( CHAPTER SEVEN ; ROBBING A GROCERY STORE? )
You were sleeping peacefully when you heard someone shouting. "Oh my god!" You woke up to the sound and saw Dr. Oh in front of the door, looking at you with wide eyes. "What..?" You rubbed your half-lidded eyes. "Oh, you're back. You scared me." He stopped shouting and told you.
"Yeah, I'm back.. I got the things you told me to get." You said while trying to fix your tangled hair, you looked like a real mess so it was no wonder someone assumed you were an infected or a ghost. "People are going out today, will you come too? I'll give you money again." He said while pointing at the people outside the gym.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." You said and motioned for him to leave, and he did. You picked up the cat under your chair and locked it in the extra room of the gym along with your eco-bag full of money and necessities. You took your knife from the table and went outside the gym along with the other residents who were willing to go outside for money.
"Good grief, seriously.." The cleaner guy said. "There's nothing out there. Everyone's mistaken." He finished. "How many times do I have to tell you? Think of our kids." His wife said while she put an apron on him. You made your presence known and spoke. "There are infected people out there."
Everyone looked at you for a moment and you were still trying to remove some tangled hair strands. "Oh. You're back, what was it like outside? Were there many infected?" The cleaner guy asked. "One moment you're fine and alone, and then someone comes to ambush you from behind and try to take a bite of you." You said while swaying your knife in the air and trying to scare him.
The wife of the cleaner looked at you and asked you something. "Did you sleep down here?" She asked a little worried. "I don't have my keycard or any spare key. I'm fine though, thanks for asking." You said while trying to assure her that you slept fine, even if it was a little uncomfortable.
"Everyone." Dr. Oh said while counting money and handing it to everyone in the room, including you. "Please remember. Safety comes first, okay?" He said and handed money to the cleaner guy. "I heard that your wife passed away. May she rest in peace." He said to the doctor. They both bowed at each other and Dr. Oh gave him more money because of his comment. "Thank you." The cleaner said.
Sae-bom and Yi-Hyun joined everyone. "Give us money too." Sae-bom said while holding her hand out. "But you said the infected are out there." Dr. Oh said. "Yes, and since I'm paid by the government, I should lead everyone." She explained and Dr. Oh gave her some money too. "I hope you and your friend over there choke on money." He told her and glanced at you.
You looked away while smiling awkwardly at the wall because you were actually guilty and asked for more than enough money yesterday. "And some for Yi-Hyun." Sae-bom said and Dr. Oh turned to Yi-Hyun. "Are you going to take it?" He asked him. "No, thank you." Yi-Hyun denied the offer.
You put your knife down somewhere and walked up to Andrew to get your keycard back. "Do you have my keycard with you right now?" You asked and he took it out of his pocket and held it in front of you. "Don't worry, no one went in. The lady from the 4th floor gave us food last night." You took the keycard from his hand and put it in your pocket. "I see, thank you." You said and you both bid each other goodbye.
You walked to Sae-bom's direction and leaned on the wall beside her. It was funny because you remembered the interaction between you and him yesterday. It felt like everything was the same, except the situation of course.
You snapped out of your thoughts when Yi-Hyun spoke. "From now on, I will lead this group. Once you go outside, please be quiet." He ordered. "Why should we follow your orders?" The cleaner guy asked and his wife hit his arm.
"Because I'm sure you don't want to die." He answered. Sae-bom was eyeing every movement of Yi-Hyun and you were watching her do so. Her eyes shifted to Andrew suspiciously and you nudged her shoulder. "Did something happen between you two?" You curiously asked.
She nudged your shoulder back and looked at you. "Me? What about you?" She asked while smiling teasingly. "Oh come on.." You said and laughed silently while smiling at her too.
Yi-Hyun opened the sliding door and you took your knife and held it in your hand tightly so you wouldn't lose it. You all went outside one-by-one and you sighed. "Here we go again.." You said to yourself.
"Be careful!" Dr. Oh said from the inside while making a thumbs up sign.
"There really is no one out here." Sae-bom said while adjusting her protection helmet. "Maybe they all left without us." The cleaner guy said. You should really get to know the names of the people here..
Yi-Hyun quickly shushed him and looked around slowly. There was a loud noise and everyone looked behind startled. Dong-Hyun went outside and joined all of you. "Hi." He said while trying to catch his breath. "I want to help too." He said while raising his hand.
