End of the World

Chapter 35

"Once upon a time," Nayeon smiles at Jihyun as she reads from a story book she found in one of the hospital rooms from the children's ward, "There lived an-"

"Idiot-"Jeongyeon stops when Jihyo smacks the back of her head.

Nayeon smirks, "named Jeongyeon."

Jihyo smacks the back of Nayeon's head this time.

Mina wants to kiss the pout off Nayeon's lips but stops herself. She's just a friend. And friends don't do that.

So she cuddles Jeongyeon instead.

"Nayeonnie," Aera flirts, "Your reading voice is so sexy."

Nayeon frowns when she sees Mina and Jeongyeon cuddled up. Mina apparently has no problem being physically affectionate with everyone except her.

Annoyed, and wanting to irk Mina who doesn't seem too fond of Aera for some reason, she flirts back, "I could read for you when you're in bed."

Aera opens and closes her mouth like a fish.

"Have you been working out?" Mina feels Jeongyeon's arms, paying no attention to Nayeon who's looking her way and draws lazy strokes up and down the skin with her dainty fingers, "Your muscles are showing!"

"So are their jealousy." Sana chuckles under her breath.

"You said my arms are strong." Nayeon stomps over to Mina and pulls her away from Jeongyeon.

Mina crosses her arms across her chest, "Hers are stronger."

"How would you know?" Nayeon steps closer to Mina whose face is flushed red in anger.

Mina's voice drip with sarcasm, "There are ways to find out!"

Jeongyeon doesn't miss the chance to annoy Nayeon, "I'll be more than willing to help you find out!" She wiggles her eyebrows at Mina.

"That's it!! You're fucking dead!" Nayeon tells Jeongyeon, and grabs her collar, but before they could enter another wrestling match, loud bangs and growls sound from behind the closed shutter.

They freeze.

Kyong steps away from the entrance, eyes wide in shock. "I thought we lost them."

"They must have followed the scent of our human flesh." Dahyun mutters, picking up Archie in her hands.

The shutter rattles loudly and one of the bolt flies off its hinges.

Mina steps closer to Nayeon.

Nayeon wraps a protective arm around her waist.

"The helicopter should be here in an hour. But the shutter would give in way before that." Chaeyoung whispers.

"We should get to the rooftop, that's the safest until the helicopter arrives." Nayeon announces.

"Putting ourselves out in the open is the safest?" The security guard scoffs.

Dahyun shakes her head, "It's going to rain soon."

"So?" He asks confused.

"We can all play in the rain." Momo explains to him with a wide grin on her face.

"That too." Nayeon pats Momo's shoulder.

Jihyo signals Sana to drag the security away to explain the lurkers' allergy to water.

They're on the second floor when the shutter gives in. Tzuyu locks the heavy metallic door to the stairs behind them.

Nayoen looks from the second floor at the main lobby which the lurkers are trying to infiltrate. But the shutter that protects the lobby prevents them from entering.

The sunlight coming from the dome above the lobby casts a pale light on the undead, who look crazed and absolutely livid, even more so than usual as they look up at the humans on the second floor .

"How are we getting to the rooftop?" Jihyo asks casting a wary glance at the lurkers. There must be around thirty of them in the security block they'd just left.

"The normal way to the rooftop is through the lift, but we cut off electricity and locked the stairs." The security explains. "That leaves us only one choice. I'll have to climb up this fire ladder and press the manual switch near the edge of the dome which will open it. One by one we'll have to climb up the ladder and crawl on to the ledge around the dome and get onto the rooftop."

"You'll have to be really careful. If you slip you'll fall straight into lobby." He warns.

The girls shudder. The lobby will soon be infested by the undead. Anyone falling will be torn from limb to limb and suffer a grueling death at the hands of them.

"Imagine that happening." Aera says in an unreadable tone.

A chill runs down Nayeon's spine at her words for some reason.

The security goes up first like he promised, and crawls up the opening and hops onto the rooftop.

They send Jihyun and Kyong next to safety because they're children.

"Minayah go next." Jihyo says.

Mina refuses because Nayeon is going last, and she's not leaving her behind.

Jihyo relucantly lets her be. In the end it's just Aera, Mina and Nayeon left on the second floor.

With every passing second the cold bodied lurkers are getting more livid. The shutter isn't going to hold for long.

"Minayah, please go up next." Nayeon tries.

"If you're going last, and you won't hear no, I'm going before you." Mina says with finality.

Nayeon sighs.

Aera starts to climb.

When she's almost at the top, Nayeon turns to look at Mina who's already looking at her with warm eyes.

"I need to tell you something." Mina whispers, interlacing their fingers and leaning up on her toes to leave a fluttering kiss on Nayeon's forehead. "But I won't say it now. Come up alive and safe and then I'll tell you."

Nayeon nods, squeezing her hands one last time before helping her up the ladder.

The next moments happen as if in slow motion.

Nayeon watches with bated breath as the younger girl climbs up the ladder.

Mina almost makes it to the top. Almost.

The zombies almost breaks the shutter. Almost.

Aera who's on the ledge steps on Mina's hands as if on accident.

Nayeon's heart stops, her breath catches and the entire world seems to come to a standstill as she watches Mina let go and fall to the lobby.

Mina's body falls through the long flowing curtains around the lobby that cushions her fall and she lands on one of the couch with a scream of pain.

The zombies let out a ear piercing growl from behind the shutter.

Nayeon knows, that in a matter of few seconds the shutter would give in.

In a matter of few seconds Mina would die. Right in front of her eyes.