The fear and anxiety struck my heart as I glanced around the floor of the house. All of my friends were dead. There lay Kevin, facedown next to the overturned couch. Hoon's body lay not far from his, slumped over the television that just played static. Baby Dongho was fallen on the kitchen counter. All three of them had their brains blown out, thanks to Eli and I. I can tell you, it wasn't easy to shoot your best friends in the face. But it had to be done. It was too risky. We couldn't have them turn into...one of them. As I stared at the bodies of my fallen comrades, I tried choking back the tears. It was for the best, I kept telling myself.

I heard shuffling from behind. Whipping around, I pointed my gun in that direction. Thank God, it was only Eli. I looked at him with a questioning look, in which he responded with a nod. The coast was clear. He had taken care of the rest of them. His gaze momentarily shifted to the stairs, indicating that we should go up. Instinctively, I walked over to his side and stayed behind him. Who knew if there were more of them up there?

"Stay behind me," he whispered. "'We don't know what's up there and the last thing I want is for you to get hurt."

"I'll be fine, Eli," I answered. "Let's go."

Climbing up the stairs, we saw a long hallway. This was it. This was all we've been waiting for. If we don't come out of this alive, then Kevin's, Hoon's and Dongho's deaths would have been all for naught. Eli and I exchanged glanced and with a nod of the head, he cautiously continued forward. Using his martial arts skills, he kicked open the door of the nearest room. Two of them stumbled out, letting out low moans and gurgles. The one of the left was bald and had part of his skull blasted off; his right eye hanging out by the tendons. The one on the right was a female and had half of her blonde hair ripped apart while a mixture of blood and drool pooled out from her lips.

Lunging at me, the male let out a groan, but I sidestepped his attack and quickly shot him in the head with my pistol. It wasn't the ideal weapon to use in a zombie apocalypse, but hey, it was better than nothing. Plus, Eli had the shotgun. He could handle the recoil much better than I could. The zombie fell to the floor and despite the amount of brain matter that had just splattered across the hallway, it continued to twitch. Eli made short work of the female zombie, but that wasn't the end of it. Almost immediately, they started pouring out from the rooms. Backing up, I attempted to shoot as many of them as I could.

There were so many of them in the hallway after the first two minutes; there had to be at least fifteen. How could so many of them fit? As I shot at one that nearly bit my arm, I cocked the gun and aimed at the next closest one. I squeezed the trigger, but all I heard was a click. I pulled the trigger again. Click. Click. Click. Crap, I was out of bullets. The booming noise of the shotgun had stopped soon after; Eli had run out as well and was now using the of his weapon to kill them. I needed more ammunition, but where?

"I-I'm out of ammo," I shouted over the hoarde of growling zombies. "I don't know how to fight back."

"Come over here!" commanded Eli. "I'll protect you, don't worry. Come on! We can do this."

Obliging, I dashed over to him. I hated not being able to do anything, but I wasn't ready to die. Not yet. We had to finish this. Just as he was clobbering the last zombie in the head, I suddenly felt something latch onto my arm. Turning to see what it was, one of my biggest nightmares was confirmed. A zombie with dark, matted hair and blistered skin had managed to come up behind me and bite me. Behind him was a legion of the hungry undead. I bashed his head with the of my pistol until he let go, but it was too late. My blood had already been contaminated.

"Oh God..." Eli breathed as he looked at my bite mark. "No..."

"Eli, finish me," I told him. "Do it."

"B-but I can't! How do you expect me to--"

"ELI, DO IT!" I demanded as I attempted to move away from the zombies who were now closing in. "If you don't, then I'll just turn into one of them."

Eli let out a cry of frustration and started to smash the nearest zombies. He smashed the faces of one, two, three zombies as he glared at them with a crazed frenzy. This wasn't going anywhere. I would turn soon and endanger his life. I wanted anything but that. He managed to hold back the battalion, but he kept stealing occasional glances at me.

"I'm going to change soon! You might as well get it over with," I told him. "Do it. Now."

It looked like he was contemplating on whether to really end it right now. Looking into his eyes, I saw the pain and fear swimming inside them. I lowered my eyes. I didn't want to be looking into them while he finished me off. Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited for the end to come. Instead, I only heart a loud curse. I looked up and watched in horror as Eli got pulled back and bit by the advancing hoarde of zombies.

"NO! YOU CAN'T!" I cried.

Just then, my vision started to turn red. Everything was a shade of crimson and I was beginning to lose touch with my senses. An overwhelming sense of failure took over my entire body. As soon as it came, however, it went and instead, it was replaced by a pitch black void of darkness.

The words 'GAME OVER' flashed across the darkness.

-

Taking off the virtual reality helmet, I was greeted with jeers and cries of exasperation. I let out a deflated breath. WE WERE SO CLOSE TO PASSING THAT LEVEL! Pouting, I turned to my disappointed friends. Hoon was smirking disapprovingly, Kevin shrugged and Dongho was glaring like the sore loser he was. We had no more money to start the level up again, and plus, other people were in line to try out this new virtual reality arcade. I apologized to them.

"Aw, man, we were so close too," Hoon said, then headed for the door.

"Yeah...oh well, maybe next time," Kevin added optimistically as he followed Hoon.

"Wow, you guys ," complained Dongho as he lumbered off.

I was about to leave too, but then I realized that Eli was still inside. Turning around, I saw him take off his helmet. What took me by surprise was what I saw after that. His eyes showed a hint of red and what seemed to be a tear sparkled on the apples of his cheeks. He rubbed his eyes before turning to face me. I smirked mischievously.

"...Were you crying?" I asked, trying to suppress a laugh.

"Me!? Cry!?" He looked appalled as he rolled his eyes and set down the virtual reality helmet.

He moved closer to me and stared into my eyes for a few awkward seconds. "I...."

I just stood there waiting for a response, until he shook his head and regained his normal composure. "I...I just have allergies."

Scoffing at his excuse, I set down my virtual reality helmet and strode out the door. Typical Eli. It was okay, though. That moment in the game when I got bit was all I needed. It gave me the satisfaction of witnessing what he really felt for me. At least I know how you feel, I thought to myself as I followed him out the door. I care about you too. So, baby, don't cry.

-----

Well, I hope you liked it! It was short, I know. I apologize for trolling; it wasn't supposed to be like this originally, but the idea came to me today and I thought, why not give the readers the option of trick or treat? Obviously, this was the 'trick' part. ^^ If you want a real Halloween horror treat, feel free to read my Yonghwa one-shot titled 'Alone in the Dark'. That one doesn't troll, I promise. Anyhoo, I'll be back with another one-shot when inspiration hits, which is hopefully soon! Until then, ciao, loves(: