It has almost been an hour since Kahei started reading. She was about to finish the fourth chapter of the book she's reading, when she heard screaming coming from outside the window.

The library has enormous windows which made it easier for Kahei to see what is happening outside. Her eyes focused on a woman running as fast as she could. She could not decipher what was happening because it looked like the woman was being chased by her husband – who looked nothing like a normal person.

Kahei kept observing the couple from afar. After what seemed like a few minutes, the woman tripped on a rock and her husband was able to catch her. Brows furrowed, Kahei was shocked when she saw the man bit her wife's neck. Blood poured out relentlessly from the woman's neck. Kahei's body moved faster than she anticipated as she tore her eyes off the couple and focused on something much more important than watching them – her safety.

"Mrs. Yoon!! Come and help me barricade the doors!!" Kahei went to the library's entrance and locked it. She then started to push some of the tables towards the door.

The baffled librarian soon joined Kahei in barricading the door. With all their might, they were able to barricade the door with tables and bookshelves.

The two were leaning towards a bookshelf, panting. "What's going on, dear?" Mrs. Yoon asked Kahei.

"I don't know. I saw this..." Kahei couldn't find her words to explain what's happening. "there's this...horrible thing that happened outside. A man bit his wife. I don't know if it's an abuse, an assault, all I know is that something is not right here."

"Why did you lock us in here, then? Shouldn't we go outside and ask for help?"

"We're not sure if there's more people like that out there. If we go out without knowing anything, we might get in trouble." Kahei answered.

Deep inside, Kahei was already panicking. She didn't exactly know what to do at this point. For the next seconds, she kept on thinking and thinking what would be her next move. That was until she saw her phone on top of her desk.

"Stay here. I just need to do something." Kahei left Mrs. Yoon as she went to get her phone.

She grabbed her phone and dialed her parents' number. The first person that she called was her dad. Each ring that she hears from the line made her anxious. Kahei sighed in relief when her dad picked up.

"Hello? Dad? Are you and mom okay? Something's happening here and I don't know what to do. A man bit her wife and blood star–"

"Calm down, sweetie. Your mom and I are fine. We already know what's happening and we're both worried about you. Did those people get you? Are you hurt? Where are you now?" Kahei can sense her father's worried tone.

"I...I'm fine. That person...I mean, those monsters are outside." Kahei couldn't dare to call those monsters like that man outside as a person anymore. "I'm at the library right now. We barricaded the entrance so they won't be able to get in."

"That's my girl. I knew you could think of something." Kahei's father smiled. "Alright Kahei, listen to me carefully. We're going to send someone to your location to pick you up. I hope you understand that it's too dangerous for your mom or I to go outside and pick you up. I can assure you that I'm going to send one of our best bodyguards to pick you up. For the meantime, please, try your best to keep safe. Don't let those people get you. If anything happens, don't hesitate to hurt them."

Hurt them? Wouldn't I become a monster too if I do that?

"What do you mean hurt them? Won't talking to them work?" Kahei was perplexed. Never in her life did she dare to hurt or kill someone.

"Kahei, I'm being very serious right now. It's either you fight or die. Mark my words." Their conversation was cut short when she heard ruckus from the other side of the line. "I have to go now, sweetie. Please be safe. I told the bodyguard to text you when he's near you. I love you."

The line went dead even before Kahei could tell her father 'I love you' back.

***

Sooyoung is starting to lose her nerve as the only sounds that she can hear are either screaming, growling, or snarling. She covered her ears in hopes to deafen the sound.

It took her a while to gain her strength back. She carefully let go of her ears. Sooyoung closed her eyes and took deep breaths as she reminded herself, this is not how your parents raised you, Sooyoung. You're much stronger than this.

Sooyoung opened her eyes. She felt determined to overcome whatever consequence this is. Sooyoung walked further through the hallways in a much slower and quieter manner. She saw her dancemate running towards her direction. Sooyoung slightly hid to the wall next to her so that the boy won't see her. The boy, together with the feral person chasing him, passed by Sooyoung without noticing her.

She peeked on the corner to check if there are more people coming towards her way. Coincidently, there aren't anymore people there. She only saw those corpse-looking figures standing and apparently blocking the hallway.

"Could this day get any worse?" Sooyoung whispered to herself.

To her luck, just in front of the wall that she was hiding at, she saw the door that leads to their props closet. That room is quite small, but Sooyoung had no time to complain.

She carefully watched the corpses and noticed that they will start to react whenever they hear or see someone. An ambulance's siren was blaring from the outside as they started growling. These motherfuckers are drawn by sound.

Before she could hide inside the closet, Sooyoung knew that she had to make sure she won't get caught by those monsters. She looked everywhere to find anything that could help her. The day just got better for Sooyoung when she picked up some keys beside her.

She carefully held the keys in her hand and prepared herself to throw it to the monsters' direction. Mentally counting to three, Sooyoung threw the keys as far as she could. The dingling sound caught the monsters' attention as they headed towards where the keys fell. Sooyoung did a good job throwing it to the very end of the hallway.

Sooyoung took this opportunity to head to the props closet. She turned the knob and was happy knowing that it was unlocked. As Sooyoung entered the small, dark space, she immediately locked the door. The locking sound might've been nosier than expected because those monsters at the hallway started to growl again.

"Think Sooyoung, think. Where would be the safest place for now? A place where these motherfuckers won't dare to go to." Thinking of a place at this hour is quite difficult, considering the fact that there are zombies out there who could kill you.

An imaginary light bulb appeared on top of Sooyoung's head as she snapped her fingers. "The library. No one goes there anymore."

***

Kahei already told Mrs. Yoon about her father's plan to get them out of the library. It was Kahei's idea to let the old woman come with her since she wouldn't leave the poor woman all by herself at a time like this – where you could die in a blink of an eye.

