Chapter Text
They try to run with their numb feet combined with the soles of their shoes. It’s getting darker and the hallways are creating more noise than usual. It was as if every stomp of their feet corresponds with how eerie the night becomes. Donghyuck halts. “Don’t move” He whispers in his shaky breath.
Donghyuck holds firmly on his tennis racket. His hands shaking from fear. He leads the way as silently as he inhales the air. Chenle follows through, he clasps the long knife made from a cutter and a meter stick tightly. The stench of dried oxygenated blood smells a little familiar and scary, it smells like a usual anatomy class but with their bodies on the table and not a cadaver.
Suddenly, they hear the frequent noise they are trying to hide from and Jaemin shouts. “LEE DONGHYUCK, RUN!”
With no time to think, Donghyuck scampers and the rampage of the undead comes surging through the third-floor stairs. They are getting tired but they are not willing to die. “Here!” Jeno leads the way with his agile steps and stabs the incoming bloodied undead with a knife he got from the cafeteria. “Run to the fourth floor!” Jeno continues as he rushes towards the undead who’s trying to climb over Chenle’s body.
Jaemin pulls Chenle away from it and pushed him towards Donghyuck. “Aeri!” Jaemin runs towards her and pulls her by her collar. “Run!” Jaemin screams as he continuously drills the skull of the undead with his bat.
“Jaemin!” Jeno signals to run and Jaemin abandons the undead. “They’re not getting any lesser, fucking shit.” Jeno hisses. He pulls the tables decorating the hallway and pushes it.
“There are more here!” Aeri screams as she tries to plow the undead in front of her.
“We’re so fucked” Donghyuck says, losing hope.
Donghyuck is being pushed to the window as he tries to fight back. “Help! Fuck!” He grits his teeth, he’s getting more tired but all of a sudden, it stops coming on to him and started sliding down the floor.
“Get down!” A guy with a bow and arrow starts to shoot at them. “Mark! Two there!” The guy points. They are from the fourth floor, they have clean clothes, and one of them even smells like fresh oranges.
They climb down with their big bows and started shooting each undead they can see around them. “Climb to the fourth floor it’s safe there.” The guy named Mark pulls Donghyuck from the window and slightly pushes him to the stairs. “Run to the fourth floor!” He shouts as they keep shooting.
Jeno throws the undead away from his body and grabs Aeri. “Let’s go!”
Jaemin runs with Chenle but did not fail to take a glance at the smaller guy who’s been shooting smoothly with his eyes focused as if he’s only battling in a tournament and not eliminating undead that is human-thirsty.
“Fuck! How many did those assholes manage to invite in our dorm?”
“Ya… Ya… We better run too!” Mark says. They run to the fourth floor and barricaded the last remaining hole they opened earlier with the tables from the supply room. “Look at this motherfucker’s hand trying to get in,” Mark says. “Hey! Pass me your knife!” Chenle hands over his knife and let mark cut the hands.
“Are you dissecting or what?” The small guy asks looking so done,
“Most likely.” Mark chuckles as he looks at the hand slowly turning black.
The small guy shakes his head and proceeds to walk ahead. “Follow me.”
“Why do you look so cleaned and how did you barricade the stairs?” Chenle asks as he wipes his knife on the wall.
“Our building is the last one to get infected. We were ready.” Mark explains.
“How about the ones living here? There was no one when we got inside.”
“Some of them tried to flee but they were too late.” The small guy says. “The ones attacking you downstairs are all tenants here.”
“Who are you?” Jaemin asks.
“Huang Renjun.” He says. He swipes a key card on the door and looks at them. “Get in. There’s food and a change of clothes inside.”
They enter the room and see two more people inside. “Get the water ready, Jisung-ah,” Renjun says as he closes the door and barricades it with a chair. “That’s Minjeong and Jisung. They’re also athletes.”
They settle on sitting on the floor. The sheets look too clean for their bloodied clothes. “We haven’t introduced ourselves,” Jeno starts.
“I’m Jeno, and that’s Aeri, we’re both swimmers.”
“Jaemin, I’m on the baseball team.”
“Lee Donghyuck. I play tennis.”
“Chenle. I’m in the fencing team.”
Renjun nods his head. Jisung hands him a basin of water and towels and he starts to wet it. “We’ve been notified first that there’s a lockdown in the school.” He says as he passes the wet towels towards them.
“We?”
“He’s the head of the dormitory here.” Minjeong supplies.
“–But we didn’t know anything else. They just said to lock the doors and don’t go out. Humans being humans, fear got the best of all athletes here, they tried to escape– Hey, give me your hand.” Renjun says as he kneels in front of Jaemin. “Our faculty was the last one to know about it and before we can stop everyone from leaving, they just– Mark and I stayed and we rescued them two from the second floor.”
Renjun continues to wipe the blood from Jaemin’s hand and face. “You have a sprain.” He says to Jaemin. “Mark, he’s sprained.”
