(A/N):* "Jiyong" = G-Dragon's real name

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                "It could have been worse," TOP said as the group carried Kai over to the sofa, "I could have shot him instead," he shrugged. When he heard the alarm go off, he grabbed the gun from his nightstand and cautiously walked downstairs. When he saw Kai standing there, he instinctively knocked him cold. In his burst of adrenaline, never looked at the boy's face and recognized who he was.

                "Eh, he'll wake up soon." Amber said as she smacked Kai a few times and waved a hand in front of his face.

                 TOP eyed the group, crossing his arms over his chest as they continued to stand awkwardly in his friend's living room, "Why are you even here?"

                "Well, we're low on food and-" Eunhyuk began.

                "Oh, and you figured you would just waltz your way in here because there was no gate, right?" the rapper asked as he walked behind the bar and poured himself a drink. It was only 3 pm.

                Everyone's gaze followed the massive gun that he had slung on his shoulder.

               "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but Jiyong* doesn't keep anything in this house except expensive booze and canned soup."

                "Well that's more than we have right now," Eunhyuk pointed a shaky finger at the massive weapon, "Where'd you get that thing?"

                "Oh this?" TOP asked as he carefully put down the gun and inspected it under the lights. He noticed how stiff the group got as he did so, "I got it from Jiyong. He had this weird hobby of collecting guns and keeping them here. I'm talkin' the big stuff. Who would have thought, right? I used to think it was crazy, but he always said that you never know when you might need them...I guess he was right."

                "Are you here alone?" Donghae asked.

                TOP nodded, "Youngbae, Daesung, Jiyong, and Seungri all had schedules in different places. I haven't heard from them in a while."

                "What made you come here?" asked Amber.

                "I knew I needed to protect myself when people started eating their meat rarer than usual, if you know what I mean," a painful smile played on his lips, "and this was the first place I thought of.  I've been here the past couple days," he looked around at the faces of the group, "Now enough interrogating me. What about you?"

                "We just got here yesterday. We've been staying next door." Donghae said.

                "Everyone will be so glad to see you, Seunghyun! Why don't you come back with us and say hi to everyone?" Amber suggested.

                TOP raised his eyebrows, "There's more of you?"

                "Yeah, they're waiting for us back at the house. Come on, go back with us. At least for some food?"

                Eunhyuk gave Amber a stern look across the sofa, to which she ignored. It's not that he didn't want this tall, armed, intimidating man in his house, more so that Amber was extending an invitation that hadn't been discussed with the group first.

                TOP caught on to this, "Are you sure that's okay with everyone?"

                Donghae shrugged, "Totally, we could use more people."

                "Why not." TOP said as he gauged Eunhyuk's look of defeat.

                TOP led them to the kitchen where they took the rest of the soup and alcohol for good measure. They loaded the food and Kai into the van and rode down the street to the Super Junior house, TOP sitting with the gun in his lap the entire ride.

                When the group pulled into the garage and those inside the house heard the car door close, they rushed to see what food there was to eat.

                But the first thing they saw the group carrying was not food, but instead Kai's unconscious body.

                "What happened?!" Henry asked as they carried the dancer to the living room where they dropped him on yet another sofa.

                "Don't worry, he'll wake up soon," Henry turned around to see TOP in all his glory.

                "Seunghyun?!" he looked down at the weapon he held and his eyes widened, "W-what are you doing here?" he stuttered.

                TOP shrugged, "Trying not to get eaten."

                Eunhyuk placed the bag of food in Henry's hands and pushed him towards the kitchen, "We have soup. Go in there and make it work!" Henry stumbled away, several unanswered questions bouncing around in his head at once.

                Hana and Shin, who now had a better understanding of the house through some looking around, heard the voices downstairs and came back down to the living room. But when they got there, they saw a new figure dressed in all black. When they saw the bulky gun he held so easily they stopped in their tracks.

