daybreak.

2.

[Mom]: Jiminie, everything alright at your school? Are you safe? Why haven't I gotten a response?! [sent 6:25]

[mom]: Jiminnie, call me immediately when you see this!!! [sent 6:25]

Jimin hesitated over her texts for several moments before sending one message.

[Jimin]: Hey mom, everything's fine we're finding cover in one of the classrooms at school. How is everything back home? Jimin was scared shitless. Everything was not fine.

Incoming call... bzz bzz"Hi mom," he answered the phone in a shaky voice, "everything's good here..." She sighed loudly, "...Are you sure honey? You don't sound too confident."

"Mhmm, everything's fine, really, you can relax," he said. "I'll be back home when everything settles down.  Is dad home?"

"Yes he is," she paused for a moment, "are you okay, son? You seem worried." She asked carefully.

Was he sure he was okay? He hated lying to her and he felt horrible lying to her, as she always knew when he was lying and knew what he was thinking. She knew him better than anybody else. But for some reason, this lie didn't come easily to him and he kept stalling, trying to find a way out of answering the question. Finally, he gave in. He just said, "Everything's okay I'm just tired."

"Sure, yeah. I understand. Your father and I will be home waiting, I'm sure it won't take long before everything goes back to normal. Stay safe son,"

"...You too mom. See you later," he hung up.

When he finished hanging up he sat there staring at the wall blankly, not really knowing what to do next. With nothing else to distract himself from his thoughts, he decided to open up his phone again to scroll through the news.

Just then, the lights flickered for a few seconds and soon enough, all the lights were out. Jimin looked around, trying to make sure he was safe. It seemed like it had just been a simple power outage. Jimin let out heavy sigh, "thank god the sun hasn't gone down yet," he muttered under his breath.

He then took this chance to get off the chair and walked over towards the door, making sure the coast was clear before pushing the door open slightly, taking a peek outside. All the lights were out around the school and the only light source seems to be only coming from the windows.

Jimin noticed there weren't any signs of movement in the surrounding buildings either. It appears that inside the school buildings are relatively safe compared to the fairgrounds. 'There's no way It's as dangerous as they say right? They haven't broadcasted anymore announcements and no new notifications coming from the group chat. Maybe they got it wrong and there was just a serial killer roaming around and they have already evacuated everyone at the carnival? Yeah......that's probably it, there's no point in me staying here for longer,' Jimin thought to himself. 

Jimin went back to his desk and packed everything up in his backpack, getting ready to head back home in the rainy weather. He walked cautiously out the classroom door with careful footsteps as he checked out his surroundings.  No sign of anything. He continued to look around until he was standing under the school's entrance.

Just as he expected, there were no signs of life other than the occasional sizzle of lightning or distant roar of thunder. Nothing unusual. "Of course they all evacuated," he scoffed.

The closer he got to the school's fairgrounds, where the parking lot is, the quieter it got. Jimin was not stupid, this isn't normal. There is just no way a carnival that took place an hour ago is completely empty now. The school had thousands of students, an hour isn't long enough to evacuate all. Even the place looks completely ran over, as if it was left abandoned for years.

The air grew thinker as he slowly walked closer, trying his best to observe the environment through the thick fog that has spread. The air felt cold, it felt dead almost.

Jimin squint his eyes, just to see in the distance, something move. A figure stood directly in front of Jimin's line of sight.

'Another student?' Jimin thought to himself.

It didn't appear to have noticed he was there yet. He slowly stepped moved forward to the parking lot, hoping the figure would walk away once he exited the school. But no dice, the figure remained swinging back and forth as if its limbs were completely loose with red stains all over their white shirt.

When the realization hit, Jimin's breath hitched, feeling goosebumps creep on his skin. So many thoughts went across his mind in that moment. 'Is that zombie?! No fucking way...... that can't be it! thats utter nonsense! This isn't a drama or a movie, this is real life!' He quickly turned his head and stared at his bicycle in the distance, quite far away from the bloody creature so he anxiously tip toe-ed towards his bike.

As he walked deeper into the fog, he heard a small commotion in the distance. When he squinted his eyes, he saw not one but a hurdle of those bloody creatures, limping and growling around the center of the fairground.

'no fucking way......' Jimin couldn't help but to stare in horror, completely frozen with his eyes shut close hoping this is like one of his nightmares where if he ignore it, it'll pass.

However, that clearly wasn't the case. Jimin's legs was beginning to lose strength. Every single fiber in his body began to shake violently. His chest tightened, feeling as if he was choking and struggling for oxygen. Just then, he accidentally stepped on a tree branch, that made a rather unnoticeable sound to the human ear if not paying attention, but it was heard by the group of bloody creature in the distance as they immediately turned their heads towards the direction of where the sound originated. 

Suddenly, it felt like an eternity passed until he felt something wet fall down onto his face. Tears. His knees buckled and he fell down onto his knees, his hands clutching desperately onto his hair. His vision started to blur, as his heart beat faster and faster.

As if on cue at the last minute, his amygdala initiated his fight-or-flight response.

Jimin quickly got up onto his feet and dashed towards towards the school building. Just as he reached the entrance, he tripped and fell, falling down hard against the ground. As he slid down from the stairs, his forehead hit right on the concrete stairs. Pain seared through his head. A large amount of blood oozing out from the wound made him groan.

Just as he was about to get up, a tall figure approached him, grabbing him by his arm and dragged him into the building, locking the doors. He struggled frantically as he tried his best to push the figure off of him, thinking that the zombies have finally caught up to him.

"Please calm down. You've got blood everywhere," he heard the tall figure say calmly.

Jimin finally stopped fighting him and looked up to meet his gaze. At that moment, he was taken aback by who the kid actually was. His name escaped his mouth before he even realized it, "Jungkook?"