ONE

I watched through the cracked window as the sun began to rise, the fractures in the glass created a shape similar to a dream catcher; if only it could catch my nightmare that is reality, I thought.

I hadn’t slept much that night, having travelled to a new unknown area the previous day, I wanted to stay awake and on guard, just in case. I was lucky to have found this abandoned building, there were not many places around and I had begun to worry that I would have to stay out in the open for the entire night.

I’ve been on the move every few days, not staying in one place for too long. It would be too dangerous, the rotters would find me after a while and, although I’m immune to the virus they could quite easily rip me apart within seconds – and after all this I was not prepared to go out like that.

Once the sun had fully risen, I took hold of my guns and knife, putting them in my utility belt, before adjusting my boots and leaving the confines of the gloomy building.

The day went by pretty eventless, I had managed to find some unexpired food in a nearby town as well as packs of water to take with me after I had slung them in my backpack, and soon enough the sunlight was starting to fade once again.

I began to look around for somewhere safe to sleep. As I walked I couldn’t help but think about how particularly eerie this particular road felt, it felt like something would jump out at any minute. And oh how right I was.

In mere seconds the once vacant and quiet road was filled with the ear piercing sound of the dreaded and screeching. I turned quickly and reached for my gun, hoping to hinder it from coming any closer and end its pathetic life.

As I twisted to aim my gun at its head I was met with an un-expected face, shocking me to the point of gasping loudly and rounding my eyes.

The being running towards me was not that of a mutilated creature but of a boy – a man. He was panting heavily as he looked behind, having not noticed me yet. He picked up his pace as he looked forward becoming aware of my existence and looking as shocked as I was. Eyes widening, he shouted:

“RUN! Don’t stand there there’s a whole mob of them coming!”

In a state of shock I was unsure of what he meant until the previous groans reached my ear drums once again.

Oh .

As he got closer I, too, started running and soon enough he had caught up with me. We carried on running forward side-by-side, occasionally looking back to see the relentless lurkers gaining on us. I looked back towards the boy asking tiredly:

“do you know where we’re going!? I can’t run for much longer!”

Instead of answering my question though, he clasped my hand in his own and pulled me off down a side road, almost as if completely oblivious to my voice whilst I continuously asked him what he was doing. In the end I just shut up and carried on running.

It wasn’t long until we had reached a forest looking area, which I personally hadn’t seen in years, and he pulled me through, brushing past all of the green branches as we went. I didn’t have time to admire the beautiful leaves as we passed through but hoped that maybe I could see something like that once again.

We came to a clearing where there were, what appeared to be, a concrete wall. The wall was high, probably around five or six meters, obviously to prevent anything from getting over the top.

“Yah! Guys, open the gate, quick!” the boy shouted loudly, to apparently no one, from what I could see.

Needless to say though, a gate in the fence opened up and we ran through, finally coming to a halt when it was swiftly closed and locked behind us. The noise of the skin-puppets coming in contact with the concrete was brutal. They scratched and clawed, but their desperate attempts to get through soon came to an end as the sound of a shot gun filled the air.

Silence came quickly, the only noise being the panting coming through both myself and the boy. I dropped to the floor in exhaustion, having never run so much in my entire life. And the boy finally paid attention to me as he fell right next to me.

Flood light suddenly came on, illuminating the area we were sitting on, and it was then that I actually looked around to have a look at our surroundings.

We were in some kind of camp, there were a few cabins as well as a fire and storage boxes scattered around in various places. It was civil. There was human life. For the first time in months, I felt safe.

I laid back in the grass, closing my eyes and relishing in the peace. I was so tired from running – every day, every night, it was such a relief to bring myself back to me.

My silent revere was cut short however as someone cleared their voice next to me.

I opened my eyes to see two others staring down at me. It was the boy, and he was smiling in what looked to be relief as moved back, eyes turning into crescent shapes.

“Are you okay?” He asked, still slightly out of breath. Not trusting my voice I simply nodded and gave him a small smile back. He breathed more relaxed and leant back on his elbows.

“Ugh, for a minute there, I didn’t think I was gonna make it. Those things can be pretty fast.” He said, laughing to himself. How can someone be so happy when the world is in this state I wondered?

It wasn’t until I heard approaching footsteps, crunching on the grass, that I sat up. In front of us, were two other guys. One had silver or grey hair and was fairly well built, whilst the other was shorter with blonde hair, they were both surprisingly handsome. Beaming down, the one with silver hair stretched a hand out to pull the guy next to me up.

“Nice work Jin, you finally found someone!” The guy patted him on the back. They all turned to look at me and the man, now known as Jin, reached down and helped me up.

“Hi, my name’s Namjoon, nice to meet you!” The silver haired guy immediately introduced himself as I nodded in acknowledgement.

‘And I’m Jungkook~” The shorter said cheerily. I nodded once again and bowed in response before clearing my throat and introducing myself.

“Kiara, thank you for saving me.” I responded gratefully as I bowed ninety-degrees.

“No problem, it’s been a long time since we’ve found another survivor.” Jin replied.

As I looked back up at him, he gave me the most angelic smile I had ever seen, and I couldn’t help feeling my heart flutter slightly and my breath hitch. Luckily, someone broke the eye contact we had by talking.

“You guys look pretty rough, how about we get you cleaned up and then we can talk.” Namjoon offered.

“Sure, I would love that.” I said in awe, desperate to finally sit down properly.

“This way then.” Jungkook motioned to the camp with his hands.