Trigger warning: injuries, blood,animal attacks
Hoyoung opened his eyes and was met with a familiar roof,he looked on the side and saw the empty space that once belonged to his brother and realized that he was in his old room,in his house in new Zealand
"Ugh"he groaned as he pushed himself to sit and held his head to ease the headache,he tried to take a deep breath and stretch but it stung and he started coughing uncontrollably
After few minutes hoyoung stopped coughing and stood up to leave his room when he felt weird things that were attached to him causing him pain,he looked at what caused it and found tubes piercing through his body,he didn't know where did they come from but for some reason they didn't seem off place,but the blood dripping from them was.
The tubes pierced the veins in his hands,wrists,some went under his sleeves to the forearms and others were in his feet,but hoyoung never seemed to be bothered by it,in fact he grabbed the tubes is his feet and pulled it out,causing him to bleed more and yelp because of pain,then he left the room with swingy and unstable steps to see if someone was in the house
The house was awfully quiet and the corridor was dark and cold, there was no trace of neither his sisters nor the pets,never in his life he felt the house this gloomy and quiet,he concluded that they might be in the living room but it was downstairs and he can barely control his steps
He reached the stairs and gulped at the look of it,he held the rails so hard his knuckles turned white and took the first step, sighing in relief as his feet didn't fail him but now he has to continue,the second step went smoothly, followed by the third one, then the fourth,but when he reached the fifth step his feet decided to betray him and he fell all the way down
He was able to clearly hear his family talking in the living room but he couldn't understand a word,however he knew what they were talking about, about expenses,about their problems,about him,and he hated every inch of himself because of that
He tried to stand up and go back to his room but he couldn't,he tried to crawl but the tubes on his arms was making it painful,he tried over and over but all his tries ended with failure,he just lied on the floor, heavily panting,it felt as if air was being sucked out of his lungs,no matter how much he gasped air never seemed to enter
"M-Mom......D-Dad" he called with all the power he has despite it being very little,more blood was coming out from the holes and cold started to flow through his veins so he called more, hoping for someone to help him, suddenly he heard yelling but this time he was able to understand
"I TOLD YOU THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM" he heard his father yell and then his mother yelled back
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?ALL THESE PROBLEMS AND YOU CAN'T FIND ANY?JUST LOOK AT HIM"
"IT'S ALL ABOUT HIM, THAT'S ALL YOU CAN SAY"his sister yelled "HE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE HERE,YOU KNOW HE'S A HOPELESS CAUSE AND YET YOU IGNORE ALL OF US FOR HIM"
The argues kept ringing in his head,even though he's supposed to get used to it it still hurts then one of his sisters yelled something that he already heard before many times
"I WISH YOU HAD JUST LET HIM DIE LONG TIME AGO LIKE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO"
Hoyoung wasn't angry about this,nor sad,he's used to it by this point and he's busy concentrating on his own hell right now,he kept fighting to get some air but every time he took a breath air seemed to get forced out of his chest and things got worse when he started to cough,he feared that his lungs were about to explode with every cough as the tubes went deeper under his skin,making him bleed more
"H............help"he said in wheeze as few tears fell from the corners of his eyes but no one seemed to answer him,he shakily held his neck, leaving blood prints all over it and curled into a ball while trying to calm down
soon after his limbs got numb and his hands slowly dropped,he couldn't even breath anymore,he lied in a puddle of his own blood,pain and fear taking over him as his eyelids fought to stay open,he believed that this was his end and closed his eyes, then heard a voice and looked again to see someone was chocking him
His eyes were glowing and he was full of hate he could feel it easily,hoyoung fought as hard as he could to break free but all the attempts were useless since that figure was stronger,he looked closer despite his blurry vision and recognized the figure
It was him,another version of him,it squeezed tighter on his neck as he whispered something he didn't understand,no matter how hard hoyoung tried to break free he couldn't
His eyes shot open and sat immediately with a gasp,he held his neck as he breathed heavily and looked around,the room was dark and wide,five people were scattered around sleeping and another one was sleeping beside him,it was the school life club room
"I'm fine,It was a dream,just a dream" he kept repeating those words between his breaths as if it was some chant to calm down
"Hyung are you okay"hoyoung turned his head to see yongseung looking at him
"Y-yeah,just a bad dream that's all"
"You've been having a lot of bad dreams lately"yongseung looked at him and rubbed his eyes"do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know"hoyoung placed hand on his forehead,feeling slightly dizzy "I don't remember"
"Hmm"yongseung hummed and fixed his position "maybe because you've been pushing yourself lately"
"No"he shook his head "everything is normal"
"You say that but you always look tired"yongseung said to him as he coughed "you even started to have eye bags"
"Don't worry about me and take care of yourself"hoyoung said as he laid him down and frowned placed his arm on his forehead"You still have fever"
"Where are you going"
"To see if we have medicine, I'll be back in few minutes, don't you dare leave the room"
He walked through the corridor with slow, heavy footsteps,feeling his muscles and joints slightly tearing with every movement,he reached the stairs and gulped while thinking of his dream
He slowly got down the stairs, jumping and nearly falling down when he heard rattling coming from the barricade in front of him,he held his breath and unsheathed his knife while walking closer to barricade,climbed to the passage at the top it and opened the door to see a rabid's jaw wide open trying to chomp off his face,but it stopped quite immediately when the knife got jabbed right through its eye to its brain and got pulled and thrown out the window
Hoyoung sighed while looking at the many empty containers in his hands"this is going to be rough week" he whispered to himself as he closed the cabinet and left to wash his face to cool it off
Looking at the mirror,face as pale as a sheet,it was obvious that there's something more than overworking but it's not the time to focus on that when they have five sick people upstairs,he took a bowl and filled it with water and went back up
"unfortunately we're out of medicine but you're lucky that it's just fever"hoyoung said to yongseung as he entered the room with a bottle of water and a wet towel "does it hurt somewhere?"