                "Who's he?" Shin asked as they looked on from around the corner. TOP turned some more and his face was finally visible to the cousins. Due to Hana's sudden intake of breath and raised eyebrows, Shin soon caught on, "He's another idol, isn't he?" Hana nodded.

                "But look at the size of that gun!" she mused.

                The backpacks. The notes. The constant news updates.

                Without a word exchanged, Shin and Hana both knew that TOP was more prepared than they had ever been.

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                Henry called the group to the main dining room when the food was done (turns out there were 2 dinning rooms in the house- one for smaller parties like this and another used for company dinners that could seat around 40 comfortably).  Henry was known everywhere for his culinary skills and was on several shows to showcase them. So even if he didn't ask for the job, he was the designated cook of the house.

                Everyone pulled up a seat at the long wooden table as Amber helped Henry serve the food.

                "Sorry I couldn't do much with this, but I did what I could with the lack of seasonings." Henry said.

                "It's canned soup, it can't be that bad," Amber said as she poured drinks into the glasses.

                 TOP looked across the table and, to his surprise, noticed two faces, "Hello...?" he said as he appraised the cousins.

                "Oh, you haven't met yet! This is Shin and Hana," Amber said as soup spilled out the sides of , "we met them on our way here."

                TOP extended his arm across the table, "Nice to meet you," he said as he shook the cousins' hands.

                "This is so crazy. I mean what are the odds of finding you all the way out here?" said Henry.

                "It was just luck I guess," TOP said as he picked at the vegetables that floated to the surface, "More than I've had in a while, I'll tell you that."

                "What do you mean?" Donghae asked curiously.

                "Its funny. I was the only one in the dorm, and I was knocked out sleeping. I started hearing all these helicopters. I mean, they just wouldn't stop coming," he continued to stare into his bowl, getting lost in the memory,  "So I looked out the window, and saw all these people running in the street. I the news and it was the same thing. People running, screaming...and then I saw this lady get her neck bitten off on live TV. I called everyone I knew, but no one answered their phones. So then, when I was trying to leave-"

                "Why would you leave?" Shin asked, "You had shelter."

                TOP smirked, "Because the bastards started coming in through an open window. I fought them off the best I could- messed up the whole place doing it- but I had to go. So I got in my car and drove this way. A ride that's supposed to be 4 hours took 2 days. I ran my car into a building and had to walk the rest." 

                TOP looked around to see everyone else staring back at him in amazement. He focused his attention back to the strangers across the table, "So what's your story?"

                "We were at school when everything happened," Shin said, "The professors moved everyone into the gymnasium, but I guess some of those biting freaks found their way inside the building. Everyone flipped out, so Hana and I just...left. We tried to go home, but police had everything blocked off. The whole neighborhood was quarantined, so we've just been running around until this group found is in Seoul."

                "You just left your friends at school? That's pretty messed up," Eunhyuk said as he continued to eat.

                 "What were they supposed to do? Get eaten alive in the name of friendship?" TOP asked.

                "Well, I mean-"

                "What do you mean, Eunhyuk? Would you have stayed behind to accept that fate?", Eunhyuk made eye contact with the dark-haired rapper before looking back down at his soup, "You weren't there, so you can't criticize them."

                The dining room grew silent. No other sound but cleared throats and spoons hitting bowls.

                 Shin and Hana had a good feeling about this new guy.

                Henry laughed nervously, and turned to Amber, "So what were you guys saying earlier about being stuck at the SM headquarters?"

                She picked up on his attempt to fix the mood, "Yeah, we were stuck because we were waiting in one of the practice rooms for Junmyun, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and their manager to come back-"

                "Really? Where are they now?"

                "Well, um...we don't know."

                Silence.

                "So you left without them?" Henry asked, his voice dropping several octaves.

                "No, we went to their manager's apartment but we didn't see the guys. But we saw him-"

                "Why didn't you ask him where the guys were?"

                "Because he had already turned," Shin said.