“How the hell is the fourth floor so cleaned?” Donghyuck asks as he removes his sweat-soaked jersey.
“The fourth floor is the usual place where all discarded file cabinets are stored, we used those to block the stairs and we got all of the bedposts from the other rooms too.”
“The two of you managed to do it?”
“There’s five of us here. The three of them went out to find food for all of us– but they never came back.”
“Maybe it took them–” Donghyuck tries to stay positive.
“The guy who’s pushing you to the window was Yangyang, Renjun’s cousin.” Mark interrupts. “He’s one of those who scavenged for food.”
Donghyuck eyes go wide. “You mean… you shot your cousin…”
“My cousin is dead. The minute they left that door we considered them dead. Just like any of us here right now. If any of you stray away from us, you’re considered dead.” Renjun nonchalantly says.
“It’s better to consider them dead than call them zombies,” Mark says as he finished wrapping Jaemin’s bondage.
Jeno roams his eyes around. The dormitory is big enough to fit them and all unnecessary things were probably taken out so they can have more space. Two beds and foams are lying around the whole room. “Why are there so many foams in here?” He asks.
Renjun follows his gaze. “Zombies…They can hear almost everything.”
“Are we safe here?” Aeri asks.
“For now, yeah. But we don’t know tomorrow. It’s only been a day.” Jisung rubs his face. The fear is seeping inside him. He’s supposed to be a freshman, not a survivor of an apocalypse.
They all became quiet.
“Anyway, we have food to help us last for at least two days, even three if we only eat once,” Renjun says. “I also keep bottles of water in my closet so we’ll have no problem in staying hydrated.”
“You’re too calm for this, ” Jaemin says in shock.
“It’s best to be calm so someone can think rationally.” Right. Someone needs to be calm for them to work efficiently.
“How did this shit even start?” Jeno groans as he closes his eyes. The tiredness from running all day and fighting every single undead they see ache his body one go.
“We were notified last 6 am for the lockdown. They said to keep all doors closed and the message was coming from the coach of the basketball team. But we didn’t know if it was official or the coach was just ahead of the announcement. And before our training started, we received a video from one of the dormitory heads of the basketball team and..” Renjun looked at Minjeong.
“My brother was in the video, Kim Jungwoo.”
Renjun nods his head. “Jungwoo is still alive. We had contact with him two hours ago and he said he’s safe in the dormitory with two more survivors. We plan to rescue them tomorrow–”
“Rescue?” Jaemin interrupts
“Out of all the athletes here, we’re the only ones who can kill directly. I won three nationals, you can trust me.”
“How? You only have four arrows left.” Jaemin points at his bows resting on the bed.
“The whole fourth floor is athletes for archery, did you think that those assholes don’t keep arrows inside their room? We have a hundred arrows under my bed. Minjeong and Jisung are also archers, especially Jisung. That brat is rich as hell, he keeps at least 100 hundred arrows inside his room.” Mark says and pulls out the bows under the bed. It is indeed a lot.
“Anyway, he sent the video and said it was the video he took before everything got worse. Jungwoo said he thinks the zombies started from one of the basketball players.” Renjun finishes.
“Are we all leaving tomorrow?” They all look at Aeri who’s already lying down on Renjun’s bed.
“We have to. The barricades on the stairs won’t keep us safe for days. Zombies have an extensive smell, they can probably smell a faint of us in the hallways.” Renjun gives them a small sad smile. “All of you need to rest. Mark and I will guard the door.”
“Thank you for saving us.”
“Someone has to.”
—
It’s midnight and Renjun is the only one awake. Mark has gone to sleep for an hour already. He wants to close his eyes but he can’t seem to properly rest them when there’s a possibility that the barricades they created in the stairs give up on them. He rests his head on the end of the bed where Jisung and Mark are sleeping.
They are all frowning in their sleep as if their sleep is filled with nightmares. It was a normal day, it was supposed to be a normal day. Yangyang and he even planned on going home after training so they can enjoy their week off, but zombies…?
“Hey” He turns around and sees Jaemin sitting beside the sleeping Minjeong. “I can guard the door, you can sleep here.”
“It’s okay.” Renjun smiles.
“Then I’ll keep you company.” Jaemin lets Minjeong hug the pillow he used to sleep on.
“Everything feels like a snap of a finger.”
Renjun nods. “Yangyang and I were supposed to visit our grandfather today. We have been planning to go home for weeks and now… he’s dead.”
Jaemin sighs. “We had an early run in the field and at first we thought one of our teammates was just sick but he started biting our coach. I knew I had to run, and I did. When I turned around, everyone was screaming my name, begging me to come back and save them– I couldn’t. I know they were becoming zombies, I grew up watching those kinds of movies. But the guilt..”
