       He was cut off by the sight of Eunhyuk’s face going ghostly pale. He suddenly jumped up from his spot off of Shin’s bed, opened the door, and slammed it behind him, leaving Chanyeol alone once again.

   ______________________________________________

       He watched the shadows change on the pale cream paint as the sun went down. He was laying flat on his bed unmoving, as he had been since dinner, staring forward until his bedroom was shrouded with only darkness. The only thing moving were the curtains as they glided around with the gentle night breeze that was coming in through the open balcony door.

     Kai’s mind had skipped around from subject to subject so many times, all a distraction to not think of that one thing that would set him off and send the tears falling again.

      A distant memory suddenly presented itself, glimpses of wooden floors and mirror-covered walls coming to mind. He saw Baekhyun’s face in his head, framed by his natural pre-debut black hair. He was grinning mischievously as he waved Kai and Suho over to where Chanyeol was sleeping soundly on one of the sofas in the dance studio. During the break, he had fallen asleep, and now Baekhyun was taking advantage of his moment of weakness . He approached the rapper with a marker in his hand, stifling a giggle as he began to draw es on his forehead and cheeks. Suho shook his head and rolled his eyes in disapproval, but Kai saw the small small that threatened to show.

     A moment later, footsteps could be heard approaching the room and in stepped their dance instructor. They all stood straight as Baekhyun hid the marker behind his back. Chanyeol groaned as he woke up and yelped when he noticed the older man, jumping to his feet immediately.

       “Alright, break’s over, let’s get back to Mama….” the instructor began as he scanned the boys, stopping on Chanyeol, “Are those on your face, Park?”

        The fit of giggles the boys were holding in suddenly erupted as they saw the panic and confusion on Chanyeol’s face, all of them falling to the ground and holding their stomachs as they roared.

     A smile suddenly spread across Kai’s face at the memory, he rolled to the side and began to speak to the adjacent bed, “Sehun, do you remember that time when…?”

       But the boy wasn’t there, and never would be again. The only thing left were the messy sheets and dirty clothes wrapped within his covers.

       The realization hit Kai like a ton of bricks, and he let out a shaky breath as a tear escaped his eye and fell to the bed. He had been trying to steer himself away from thinking of him but failed once again.

      He closed his eyes.

      He knew it would take forever to get rid of this feeling of loneliness, and the notion pained him more than he wanted to admit. The sudden realization came that he and Chanyeol were the only two EXO members left, well...that he knew of for sure. Some members had schedules in China and they hadn’t heard from them since they boarded that plane. But then there was Kyungsoo...the only member anyone had seen alive. There was some crazy, power-hungry man out there that had taken Chen from them, still roaming the same earth and breathing the same air and only a car ride away, who had chosen to take advantage of the lack of society in a way that Kai couldn’t even imagine.

        He thought about D.O. and wondered how he was doing, if he was holding up in the world that was crumbling before them. He wondered how, if he would ever found out, he would react to losing Sehun. Would be sad? Apathetic? Shrug it off as just another loss and go on with his life as he did with Chen? Kai wondered, how could he live like that and with himself? Being buddies with the murderer of your own friend, no matter if he felt he owed it to him.

       He couldn’t help but wonder, as he laid on his bed in his silent bedroom, if they could have saved Sehun if D.O was a part of their group instead. He almost pushed the thought to the back of his mind, but it wouldn’t leave. Maybe, just maybe, if they had more hands to help save him, Sehun could have lived? Maybe the groups would have been assigned differently, and Chanyeol and Sehun wouldn’t have had to run from the zombies in the first place?

      Kai sighed as another tear escaped, the possibilities paining him the more he thought about them.

       “Why does it have to be like this?”

_____________________________________________

        The lights in the hallway were off, the entire house was enveloped in a dim light that evening, which mirrored the mood appropriately. After the spat between Shin and Chanyeol, everyone holed themselves up in their rooms, making the mansion feel cold and empty.

