Not Just A Monster || Sweet Home

5| Underground Shelter

Soo-Nico P.O.V
One Year Later...

As I made my way down the dimly lit tunnel, the sound of my boots echoed off the damp walls as they splashed through the murky water pooling on the ground. I held up my trusty flashlight, its beam cutting through the darkness and illuminating my path.

This tunnel was familiar to me - I had crossed it countless times before, often on my runs. As I walked, my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Hyun-su, for whom I had been searching almost every day.

It has been 365 days since the devastating attack on the stadium, and in that time, much has changed. Of the group I was with at the time, only a few of us have managed to survive. There were around 400 others whom I didn't know, but we all sought refuge underground to escape the chaos and destruction above.

Eun-yoo accompanied me as she searched for her brother. She still believed he was alive but I wasn't one to judge or give her hopes up. So I kept my opinion to myself. We kept quiet as I held on to the strap of my bag tightly we continued getting to the end of the tunnel green lights began to flash.

" Five minutes to roll call."

" Please halt your actions and return to your stations."

" Five minutes to roll call."

" Return to your assigned living quarters and get ready for roll call."

As we were being accounted for, In-hwan's voice resonated through the intercom - a daily routine. I walked towards my designated living space, accompanied by the others, and noticed a group of people standing in a corner.

Upon closer inspection, I identified them as Yeong-su, Mrs. Cha, Chan-yeong, and U-seok. I observed U-seok's gaze fixed on the forearm of a little boy, his expression pensive.

" When did he get this scar?" U-seok questioned

" last night." Mrs. Cha spoke.

" it looks fresher than that."

" Sir, it doesn't seem that serious." Chan-yeoung butted in, "What do you know? We have to make sure. Little kids can be monsters too." U-seok clarified bringing out his knife and getting ready to cut his arm testing to see if he was a monster but I stepped in before he could do anything.

I grabbed the blade of the knife squeezing it tightly in my hand. " Start with me." Sliding my hand quickly down on the knife making sure it cut my fingers I stared at U-seok hard. " good enough?" he then grabbed my hand squeezing at my fingers where it had been cut I didn't winch in pain.

" I need to be more cautious with you. You seem to enter and leave this place without any trouble, but before U-seok could finish his sentence, he was interrupted. ' enough, sir, but we have more urgent matters to attend to,' Chan-yeong said, bringing the conversation to a halt. Staring at U-seok I pulled away walking off pasted him.

Prick. I mumbled in between my teeth. Hoping it was loud enough to hear.

As I headed towards the restroom, I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. With my free hand, I pushed it open, but it wasn't very clean. Nevertheless, I decided to proceed with my intention of cleaning my bloodied hand. I walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet, letting the water flow over my hand. I lathered up the soap and began scrubbing off the blood that coated my hand.