after all; stray kids

prologue

"RUN!"

before;

"bye ji! i'll see you during maths." laughed felix. jisung clung onto his best friend's arm.

"but the teacher is horrible! it's like she never gets laid!" jisung whined. "don't let me go lixie!"

"but brendon urie once said, "if you love me let me go~!" since i know you love me, please let me go." felix said, struggling to get jisung's death grip off his arm. "sungie please!"

"fine!" as jisung let go of his arm, felix started to dash away before he could be grabbed again. jisung dramatically yelled "traitor" across the hallway, drawing attention to himself. felix laughed as he slinked off to english.

he was early so he decided to send his mom a message.

[lix: hey mother dearest! let's go out for dinner tonight. we haven't gone out in a while.]

[mother <3: okay, lix. i finish at 5 today. have fun at school. i love you to the moon and back <3]

[lix: i love you to pluto and back. see you later mom!]

felix's english teacher ran into the room and shut the door, drawing all the students' attention onto him. the school's alarm bell started to blare.

"you all have to be evacuated now! leave your things behind and exit the classroom in an orderly fasion!" the teacher yelled over the panicked voices of the students.

he opened the door slightly and screamed. a student jumped onto the teacher and started biting at his face. "RUN!"

a student's scream alerted the infected student. the zombie leapt off the, now, infected teacher and lunged for the students.

felix got a good look at the student who was once like him as he ran out the door. he thanked the heavens that it wasn't jisung.

other students pushed and shoved their way out. felix fell to the ground as students pushed to the front of the line. once the school's front doors opened a hoard of zombies rushed in.

felix rushed to the emergency fire exit. it was locked.

he kicked as hard as he could and once the door opened, he ran.

he ran and ran as fast as he could. not knowing that he would do that until the day he died.

present;

it's been 16 days. felix had eaten all of his rations in the first week. the pocket knife he stole was starting to dull.

all he had to eat in the past 3 days was some muesli bars he stole from the bags of deceased high school students.

he's found out a lot since he started running.

on one hand, you could only get infected if a zombie's saliva or blood mixed with yours. plus the symptoms would start showing up in 24 hours.

but on the other, there was no cure. and once you were infected, you'd be that way forever.

felix grabbed his stomach as it grumbled loudly. he would've been mistaken for a zombie if no one looked close enough.

blood smeared on his cheeks, clothes already tattered and torn. his hair was ruffled, out of frustration and just not having the time or will to fix it.

bags were starting to form under his eyes, from all the sleepless nights. felix walked slowly across the side walk, staring at the deserted buildings of the once busy city of seoul.

he fumbled with the phone in his jacket pocket. even in ultra power saving mode, felix's phone had already died days ago. he couldn't leave it though. how was he supposed to contact his mom when he finally got charge?

his letterman wasn't warm enough to keep him from the cold. when he first got it, the baseball coach said it was the warmest thing the team could get.

felix's backpack was almost empty. he had used his books as fuel for the fires would set at night. that is, if he had a place to stay.

after walking for what seemed like hours, felix stopped in front of a supermarket. the doors were half opened. with nothing to lose, felix stepped inside.

he couldn't help but tear up at the sight of it all.

food, clothes, water and medicine.

he could stay here.

he could survive.

felix stumbled through the isles with an open backpack. he pushed all the long lasting foods he could carry into his back. he took first aid kits off the shelves and into his bag. he needed those too.  felix took 4 bottles of water, he could only carry so much.

he changed into a new shirt, tied a hoodie around his waist, packing as many shirts as he could into his already full bag. he swiped a flashlight off the shelf and stuffed some batteries into his letterman.

there was no way in hell that he would leave his letterman.

this was the happiest he had been in a long time.

he decided the isle with mops and brooms would be the best place to find a weapon.

felix grabbed a mop and snapped the head of it off. before he could catch it, the mop head fell onto the floor.

it echoed throughout the "empty" store.

felix turned towards the noise that followed.

"hello?" he called out.

in reponse, he heard a snarl as a zombie slowly limped towards him.

it was injured, its leg twisted in an inhuman way. felix ducked into another isle where he came face to face with another zombie. he yelled in shock and shoved the mop handle into the zombie's rotting stomach.

felix rushed to another isle as a group if zombies advanced towards him.

he was cornered.

felix was close enough to the front of the store to see when someone entered.

a shadow darkened the entrance as the zombies came closer and closer.

fearing that this was the end of his life, felix closed his eyes.

"hey what are you doing?! run!" a voice called, drawing the zombies' attention away.

felix's eyes snapped open. he looked towards the door. this was his chance.

"RUN!"