What's Broken Can't Be Fixed

05

     Hannah sits in her room with her hands over her ears. All the boys at this point had reached stage two, and it took longer to pass without someone there to calm them down. Minho, Felix and of course Seungmin's stages had passed. But for the rest, they spent hours banging on the doors of their rooms.

     Minho, Felix, Seungmin, and Hannah all sit in her room, annoyed with the repetitive loud sounds. "Can we just go and calm them down like Chris did for you?" Hannah looks at Seungmin, and he shrugs.

     "Sure, yeah. I got Chris." He stands up and walks out.

     "I got Jisung and Changbin." Minho leaves as well.

     "I guess I got Jeongin." Leaving Hannah in the room, Felix makes his way to Jeongin's. Hannah sits silently, wondering what she should do since all the others are gone now. She stands up and walks to Hyunjin's room just to check on him. When she walks in, he's sitting up on his bed, but his head is bleeding.

     She had only been there for a couple of hours but with the amount of blood she'd seen outside and the violence she'd seen in here she was already used to it. "One second." She whispers, and he nods, still seeming out of it. Hannah walks out and into the bathroom near the back of the building.

     People were bound to get hurt boxing sometimes, right? There had to be some sort of first aid. She rummages through the cabinets and eventually she pulls out a

     Roll of bandages and some cloth that she soaked in water. She holds her hand under the cloth to keep the water from dripping on the floor as she makes her way back to Hyunjin.

     Once she gets back, Hyunjin sits on the floor in front of her while she dabs his forehead with the cloth and then wraps it with the bandages. "Have you reached stage two yet?" She asks, tucking the bandage in to make sure it's on tight enough.

     "We all have." Silence again.

     "Are your parents still...?"

     "They wouldn't change."

     "Don't you think it's time you tell them? They're your friends."

     "They don't need to know." Hannah sighs, setting the bandages and the white cloth that was now red on the table by his bed.

     "But I know." She pauses. "Does that mean I'm not your friend-"

     "If I had a choice, you wouldn't know either." His words were harsh, but she had to understand where he was coming from. She messes with his hair, so it covers the bandage from the back even though it was still visible from the front.

     "Alright. But they care about you, you know that. You just have to accept that some people are willing to do a lot for you." She touches the braid on the side of his head, and it seems to make his eyebrows furrow. Hannah knew he was going through a lot, but what made it worse was that he always tries to go through hell alone.

     In just minutes it was quiet again, and everyone returned to their respective rooms. It was enough to say that everyone was bored, hungry, and tired all at once. After a couple of minutes, they had already eaten all the snacks in Jisung's bag and were slowly running out of water.

     Jeongin gets bored after just sitting around and gets up, walking around the corner he sees Changbin fastening his gas mask around his face. "Where are you going?" He asks, keeping his hand on the wall.

     "I'm going to go get food for us. We'll die sooner if we don't eat or drink something."

     "I'll come with you!" Jeogin hurries to grab his mask and his jacket but Changbin stops him.

     "It's too dangerous."

     "Then it would be even more dangerous if you went alone." He shakes Changbin's hand off of him and continues grabbing his things. He comes back with two backpacks and a knife. Changbin stares at him weirdly before he shrugs.

     The two walk outside and as soon as they do, the fog hits their eyes. They run back in, not used to the way the fog affected their sight. The boys knew they had nothing to protect their eyes, but they wanted to come up with suggestions anyway. "Can't we try navigating blindly?" Jeongin asks, and Changbin shrugs. "You know where everything is from here right?"

     "Yeah." Both their voices sounded odd due to their masks. "But how would we navigate blindly? We can't just keep our hands over our eyes the whole time, and if we had something else to cover our eyes, we wouldn't have to think about this in the first place."

     Then, Jeongin walks over to a counter and reaches into the cabinet under it. "Bandages." He waves Changbin over. "Come here." The boy walks up to him and turns around, given that he was shorter than Jeongin it was easier to wrap the bandages around his eyes. They always used to joke on Changbin for being short and they still do.

     Changbin does him next, and while adjusting to the change, they step outside again. It was much easier on their eyes, but now there was a new problem. They couldn't see worth shit.

     They walk aimlessly for a second, feeling on the side of buildings trying to get the hang of it. Every once and a while they would get startled by a scream. But as the minutes flew by, they started to get the hang of it, and Changbin grabbed a hold of Jeongin's hand so he wouldn't get lost.

     Changbin didn't want to go back to the other store because of all the death they saw there, but he knew another one that would be just fine. He walks quickly, making sure Jeongin's still holding his hand before he goes inside. However, as soon as they get inside, the pungent smell of blood hits their noses, and the faint noise of a door locking behind them.

     Changbin lifts the bottom of the bandages to reveal something worse than he had seen at the previous store.

     Bodies

     Bodies

     Bodies

     Wherever he looked, they were everywhere. Some hung up on the ceiling like ornaments to a scarlet christmas tree. And others lie on the ground in a pool of their own blood, yet he didn't see anyone that was alive. Changbin leans his head towards Jeongin and whispers. "Go to the back of the store. Try to make it out." He didn't care about himself, if there was someone there, he only cared about keeping the younger of them safe.

     Jeongin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as there was no way he was leaving Changbin alone. "Hyung-"

     "Go." Changbin's voice was stern, so Jeongin walks slowly, but as he does, he steps on something. It felt cushiony but there was something dense in the middle of it. He trails his foot up the object and when he does, he can make out something. Fingers.

     Despite his surprise he had to keep quiet. If there was even one body in the building that meant trouble lingered there as well. As he gets to the back he slides his hand across the wall, hoping to find an exit door. Yet, his escape wasn't as easy as they had hoped. The sound of footsteps came from around the corner, and it made both of them freeze.

     It was worse that they couldn't see anything, now there was someone standing in front of them planning to do who knows what. Then the next sound they heard made Jeongin stop completely. A gun cocking. The sound was definitely much closer to Changbin than it was Jeongin but he wasn't taking any chances.

     Changbin takes a slow step forward, but it doesn't take long for him to feel the cold metal of the muzzle on his forehead. "If you take one more step, I'll shoot you." The person sounded young, but they didn't sound friendly.

     They pause for a second. "You and your friend that's trying to leave out back."