It has been about three weeks since both of our groups started to get closer, so we normally stay at the camp and try to hunt for food. I put the emphasis on trying, the only person that was actually good at hunting was Noah. It was nice, for a while we forgot that the world has ended, it's nice to just be reckless teenagers again.
I've grown close to a select few, Seungmin and I were somewhat close if we weren't bickering and I was close with Liam. I got on with Junsu but not really Noah, probably due to the age gap. George doesn't talk much, he likes Sammy though and often plays with him. Currently, Liam, Olivia and I were taking a walk to the stream to collect water, "Ughh it's so far" Olivia whined. "We're nearly there," Liam replies back. We start collecting water in bottles and anything that could hold water then I hear a screech "Ahhh!" Olivia shouts, flailing her arms around. I turn around and see Olivia has slipped on wet rocks at the water's end and carelessly and recklessly cut open her knee, it looked deep. "Are you okay?" I question Olivia "I think so," Olivia says with tears in her eyes. "Let's get back to camp," I tell her and Liam and I help walk her downhill.
It's been about three days now and Olivia's knee has gotten infected. "Do you have any medicine?" Eve asks Junsu. Junsu shakes his head no "They used everything to treat the kids that got bitten, they didn't know it would be in vain". "We have to do something, is there not a pharmacy in the town situated around here," I ask. "The thing is, that town is really far away, we're completely detached from it, it's at least a few hours drive from here. How would they get there also, and we don't know what kind of danger lurks there." Seungmin explains with those piercing green eyes staring into mine.
"We brought a car down with us and parked it near the Ranger's station, we could use that if you guys know where it is" I suggested. "That might work, but who would go?" Liam asks. I look around at everyone, I knew this wouldn't end well we have all become so adjusted and cozy in our own little world separate from those flesh-eating freaks no one wanted to leave, I look at everyone one by one, Junsu stared at the floor, Noah only looked at George who was reading his comics, Liam looked at me as did Seungmin. I knew I'd regret this so much, I gave in "I'll go" I sigh. "I'll go with you, I know how to drive," Seungmin said blankly. I nod in approval. "I'll go too" Liam reassures with a small smile. "Me three" Eve replies. With that our mission started.
We had packed small items, a few water bottles, some knives we knew we didn't need too much as if everything went well we'd be back at the end of the day. Everyone was now ready and I found myself staring at Sammy. I didn't feel comfortable leaving him here and I knew it would be unsafe and a liability to take him with us. "He'll be fine, he's got Sophia and George to take care of him. You'll see him soon" Eve smiled at me.
We started to make our way back to the ranger's station and found our Honda which had been left to grow dust. Liam was driving, Seungmin was in the passenger's seat, Eve and I were in that back. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Liam breaks it "So, now we're all cozy this seems like a good chance to get to know you girls more" He said with a grin. "What do you want to know?" Eve asks. "Uh... Favorite color?" Liam questions with his eyebrow raised "Mines probably yellow" Eve stated. "Mine's orange" Liam beams "... Rina what about you?" "Uh... Probably blue" I shrug. "It's your turn now Seungmin" Liam laughs, Seungmin only rolled his eyes "I guess... Green". This goes on for some time, with the occasional pause, I learned Seungmin is claustrophobic and Liam hates bugs. It was nice having a normal conversation.
We see the town's name on a passing sign Welcome to Towing. What a dumb name I think to myself. As we pass in the car we are welcomed with a road covered in either toppled over cars or cars blatantly blocking the road and some groups of zombies. We get out of the car as we are getting nowhere quick. Eve and I walk closely behind Liam and Seungmin. "Do you know where the pharmacy is?" I question. "Yeah... I think so" Seungmin responds. We slowly creep around the desolate streets avoiding the scarce zombie. This is bazar? Surely this place would be swamped with zombies or having a least a little more than this, it was almost entirely empty. Something didn't feel right.
"This doesn't feel right guys, there should be more zombies floating around," I say concerned. "You're really complaining about a lack of zombies? Be grateful we don't have to deal with them, Rina. And it's sick people!" Eve responds. Paranoid again Rina. The atmosphere is tense, I was sure I wasn't the only one to feel it because Seungmin turned back at me nervously.
We made our way to the pharmacy and walk-in. The place is a mess, there are pills all over the floor, papers scattered, not to mention blood everywhere and bullet holes in the walls. It had an eerie atmosphere clouding it. "Look for antibiotics," Seungmin tells us.
I started to look through the shelves, I found the painkillers along with cough medicine, yup that seems useful. I shrug and place it in my bag. "I found some antibiotics" Eve cheers from the next few isles down. "Great now let's leave, I have a really bad feeling about this place..." Just as we are about to leave the pharmacy we freeze in our spots.
