Last Steps // Kim Seokjin

• 8 old friend •

☽ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ ☾

ᴏʟᴅ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ

*𝐒𝐄𝐎𝐊𝐉𝐈𝐍'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕*

By leaving earlier this morning, we arrived in Suwon before the night. We exited the forest and were now walking in the streets of Suwon. It was much different from Seoul, there weren't as much as high buildings as in the capital, and some were almost intact, but it wasn't for the most.

Namsu was talking and exploring, she was amazed by every little thing, as I was worried about the zombies wandering in the town.

And just like I feared, we came across one slammer. I kneeled down, hiding behind a broken house, tugging the girl who hadn't noticed it yet with me. "Hush." Fortunately, it didn't hear us. "Follow me," I whispered to her as we passed in front of it without noise, since they were blind, it was our chance to avoid a fight.

Then we started to walk past the street, entering a few houses to search for things we might need.

I had to find my old friend but I had no idea where he was. Last I heard of him he had taken refuge in this city, and I hoped he still was.

We entered what looked like a library. Some books were ripped on the floor and a layer of dust prevented us from seeing most of the titles.

Namsu coughed. "This place is picturesque."

We exited it and I found an arc with some arrows.

"Give it to me, I know how to handle bows."

"I'm taking the weapons," I said while hanging them to the side of my big backpack. I didn't trust the kid with weapons. She just sighed, annoyed, clearly keeping her remarks on the tip of her tongue, swallowing them back.

We continued to search carefully through the town, taking the food left in the houses and some weapons we found on the way. I was finally able to reload my gun, I was almost out of bullets. But the more we walked the more I was worried about my friend being gone. Or dead. But knowing him, he was more likely to be gone.

Namsu silently followed me behind and I felt like she wanted to say something, but didn't dare to. I decided to just ignore it. After a few more minutes, she opened her mouth as I predicted her to.

"Jin?"

"Huh?" I was already annoyed.

"Um... Are you... Are you okay?"

I stopped. This was sudden, I didn't expect her to ask me that. I thought she didn't care. It must be out of politeness, huh? To answer her question, no, I was not okay. Why would I be? There was absolutely nothing that was going fine. Nothing. "I'm fine," I lied, without looking behind, and began to walk again. We had to hurry before night falls.

"No, I mean. Are you really ok- You know what, never mind." She just articulated before starting to walk faster, passing by me, not being afraid to lead the way.

She was so... careless, reckless, and unconscious. This world was so dangerous, it was almost like it was a game for her. She was maybe immune, not unwavering or immortal. I didn't even know why I was involved in this child's life and why she was in mine, all I knew was that I didn't like this.

Suddenly she stopped and looked up, her eyes rounded in full wonder which made them shine. She pointed at the top of a roof with her finger. "Wooooow, Jin!!"

I looked in that direction and I, myself, got caught up. It was a magpie... 

They used to be gone. Magpies were gone and this was the first time I saw one in such a long time, actually, I hadn't seen one since before the pandemic began.