(E) Chapter 5                                                                                            Their steady footsteps were trying to keep in sync when Kai, Luhan, Tao and Chen were passing boxes of the food they found in each of the cars. Baekyoung was with Baekhyun, the two siblings searching for more clothes they could bring for future purposes. It was twilight and the sun was starting to set, the colors of the sky ranging from purple to orange to multiple tones of red. They worked swiftly and quick on their feet, showing their intense desire to get out of the place. The place was obviously abandoned, no creatures walking on the streets and they wondered whether they were inside the buildings or someplace else.   “Come here and put this on.” Baekyoung said to Baekhyun, pulling his younger brother closer, and wrapping the scarf around his neck. Baekhyun was a sickly boy. Truth be told, he was as sickly as he was stubborn. The older brother rubbed the younger’s shoulders and laid his forehead on the other. “You know I won’t always be here, do you?” He asked softly and Baekhyun looked into his others eyes, denial starting to overcome his tone. “What do you mean? Of course you will. Don’t say things like that, Hyung.” Baekhyun said to him, and turned his back only to be pulled back and have his face cupped. “You, have to start taking care of yourself, Hyun-ah. I’m telling you because I’m your brother. Every day was a blessing with you but I would like it to use it as a motivation to become more independent.” Baekyoung started off with his calm and lecturing tone when Luhan who walked in overhead their conversation. The fairy boy could not help but roll his eyes, clearing his throat. “Your brother is saying that not every day people will actually keep up with your , you’ve got to stand on your own two feet. We’re stuck in an infested world, before we know it, Baekyoung might die and what will you do?” Luhan asked, his tone crisp and non-caring as he threw the key to Baekyoung who looked at the other with a still expression.   Baekhyun who heard what Luhan said just looked at him before speaking, his voice unstable, trying to compose himself as much as possible. “Well at least someone can keep up with my and someone tries, unlike you who no one really bothers about because to them you are nothing but a criminal.” Baekhyun who finished his words, wretched himself away from Baekyoungs grasp and walked passed Luhan, his shoulder slamming against Luhans'. Luhan touched his shoulder, making a face at the impact when he looked up to see Baekyoung's face. “What?!” He asked, still not understanding why they seemed to hate what he said. To him, it was the truth and it was something they shouldn’t run away from and hide behind denial. “You could have said that in a nicer way.” Baekyoung said, his nice eyes no longer there as he stared at Luhan who lifted both his hands into the air. “You’ve been too nice to him that is why he is like that.” The fairy boy placed his hands on his hips. “I know you care about him but the fact that he is like that is partially your fault. Get your together.” Luhan just shrugged and Baekyoung pursed his lips, his hands reaching over to grab a scarf before throwing it to him. Baekyoung knew what Luhan said was true; he made a mental note to talk to Baekhyun about it later. But for some reason, he knew he would cave in once he would would look at Baekhyun's face looking up at him.   Meanwhile outside, Kai and Tao was finishing up with loading the remaining food and clothes into the backseat. The two worked silently before Kai broke the ice, while passing Tao a bottle of unopened water. “Drink up; you do know what to do right?” Kai asked. He knew Tao had a mind of his own. He was active and was easily distracted by things. One of the things he was afraid of was that his best friend here would turn around and walk away finding things and he would be alone. As ignorant Kai seemed to be in terms of personal relations and people, Tao was a treasure to him. Tao accepted the water and gulped it down, a hand going to wipe the corner of his lips before he nodded, his cheeks puffing out like a hamster. While he struggled to swallow the water in one go, Kai patted Tao’s back and looked around at the sky. If they weren’t in such a situation, he would be with his parents on a picnic. Or even more so, he would be outside picking fights at this time, calling Tao and winning them together just to split the money after a victory. “I know what to do, have I ever not listened to you?” Tao asked, nudging Kai who sternly looked into his panda eyes. “Yes. Always. Remember when we would go for street fights before and you would end up using tactics I told you not to use?” Tao shrugged, a smug look spreading across his lips. “But we would always win because of that!” He said, chuckling at Kai who could not deny that fact. It was true to what Tao said, his sense of individualism in terms of thinking was always what saved them. He may have looked manly in the streets or in the fighting ring or in jail, but Kai knew that he was a softie who easily cried and had a ton of aegyo hidden. “So what do you have to do?” “Get the first aid kit.” “No. We get the silencers and if we have time we-“ “Get the first aid kit.” “Arasso, fine. Let’s just go, shall we?” Kai asked, motioning to Chen to come over to tell the rest to get up onto the car. Chen who saw Kai’s hand signal went into the store, his legs stopping beside Baekhyun.   “They said to get into the car.” Chen muttered under his breath and even then he expected an answer from Baekhyun. However there was no reply and the boy beside him just turned and went to the car, climbing into it and slamming the door shut. Chen looked back and frowned, scratching his nose. Weird. Did something happen? “Ah, Chen. Is it time to go?” Baekyoung who came walking towards him asked and Chen nodded before asking. “Is something wrong with Baekhyun?”
