"So...If you're still tired, you can sleep on my shoulder?" Wu-jin said to me, winking.
"Hey! Cut it out, moron. She's with me" Su-hyeok glared, standing up and walking over to me.
He sat between me and Wu-jin, wrapping his arm around me.
I lay my head onto his shoulder.
As we continued sitting by the fire, I slowly closed my eyes again, feeling exhausted.
"Hold on" Nam-ra suddenly said, making me open my eyes.
"Did you hear that?"
"No, what is it?" Su-hyeok asked.
"What? Is someone out there?" Hyo-ryeong asked quickly.
"Listen" Nam-ra continued.
I concentrated, listening closely, trying to hear whatever she meant.
The others and I looked into the direction Nam-ra was staring at, into the night sky.
"What's happening? What is it?" Hyo-ryeong was scared.
"I don't see anything" Cheong-san said, looking off into the distance.
Suddenly I saw a small red dot in the sky.
"Wait"
Then I jumped up, seeing Cheong-san and Nam-ra follow me.
"Look! A helicopter!" I yelled, recognizing the thing as it came closer and closer.
The others stood up from the ground too as we looked at the helicopter, that was flying over Hyosan.
We stared at it, as it got closer.
"Hey! Fire!" Cheong-san yelled, grabbing a piece of wood from the burning fire.
"They're coming!" Wu-jin yelled as he grabbed one too.
"This way, it's this way" Dae-su screamed, jumping up and down while waving his hands.
"Hey! Hey!" Everyone yelled.
Some of us grabbed more flaming sticks as I did so too.
I grabbed the wood and waved it over my head.
"Over here!" I yelled, together with Hyo-ryeong.
We were desperately trying to get their attention.
I climbed onto the railing, as Dae-su did the same and kept waving the stick in my hand.
I saw Su-hyeok standing behind me.
He placed one hand on my waist, while he waved with the other.
"Be careful!" He reminded me, before yelling at the helicopter again.
He was holding me, so if I fell, he'd stop my fall.
My cheeks flushed red at the realization, but I quickly continued yelling.
"OVER HERE!" Ji-min shouted.
As we continued screaming, the people in the helicopter must've seen us, since they came closer and closer.
I saw Joon-yeong pressing his hands together and praying for them to see and save us.
Bright light illuminated our faces as the light from the helicopter shined directly onto us.
"Come on!" Dae-su yelled.
I could feel Su-hyeok lift me from the railing as I threw away the burning stick.
Su-hyeok pulled me by my wrist to where the helicopter was nearing.
Everyone jumped up and down, hoping they'd finally save us.
As the helicopter slowly stopped in the air, Hyo-ryeong hugged Ji-min and Dae-su let out a cry of joy.
Su-hyeok lifted me up and spun around, smiling.
"Were gonna get out of here!" He yelled, trying to be louder than the whirring.
I nodded and hugged him tightly when he let me down, feeling joy spread inside me.
On-jo was laughing as Cheong-san wrapped his arms around her, smiling.
Nam-ra, though, was holding her ears.
The helicopter whirring must be even louder to her.
"Over here! Over here!" The others kept yelling.
The wind from the helicopter was pushing us back a bit and I would've fallen onto Su-hyeok, if I hadn't caught myself.
I shielded my eyes with my right hand as the others copied my move.
The helicopter didn't land, but stopped in the air right above the roof and I saw a door open.
Soldiers dressed in black started coming down with a rope.
As they turned to us, they loaded their guns.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Dae-su shouted, being startled by their weapons.
I raised my hands up in the air, not knowing what else to do as squeezed my eyes almost fully shut, trying to prevent dust from getting into them, but still wanting to be able to see what was going on.
Two more soldiers started getting down as they stared at us, raising their guns.
After the four soldiers had come down, the helicopter flew away from the roof, but not very far away.
As Cheong-san approached a soldier, the man instructed us to get down.
"Sir. Can you please help us?" Dae-su asked as I opened my eyes fully again.
Instead of answering Dae-su, he said:
"Face down on the ground! Get down!"
The others and I quickly followed his instructions and got down.
I was lying on the ground, as Su-hyeok got down next to me.
I looked to my right, seeing Nam-ra there.