“Survivor’s guilt.” Renjun completes it for him. “Mark’s girlfriend died in front of him. Mark tried to save her but she jumped on the stairs and all we heard was her saying sorry. But you know what Mark said? He said that it will happen sooner or later and that it’s better to see her die than to see her get infected and roam around wanting to feed off of humans. If you think I’m too calm for this, you should have seen Mark.”
Jaemin chuckles. “Are archers always this confident in everything?”
“We–” Before Renjun can talk, a loud crash erupted. “Wake Up!” Renjun alerts them.
Jaemin rushes towards Jeno and shakes him up. “Jeno!”
“They’re here,” Renjun says to Mark. “We have to prepare to move.” Renjun wakes Minjeong up.
“What’s happening?” Donghyuck says. “Shit.” He curses as he sees the shadow of the undead peeping through the door.
“Just minimize your sounds,” Renjun instructs. “Is everyone here wearing the brand Saduo?” He asks in a hushed tone.
“Saduo? Like the shoe brand?” Jeno tries to clarify.
“Yes.”
Jaemin goes to look at the shoes they wore. He looks at each shoe and turns to Renjun. “Yeah. All shoes are from Saduo.”
“Why? What for?” Minjeong asks, getting even more scared as the loud footsteps come nearer.
“They don’t create a lot of noise when we walk or run on the cement. We will run once the sun rises.” Renjun says. “Mark grab all the tape and cardboard we got.”
Mark opens his wardrobe and grabs the things they need. “Jisung go wear your jacket. Minjeong, wear these sweats. All of us should stay warm.” Mark says.
Jeno covered his arms with tape, making sure it’s tight enough to not let the undead bite through them. Donghyuck puts a sock on his racket for it to have more friction and help him his faster. They are hastily preparing themselves, wearing clothes that don’t match and tapes all over their body.
But Renjun only wore a hoodie and his jacket. He was also wearing his sweats only. No protection to keep him safe from any bites.
“At least wear this.” Jaemin hands him a scarf and Renjun is about to deny but Jaemin already put the scarf around his neck. “You’ll die in hypothermia.”
“Will we ever survive?” Chenle asks as he puts on the sweatshirt Mark gave him.
“We have to. “ Renjun pats Chenle’s head. “Jaemin, is your hand okay?”
“I’m ambidextrous. I can use both of my hands.” Jaemin assures him.
“God. I can’t believe we got saved by them. They’re too prepared for everything.” Donghyuck says as he shakes his head, not believing anything that is happening.
“Minjeong,” Renjun hands Minjeong her own bow. “Aim at the neck or head.”
Mark comes out of the bathroom. “Each one of us should take at least a bag of full arrows.”
Renjun nods his head and pulls different colors of arrows contained in six bags. “Each bag has 40 arrows and it’s quite heavy but we need each of these arrows.”
Jaemin nods his head and grabs one bag. “How do I wear this?”
“We usually wear it around our waist but… Here, put it like this in your back. Like Hawkeye” Minjeong tightens the velcro around the arrows.
Donghyuck follows through and positions the arrow on his back.
“When things go wrong, don’t hesitate to use the arrows for stabbing, okay?” Mark suggests and Donghyucks nods his head.
“We have 10 minutes until the sun rises,” Jisung informs and with shaky hands, he wipes the forming beads of sweat from his forehead.
The fear is evident in their eyes, even Renjun feels like he’s going to die soon. As the loud thumping from the door increases, their heads are battling the anxiety inside, thinking if they still have the chance to get out of this room and go somewhere safe.
“See that thread?” Renjun started talking. “Mark will pull that thread to open the door and once the door opens, Jisung, Minjeong, Mark, and I will shoot them. Stay closed. Shout if you need help.”
There’s a string tied on the bed where Mark and Jisung slept and it is the only thing keeping them away from the undead. Once Mark pulls it, the door will open and there’s no barrier hiding them from the doom they have been trying to survive from.
“We’ll survive right?”
“We have to,” Mark says. “The sun is up. On your signal, Jun…”
Renjun prepares himself and grabs an arrow from his bag. He places the bow near his lips. “Now.”
And Mark opens it.
Four... No, five… Six…
There ’are too many of them and Renjun can’t even comprehend what’s happening when he shoots his first arrow and shoots Lee Yoojun on the head. “Shoot, Minjeong!”
“Aim for the head!” Mark says as he shoots them directly on the head.
Jisung jumps from the bed and aims at one of his friends. “Shin Saerom, you fucker!” Jisung shot him in the head.
Renjun shoots the last one standing at the door. “Move,” Renjun says as he jumps on the pile of dead bodies on their door. “We climb down on the other side. Stay closed.”
They begin to follow. Renjun and Minjeong lead the way and Mark and Jisung at the tail.
“Why are we climbing down here? This is where they got in…” Jeno asks in a whisper.
“Jisung!” Mark pulls Jisung behind him and stabs the undead with his arrow. “Watch out.”
Jisung gasps and slowly nods.
“Are you seeing this?” Jaemin says as he reaches the end of the stairs.
“We’re fucked.”