HIDEOUT: LEE TAEYONG

60

soyoung

i kneeled down the soft and wet grass, watching taeyong slit open the walker's stomach, blood already splattering on his face as we both cringed out of disgust once we ugly scent entered our nose. "fuck..." taeyong exhaled sharply, pinching his nose and began to hesitate.

"as i warned, it smells worse than you think." chenle spoke, frowning and immediately letting his soft pale hands dip down inside the soggy, wet and cold opened stomach. "hana told me that if we ever came across this situation again, we have to tell you about this so we will survive." jisung explained, and everytime they talked about hana, i couldn't help but smile and suddenly get teary eyes.

"she also told us to be brave." chenle added, casually smearing all the blood on his face and body, also helping jisung out by spreading it on his back.

"is this really a good idea?" taeyong said, disgusted and strained, staring at the walker with a grimace look. "yeah, if you want to live." i explained and finally began to copy what the two youngsters were doing.

i let my shaking hands soak in the walker's bloods and organs, it felt so icy and mushy. everything got worse when i began to smear it on my body and face, the smell was so awful i couldn't even explain how bad it was. taeyong was slowly observing how i was doing it, his face puckered together and i could see how much he didn't want to do anything of this but he had to... it's the only way to survive.

"it's not that bad right?" chenle asked, trying to cheer me up and i fakely nodded my head with a smile. "it has to be done, we still need to return home right? to our hideout." i paused. "aren't you guys excited to go home?"

"yeah, it's been so long. i wonder how many survived." jisung said, taeyong ignoring his words and began to do what we all did.

"oh... well, not a lot survived, that's what jaehyun told me." both of the kids' lips frowned, falling into a pout.

"shall we go and help renjun?" jisung nudged chenle, tilting his head toward renjun who was refusing while jeno and jaemin forced their bloody hand to connect on renjun's body. "get that fucking thing off me." renjun shreeched making me sigh, that would even cause more attention. "yeah, i don't think jaemin and jeno can do that alone." chenle said, both of them left without saying anything else, leaving me and taeyong.

everyone was in a hurry, the walkers unexpectedly moved faster than we think, that's why everyone was stressed, making everything difficult because of the idea chan came up with.

i looked over at taeyong, he was all finished, blood staining on his face, clothes and body. he had eyes attention over at kun, kun who was helping chan with smearing blood.

"are we really bringing him to our hideout?" taeyong asked, disagreeing.

"yes taeyong, we can't just leave him here alone, he is still a human being and he has done as much mistakes as all of us did. we aren't ruthless taeyong, and i hope you could be too." i paused, pushing away the walker from us and scooting closer to him. "i know what he did to you was horrible, and he had his own reasons... but that was the past."

"we have to leave all our past behind, at least change and start because the generation we are in now is horrible and cruel, we can't continue having enemies that aren't walkers but humans and it will make everything more difficult and dangerous. maybe we will in the future, but please not now." i sighed, looking away from him and on the grass instead.

"i just need you to avoid chan, you don't have to get along with him, or become friends with him. please just don't cause any trouble, i'll tell him the same okay?" i asked, taeyong completely ignoring me but continued staring. "hey, i'm asking you a favor. can you do that?"

he ignored.

"i can't promise you that, but i will try." taeyong explained. "for you i will."

i smiled.

before i could open my mouth to say something, i was cut off by doyoung. "okay everyone, the herd is very close and it's time for us to try and walk pass through this fucking swarm of walkers. if we don't make it, that's sad at least we tried, trying is better than giving up." doyoung said. "it's better if we spread around, with that they won't easily notice us."

i could the terror in everyone's eyes as soon as we began to walk toward the herd.

"we'll get through this." taeyong assured, smiling. he edged his hand toward mine ever so slightly, until i felt his fingertips brush my hand. i unfurled my fingers and let his slip around mine until i could feel the heat of his palm pressed against my own. "yeah, we will." i positively said.

one step, another step, the third step, the fourth step and finally we were all walking through the herd.

it was the most horrific experience i've ever tried, especially because the walkers could out of the blue notice that we're humans and briskly attack us with their gruesome bites. it makes everything worse because i was claustrophobic, imagine i couldn't even handle being in crowded busses, and now in this swarm of walkers, swarm of monsters that could kill me. i hated every second of it, just how the walkers were bluntly bumping against my shoulder and taeyong squeezing my hand and slightly pulling me closer to him so i wouldn't get lost and alone in the crowd. their faces nearing ours, snapping their jaws and was possibly observing if we were really one of them.

i looked over at my left side, seeing xiaojun and hendery walking beside each other, just like us, their body stiff and their eyes never budged but only focused forward.

at my right side, i saw taeil and yuta surrounding sicheng for protection.

i looked forward and saw a giant boy, so clear to see because he was so tall that he looked like a tower compared to everyone. once he turned his head around, slowly and gradually, it was yukhei with a worried smile on his lips when our eyes connected. i smiled back, scared.

"t... taeyong.." i whispered, shutting my eyes tightly and once i opened them again, i began to see dark spots around me.

taeyong noticed my sudden actions and worriedly pulled me closer to him. "what's wrong?" he asked, but i couldn't clearly hear his voice since all the sounds surrounding me began to blur out, just like my sight. it was here where i noticed that i was slowly passing out because of the small crowd i was a part of.

i couldn't handle it no more and fell on taeyong's arms, luckily he was strong enough to carry me so i would avoid collapsing on the floor, making sure everything seemed normal for the walkers suffocating us.

and the last thing i remembered was, darkness.