"Did you hear something? It sounded like people?" A murmured voice asks. We are all stuck in a trance, the sound of their footsteps on the wet cobble gets closer. "We need to hide now!" I whisper. We all silently sprint across the pharmacy trying to find a safe spot to hide. Liam and Eve sprinted to the back room of the pharmacy, there's no way I can make it. I frantically look around hearing the voices get closer, Seungmin waves at me from behind the counter and ushers me to come. I rush over and we both take cover underneath the counter and huddle together, not daring to breathe. Ding! The bell chimes signaling that the voices have entered.
"You sure you heard voices? Looks like no one has been here since the outbreak" A low, rough voice speaks. It gives some sort of indication that the voice belongs to a man. "I thought I did, we should head back now. It's almost feasting time" another voice replies, also sounding like a man. Feasting time? Hearing these words makes a shiver go down my spine, it sounds so menacing and vile.
We hear footsteps get closer and closer to the counter, I place my hand over my mouth not wanting any noise to escape. I look over at Seungmin wide-eyed as the footsteps emerge in front of us, we can only see the shoes of the man. The shoes are hiking boots covered in mud and what looks to be a dark dried brown substance, the man is about a meter away yet a putrid stench follows him. He smells like death. After a minute he slowly starts to walk away and we hear the blessed sound of the bell dinging that they have gone.
It's been about five minutes since those two unknown men have exited the pharmacy. Seungmin and I have been just staring at each other in the eye for the last minute. Eve and Liam come out from the backroom, "What happened?" Eve asks. "Nothing, they came and left," I say with a slight shiver. "Good, let's follow them" Liam speaks up. "What? Are you kidding me? They could be dangerous, why do you want to follow them?" I am startled by this sudden ludicrous comment.
"They could be part of a colony, Rina. They could help us and if they are a part of a community let us in" Liam explains. "No. I have a bad feeling about this. Let's go home, we have everything we came for. Let's leave while we still can" I say in a panic, there's a pit in the bottom of my stomach telling me we must leave now. "We can follow them discreetly if we follow them and there's nothing or there's anything dangerous then let's bail and go home" Liam states. "NO! Let's go home" I argue sternly. "Don't argue, let's follow them for a little while, but if it gets dark we head back?" Seungmin says. "Fine" I roll my eyes, they have probably been gone, out of sight by now.
One by one we carefully exit the building, lucky us we can see two figures off in the distance walking on the road. We all start to follow them going behind buildings to make it discreet and subtle. I can't even deal with this stupidity right now. It's been about thirty minutes of us being "incognito" and following the two men, they have entered what looks to be a.. Prison? The building is colossal and in the center of a large patch of land. Surrounding the building is a tall fence coiled in barbed wire.
"Now can we go home?" I whisper to the group. "They went inside". "Wait here," Seungmin says. "What? No, Seungmin comes back" I say as he quickly dashes to the fence. "Ugh! I'm going after him, stay here both of you!" I say to Liam and Eve. I hurriedly catch up to Seungmin who is crouching behind a bush behind the fence. "What are you doing here, Rina? Never mind just stay close" Seungmin commands. This irritates me for some reason, I don't like being told what to do. "Don't tell me what to do" I roll my eyes. I dash around the back of the building sheltering myself with the bushes, Seungmin follows. I peak my head up and duck quickly, "Get down! I silently yell at Seungmin.
There's a courtyard and what looks to be around thirty people. I peak my head up slightly so it isn't seen, Seungmin does the same. There are about ten people with their hands tied behind their backs and kneeling on the ground. "What the hell is going on?" I ask Seungmin and I'm met with a confused shrug. Outcomes from the door is a large man, he looks very intimidating, his features include his rough beard and stern hard face.
He walks up to the people who are on the ground and grabs a machete from another man. "Is he going to kill them?" Seungmin asks worriedly. Oh no. The man walks up to the first person in the line and points his machete at him. "P-Please! Don't kill me! I'll do anything. Please!" The scared young man pleads. "Ahaha" The wicked man laughs deeply. "Don't worry, you won't go to waste." He smiles evilly. "What-What?" The scared man asks with widened eyes. "We're going to feast on you. Don't you get it? We are going to fucking eat you!" The man says with a thick evil laugh and crooked smile.
