The Longest Dayz

Chapter 37: Sawyer Kayzhen

Two months had passed since Kittichai's death, Jiwon and Yeongsu had both come to terms with it. They were still upset about it, but they had ultimately accepted that he wasn't coming back. Taehyun, on the other hand was still struggling; he would spend most of his days in the art room and had become withdrawn from the group. Most of the group had tried to talk to him about it, but he had turned everyone away, even Yeongsu. Sawyer didn't know Taehyun very well, but she did wish there was some way that she could be of help to him.

Sawyer stood outside the art classroom, peering through the window on the door. She watched as Yeongsu tried to convince Taehyun to patrol the school with her and him. She watched as Taehyun shook his head slowly and went back to painting. He seemed rather lifeless as he carelessly brushed his paintbrush across the canvas.

She took a step away from the door as Yeongsu exited the classroom. He shook his head at her, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Nothing seems to motivate him lately."

"He's at least painting, that's good right?" She asked, trying to stay positive.

"No. He's never just blankly painted on a canvas before. He's just been painting a whole lot of nothing recently." Yeongsu explained as he turned to glance back at Taehyun through the window. "He's barely been eating, I'm really starting to worry about him."

"He's strong, he will get through this. We all will. He just needs some time to grieve." She stated as she placed a hand on Yeongsu's shoulder.

"We all want to grieve properly, but now is not the time to be drowning in it. It's not safe here. Every day we have to clear out more and more lurkers from the area surrounding the school. Kitt was my friend, but he would want us to all stay strong and keep pushing forward." He said. It seemed a bit cold to say, but it wasn't wrong.

"You're right, we can't afford to lose our wits." She agreed. "We should get moving, we still have to patrol until four this morning."

"Right, let's go."

They started on the second floor and then made their way down to the first floor after confirming that it was clear. Sawyer checked the front door, it was locked shut. She could see from the windows of the doors that a few lurkers had sauntered into the schoolyard. There wasn't enough to cause concern, but it would need to be monitored through the night. She moved from the front door to check the windows. Some windows had already been cracked and others were completely shattered. Yeongsu checked the windows opposite of her.

"This window has a crack in it now, something must've hit it." He stated drawing Sawyer's attention. She approached Yeongsu as he ran his finger along the crack in the window.

"We will keep an eye on it." She said as he gasped and pulled his hand back suddenly. He visibly stared at his finger as a bit of blood lined a small cut. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just cut myself on a piece of the glass. There was a small break in the glass that was sharp." Yeongsu stated as he went to wipe the blood on his pants.

She was quick to reach out and grab his hand before he wiped the blood off, she put his injured finger in her mouth. She sucked on the wound briefly before she slowly lowered his hand from her mouth. "You shouldn't wipe an open wound on your clothes, we don't know how the parasite infects people."

Yeongsu began to rub his arm awkwardly as he stared wide eyed at Sawyer. She gave him a smile as she tilted her head to look at him. "We should continue to check the floor, see if anything has gotten inside." He stated as he turned away from her.

She couldn't help chuckling as he walked over to a different door, crouched down and began to examine it a little too closely. She followed after him and looked over his shoulder at the door. "Is there something fascinating about that door?" She asked.