Girls Never Die || TripleS

6 - River Crossing

Yooyeon watched the street view from the bedroom window. Infected walked through the streets, their jackets barely holding onto their shoulders as they limped and looked around, searching for their next target. The occasional tweet of a bird or a dog's bark would make them snap their heads in the direction of the sound, and they would promptly rush towards the source.

She pulled the curtain back but stopped when she heard the faint high-pitched screaming of a child. She peeked back outside the window to see a young, probably middle school girl in her uniform with tears in her eyes, trying her best to run away from the zombies that chased her. As she looked back, she failed to notice the body lying on the ground in front of her and she tripped, landing harshly on her exposed arms.

Yooyeon watched with a grim expression as the girl cried for her mother and the zombies quickly piled onto her. The scientist couldn't see it, but she heard the shrill screams of pain as the child was being torn apart. Her heart felt heavy in her chest, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. Strings of guilt slithered up her arm as she thought about how it was HausTech's doing, and as a worker, she felt the need to hold some level of responsibility for the state Seoul was in. She hoped the rest of Korea was faring better.

The infected eventually stood up, leaving a bloodied and mangled kid behind. Bile rose up to Yooyeon's throat as she observed the corpse, which was nearly ripped to shreds. She inhaled deeply and was about to leave, when the girl suddenly started moving again not even minutes after the zombies had left.

Yooyeon stared with widened eyes as the girl got back up on her feet, looking around with a hollow stare in her eyes.

"I guarantee you, the girl was dead. There was absolutely no way she would've survived an attack from half a dozen zombies."

On the living room carpet, Seoyeon rummaged around the items in the sports bag, searching for the first-aid kit while Yooyeon explained what she had seen. Upon finding it, she pulled it out and opened the case. Her eyebrows creased.

"Has anyone been using the first aid kit?" she called out to the group.

"Why, is something missing?" Chaeyeon leaned in to look at the box.

"Not just something..." Seoyeon huffed, digging through the kit. "At least half the bandages are gone, along with a bunch of other stuff." She stood up and put her hands to her hips.

Yubin, who was pacing on the other side of the room, stopped to narrow her eyes at Dahyun.

Dahyun threw her arms up, dumbfounded. "Why would I steal bandages?!" she whisper yelled.

"Hm, I don't know." Yubin shrugged. "Maybe you want to see people die," she accused.

Jiwoo looked up from the couch. "Yubin, can you stop antagonizing her? It's been two whole days. Everyone's already over it."

"And you still haven't gotten up from that damn sofa." Yubin scoffed.

"Guys!" Seoyeon exclaimed. "Now is not the time to fight. The current standing is that a bunch of stuff in the first-aid kit is gone."

Kaede raised her hand. "Maybe you just haven't realized how much of it you used in the past few days," she reasoned, looking around. "I mean, there's a lot of injured people."

Seoyeon scrunched her nose. "Maybe," she said. After thinking for a minute, she nodded. "Yeah, I think Kaede's right. Sorry everyone, false alarm! Go back to what you're doing." She waved a dismissive hand in the air.

The girls went back to their occupations. Seoyeon breathed out and closed the kit. She turned her attention to Yooyeon. The scientist noted that her dark circles haven't improved.