I look over at Seungmin with horror, he meets me with the same expression. He signals to go and we start to crawl around the bushes, we start to sprint as we hear the shrieks and cries of all of those people being sliced up being butchered for consumption. Tears stain my cheeks silently, we somehow make it behind the tree area where Liam and Eve were. They aren't there. "They're gone!" I start to panic through my tears. "Don't panic! Look there's a herd over there, they must have run away from it and went to the car!" Seungmin says. I look over to where he pointed and a huge herd of zombies emerges on the road. "Oh my God! Seungmin, we need to get out of here, now!" I say, my voice cracked from my crying.
Seungmin and I are currently running through the woods as fast as we can, brushing past bushes and thorns. It has started to rain quite heavy, I suppose it's some sort of fuck you from the universe. "Where are we going, Seungmin?" I ask. "Let's try to go through this forest and just get to the car" He replies, "We don't know where this forest leads!" I state shakily through the rain running down my face. "We don't have a choice, Rina! Didn't you see the herd!" and with that, I decided to be quiet.
It's been an hour of both of us just running aimlessly through this dense woods. I look up at the sky, it's starting to get dark. "Seungmin, what now? It's pretty dark now, do we keep going" I ask, "I don't know? Do you think if Eve and Liam got to the car they'd wait?" He asks me and looks straight into my eyes. For a minute I struggle to muster a reply and squirm under those piercing green eyes. "Eve wouldn't leave, if she sees that herd she might leave but I think she would wait for as long as possible," I say. "Let's keep walking, there's not much we can do anyway" Seungmin states.
Somehow the forest has gotten denser and in the distance, I spot a caravan. "Seungmin! Look there's a caravan over there" "Where?" He asks confused. I unknowingly take Seungmin's hand and lead him to the caravan, I turn around as Seungmin has gotten quiet. He looks at me and then our hands smiling slightly but not much,
I realized what I had done and dropped my hand. I can feel my face heat up "Sorry..." I apologize to him for being embarrassed. I feel so stupid, I've probably made him uncomfortable. "It's fine, it's dark now so I need a guide" He laughs with a slight smirk.
He takes my hand in his and we approach the caravan. We both take out our knives, Seungmin kicks open the rusty caravan's door and goes in. I quickly follow him. It smells terrible in here, I scrunch my nose up. We look around the place, there's a tiny kitchenette, a small table, and a convertible bed/sofa. We are less tense as we don't find anyone or anything in here. Seungmin starts to rummage through the cabinets, I spot a small door and turn the handle. It looks stuck. I'm starting to get frustrated and keep shifting the doorknob, it finally opens. I'm horrified. "Oh my god!" I yell. A dead, decaying body falls to the ground, I quickly step away from it just in time. It collapses, Seungmin has rushed over. "It's a real dead body, it's not a zombie," I tell him blankly.
We struggled to drag the body from the bathroom to outside, we dragged it away from the caravan and headed back to the caravan. "Did you find anything in the cupboards?" I ask Seungmin. "Some tinned food, but not much." I look around the caravan more and find a small chest of drawers that Seungmin hasn't checked, I sit down and open the drawers. Inside are just some old DVDs. I sigh and shut the drawer. "Let's go" I start to get up. "Wait a minute. Let's stay the night here, it's too dark outside to keep moving, we can't even see anything..." Seungmin is right, it's no use trying to travel now, and I still feel uncomfortable sleeping in a dead man's caravan.
We are both sitting on the convertible bed, I am just staring at my shoes in a daze. "So Rina, We don't know much about each other, maybe we should change that? I have a feeling we won't be parting ways any time soon" Seungmin says with a sweet smile. "Okay" I turn around to face him. "Tell me about your family," He asks me.
"Uhm... I have an older sister Charlotte, we weren't close at all. She didn't live with us. She was older and had her own house. I have a Mum and that's pretty much it." I trail off. "What about your Dad?" Seungmin asks curiously. "I-I... He was in prison" I sigh. "We haven't spoken in years." "Oh, I'm sorry for asking" Seungmin apologizes.
"It's fine he wasn't a good person". "Do you mind me asking what he was in for? You don't need to answer..." "He tried to murder my mother and me" Seungmin is silent, I can tell he doesn't know what to say. "He was violent towards us, even Sammy. I used to rebel a lot and be defiant, he had enough of me always trying to protect my mother and Sammy, he took out a knife one day in our argument and tried to stab me. My mother couldn't get him off me and she ended up getting stabbed. I called the police and knocked him out with a glass vase. He got five years due to his record of repeated violence against us"
"I guess that's why I'm so protective and close with my cat, it sounds stupid but he was always there for me, my only light in the darkness" I look over at Seungmin with concern, he must think I'm a psycho now. He only smiles at me, he takes my hand in his and gives it a small squeeze. Tears threaten to spill for my eyes and he hugs me. I close my eyes and cry silently, and listen to the rain hitting the tin roof of the caravan.