        Hana was just coming from the bathroom when she saw Shin walking in her direction down the hall. He saw her too, but he kept his gaze straight and unmoving as he marched forward.

         Hana contemplated turning a blind eye, letting him simply walk by and put her conscience on the back burner, but she couldn’t. Eunhyuk’s words from the day before coming from the hospital's walkie-talkie rang in her head and they wouldn’t be going away anytime soon, especially if she didn’t warn him.

        This was as good of a time as any.

         She stalked towards him and his gaze remained forward, but she noticed his fist clench by his side. She didn’t know he could be this stubborn. When she saw that his pace wasn’t slowing down, she stepped in front of him.

         He breathed in deep, “Excuse you.”

        Hana scoffed, “Wow, he speaks.”

        He rolled his eyes and tried to go around her, but she spread out her arms so that they nearly touched both walls.

        “Look, whenever I ask to talk you never want to, so I’m gonna just start--”

       "I’m done with the confrontations today, alright? Chanyeol was enough I don’t need another lecture from you about what happened today.”

      That was the most he had said to her in weeks.

      “Good, because it's not about that,” she said, lowering her voice, “Eunhyuk has it out for you.”

      Shin looked down at her incredulously and rolled his eyes once again, “That’s old news, we talked it out a while ago, we’re fine. Now move,” he said.

      He tried to step forward but Hana held her place, “No, you two are not, because he doesn’t think so. I heard it from him myself, he’s trying to get you, Shin. It’s about Jieun--”

     He continued to try and push through, but stopped when he heard the name. He stiffened and shook his head, “Her name better not be in your mouth anymore, not after what you did.”

     He his heels and walked in the opposite direction towards the staircase, Hana following closely behind.  

     “You really like her, huh?” she asked with a laugh in her voice, “Interesting because Eunhyuk does too, apparently.”

     “Leave me alone,” he paused, interested but not willing to show it.

     “No, I won’t! I’m trying to help!”

     “I never asked you to,” he spat.

     “You don’t have to, Shin! We’re family, that’s what I’m here for!”

      “Dammit, Hana, shut up and leave me the hell alone!"

      By this time, the two were already on the bottom level, and Shin was approaching the basement door.

     “Eunhyuk somehow found out about whatever you and Jieun have going on,” Shin glared back at that, “and he doesn’t like it, Shin. I heard him say it himself, he said you need to go and that he wants it to be for good. I’m just trying to let you know so that you don’t end up in a situation later--”

    Shin was almost to the door, but Hana jumped in front of it before he could grab the handle, “Move.” 

     Hana looked into his eyes and saw the irritation there, and a sudden pang of sadness hit her, “Shin, I’ve been trying to apologize for weeks for what I did, and you know that apologies don’t come easy to me. I’m sorry, Shin,” she swallowed, “I’m...sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for what I did to Jieun. I’m sorry for what this has done to us. Do you forgive me?”

    He looked at her with an unreadable expression.

     “Shin what happened to us?” she breathed.

     “You did.”

     With those words, he pushed a stunned Hana aside and walked down the spiral staircase into the depths of the basement.    

       Hana stood there motionless as those two words rang louder in her head louder with every passing second.

          “You did.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey you guys!

Honestly I'm embarrassed at how long it takes for me to update, and I keep coming up with different reasons as to why and it a lot and I apologize. I've been in college for about a month now and I've been trying to get aclimated, and I just decided to sit in a study room for 5 hours and get this chapter and some other work finished. I hope you liked this chapter and continue to keep reading even though I'm ty at updating in a timely fashion.

What do you guys think of the story at this point? What direction do you think it and the characters are heading?

Your comments are honestly my motivation as corny as that sounds. Sometimes I wonder if I should continue this story because I've been working on it for so long and I'm still not done, but whenever I get a comment I'm reminded that you guys are still engaged and reading.

thanks as always

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