"N-No,I'm totally fine,it's just cold"
"Cold can be painful you know,are you sure you don't have a headache?"he asked as he placed the towel on his forehead
"Sorry"yongseung apologized an a low voice and lied on hoyoung's lap as hoyoung patted his shoulder to help him sleep
"There's no need to apologize,you're sick like the others and you need care,it's not like it happened on purpose"
"Well it kind of was"
"To be honest it would've been avoidable but I'm staying quiet to not make you feel guilty"
"Well thank you about that"yongseung frowned as hoyoung in a low voice to so they won't wake uo
"Don't worry I'm just joking"hoyoung said to him "but I warned you guys and you didn't listen"
"Okay I got it"
"Try to sleep"hoyoung said softly as he covered Yongseung's eyes with one hand and patted his shoulder with the other one,few seconds later and Yongseung fell back to sleep, hoyoung kept patting him for a minute or so before moving his head from his lap and covering him with a blanket before leaving the room and closing the door
"I think I should go outside tomorrow"he said to himself while looking inside his bag
If they were to describe what happened in these few days,it was a mess of coughing, sneezing and complains,and today is no exception with the only addition of it being cloudy and extremely gloomy
"My nose feels so stuffy" kangmin whined "it's been three days like that"
"I told you to rinse it with saltwater but do you listen? No"hoyoung nagged him as he came in with wet towels "who has fever here?"
"that's because it's always your answer" minchan deadpanned aggressively"stuffy nose? saltwater, soar throat? saltwater, can't stop coughing? the stupid saltwater,why don't you use it to kill some rabids since it's that powerful?"
"saltwater is a common remedy minchan it's been used since forever"dongheon said to him in a nasal tune "everybody knows it's good to ease the cold"
"well apparently I wasn't there when it was decided"
"it's the only thing we have and you have to deal with it, are you always this cranky when you're sick?"hoyoung asked him and repeated his question again "who has fever here?"
"I don't know"gyehyeon answered while looking around the room "I can't find the thermometer"
"didn't I tell you to check?that's the only thing I asked you to do,and I gave you the thermometer BY HAND,how could you lose it?"
"my hands are full here,literally"
"same here,it doesn't take more than two minutes to check is it really that hard?"
"well when you were running around the school doing god knows what and hoarding wet towels I was taking care of them,do you think it's easy to deal with five sick people while keeping everything under control?"
"I'm doing the same too,the only difference is that I'm doing more work in both day and night"
"all that you've been doing until now is cleaning,who cares about the chores now?"
"when you have five sick people you need to keep sanitizing the place"
"how do even sanitize it?are you using saltwater?"
"first of all, we have cleaning products, second of all how about i shove saltwater down your throat so you start cooperating with me?"
"i have a better slolution,why don't you stop bossing me around and focus on doing some ACTUAL WORK?"
"I don't know how these two are still healthy,but this has to be a joke"yongseung commented while looking at the fighting duo
"No kidding"yeonho agreed while blowing his nose"a sick one"
how did it reach this point?well it started four days ago during laundry day,despite that it was cold they insisted on playing with water with no way to get warm, unfortunately the only two who decided to be logical and avoided being sick are the ones who can't stand each other
"the only two who got better are dongheon and yongseung" hoyoung commented as he looked at the thermometer "probably they'll need another day before completely getting better"
"I mean I only have fever nothing more than that"yongseung tried to assure them and stand up only to get pulled back to lay down by gyehyeon who covered him in a blanket and helped him be comfortable
"You still need rest,do you see dongheon working despite him being practically okay? no,so try to go to sleep"
"I can help you know"dongheon butted in "I'm perfectly fine,you two can rest for a while"
"You have a tightened band on your head to ease the headache" hoyoung deadpanned while checking on sleeping kangmin, slightly frowning in concern
"I think I have to write my will" Yeonho spoke out of the blue
"It's just cold Yeonho calm down" minchan groaned as he coughed "isn't there a way to make things easier?"