"So you can record and upload another video?" Sae-bom corrected. "I will get permission before I upload it. I promise!" He said and laughed. "I don't have any heart problems, but I think you almost gave me a heart attack." You said while laughing nervously with him. "Hi." He greeted everyone again.
"Let's hurry." Yi-Hyun told Sae-bom. "Follow me." He ordered. You all went to the front gate and there were people together from the other buildings gathered. They were holding water bottles and looked sick.
"Are you all okay? I heard you were infected." The cleaner asked them warily. You already had your suspicions high because you recognized the infected security guard from before. There were a few moments of silence and the guard spoke up. "There were some internal problems. A possibly infected person was found during a meeting, so we locked them up in the children's library." He said and looked around your group of people.
"Wasn't there one in your building too? Is that person okay? Did the condition worsen by any chance?" He asked while looking at Yi-Hyun and Sae-bom. "Mister." Sae-bom said and removed her helmet. "Don't you remember me?" She asked.
"Of course, I do. You aimed a gun at me yesterday morning." The security guard said. "Was that yesterday too?" You asked while whispering to Sae-bom. "Yeah, but it's not what I'm talking about." She whispered back to you while making sure no one else can hear. She turned back to the security guard suspiciously. "No, after that." Sae-bom said and Yi-Hyun put his hand over hers.
"Then is everyone safe except for the infected in the children's library?" Yi-Hyun asked him. "Yes, we told them to just stay home. And a few of us will be in charge of outer communication." The security guard explained.
"Mister! Stop recording, will you?" The lady beside the guard loudly requested. You put your right hand above Dong-Hyun's phone and he put his hand down and stopped recording. "I'm sorry for that." You smiled nervously at the lady in front.
"Then you didn't get boxed lunches?" The cleaner guy asked. "We've been waiting, but they didn't come. It looks like something outside has happened too." The security guard answered him. The cleaner guy ran to the doors of the gate and banged on it. "Excuse me, is anyone out there?" He shouted. Everyone was looking at him and his wife gasped when he turned around.
"Honey.." His wife said while pointing at her forehead. Her husband looked at his bloodied yellow gloves and tried to wipe it on his apron. "Are you going to stay here?" Yi-Hyun asked the guard who turned to him. "Yes." He answered. "Then keep waiting. We should get going now." Yi-Hyun told them and the cleaner guy went back beside his wife.
Dong-Hyun started recording again and you all started to leave. You were walking beside Sae-bom who was walking behind everyone with Yi-Hyun beside her. "What are they doing there?" Sae-bom asked. "They want to go outside." Yi-Hyun answered. "Do you think they're all infected?" You asked.
"Yes, they're afraid that the disease will occur again. And if they can't resist their thirst, they will look for more victims." Yi-Hyun said. "Don't look back, they're staring at us." You told Sae-bom who was gonna take a peek behind.
"What should we do now? Yi-Hyun asked. "The supermarket, there's still quite a lot left inside." You informed them. "You went there too?" Sae-bom asked you. "I just took a few things." You said.
You all arrived inside the supermarket and you took a shopping cart while still holding your knife in your left hand. "Those people seemed a bit weird, but they didn't look ill. Should we have just waited for boxed lunches too?" The cleaner guy asked. "Really? They looked ill to me." You said and shrugged.
"Let's go get food first." Yi-Hyun said. "Okay." The wife of the cleaner guy said and quickly tried to go in front but Sae-bom stopped her. "Get more water than food." She told her and let her go.
You stocked up on water, food, and a lot of canned tuna and cat food for your new cute little buddy.
The others were gathered together and you put your knife down your shopping cart and left it for now. "What is it?" You asked and looked at where they were facing and saw the blood on the floor. "Let's go." The cleaners and Andrew left and you were alone with Dong-Hyun.
Dong-Hyun started walking towards the direction of the blood trail and you quickly grabbed his arm and turned him to you. "What do you think you're doing?" You asked him. "I could get a lot of money from this, please come with me and allow me.." He begged and you were practically having a hard time trying to form words. "Okay." You said quickly and mentally facepalmed at your stupidity.
"Hello, my fans! This is Dong-Hyun. I'm at a supermarket, and there's blood on the floor." He said quietly while you were walking behind him. "My gosh. For all of you, I will risk everything and make really fun content." He said and you were both getting further into the room and made a turn. "I love you, my fans!" He said and the blood was getting more smeared.