Rubbing the back of Mrs. Yoon's back to comfort her, Kahei sighed as she stared at the glass window behind. Compared to earlier, it was eerily quiet. There were no humans nor monsters outside. Kahei hoped that things would stay that way.

The banging sound of the door surprised both Kahei and Mrs. Yoon. Fear took over Kahei's body as she carefully stepped towards the door. The bookshelves and tables kept on moving as the banging presumed.

Frightened by the sound, the librarian hid under a table while covering her ears. Kahei knew that she couldn't ask for Mrs. Yoon's help at the moment. Without knowing else what to do, Kahei grabbed the largest book she could find, in hopes to use it as a weapon against the monsters outside.

The banging continued and after what seemed like five minutes, the entrance doorway was now conpletely opened. The bookshelves fell on the ground and the tables were moved to the sides. Boy, these monsters are strong

Kahei positioned herself to hit whatever would attack her right now. She grasped the book tightly as she prepared to swing it. A tall figure entered the library as she hurriedly closed the door behind her.

Kahei was confused for a second when the figure started to push the bookshelves and tables back to its original position – where it barricaded the door.

While the figure was facing backward, Kahei slowly approached her from behind. She was about to slam the book on what seemed to be a girl's head when the latter turned to face her. She grabbed the book on Kahei's hands before she could even hit her.

"It's okay. I'm not one of them." The girl looked straight into Kahei's eyes. She showed Kahei her eyes, telling the other that she's normal. Kahei nodded in response.

"I'm gonna need you to keep quiet, okay? No need to freak out. I'll put this book down and we'll carefully move away from the door, yeah?" Kahei nodded once again.

They carefully stepped backwards while keeping their gazes unto each other. Kahei wasn't sure whether to trust this girl or not, but since the girl hasn't attacked her yet, she chose to trust her.

Once they reached Kahei's usual spot, the girl let go of the book and Kahei carefully sat down. Mrs. Yoon returned to Kahei's side and eyed the other girl.

"Okay umm, well, first of all, you don't need to be afraid of me. I'm completely normal and I don't intend to hurt any of you. My name is Sooyoung and I came from the dance academy next door. I thought no one was here so yeah, I went here."

"Umm...Sooyoung...I'm Kahei and this is Mrs. Yoon, the librarian." Kahei stretched out her hand for Sooyoung to shake. The other girl held Kahei's hand as they shook hands.

"Can I ask you a question?" Kahei said.

"Shoot me." Sooyoung replied.

"What is it like out there?"

Sooyoung took a deep breath. "Well, as you expected, it's chaos. I, myself, couldn't even believe that I'm still alive right now. There were lots of zombies out th–"

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by zombies?" Kahei asked.

"You know, those corpse-looking monsters outside. They're so wild and beasty-like. I find it disgusting whenever I see them." Sooyoung explained as if it was nothing. On the other hand, Kahei couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"The dance academy is quite far from here. How did you manage to go here from there without any scratches or bites?"

"Good question. Let's see then. I guess those skills that my parents' taught me paid off." Sooyoung shrugged.

Kahei didn't ask her anymore questions as she felt like the other girl was trying to hide some things from her. Sooyoung noticed the silence that came after.

"So, yeah, umm you really don't have to be afraid of me. I'm one of the good guys. I assure you that those zombies didn't bite or scratched me."

"What happened back at the academy? Were all of them turned into those monsters outside?" Kahei suddenly asked.

"I don't really know for sure. I didn't plan on staying there to die of course. If I remembered correctly, during our dance class, one of my dancemate started to vomit blood and the next thing we knew, she started attacking us." Sooyoung tried her best to remember the things that happened a while ago.

"Was there any source where your dancemate could've gotten sick? Did she drink, eat, or was even exposed to something?" Kahei was desperate for answers. She wanted to know how and why all of this was happening.

"We only saw each other at least twice a week so I don't really know what she has been doing. She was fine when we started our class though. She only turned into a zombie after vomitting blood so I guess that correlates to something."

Kahei was mentally taking down notes about  the zombies that Sooyoung was telling her about. She's sure that if she wants to survive this, she should've at least have an information about their enemy.

"What did you notice on your dancemate's features when she turned into a zombie?" Kahei questioned.

"She completely turned into something that isn't human. Her eyes were white as milk and she was entirely pale just like a corpse. She was drooling like when a dog has rabies." Sooyoung stopped and began to think. "Oh and, her teeth were bloodstained color and she was shaking and twitching the entire time too."

"When she saw you, did she attack you?"

"Yep, she did. It was as if she wanted me dead right on the spot." Sooyoung said.

"We should remember all the things you said. It's crucial to know something about zombies so we would know what they look like when we're faced with one."

Sooyoung nodded. "How 'bout you guys? What happened here? Why did you barricade the door?"

"Oh, there weren't any zombies in here. We just barricaded the door because I saw someone got bitten outside." Kahei replied.

"Why did you want to lock yourselves here? You could've rode a car or something when you saw that a person bit someone."

"We're not sure if there are more people like that out there. It's safer inside than to risk going outside."

"Point taken." Sooyoung stated. "So, any plan to get out of here? We wouldn't survive a day in here without any food."

"Actually, my dad sent someone to pick me up. I'm planning to take Mrs. Yoon with me. Do you want to come with us?" Kahei looked at Sooyoung.

"How are you sure that that person would arrive here alive? What if he or she dies out there?"

"I'm pretty sure he won't. My dad said that he's one of our best bodyguards."

"Ooooh, a bodyguard. You must be rich then." Sooyoung winked at Kahei. The latter rolled her eyes.

"Are you coming or not?" Kahei asked the annoying girl.

"Yeah I am. There are low chances of surviving in here so I'd rather go out there and fight my way for survival."