unlikely allies

five

it was cold.

that much was obvious. from the way the wind blew past awkwardly through the room to the way you saw beomgyu try to hide his slight shivers from everyone. it felt like one of those western movies where the tumbleweeds would blow past in the middle of a fight scene.

it was so cold, in fact, that you had to will yourself not to shiver. how was it so cold? sure, it was the middle of fall but the temperature was normally set to drop around the late hours of the day. perhaps the temperature of the school had dropped since this all happened. the lights were all down, who's to say the thermostat hadn't gone busted too?

it's not like any of you had a watch or working clock readily available but you swear it had to be around 4pm now.

perhaps it was the vacancy of the once full library. all it's previously alive students now undead creatures feeding off live flesh.

putting it into perspective made you sulk. not visibly, no. there was already enough despair bellowing within the vicinity of the school for that.

had you all really been hightailing it from zombies for this long? something that felt like hours had only just begun. everything about this situation just felt hopeless.

"oh my god, no way." speaks the new person in the room. the silence that was lingering in the room was now broken. for some reason, a part of you wanted it back.

of course, you were elated to find out that someone had miraculously survived just as long as you all, however the 10 seconds of silence felt nice. much needed almost.

although the silence was accompanied by the grotesque moans of the zombies just outside the door directly behind you. on second thought, maybe you could go without another beat of

silence.

with that, you breathe heavily as you watch the boy from earlier drop to his knees and scramble over to taehyun. taehyun, who was absolutely exhausted after just having to deal with the hoard, scrambles backward in response, not recognizing the boy at first glance.

the boy had way too much blood on his face for him to be even slightly recognizable to anyone in the room. if it wasn't for the fact that he was walking normally and not limping or groaning and moaning like a zombie you would've thought him to be one.

the boy, realizing the hesitance, tries to wipe his face as best he can, just to let his most important features be seen.

"w-who- wait...h-hueningkai?" taehyun exhales in what you believe to be a mixture of both disbelief and relief.

the boy, who's now identifiable as "hueningkai", smiles widely, the first genuine massive smile you've seen today, and lurches himself forward to embrace taehyun in a dramatic hug.

it's reminiscent of one of those "theatrical movie hugs" in which someone embraces someone so hard that they fall back. they both fall back on the floor with an "oof". you all watch in confusion and a little bit of disbelief, similarly to taehyun. someone was alive? someone actually managed to survive here all this time without getting bitten.

it feels almost unreal. there was absolutely no way in hell. you all barely made it here alive let alone in one piece.

you find yourself chuckling lowly then laughing hysterically and everyone turns to you. hueningkai and taehyun stop admiring each other's existence to gaze at you with weird looks. slightly judgmental, you notice.

you don't realize you're crying until a teardrop lands on your hand. you sniffle and wipe your grubby face. it doesn't do much but make your tears dark with dirt, thus smudging your already dirty face. we actually found someone. you could've sworn it's been hours since you last saw someone alive who wasn't in your current group.