APOTHEOSIS

1.00 prologue

"What makes us heroic?
To meet both our greatest sorrow
and greatest hope."

     WEARY FEET beat against the dead ground in earnest, fleeing from the deranged screams that chased them relentlessly. Sweat dripped into her eyes and she hastily wiped it away with the back of a grimy hand. Dark hair was plastered against the side of her face and neck, her own shallow breaths stifling her with fevered heat.

The air around her sizzled with trepidation as the animalistic sounds drew closer. Shadows swallowed them whole as they reached the underpass and the sky disappeared from view. She felt her heart drop into her belly with dread. Figures shuffled in the distance, between the abandoned cars that lined the walls.

In the next heartbeat, they heard an explosion of shattered glass—a whirlwind of shards pelted against her skin and something caught against her arm. With a pained cry, her body was dragged down to the cemented ground. Clawed hands tore into her skin and she screamed as her body thrashed beneath her assailant with frenzied desperation.

"Have you seen her?" the woman wailed with bloodshot eyes. "Have you seen my daughter? She looked just like you!"

The raving hysterics soon gave way to gurgling gasps of breath. Soyun felt something warm and wet against her face before the emaciated woman was pushed away from her. A hand reached out to pull her up and she staggered forwards as she found herself upright again. Her heart drummed painfully against her ribs as she tasted iron on her tongue and she almost threw up on the spot.

"Go! Hurry!" her father yelled as another furious shriek pierced the air.

Her pulse accelerated with agonising frequency as she was pushed into the arms of the young boy ahead of them. He pulled her along with him and they continued to run down the dimly lit tunnel. Long abandoned vehicles passed in a blur of rusted metal and chipped paint. It felt like another life when she was cruising down roads surrounded by wispy prairie grass, the warmth of the sun on her face and a million shimmering diamonds reflecting off the sea on the horizon.

She could see a burst of sunlight at the end of the tunnel and she pushed herself harder, pumping her feet against the debris-encrusted ground. "Oh, sh—" the boy next to her cried out as they came to an abrupt stop. An old cargo truck was in the middle of their way to escape.

"C-Come on!" she urged as she hauled herself up its side.

Her father quickly caught up with them and he helped lift them up to the roof of the cargo hold. Fresh cuts and bruises decorated his face from his scrapes with the infected. The boy grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her to the top with him. They had turned to help her father when he suddenly cried out in pain. His fingers slipped from the edge and she saw a group of infected gathered under his feet. One of them had sunk a knife into his lower back.

"No, Dad!" she screamed, holding onto his arm with a death-like vice. Her small hands trembled and her knuckles turned bone white from the strained effort.

"Soyun... Soyun." Her father looked at her pleadingly, as if begging her for forgiveness. "Daddy loves you."

In the next moment, he had slipped from her grip and plunged down into the depths of the tunnel below. Her scream pierced the air like a gunshot and her body lurched forward. The boy quickly grabbed hold of her waist, dragging her back until they both tumbled over the opposite side of the truck. She felt all the breath leave her lungs as they landed hard on the ground. Her vision swam as she opened her eyes with a groan.

"Soyun! Get up, we need to go!" the boy called as he tugged on her shirt anxiously. Laughter echoed loudly from the tunnel behind them and she scrambled to her feet. She held onto his hand, knowing that she was probably crushing his fingers with how tightly she was grasping them.

Once they had put distance between them and the infected, her knees finally buckled and she collapsed to the ground. An anguished cry broke from her lips as tears streamed down her face. Her body quivered in the light of the setting sun as her heart shattered between her hands.

"Daddy loves you." The words kept resounding in her head over and over again.