do or die | yang jungwon

stage 11: loss of life

THERE HAD BEEN A LOT OF MOMENTS WHEN BAE NARI HAS WANTED TO JUST CURSE OUT THE UNIVERSE THESE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS. the first time was when riki had shoved his way in front of her in the convenience store this morning (indirectly leading to the near disappearance of her chicken). the second time had been when haruto insisted on confronting the local asshole gwi-nam. the third time had been when she was face to face with the first zombie. 

she could go on and on but her present situation forced her to keep her anger locked away deep inside her soul. of course, the moment that nari had thought that there weren't all that many zombies on the third floor, the universe seemed to be hellbent on proving her wrong.

'oh you think there's not that many zombies? i'll give you zombies, sucker!'

nari, whenever she finally died, had to have a word with god. many words, really. in fact, she had a whole dictionary of words she could recite to god right about now. not many of them would let her stay in heaven though.

she takes a deep breath as she reassesses the situation. the zombies clearly had only begun crawling their way up from whichever disgusting fiery pit they had managed to stay hidden in thus far. which meant that nari had all of three minutes to make sure that their ragtag team of seven (soon to be eight!) people made it into the broadcasting room safely. 

one of the second years suddenly clears his throat, being tall enough to see over nari's head and watch the zombies with her.

"dani and i will go first," he volunteers, to which nari and riki simultaneously vehemently protest.

"the fuck? no you're not!" riki says, stepping forward that he was covering hyewon and dani in one big movement. 

"no. i will. i'm the only one who knows the combination for the broadcasting room and dani's the only one who can help hyewon once we're in there. nari needs to make sure that the rest of us make it in and she's also the only one that can really fight a zombie if it comes down to it," hwisan says, a fire in his eyes that nari doesn't remember seeing before.

"oh fuck no," hyewon says, wincing as she tries to gather her bearings. "i'm not letting you idiots put yourself in danger for me right now. i've been in pain this entire time and unfortunately, i'm only dragging you guys behind."

"shut up. all of you," nari hisses, her voice dangerously low. "i suggest that none of you start getting any crazy ideas about martyrdom. i promise you, if you have any ideas like that, i will be the first one to bury you alive."

"now. there's no reason for one person to go at a time. as soon as i open this door, you just run straight, you hear me? don't look back. don't do anything stupid. as soon as hwisan gets that door open, you run inside. hyewon, you stay with me."

the second years look at each other uneasily before nodding, all of them crouching down, hwisan (the second year who knew the code to the broadcating room) and getting ready to burst into a frantic run as soon as the person in front of them did. 

woohyun brings up the rear of the train, riki having moved forward ever so slightly to cross dani on hyewon's other side, both of them holding onto either side of her so that they could keep her moving when the zombies eventually did hear them.

hyewon's breathing is unsteady as she tries to intake as much oxygen as possible, feeling as though the walls were caving in on her as they were facing their impending doom. there's a pain in her abdomen unlike anything she has felt thus far - it felt as though her body was almost rejecting the presence of another life inside her and was retaliating against her in this very moment. dani notices and presses her warmth into the side of hyewon's body, trying to convey some sort of sense of security to her suffering classmate when nari is finally nodding.