It was late evening when he arrived; Eric had been out since early dawn to search for food and fuel to add to his depleting stockpile. He was a careful person; he had to make sure that he had enough food and fuel to last him for at least a week just in case there was any emergency and he couldn’t get out of his current hideout. He is always on the move too, when he feel that he has exhausted the safety of the hideout, he will clear out everything, made it seem like no one was there and leave.

He laid Hyesung on the ground covered with pieces of clothing and started to build a fire. After he was done, he proceeded to patch Hyesung up. He took out his first aid kit from his rover and did as much as he could for Hyesung. He managed to clean the scratches on his face and arms with some antiseptic lotion then covered them with some squares of bandage, through that Hyesung didn’t stir from his comatic sleep.  However, he was left with the biggest problem - the deep gash on his right thigh. There was dried blood all over the wound and he would have to first rinse it with water to remove the dried blood and dirt before he can pour antiseptic on it. Eric sighed; he did not have the confidence that he can clean the wound without waking Hyesung.

“Waahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!” Hyesung screamed as he woke with a start and his hands quickly coming up to cover the part where it was paining him.

“Hushhhhhhh Hyesung, it will be over soon... I promise.” Eric cooed as he pried Hyesung’s hand away from the gash and continued to pour ice cold water on it.

“Oh my …” Hyesung visibly jumped. “Who are… Ouch…Ouch…Ouch…” Hyesung yelled in pain with tears glimmering in his eyes and sweat started forming on his forehead as Eric continues to work on the gash.

“I will have to clean this properly, if not you will have difficulty walking in future so bear with it and I think it better for us if you lower your volume now, we don’t want to attract any unwanted visitors” Eric explained gently and continue to apply the antiseptic lotion on the wound. Hyesung did as he was told; he gritted his teeth in pain but did not utter a single sound.

 Once he is satisfied with the medication, he covered it with bandage professionally. “I don’t have much bandage left, this will have to do for now” Eric explained as he added another layer of clean clothing to prevent dirt and bacteria from entering.

Once he was done, Hyesung let out a long breath in relieve and smiled at the stranger.

“I’m Eric by the way” answering to the question just now as he turned his attention towards Hyesung. “Saw you at the gas station earlier, don’t you remember?” he added waiting for Hyesung to reply.

“Oh right” Hyesung recalled. “Thank you so much for helping me” Hyesung gushed. “I guess I’ll be dead by now if you hadn’t saved me and I’ll never live to see Jinnie again” Hyesung added almost as an afterthought.

“Who’s Genie? I didn’t see anyone else around just now” Eric asked as his curiosity was pricked. It has been so long since he last spoken to someone, he almost forgot how it feels like to have company. During the days, he would travel alone from place to place looking for supplies and along the way he would see people travelling in groups however he never dared to approach them. He was afraid; not that they would harm him, instead he was afraid of getting attached to people and lose them again - just like how he lost his family and friends four years ago. Sometimes during the long nights, he felt so lonely and he hated himself for being so weak.

“It’s Junjin, my beloved brother” Hyesung whispered with pain engraved on his bloodless face and longing in his eyes.

Not getting further response from Hyesung, Eric continued “Oh, Junjin… Where is he now? I didn’t see anyone at the gas station just now.”

Pulling Hyesung out of his trance, he further explained “We were travelling towards the ‘Dome’ together with 3 others from our orphanage; we were hiding in the border of a small town when Jinnie suggested going into town to look for supplies as they were running low. We were rummaging through a roadside shop when a mob of zombies appeared out of nowhere and we started to panic. As we do not have much ammo left we will have to run as fast as we could out of that goddamn place. Jinnie, the strongest and fastest runner among us volunteered to run on the opposite direction of our group to distract the zombies while the other four of us will wait for the zombies to disperse before sneaking out of the shop and run towards the border where Jinnie will be waiting for us. I didn’t want to let him go! But he insisted that is the only way out and left. There’s where I lost the others and gotten the gash there” pointing at his injured thigh. “I don’t know how I can ever face Jinnie again. No, I don’t even know if I will ever get to see him again” Hyesung started sobbing uncontrollably.