Sundown, observed Jeongguk, grunting as he heaved himself up to stand over a hood of someone's no-good car, tyres sunk in the now-shallow swamp. It's fucking sundown.

The swamp was deep, bottomless further away, covering every inch of his path onward. Seemed like the road was ravaged. The green wilderness was the only living thing looking down at Jeongguk's dilemma, because Taehyung?

Taehyung didn't know how to swim.

Taehyung, the kid Jeongguk wasn't planning to face right now, or ever, in the near future.

More importantly, they have to shuffle past the metropolitan since turned blokes inside these buildings have echolocation that serves them good after dusk, even if it becomes difficult for other hunters, some nasty Fireflies, and never-to-comply government army men in the dark to apprehend Areum, Jeongguk, and Taehyung on their little task.

Areum was nudging muck with the toe of her sneakers, analysing the area in foraging for access inside the faculties at either side.

Taehyung, on the other hand, was poking his head around in the plants, searching for his secret doorway or something. Jeongguk shook his head, muttering under his breath, "Kid's got it all wrong."

Which was soon pinned down by Taehyung's whoop, his goofy grin directed only at Areum, "Hey, look what I found!" Areum trotted over to him, Jeongguk's march right behind. In the overgrown shrubs, there opened up a hole in the building that led down to its basement. Allowing himself, Jeongguk passed Taehyung a quick smile. Areum patted him, switched on her flashlight, and stepped in.

"Hold up," Jeongguk frowned. He produces his protective face mask from his bag, gesturing Areum to do the same. "There might be spores down there." She nods, fitting her own on her head, pausing at Taehyung, seeing a problem.

However, Taehyung reassured, smiling a little, "Oh, not to worry. I can breathe that stuff just fine." Spores were yellowish flakes in the air bred by the rotting bodies of the zombies, and if you inhale that shit, you get turned.

Hearing Taehyung could do that, well, impressed Jeongguk. With a final lift of their chins, they all troop in, Areum leading, Jeongguk at the back, and Taehyung in the middle.

The walls of the tunnel were rough, and the basement opens up to rooms, cubicles of workplaces with tethered furniture sprawled uselessly across the dust-covered flooring. Spores all over in the air just as much as dust particles but downright lethal.

Jeongguk and Areum draw their flashlights across the cracked walls, disgusted under their masks. Rotten bodies covered in fleshy fungus spreads from the bulge of the body and crawls out in every direction of the wall it sticks with. The place would've reeked if not for their masks. Taehyung felt like retching.

A moan of a human and the three pause in their tracks, wary. Under a fallen boulder lay a twitching, uniformed man with his mouth damp with sweat, his dark eyes teary and helpless. "Please," he confronts achingly, "My mask broke... don't let me turn into one of those... things." Jeongguk visibly gulped, but behind his mask, his face was scrunched up in determination. Taehyung stared at him in wonderment. Areum seemed okay.

Jeongguk cocks his silenced pistol and puts a bullet in the man's head.

Areum shuffles past, finding a staircase. "Here," her muffled voice informed the boys, who looked over to her. With painfully loud creaks, she ascends, Jeongguk and Taehyung just behind.

However, the landing they reached was squished by the ceiling toppled down, a small gap enough to squeeze in through if the boulder that was preventing the ceiling to fall down completely was heaved aside a little.

Through the gap, Jeongguk could see the tunnel leading up somewhere. With a deep-throated grunt, with Areum's help, Jeongguk pushed the boulder, Taehyung instantly squirming through the gap, followed by Areum.

As soon Jeongguk attempted his turn, the ceiling gives in, large rubble showering down with dust puffing around him, obscuring his vision.

Seconds later, his path was completely blocked, Areum and Taehyung on the other side, along with that, all the racket triggered the many undead in the building, their shrieks and screeches sharp and sickening.

"Gguk!" Areum's cry behind the wreckage cuts out the zombie's, shaking Jeongguk up, "Gguk! Are you okay?!"

Jeongguk pats his sleeve where a small cut bleeds profusely, coughing and answering thickly, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll find a way to you, just move ahead, okay?" Areum replied in affirmation, her footsteps receding.

He pulls himself up, spluttering and regaining his alluring demeanor, his features tautened whilst he scanned for another opening for a way forward.

He glances up but the climb up is impossible, so he jerked his head sideways, peering at another tunnel to his left that's almost hidden under the massive rubble. He got on all fours and crawls in, time seemingly perpetual in Areum's absence.

Rubbing the grime off his hand, he approaches a room, an evidently close moan reverberating pass the muck-covered space. A stalker and couple of runners grope around in the next room, squelching and prodding for food.

Jeongguk had no choice: he has to get in full combat mood. Thus, he advances head-first, firing at their heads, knocking them down with three bullets alone. Yet, the noise attracted more, charging unto Jeongguk, who is out of bullets.

With one swipe motion, he takes out his vicious dagger, lashing out at anything that targeted him, keeping them away from biting him, because God, he would never want that.

One after another, his grunts bouncing off the void, the undead piled before him, until nothing was there for him to kill. He was panting hard, sweat beading on his damp temples, slipping down his sharp jawline. Areum and the kid, he remembered, dashing to the next rooms in search of them.

Areum was in trouble when Jeongguk found her, struggling to keep a stalker off her, her hands weaponless. Jeongguk ran to her, attacking the zombie's throat with his dagger, which falls to its knees not moments later.

A second of silence later, Areum managed through her labored breath, glad, engulfing Jeongguk in a bone-cracking hug, murmuring savagely, "Next time, I save your ass." He chortles, ruffling her already messed-up hair. They upheld each other's gaze, the moment growing tense.

Taehyung barged in from nowhere, out of breath, hands on his knees, huffing out, "Sorry to ruin your little moment, guys," at which the very two pull apart, flushing, "But I found the way to the roof."

Shuffling rather unnecessarily, Areum and Jeongguk regard Taehyung, clueless and scarlet in the unilluminated hallway. Wordless, they accompany Taehyung up the never-ending stairs, their fruitful climb concluded in gulps of fresh air, a wooden plank abridged to another roof for them to cross.  

-

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