“Baekhyun?” Baekyoung frowned at the boy, shaking his head. “Not that I can think of. He was just not feeling all that well. Don’t worry. Go to the car now. Luhan is smoking up back so he’ll come after he finishes.” Baekyoung urged Chen onward and he nodded, following the older boy’s orders and making his way to the second car that was white.   Baekyoung made his way to the red car, going to the driver’s wheel, seeing Baekhyun in the passengers seat. His face was wrapped in the scarf he was given earlier and Baekyoung smiled softly at how cute his brother was. “Sleeping or crying?” He asked Baekhyun casually and the only thing that came as a reply was a sniffle. Baekyoung nodded in understanding before looking onto the road. “Arasso. I’ll tell Kai you’re sleeping.” Baekyoung said and another sniffle sounded, Baekhyun turning away to face the window just in time to hear a thud.   THUD!   “HYUNG!” Baekyoung looked at Baekhyuns side of the car and there was a zombie looking at them, its eyes filled with blood and its mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. The zombie who was looking at them seemed to smile at them for a moment before hitting its head against the glass, its intention trying to break it. “Damnnit!” Kai had come into the car in the backseat suddenly and the moment he closed the door Baekyoung locked it, his legs pressing against the accelerator. His eyes widened when he saw the sudden heaps of zombies coming out of the buildings, their arms failing when they saw the moving car. Before they knew it, the car was chased and Baekhyun was stuck in his seat, fear written in his eyes. A zombie was on the hood of the car and Baekyoung could see from the side mirrors that they were running after them. “Why are there so many?” Baekyoung asked, making a swift turn, knocking a few zombies who gave a squeal and he muttered a “Sorry…” under his breath when he saw the zombies were a couple of 7 year old kids. “The church bell rang, its 6 o’clock and it rings on a daily basis every 6 in the morning and evening. When it rang just now, the zombies must have heard it so they went out of where ever THE HELL THEY WERE HIDING!” Kai ‘s voice turned into a yell when a zombie hung his head from the roof and was looking down at him its tongue lolling out, trying to knock his head against the glass over and over again. Baekyoung who saw what was happening, turned the car once more throwing the zombie off the roof of the car, his hands quickly changing gears. “Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah.” Kai said, holding the seat. “Where on earth did you learn how to drive like that?” He asked, his fingers digging into the cloth as the car zoomed forward with immense speed. “Did you always think that I was good, Kai?” Baekyoung asked, looking into the front mirror at Kai, an unfamiliar smile on the older boys face. All Kai did was his lips and kept quiet since he felt like vomiting.   While all that was happening, Car 2 members had did what Kai did. Run into the car and Luhan who was in the front seat, locked the door before laughing. Chen and Tao looked at each other not understanding why their driver was laughing but Luhan, different from Baekyoung, saw this as a game. The boy’s hands played with the manual gears of the car, making the sound louder and louder every second. The zombies surrounded the unmoving car and when Luhan thought that it was enough zombies trying to break in, he chuckled happily. “Zombie, zombie pancake. Who’s hungry, guys?” He asked the two in the back who were huddling against each other before he let out a “Yaaaaaaaaaahooooooo!” and stepped on it. The car zoomed forward and the path was cleared while Luhan was having a good time turning the car around and around making the street red and maroon from the dead bodies and beheaded creatures.   “Luhan hyung, let’s just go!” Tao said and Luhan smiled at the boy in the back seat. “Say, are any of you a fan of fast and furious?” He asked and Tao and Chen froze in their seats, their hands hurriedly reaching for the safety belts when Luhan slammed down on the accelerator laughing. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The two at the back bellowed out, their voices turning into a high pitched accapella.   __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   The two cars sped down the street, the first car driven by a serious Baekyoung and the second driven by a happy Luhan who thought it was great he was able to bake some pancakes by zombie blood. He, again, kept on whistling and Chen was just looking out of the window, once again going silent. Meanwhile, Tao was whining to himself at how his I-phone camera was broken. The boy let out a sigh and leaned on the seat. “We don’t have any signal anyway to post things on social media, why take pictures?” Chen asked Tao who was pouting big time. “Hobby.” Tao answered. He told himself to ask Kai for help after they finish whatever they were doing. There were two things he was lived for, street fighting and photo taking. If they could not street fight with fists (obviously, they would get bitten) then he could at least take pictures. “What’s wrong with your camera? Let me see.” Chen said, taking Tao’s phone that was handed to him and he squinted. “The screen turns black whenever I press onto the camera app.” Tao answered, now fully focused on Chen, praying that Chen knew how to fix his phone. “Oh, so the glass didn’t break or anything right?” “Nope.”   Chen fiddled with the I-phone in his ha