Lost Boys {Book Two}

Don't Let Me Go Down This Road Again

Xiaojun was pissed.

He'd been waiting for the others to return with anything, food, water, supplies, but instead, all he got was some curly-haired frat boy who claimed he was a doctor, telling them all that Yuta, Yukhei and Yangyang were on their way to Busan.

Busan.

Yangyang was already far, far away from him.

He didn't know if he wanted to cry or scream. He'd been separated from Yangyang once before, not too long ago, and it had been the hardest few months of his life. Not knowing if he was dead, shot somewhere and left in the woods to be eaten by the animals.

-

October, 2018
3 Months After Start of the Plague

"Stop! By the order of the Emperor of the New China!" A soldier's voice called through the tunnel. 

Xiaojun and Yangyang rushed at the door again, throwing their shoulders into it so hard, he was sure their bones would break before the branch holding the door closed. Just as tears began to spill down Xiaojun's cheeks, a loud crack sounded and the branch broke, and the doors flung apart.

Yangyang jumped out of the cellar, turning and reaching out to pull Xiaojun up, but he'd paused on the steps, turning quickly to help Jia. Instead of pushing her ahead, all he could do was stare at her figure, slumped at the bottom of the stairs. Blood soaked her hair and pooled around her skull.

"No!" Xiaojun reached down and grabbed her, feeling the warmth of the puddle through his shoes. The shot had buried itself in the back of her neck.

"We have to go," Yangyang said from up above. He pointed to the woods. "I don't want to, but we-"

Before he could finish, the soldiers turned the corner, their guns raised. One of the soldiers had his arm bandaged with Jia's blue scarf.

Xiaojun grabbed Yangyang's outstretched hands and used the stone wall as a foothold to push himself up. 

He ran furiously beside Yangyang, lifting the heavy, metal door and slamming it shut behind him.

The sun was stronger than ever, beating down on the partially scorched grass. Giant rocks covered in parched and dying moss spread out over the landscape, creating an impenetrable wall. The next house was a tiny square on the horizon. 

The door clattered open behind them. The soldiers moved steadily across the lawn as he reloaded his gun.

"Come on," Xiaojun said as he grabbed Yangyang's arm and pulled him toward the forest they had come through a few nights before. They made their way in and out of the trees, the thick shrubs ripping at his calves. Far beyond Jia's house, past the tree line, a cracked road opened into a neighborhood .

A bullet buried itself deep into a tree in front of Yangyang. "They're trying to kill us," he yelled, as he jumped a rotten log. Xiaojun kept running, and for a moment the soldiers disappeared behind a stretch of tall brush.

"There," he said, pointing to a house overgrown with grass. They took off behind it, pushing through the gate that was barely hanging on its hinges.