                Henry leaned back in his chair, "What do you mean he turned? You don't mean into...a zombie or anything do you?"

                "Of course not, Henry. This zombie thing again? C'mon this isn't some bad horror flick. They're just sick." Eunhyuk said with surprising nonchalance.

                TOP couldn't believe his ears, "Just sick? What they do is sick, Eunhyuk," he met the wide eyes of the idols around the table, "Are you guys really this clueless? You saw the reports. The mobs in the streets. You really think a person with a simple virus tries to eat another person? What fantasy have you been living these past few days?"

                Henry put a hand on his mouth in disbelief, "So it isn't just some virus...people really have gone crazy. This whole 'zombie' thing...this is real life." Henry's heart dropped at the realization that life had changed for the worse.

                "So let me get this straight. When you got to the apartment the manager had already turned, and the boys were missing?" Shin and Hana nodded, "Then they're done for." TOP said confidently.

                Henry gasped, "How could you even say that?"

                "Because there is no way that three boys as clueless as you all could have survived that for an entire night."

                "But there is still a chance that they are out there," Henry looked around the table for support, but Hana, Shin, and TOP's faces said otherwise, "right?"

                "The chances are slim to none, Henry." TOP said.

                "BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW?!" Henry exploded, his face bright red, "MAYBE THEY'RE OUT THERE SURVIVING, AND AS SOON AS YOU LEFT, THEY WENT BACK TO THE HEADQUARTERS LOOKING FOR YOU!"

                "How do I know?" TOP leaned over, putting both his palms on the table, "Because I lived it. I was out there fighting until I made it here. But them? They're a whole different story."

                "It's not too late." Chanyeol said, "We can still go out and look for them."

                "And get ourselves killed? No thank you." TOP said.

                "No, get food. We don't have enough to feed us all longer than another day even in small rations."

                TOP pursed his lips. This was true, "Well then I guess we don't have a choice but to go back out there. But his will only work if we make this clear to everyone," he said, "It would only be an errands trip. We would just be looking for food and other necessities and your friends along the way."

                Henry quickly nodded his head, "It's a deal." The others around the table also agreed, "Why don't we go right now?"

                "Because by the time we get there it will already be sundown, and we can't do this at night. We'll leave at dawn."

                The idols and the cousins shuffled out of the dining room without uttering a word. By this time, the sky had turned a dull orange as the sun began to depart from the sky. Donghae walked TOP over to the front door as the rest began to disperse around the house.

                "Can I give you a ride back?" Donghae asked.

                "No, I'd rather walk," said TOP as he adjusted the strap of the gun on his shoulder, "I'll be back here at sunrise." he turned his back to leave, but Donghae stopped him on the way out.

                "You uh...you had it tough out there, huh? Being out there by yourself and all..." he trailed off.

                TOP shook his head, "You have no idea, Donghae. Crazy is the only way I can describe it," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "But what's Eunhyuk's problem? Why is he in such denial?" Though TOP had been in the house for a short time, he could easily sense Eunhyuk's negative nature.

                Donghae looked around the foyer and lowered his voice as well, "I don't really know, Seunghyun. He just doesn't want to hear any of it."

                TOP sighed, "Well, he's going to be in for a rude awakening pretty soon."

                With a nod of the head and a final turn, TOP walked down the street until he was a dot in the distance.

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                When Shin and Hana went looking around earlier in the day, they found an inconspicuous side door on the second floor. Inside, was a dimly lit room scattered with bean bag chairs all over the floor, and a screen that covered an entire wall. They could only assume that it was some kind of movie room.

                Now as they climbed the stairs after their most filling dinner in days, they decided return.

                "It that we're going out there again so soon," Hana groaned as she sunk into one of the seats on the floor.

                "Yeah, I thought we'd be set here for a while. I guess not," Shin looked off pensively, "By the way, what was with that guy at dinner? Was Seunghyun his name? He was oddly defensive of us, don't you think?"

