insomnia | stray kids ff

lvl 5: hope

[doesn't matter if the world

is a cold place]

I watch as the sun emerges from the horizon in front of me. The sky transitions from pink to blue. I smile as I stare at the breathtaking view and look back at Hyunjin who is sleeping soundly in the chair next to me. I finish my last sentence in my bullet journal and place it back inside my bag. I get up from my seat and walk over to the railcar where all the others were sleeping. I see Seungmin awake as usual and greet him.

"You're up too?" Seungmin questions as he yawns.

"You can say that," I smile and see Chan and my sister snuggled together. I nudge Seungmin to look over at them which makes both of us giggle devilishly.

"They should just date already," Seungmin whispers to me.

"Sana doesn't understand her feelings for him yet," I reply. "Every time I bring him up to her in a romantic way, she always tries changing the subject."

"What a shame," Seungmin says and looks over at me with an intense stare. I look at him with a confused expression.

"Yeah, not gonna happen," Seungmin and I both say at the same time which makes Jisung move a little in his sleep. We both start laughing at each other's reactions. Soon enough, Jisung wakes up and starts staring at us with squinty eyes. We stop laughing and shush each other.

"Where are we?" Jisung asks.

"I actually don't know," I say and get up to go back to the locomotive. When I enter the car, I see Hyunjin already up and looking at the map. "Good morning," I tell him.

"Hi," He says quietly, completely focused on the map. I look at him with a weird face. Maybe he is worried about his sister.

"Do you know where we are?" I ask him and sit next to him.

"No, not yet," Hyunjin says in a monotone voice.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," He says in a bothersome tone.

"Okay," I say with a hurt voice and leave the car to go back to the other.

I now see that everyone is awake and talking to each other as they stretch.

"Hey," I greeted quietly.

"Do you know where we are?" Sana asks.

"Uh, Hyunjin is figuring it out," I say and then sit back down next to Seungmin.

"Hopefully they're still alive." I hear Changbin say and look up.

"They?" I ask.

"My sister and Hyunjin's," Changbin says quietly.

"They're best friends?" I ask. Changbin nods and looks at Jisung.

"If you and Hyunjin survived, they must've too," I say. Changbin looks at me and smiles a little.

"I'll go see where we are," Minho says and gets up and exits the car.

After an hour the train comes to a full stop. We all stand up and look out the window to see where we've parked at. It's a small town with a bunch of houses and stores nearby. It almost looks untouched. I look at Changbin who has glossy eyes and hold his shoulder to show my support. He softly nods and jumps off the train. He helps me off by holding onto my waist as I jump. The rest of the group hops off the train. Hyunjin jumps off last and appears next to Changbin.

"Let's check your house," Hyunjin states but Chan stops him before continuing on.

"Do you guys have a plan to find them?" Chan questions. Hyunjin rolls his eyes.

"We are already here, they're probably at Changbin's house," Hyunjin turns to get out of Chan's way.

"And what if they aren't?" Chan asks. Hyunjin stop walking and turns around.

"They couldn't have gotten far," Hyunjin states.

"Hyunjin," Jisung calls after him. "Chan is right. We need a plan. It's a reckless idea to just go out and find them blindly," Hyunjin sighs and looks at Jisung. He gives in and walks back over to the group.

After thinking of a plan, we decide to split up into small groups. Sana, Chan, Felix, and Jeongin go and look in the stores. Woojin, Minho, Jisung, and Seungmin search the houses nearby Changbin's. Leaving me with Hyunjin and Changbin to search in his house.

Woojin's and our group stick together and walk down the streets towards Changbin's house making sure we don't make a lot of noise to attract any dead ones. I walk beside Seungmin as we pass by alleyways and houses.

"Do you think their sisters are alive?" Seungmin whispers to me as we both look at Changbin and Hyunjin at the front of the group.

"Whether are not they're alive, we can't lose hope," I say. "If I knew Sana was out there in this zombie apocalypse and I wasn't with her, I'd still want to find her, hoping that she is alive."

"Wouldn't you be even more torn when you find her dead though?" Seungmin asks. I breathe slowly and think about this.

"The thought of finding her and actually finding her are two different things. Even if I found her as one of those creatures, at least I tried and didn't give up on her," I tell Seungmin.

"This is where we split up," Woojin states and turns to face the group. "Everyone stay on guard and keep quiet. You know what to do if you're in trouble." We all nod and split into our small groups.

I catch up to Changbin and Hyunjin who are running so fast in determination to find their sisters. I finally reach them where they are standing in front of Changbin's house. They both look at each other with uneasy faces. I could tell they were both shaking and very scared. I could even feel my own heart racing. I stand in between them and hold their hands. They both let out a deep breath and sigh as we all walk toward the house in fear.