세상의 끝: End of the World

We're Surrounded

Lee Minho had run deep into the forest, searching out the source of whatever had made that scream. Yet after half a minute, instinct made him stop his steps.

Though he was now in the forest, he couldn't sense the presence of another human being. Even the SKZ car seemed to have faded from existence.

It was then that Lee Minho realized something was wrong. He turned around in a circle, looking at his surroundings, but all he saw was the outline of trees in the white haze.

Alarms rang in his head. He didn't know of anything that could cause something like this - unless it was a zombie or an ability user with similar strength to his. Either way, it wasn't a great situation.
Lee Mini turned to run back toward the road, but even after a minute of running, he remained in the forest. The ability had trapped him here. Cursing, Lee Minho came to a stop. Running blindly wouldn't get him anywhere, so he closed his eyes and tried to focus his senses.

After some concentration, flicker of a presence made itself known. Though he had the creeping sensation of being led into a trap, Lee Minho steeled himself and walked toward it. With any luck, he would find the source of this fog and get a chance to destroy it.

Lee Minho stepped into a clearing. It was there that he found something that made him stop in his tracks.

"...Who are you?" Lee Minho spoke.
The man standing in the clearing slowly turned around.

"Keep driving," Han Jisung said.
"What the hell is going on?" the Stray Kids driver shouted, hands desperately gripping the wheel. He looked behind at the horde of zombies chasing after the car. "I've been driving for thirty minutes! Why aren't we out yet? The hell's with this fog? Shit, the boss said there were only two zombies, what're all these behind us then?!"

Han Jisung opened his bag. Everything was sorted into its own compartment, so without even needing to look, he reached in and took out a palm-sized object.

He then rolled down the car window, leaned out, and threw it behind the car. He sat back down and rolled up the window just in time for a loud boom to rock the car.

"Oh shit!" the driver yelled. "You have bombs?!" He looked at the rear-view mirror. "Hell! They're still not dead yet!"
Han Jisung tightly gripped his bag and pursed his lips, mentally itemizing all of the supplies available to him. It was enough to survive a few level 5 and maybe level 6 zombies, but not enough to take down a horde of them.

"Shit, how are we getting out of here? The car'll be out of gas eventually - can't fill it back up while I'm driving either!"
"How many cans are in the back?" Han Jisung asked, turning in his seat to look into the trunk.

"One!" the driver shouted.
That was unfortunate. Han Jisung looked out the window again, noting that the number of zombies was lower than before.

They drove for approximately seven more minutes, the SKZ driver continuing to curse the entire time. After seven minutes, Han Jisung interrupted him and said, "Be prepared to use your ability."
"What?"

"We're going in a loop."
"What the hell does that-"
The driver cut off suddenly with a shout. He raised one hand to activate his ability, forming a barrier in front of the car just in time to plow the zombies in front of them out of the way. The car jolted up and down as it ran over the corpses of the other zombies which were dead on the ground.

"The hell?!" The driver looked into the side mirror and saw the explosion marks on the ground behind them, as well as the burned remains of the zombies they had just run over. "Is that-"

"A sixteen-kilometer loop," Han Jisung said. He pulled out another grenade to throw behind the car. The resulting explosion made the car rattle again.
The driver winced. "How many of those do you have?"

"Three," Han Jisung said. He looked behind and threw another grenade.
The remaining zombies were of a stronger variety, and weren't as easily damaged by normal explosives. Higher-level zombies had tough skin which even bullets could barely penetrate, and the lower-level zombies had armor mutations that helped them resist the explosions. The total number of zombies had dwindled by more than half, but even just one of these zombies could easily kill them.

"Your barrier," Han Jisung said. "Does it work like a pot?"
"What?"
"Can it be used to contain the zombies?"
"Uh," the Stray Kids member said. "I-I think so?"
"Will it trap heat?"
"Um, yeah - yeah, it does. I used it in the winter, around a fire-"
"Okay," Han Jisung said. He pulled out a variety of devices from his bag, a mish-mash of round, long, shiny, and matte objects.

"What - what are those?" The driver didn't dare take his eyes away from the road or from the rear-view mirrors, but he could see Han Jisung emptying the bag from the corner of his eye.

"Parts." Han Jisung then took out his toolkit and began jerry-rigging the pieces together.

"Oh shit," the driver yelled, seeing the wires and obvious charges and fuses of what must have been bombs. "In the car? You're doing that-"

"Please calm down," Han Jisung said. "I need your help for this to work."

"Damn it." The SKZ member grit his teeth and swerved the car to avoid one of the faster zombies. After slamming the accelerator, he said, "Alright, okay. What's the plan?"

"Now," Han Jisung said.
The jeep rolled to a stop. The zombies surged forward, but before they could surround the car, a barrier jumped into place around them. The zombies clawed and smashed their fists against the barrier, but they couldn't escape. Han Jisung got out of the jeep, the stack of explosives cradled in his arms. He walked to the edge of the barrier and set the bomb on the ground. He then got back into the car.

The SKZ driver looked back at the zombies. He expanded his barrier by half a meter, bringing the bomb into its space.

"We're good," the Stray Kids member said. "In three," Han Jisung said. The detonator was held in his hand. The SKZ driver stepped on the pedal, and the car pulled forward. "Two." Now a few meters further from the blast zone, the car came to a stop. "One."

A muted explosion sounded, and a bright light flashed from behind them. The SKZ driver grinned and turned to look out the back window. "It wor-"

The smile dropped from his face, his expression turning gaunt with shock. He seized Han Jisung by the arm and pulled him closer, erecting a small barrier around them. Before Han Jisung could ask what was going on, his ears registered the sound of a bellowing screech. From the corner of his eye, he saw a mass of fire. Something with a burning face like charcoal was ripping into the back of the car, and then came the sound of gasoline igniting into flames.

Han Jisung's senses came back in waves.

His eyes had been open, but he only just realized that he could see. Everything was blurry and swimming in front of him. Blades of grass stuck out from the ground in front of him. In the distance was a large and flickering red mass - it was the car, on fire.

There was a person on the ground in front of him. Could barely see the person through the grass, but Han Jisung saw the SKZ symbol on the jacket shoulder. It was the driver. He wasn't moving.

Han Jisung blinked and grew dizzy afterward. He felt that he needed to make his body move so that he could leave, but he couldn't quite remember how.

His ears registered the sound of footsteps walking on the grass behind him. The footsteps came closer and closer until they were nearly upon him.
A shadow fell over Han Jisung. He watched as a small pale hand reached out toward the pack he held in his arms. Han Jisung tightened his grip, and the small hand jolted away.

The footsteps quickly receded as if the owner of the hand had jumped back, but after a few moments, they returned.
The hand softly gripped Han Jisung's shoulder and pulled, partially flipping him around. Han Jisung gazed blearily up into the face of a young woman - no, a young girl. She looked at him, fear and worry warring in her eyes, but after a moment, her gaze steeled.

The girl pulled Han Jisung's arm over her shoulder, using all of her strength to drag him away from the open road and deeper into the forest.