“You said you were at Misfit Bar at the night of the murder, but there were cameras in every room in every corner, we have video evidence you were never there. So, please tell me where you actually were that night?”
“I.. I was..”
Doyoung stared at him patiently, waiting for another excuse when clearly he was the one with the blood on his hands. He could see the sweat trickle down his forehead, until he finally yelled.
“Okay! I did it, I did kill her! It doesn’t matter by now!!”
“Thank you for your acknowledgment, murderer.”
The man blinked at him, before he stood up from his seat abruptly which startled everyone around him so the cops who were waiting at the sides ran over and grabbed him. The criminal cursed at him until all Doyoung could hear was the echoes of his words through the empty halls. One of his friends jogged over to him after the courtroom cleared out.
“You always look so cool during these hyung, did you actually find evidence?”
“No.”
“You lied?”
“I did go to the bar, but they don’t have cameras. I asked if they saw him, apparently they didn’t, but it didn’t matter. Because in the end, a good lie was all it took for him to break and reveal his crimes. Too gullible, if I was him, I would have asked for the evidence with no sweat.”
Doyoung took out a little bag from his satchel, where he pulled out a bagel and bit into it. His friend was bewildered and stopped walking, which confused him and he stopped too. They stared at each other for a moment.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, hyung.”
“Say, shouldn’t you be at your job, Hyuck?”
Donghyuck sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
“Yes, but they’re performing something I don’t approve of. I’m afraid of the outcome, they need my help with it but I’d rather not.”
“What are you doing in the lab?”
“.. That’s confidential, you know better.”
“Yes I do.”
At that moment, Donghyuck received a call, where he held up a finger towards Doyoung as he answered. He walked down the hallway further for privacy, but Doyoung could hear him arguing with whoever was on the phone until he got quiet.
“You did what? You were never given permission to do that, what have you done? God, what have you done, I need to get there now. You idiot, this was exactly what I was afraid of. Now, there is a chance people will die.”
Donghyuck turned around, walking to Doyoung.
“I need to go, there has been an accident.”
Then without any explanation, he ran and left him there alone. Doyoung truly wondered what happened in that lab, there was always something happening where he had to leave and fix it. Sometimes like now, he was there witnessing it, but he had never heard one where people could possibly die. Donghyuck had an expensive education though, and wouldn’t doubt if he was the smartest one in that lab, so Doyoung didn’t think nothing drastic would happen with him there.
It had been a few hours after that, he hasn’t been contacted yet by Donghyuck to see if the problem was resolved. When he tried to text him, the messages wouldn’t send. Had he blocked him? No, he wouldn’t. Then after sending the twelfth message, he received a respond but none to his previous questions.
Run. Get somewhere safe. I failed.
Then Doyoung heard something faintly ticking, he stopped walking on the sidewalk before there he saw an explosion from a building across the street. The air knocked him over, he looked up to see a fire blooming from a hospital, the top had been blown up and it looked as if someone used a knife to slice it off while the rest remained in perfect condition. Then he began to see people leave the building, running out or jumping from the floor where they were. Were they trying to kill themselves?
Doyoung watched as a woman fell, and collide to the ground, she remained there before parts of her body began to twitch then she slowly stood up. Blood began to drool from her head and drip down her chin, but she looked fine and didn’t seem to look like she was in any pain. That wasn’t possible, falling from that height would have immediately killed you once you hit the ground. Others began to leave through the main exit, grabbing and chasing people who seemed normal for the most part. The woman who fell six stories caught Doyoung in her eye, she stumbled with each walk due to her left foot being terribly deformed and it dragged against the road. As she got closer, she was almost at arms reach until a car sped past him and took her with it, it drove in zig-zag lines before crashing in a building.
Was this what Donghyuck meant?
If this was the source, he probably shouldn’t be here so he ran down the alleyway, grabbing a pipe that laid on the ground so if he had met one, he wouldn’t be defenseless. When he made it to the other side of street, he could see from both ends of the streets they were searching for more food. People who walked down the streets were grabbed at, or tackled to the ground, Doyoung knew his life was a bore, but he didn’t want to die yet. If he died, then he had just wasted his whole life. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and swung the pipe into the persons face. It had been one of those things ready to kill him for the sake of their own hunger. Where was Donghyuck? Had he been part of this?