She looked at me, concern clearly visible in her expression.
Two soldiers started checking our temperatures and I was now concerned for Nam-ra too.
She was trying to cover one half of her face with her hair.
As one got to Su-hyeok, he confirmed that Su-hyeok was okay.
Then the soldier got to me and the thermal scanner beeped.
"Clear" He said, making me exhale in relief.
The dream from before still had shaken me up a bit.
Then he got to Nam-ra and scanned her.
The thermal scanner beeped once again, but in a different tone.
The soldier checked the temperature.
"Temperature is 34.5. Providing a warming blanket."
I relaxed, knowing that he thought she had hypothermia, since her temperature wasn't too cold.
Then they wrapped the special blanket around her shoulders.
I then heard another soldier give information to the others.
"We'll rescue after the mission's complete."
"They're going to rescue us" I heard Su-hyeok whisper.
"It's gonna be okay now"
I smiled and nodded.
"You can get up now" They told us.
I started standing up again, as the others did so too.
I saw Cheong-san wrap an arm around On-jo, making my mood lighten a bit.
"Are you the only survivors?"
"We don't really know. There are probably others." Cheong-san answered the soldier's question.
"We're going down for a few minutes." The soldiers told us.
"Wait right here"
"Are you not gonna rescue us?" Ji-min asked, fear in her voice.
"Yes, we will, so don't go anywhere. Don't do anything. Just wait here. Understand?"
I nodded as the others answered with a 'yes' or just humming.
"Let's go"
The soldiers ran to the railing, attaching their ropes to metal rings on the floor of the roof.
One after another, the went down by the side of the building, leaving one up here with us.
I looked at the others again.
"What do you think are they doing?" I asked loudly.
"Hmm. I don't know" Dae-su answered.
I could hear disappointment in his voice.
It must be, because we weren't saved immediately.
I was a bit disappointed too.
Why couldn't the helicopter take us to a safe place, while they did their 'mission'?
But the helicopter hadn't flown away that far and it's light was illuminating the inside of the school through the windows, which answered my question.
They need the helicopter for light and the mission probably won't take that long.
After the soldiers had gone down, I could hear glass breaking and gunshots.
They must be killing off the zombies there.
Nam-ra was holding her hands over her ears again, the gunshots being hurtfully loud to her.
"Hey" Dae-su approached me.
"Are they gonna kill all the zombies before they take us?"
Joon-yeong stepped towards us too.
"I don't think so" I shrugged.
"Yeah, there's only four of them" Joon-yeong added.
"But they're Special Mission, right?"
But we didn't answer his question, not knowing what to say.
I felt a bit bad.
Is today the 'we-don't-answer-Dae-su's-questions-day'?
"Are they looking for something?" Joon-yeong asked.
"Probably. I think they're heading to the science lab" I told him.
As the soldier on the roof with us talked to his 'teammates', I asked myself if they would be able to make it out of there.
But they had to.
They had guns.
As the soldiers started coming back up, the helicopter came closer again.
"We'll pull you up, one at a time" A soldier informed us.
"Stay still even if you're scared, okay?"
"You're not landing the chopper?" Hyo-ryeong asked loudly.
"We can't. It can get unstable. He's gonna pull you up, so don't worry"
I hugged Su-hyeok.
"You can't go all at once, so let's go one by one"
"We can't all go?" Cheong-san asked.
"We can take all of you, but it has to be one by one"
Everyone decided for Ji-min to go first.
The soldiers started fastening her to a rope.
Joon-yeong and Dae-su smiled at her, wanting to cheer her up.
She smiled back at all of us, even at me as she was starting to get pulled up.
But my smile immediately disappeared as Ji-min stopped mid-air.
"Cancel the operation"
End of Chapter 27
I ask myself, what would have happened, if they hadn't stopped rescuing them. Like then On-jo's father would have gone there for nothing.
But I also think it's really shitty, that they didn't rescue them just because of Eun-ji.
I mean, if she hadn't attacked Cheol-soo, everyone would've been fine.
Maybe they would've also rescued Mi-jin, Ha-ri and the others with them and the father of On-jo could have survived somehow.
But we can't have a happy ending, can we?
~Brianna