                Hana shrugged, "Sure, but isn't that a good thing? The only people who really get it are those who have lived it, and he has. I don't know about you, but I like having someone to finally back us up."

                Shin grunted in agreement as he picked at the fabric on the seat, "When was the last time you talked to your parents?"

                Hana looked up, surprised by the sudden question, "Like two weeks ago...? They were doing fine then."

                "So I guess you wouldn't know what's going on in America right now, huh?"

                Hana shook her head, "Not a clue," she laughed bitterly, "My family is on the other side of the world, maybe living normal lives. And here we are, eating expired soup in a mansion with pop stars, hiding from zombies."

                Shin shrugged, "Life is funny that way. But at least there's the possibility that your parents are safe at home. I don't even know where my mom is."

                "She could be fine too," Shin shot Hana doubtful glance, "She could!"

                "Yeah, maybe," he said, "I vaguely remember her waking me up and telling me she was going to work on the morning everything happened. And you know how the neighborhood was quarantined when we went there after we left school?" Hana nodded, "She can't be home because her job is too far away to get there fast enough. She would have to be out there somewhere. And that's what bothers me. Because we'll never know."

                Hana looked at her cousin's pitiful expression as he stared at the empty movie screen. Hana wasn't good at comforting people, and she was too far away to pat his arm.

                Shin sighed and rose from his seat on the floor, "Anyways, we should get some rest. Seunghyun said he would be back really early."

                Hana stretched, "You're right," she yawned, "I'll stay in here tonight. You go ahead." Hana laid across the soft bean bags and put a pillow under her head.

                She was out within seconds. Shin chuckled and quietly left the room.

                A moment later, Shin tip-toed back in, turned off the lights and placed a blanket on his younger cousin's back.

                 Shin laid down a few feet away, making himself comfortable on the floor next to her.

                "Goodnight," Shin whispered, well aware that his cousin was already drifting through dreamland.

                He his side, closed his eyes, and fell into the best sleep he could remember.

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                "It was nice running into Seunghyun all the way out here, right?" Donghae asked, walking into his shared bedroom.

                Eunhyuk's eyes were glued to a book he was reading, "Mhmm...yeah."

                "What does that mean?"

                "Nothing. Just more mouths to feed, that's all."

                "Well if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have been fed at all today."

                Eunhyuk didn't say anything. His eyes moved across the page, but he wasn't taking in any of the information anymore.

                Donghae sat on his bed and observed his friend, "I know you're not really reading."

                Eunhyuk took a deep breath and closed the book, throwing it at the foot of the bed, "Okay, Donghae. What do you want from me?"

                "To stop being such an ."

                Eunhyuk gaped at Donghae, "M-me? What are you even talking about?" he stuttered

                "You know you're wrong," Donghae said, "The way you've treated Shin and Hana so bad for no reason...why? They've been nothing but help so far."

                "Because they're full of bull."

                "Seunghyun said the same thing as them about how it was out there. Was he bullting us too?" Eunhyuk looked as if he was going to say something, but changed his mind, "Look. Are you going on that trip tomorrow?"

                "Hell yeah."

                "Well then you need to think about everything they've told us. Why would they lie? Maybe its worse than what we saw in that one day and on the news."

                "But zombies, Donghae?" Eunhyuk said, incredulous, "C'mon. That's not even scientifically possible. It just doesn't make sense."

                Donghae shrugged, "Nothing has made sense lately, Eunhyuk. I just want you to be more open-minded, alright?"

                Eunhyuk muttered in response and turned off the light. He tossed and turned in his bed, trying to find the right spot.

                "You should apologize to Shin and Hana, too." Donghae whispered. He knew that Eunhyuk was staring daggers at him in the dark.

                "Over my dead body." he replied.

                What bothered Donghae the most was that the statemement may have been more literal than he was ready for.

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OTL I'm so sorry this update took 19824763 years. I'm so swamped with school work and its just -___-

I think about this story all the time, so thank you guys for staying with it!

It means so much!