Doyoung ran for an abandoned car, thankfully open and closed it before any more could attempt to consume him. He searched for the guns and he found them beneath the seat, shoving it in and starting up the car. He searched for anything that would be useful, then he found a gun beneath the passenger seat. It seemed the owner had been places. But Doyoung didn’t know where to go, sure he had a home but Donghyuck had said to get somewhere safe, and his house probably wasn’t the best option considering the virus is in the same city. He would have to find someplace to stay far from the source, at least for the night.
So, he drove. He drove for around two hours until he realized that the sun was setting soon and driving in the dark wouldn’t be safe. He was wondering how Donghyuck was doing, he didn’t know if he was alive or died in the explosion. Doyoung slowed down to look at his phone, pressing his contact and held the phone up to his ear once he started the call. The moment he looked at the road, he found himself driving right into a tree and his head collided with the wheel. His phone fell to the ground, ringing and ringing, until Donghyuck's voice mail was all he could hear before he fell unconscious.
Hello!! This is Lee Donghyuck, I am unable to come to the phone right now, sorry! I will try to reach you as soon as possible. Take care. Goodbye!
“Is he dead?”
“Of course not I felt his pulse, trust me, I know when a person is dead.”
“Well, why isn’t he waking up then?”
“Taeyong, he hit his head pretty hard back there, I wouldn’t expect him to be wide awake by now. And Mark, there is no need to brag about it.”
Doyoung's eye lid twitched, which earned a reaction out of many.
“Woah!”
“He moved!”
“Is he waking up?”
“Shut up, stop being so loud or you’ll give him a headache.”
He opened his eyes, his vision blurry at first and he couldn’t make out the multiple faces surrounding him until one of them decided to get close, that’s when he freaked out and punched him.
“Ow! My nose!”
Doyoung sat up, but knocked the same guy in the forehead by mistake, which earned another cry.
“Ow!!!”
“Jeno! Shut up!”
Jeno whined quietly, holding onto his forehead and pinched his nose with the other. Doyoung rubbed his forehead, the impact affecting him too.
“Donghyuck?”
“Huh?”
The men looked at each other confused. Who?
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, he’s not here, who are you?”
They all introduced themselves one by one. Doyoung reached up, feeling something like bandages across his head but Taeyong grabbed his hand before he could do so.
“It’ll hurt.”
“What happened?”
“Well, we were inside the warehouse, you know, minding our business,”
Renjun started but Jaemin nudged him, whispering for him not to be rude then explained instead.
“We heard a crash from outside, when we came out, we saw you had crashed your car into the tree and passed out. We brought you inside while Taeyong and Yuta fought off the Lurkers who came due to the amount of noise you created. Mark went on the roof and gave us when things were clear. You injured your head.”
“Who’s Donghyuck?”
Doyoung hesitated.
“He is a friend of mine, he worked at the hospital as a–”
Would it be okay to tell him his real work? No, if they knew he was one of those scientists who could possibly have started it and he was alive, they wouldn’t welcome him.
“As a doctor, he texted me to leave the city, I’m positive he was at work at the time and I don’t know if he is alright.”
“Paradise hospital?”
“Yes, he works there.”
“Why don’t we go find him?”
Mark gave a suggestion, his legs crossed with his sniper between the small circular place between his thighs, Doyoung was eager to do so and looked at the others, to see their expression. A few of them seemed unsure, like Kun and Renjun. The two looked at each other then back at Doyoung.
“Wouldn’t that be extremely risky?”
“We would be saving someone’s life, Renjun.”
Mark placed his hand on his knee, but he only avoided his gaze and stared at the wall.
“We don’t know if he is alive.”
Kun sighed. This time, Jeno butted in.
“We don’t know if he is dead. And if he is, we can always leave, there could also be some useful supplies. So, if anyone were to be injured, we have proper medical treatments.”
“Please..”
Doyoung begged. Mark took Renjun's hand, which surprised everyone in the room due to thinking they thought they both hated each other. Taeyong was simply jumping up and down on the floor, an excited smile on his face which caught Yuta's attention and the ends of his lips curled into a smile too. He wasn’t sure why. Renjun finally sighed, trying to seem stubborn with his puffed out cheeks but the red blush at the ends of his ears revealed he was flustered.
“Fine, whatever. There could be supplies.”
“I don’t care by now, let’s go.”
Kun rolled his eyes, but Jaemin leaned over with an arm around his shoulder, a happy smile taking place on his face and a warm aura surrounding him.
“Field trip!”