The Longest Dayz

Chapter 36: Lee Taehyun

Taehyun stumbled into Jiwon's arms as Kittichai pushed him from behind. He turned around quickly to see Kitt get tackled to the ground.

"Kitt!" He went to rush forward to help, but was stopped by Jiwon holding his arm. "Let go! Let go of me! I have to help him!" He struggled against Jiwon, tears fell from his face as Kitt vanished amongst the horde of lurkers.

"Run!" He stilled as Kitt's voice broke through the surrounding area.

Jiwon pulled on his arm as the rest of the group was beginning to fend off lurkers that had strayed from the horde that was surrounding Kitt.

"No! Not without him, I won't leave him!" Taehyun cried out hysterically as he shoved Jiwon harshly. The model stumbled backwards into a lurker causing it to fall to the ground along with the blonde. Jiwon scrambled away from the lurker as it attempted to grab him. KZ was quick to kick it in the head, knocking it backwards where Yeongsu smacked it with his bat.

Taehyun hadn't moved an inch as he stared guiltily at the model who stood back up with determination and approached Taehyun. The artist glanced back to where Kitt had vanished. "Jiwon... I can't leave him, I care about him."

Without warning, Jiwon smacked Taehyun across the face, the hit echoed around the alley. "We all care about him, Taehyun-ssi! For fuck's sake he is my best friend, you think I want to just leave without him?" Jiwon shouted as tears fell down his face. "Look around, we all care! You don't want to leave him, I get it, but he pushed you out of the way. He died so you could live, do not let his efforts go to waste!"

Taehyun looked around at the group as they fought off the infected. Yeongsu had visible tears down his cheeks as he swung his bat angrily at the lurkers, while many of the other group members had a saddened expression. "You're right... we should go." Jiwon grabbed him by the wrist and led him away from the scene with the rest of the group following. Taehyun glanced back over his shoulder one last time as they turned a corner.

"Where are we going to go now?" Minseok asked as they fought their way out to the main road.

"Let's go back towards the river." KZ stated as they jogged a little ways down the road.

"Why?" Hanwoo asked, "it had loads of lurkers over there earlier."

"I recalled a school being just north of where the rendezvous point was. I had seen it on the map the other day when we were planning the supply runs. Usually schools have a fenced in field, so it may work for a temporary safe house." She explained.

"It's better than nothing." Seojun stated as they set off in the direction of the river.

They fended off quite a few lurkers as they traveled the three miles by foot. Some lurkers were still attempting to follow them, but couldn't keep up. The sun had just passed three in the afternoon as they reached the bridge. They had fought their way there and were all exhausted.

"What went wrong, was today not warm enough?" Hanwoo asked as he wiped a few drops of blood from his forehead.

"It is a bit cooler for the end of spring." Seojun responded.

"It was a bad call." Hanwoo sighed dejectedly.

"A bad call? A bad call just cost us our friend!" Yeongsu snapped, causing KZ to place a hand on his shoulder.

Hanwoo and Seojun glanced at each other, guilt visibly displayed on their faces. "We should keep moving."

The group continued following the river upstream until they reached the school. A few lurkers lingered around the schoolyard, their school uniforms showing that they were once students there.