You quickly stopped on your tracks and held Dong-Hyun by the back of his collar when you saw a woman kneeling down near a body. "Young lady, what are you doing there?" He asked and you looked at his back with a shocked face. "Why would you talk?!" You whisper-shouted behind him and hit his back.
The lady was repeatedly rubbing her hands together with hand sanitizer. "Young lady." He called again and the lady abnormally twisted her neck and turned to the both of you. "If I die because of you, I'm going to go and haunt your soul forever." You told him.
You both gasped when the lady stood up and he turned his flashlight to the side and there was another infected beside you both. "We should go right now." You said and tried to get the frozen Dong-Hyun to move. You gasped again when you felt someone's hands behind you, but before you could scream, they quickly put their hand over your mouth and they used their other free hand to go and grab Dong-Hyun.
You were all hiding in a corner and you took the hands of the mysterious person off of your mouth. You turned to who it was and saw Andrew. Dong-Hyun slightly whimpered, but Andrew quickly silenced him. "Be quiet."
You heard the alarm go off and you realized what must've happened. "They must've gone through the door and triggered the thief alarm." You whispered with a very low tone. The three of you looked at each other for a second. "Run!" Andrew shouted and he held your hand while you held Dong-Hyun's. God, you three probably looked like little kids who were playing games.
There were a lot of infected chasing you three and you noticed that your shopping cart was gone so someone must've taken it. The three of you arrived outside and Yi-Hyun saw you all and shouted. "Over here! Hurry!" You three ducked and quickly went with the rest of the group.
Yi-Hyun and Sae-bom pulled the rest of the metal shutters down and the infected came out. You shook your hands away from the two beside you and helped Sae-bom get up while the others went ahead first and left to go back. The infected from the other side were desperately trying to reach for you all.
You all ran in front of your building with lots of shopping carts. "Open the door!" Sae-bom demanded. "Is anyone infected?" The representative asked. "Open the door!" You went in front and banged your fist on the glass door.
The representative shook her head and you and Sae-bom looked at her with a shocked face. "Come closer. I have to check." The representative said. "Open the door, now!" The cleaner guy ran in front of the representative with the glass still separating them. "Why is there blood on your face? Did you get bitten?" The representative asked him while her voice was slightly shaking.
"Open the door, now!" He demanded again. "No!" The representative shouted. "I said, open the door!" The cleaner guy said. You saw Seo-Yoon behind them and went to the side of the glass doors and knocked on it. "Seo-Yoon!" You shouted to her and she quickly went in front of you. "What should I do?" She asked you.
You looked down and saw the broom that was blocking the door. "Remove the broom down there." You guided her and she did what you told her to do. "Lady, hurry!" Seo-Yoon shouted and the cleaner guy was able to open the doors. "You!" He shouted and attacked the representative. "Who do you think you are.." She said, but wasn't able to finish because she was held to the ground.
You all went inside while the two were basically trying to kill each other. Yi-Hyun shut the door when everyone was inside. "Turn this thing off!" Jung-Kook shouted while trying to turn off the phone. Yi-Hyun took it from his hand and slammed it onto the floor and broke it.
The loud noise Yi-Hyun made seemed to silence everyone because the multiple noises stopped. "Oh Joo-Hyung did this." Jung-Kook said and faced to the elevator screen above the buttons that said it was going up.
You and Sae-bom were holding Seo-Yoon in front of you to comfort her and Yi-Hyun took the bloodied apron of the cleaner guy and went up the stairs. You looked at Sae-bom worriedly. "You should go after him, who knows what he'll do with the doctor." You told her and she nodded at you and went after him.
You went inside the gym along with Seo-Yoon following you and you opened the door where your cat was staying. The moment you opened it, the white cat quickly ran into your arms and meowed. "Is that a cat?!" Seo-Yoon asked excitedly and you nodded at her and put the cat down so the little kid can play with it.
You went inside the room and took your eco-bag that was filled with only money. The doctor must've taken the things he needed, good thing he left the money though. "Let's go, Seo-Yoon." You told her and scooped the cat into your arms.
You walked Seo-Yoon to Sae-bom's apartment and went back to your unit. You opened your door and went back inside and placed the cat down. You opened a can of cat food and placed it in a bowl so the starving cat can finally eat.
"Home sweet home.." You said sarcastically and plopped down on your couch. You yawned and the cat who had just finished eating went to lay down on your tummy. You tried to get better sleep even if it wasn't night time because you didn't sleep that great last night.