Trigger ↬ [ P.JS ]

Chapter 24:

Astrid was breathing heavily as she clumsily dragged open the zipper of her backpack. She was running. They were running. The road they were taking was inhabited by a lot more zombies than they thought. She handed Hwayoung to Jeno when the chase started, she's sure that he can handle her.

They've lost track of where they were supposed to go. Now they're just running in random directions and they've abandoned the original trail.

"Oh my god!? Where the fuck is that gun!?" she shouted, frustrated, as she dug into the bag. She was currently at the front, running a little faster than everyone else. "I swear to the fucking go-" she grabbed the handle of the firearm.

She smiled victoriously, but the grin soon went away when she remembered that it can possibly be out of bullets. "Shit." she aimed to a zombie, trying test if her guess was right. She slowed down her running a bit and she pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

"Dumbass! Do you even know how to use a gun!?" Donghyuck yelled at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to a faster pace. "You're so dumb, I hope you know that!" he ran faster.

"Do I look like an experienced gun shooter to you, Donghyuck Lee? Fuck off!" she responded, matching her speed with his.

Jaemin saw what Astrid was holding so he swiftly stole the handgun from her, checked if it has bullets, it does, he clicked his tongue and reloaded, pulling the slide, and aiming for a zombie, just like what Astrid did earlier. He pulled the trigger, it was followed by a loud bang.

He saw the zombie laying still on the floor.

"You're going to attract more zombies with that fucking pistol! Let's just find better weapons for whoever's sake!" Mark pushed Jaemin's back, urging him to run faster.

"We don't even know where we are!" Renjun finally spoke after ages.

"There! A store of some sort! Run!" Jisung pointed at an abandoned convenience store. "Why are we so dumb anyways? We didn't even think of weapons!" he huffed out air.

They were running for about 5-10 minutes now, they don't know the exact time. Exhausting, that's what it felt like. This hoard was surprisingly fast. They guessed that there's different types of zombies because the virus affected them all differently. Some of them were fast, some of them just walks.

Wait, is that why they're called walkers? It's a name of a specific type then! I was using it in the wrong context the whole time. Jaemin narrowed his eyes at the realization. He continued running until he reached the glass door of the store. Since he was on the last row of the chase, he was also the last one to enter.

Tired, they all tried to catch their breath, some leaning down, some chugging the remaining water they had.

"This was the convenience store- I-" Jisung tried to tell something but his heavy breathing didn't let him. "This-" he gestured to the store, still catching his breath.

"Shut the hell up and drink this." Chenle chucked him a bottle of water. He saw how he struggled to speak and he didn't want to laugh at his face. "You talk too much."

Mark held a surprised look, well- not just him but everyone else, except Astrid and Hwayoung. "Woah, you're interacting. I was used to you guys just, like, maybe, scowling at each other. Dude! You made u-" his mouth was blocked by Rina.

She shushed him and she pointed to the aisles of the store. "There's plenty of them here." she whispered, knowing that they're attracted to noise.

Astrid immediately looked around for a potential weapon, and she also gestured the others to do so. She lightened her footsteps and she peeked over to every corner possible.

She found a metal rod. What's with me and metal rods? She scoffed in amusement. As she bent over to pick it up, she sensed motion behind her. "Oh shit." she cursed. She hurriedly grabbed the metal rod and swiftly turned around, aiming the rod to the head of the supposed creature.

The zombie swayed because of the impact, but it barely was affected. She hit it violently again, and again, and again, and again, until it was on the ground motionless. She raised the metal once more and grunted as she smacked it one last time.

"Do you have anger issues or something?"

Astrid looked up and found Donghyuck tossing around a baseball bat. "You could say that," she shrugged. "Pent up anger, I guess." she laughed quietly and walked over to the others.

Donghyuck furrowed his brows and thought for a while. "She is absolutely crazy." he chuckled and followed her.

Jeno was handling Hwayoung so he felt a huge weight of responsibility heaving on his shoulder. He held a rock with one hand and Hwayoung on the other. "These creatures are so ugly." he made a face out of disgust and continued to destroy a zombie's already messed up head.

One good thing about zombies, they didn't fight back though they just aimed to bite and eat human flesh. Their thoughts didn't process anymore and it's more of like a fog and unclear visions up there.

After "killing" all the zombies in the store, which is pretty ironic since the zombies are treated like diseased already, they gathered again and attempted to get rest.

They need to continue their travel and head over to the nearest airport to get to South Korea. The journey was of course, halted by the zombie chase, leading them to another road in which, it may even delay their time goal.

"Get all the useful stuff in here. We need to go." Mark sighed, closing his eyes and nibbling on his lower lip, feeling sorry for the others. They needed rest but they also need to go and they need to be quick.

Rina almost cried in frustration when she heard Hayoon whine quietly for the umpteenth time. She knew that he was hungry but she didn't know how to feed him. There was no baby food left and he didn't want water. Her arms felt incredibly sore after carrying him for so long, and even in the running, it was almost broken, well, it felt like it was already.

She desperately ran through the aisles, looking for food that Hayoon can eat. Rina has never felt more guilty about not being able to feed a child.

"Here! Rina! There's baby food." Jeno pointed at a certain section.

Before he can finish what he was saying, he already saw Rina sprinting to him, looking very stressed. He saw how she was on the verge of crying earlier, he wanted to help but there's Hwayoung already on his care.

"Let's stay here for a little while. I'll check the route for any possible roads that'll lead to airports."