Gone To Hell | Seventeen

XVII.

RAEJIN'S POV

It was early in the morning at this point. We had already stopped in an empty coffee shop for a couple reasons. One, it was dangerous to be out when it was dark. Two, we needed some sleep. Three, the horses needed to rest too, more than us.

I personally didn't get a whole lot of sleep. It was mostly the worry and fear eating at me that kept me from sleeping the whole night. The others, elsewise, slept like babies. Being that the place was really uncomfortable and the floors weren't even carpet, we had to squeeze onto some of the booth seats. It was kind of awkward, because DK suggested the two smaller of us for sleep on top of the bigger two so it would be more comfortable for Jihoon and I. It ended with my resting on DK's chest, and Jihoon on Mingyu's, although he strongly fought against it. And so it ended up with me just staring off at the wall of the booth the whole night, worrying and wondering and remembering.

I worried, fearful for the other members. I had anxiety that something may have happened to someone, and I wouldn't have a clue until we got there. I wondered too, questioning if anyone was worrying about us. I wondered what we missed with the rest of the group, if maybe perhaps a fight broke out, or something large in drama took place within the time we were gone. And I remembered. I reminisced in the memories of Chaeji, recalling moments we had spent together while she was still on this earth as a human being. Now she was a monster, but it wasn't her fault. She wanted the best for everyone, but not this.

Now it was early in the morning, probably around 8, and we were on the road again, cautiously guiding the horses down the roads, having DK and Mingyu lead the way. We slowly walked a majority of the trip since waking up this morning, although we had been in a bit of a faster pace after our retreat from the farm yesterday. We didn't want to overwork the horses or cause attention onto our foursome as we navigated Namyangju.

"Hey guys, have you noticed the oddly low population of rotters around here?" Jihoon suddenly asked. "You'd think with the large amount of people in this town that there'd be more rotters, or at least more people."

I had noticed that. I noticed there was an underwhelming amount of rotters in this town, and while we were in Seoul, the only reason we didn't see many was because of the siren that distracted them until we had gathered supplies and found a vehicle. Then they bombed the highway, but what about the rotters left in the city that were already infected before even trying to escape? They had to be looking for fresh meat by now.

"Yea, it's weird." I said, "It's kind of creepier than them being scattered around us."

"There weren't a whole lot in the districts we passed on our way out of Seoul, either." DK mentioned, "I mean, we did kill a mass amount of them when we cleared out the store on the one run, but that isn't enough for an entire city."

We went back into a few seconds of eery silence, listening to the clicking of the horseshoes against the road. Then DK spoke again, "The motel isn't far from here."

"Yea, there's probably a couple more miles, a half hour if we go at a normal speed." Mingyu included. "I see no point in rushing the horses."

"Yea, and the risk of crossing a hidden rotter and spooking the horses is way too high anyway." I added on, "If we were going fast and a rotter popped up out of nowhere, we'd be thrown off our horses and probably get really injured."

"Yea, I vote we go at a normal pace." Jihoon finished that conversation.

And yet again, we went to our own thoughts. I personally was anxious about our arrival. What if we were to show up and the camp already be taken down, or what if we found out someone died along the trip? But our group wasn't that easily taken down.