"You just said it was only cold"
"But that doesn't mean I'm not dying"
"What about you try to close your eyes and rest for a moment?"gyehyeon suggested
"I can't my eyes are burning me and saltwater can't solve that"
"Why are you so salty about saltwater?"dongheon asked him
"Because it's saltwater"Yeonho answered and burried his face in the pillow as he coughed"ugh the cold is going to kill me"
"Sorry I can't do anything about it"gyehyeon apologized "we don't have medicine and the only we can do is to wait until you get better"
"Hey gyehyeon can you come with me for a minute?"hoyoung requested as he left the room, shortly after gyehyeon followed him
"What is it that you don't want anyone to know?"
"Do you know where to find a close pharmacy?"he asked him as he wore his jacket,carried his backpack and went to the stairs but gyehyeon grabbed his arm
"Wait what are planning to do?"
"Going there to get what we need,we can't keep on like that"
"But it's suicide to go alone"
"Some of them are getting worse and there's no guarantee that someone might not catch worse diseases later on,we obviously need to do something about it"
"We've dealt with worse situations before,it just needs time"
"I'll just go for an hour and be back"hoyoung turned to walk away but gyehyeon stopped him again
"But what if you were bitten or injured? you'll be alone out there and nobody will know"
"Why do you care so suddenly?"
"It's not that"gyehyeon yelled "but if something bad happens because I didn't try to stop you I won't be able to sleep at night"
"That's what they call caring for someone"he teased
"Shut up"gyehyeon hit his shoulder before talking again "there's a pharmacy few streets away,go to the right then walk straight for few minutes and go to the second turn after the park on your left"
"I'll be back in no time"he assured him as he climbed the barricade
"Don't hurt yourself"
"Stop caring so much it doesn't suit you"
"I hope you face a rabid and die"
"That's more like you"he chuckled and went downstairs to school gates,he looked at the outside gate,took a deep breath and gulped
"Welp,no time for hesitation now"he said to himself for a little push and went out "time to go before it rains"
As hoyoung left gyehyeon was watching from the window, making sure he actually left the school and went to the right direction then returned to the room to find that minchan had finally fallen asleep
"Finally some piece and quiet"he said in relief and sat on the couch "I thought I was going to go crazy"
"With kangmin and minchan falling asleep and hoyoung not arguing with you twenty four seven it's really peaceful"dongheon stated while cleaning his sword
"I still don't understand why do you use this sword"Yeonho commented while turning around in his mattress "it's only a showpiece that was in the headmaster's room"
"It's epic and strong,the perfect combination"he blowed his nose "someone give me some tissues I ran ou of them
"If you say so"yongseung shrugged while searching in the shelves "has anyone here seen a teal notebook?"
"It's in the cabinet"gyehyeon answered as he pointed to the door "what's in it?"
"A survival guide I've been writing with hoyoung,do you want to see it?"
"Why are you guys writing a survival guide?"dongheon asked him while flipping through the pages
"In case we had to leave the school one day,not necessarily permanently but we'll need to go out sooner or later"
As Dongheon continued flipping through the pages he could see how much effort was put into it,it was talking about everything,where to hit a rabid to kill it instantly along with what attracts their attention,most effective weapons during combat with instructions on how to use and make some of them,the places that has food and safe water,detailed information about each method of transportation with every possible pro and con,even information about communities and scavengers and predicted places to meet them
"You really worked hard on"he praised while reading more until he reached the chapter that was labelled "danger,avoid no matter what"
It was basically talking about everything that can and will lead to your death, power stations,locked areas with no escape routes like basements or roofs when you're running away,along with the places that used to be crowded since it has more chances of meeting a big groups of rabids -Ironically they've been to almost all of the mentioned places- and stopped at one particular heading
"animals?"he asked as he continued reading
"Hoyoung told me to add it"yongseung explained "he said that it's the biggest threat outside and that we need to look out for the most"
"I see, it's really detailed" he said while reading the instructions,which were more warnings rather than instructions, especially the part which said:
'avoid stray animals at all costs even if they have a collar,they have been living off corpses since the beginning of the apocalypse and got used to the taste of blood so they won't hesitate to attack a human or any moving object,dogs in particular have been attacking and eating rabids along with cats so their teeth is full of rotten flesh,They're extremely aggressive and will attract more dangers by making noise
If you run into one,never try to fight them, they're stronger than any human, can't be killed with one blow and will go berserk when injured,go back slowly without making a sound,if they notice you,then it's been decided that it's your end'
The first task hoyoung had to do was to get a bike so he can move faster without getting tired quickly,he carefully walked in the street gyehyeon told him about as he looked around when he heard a growl nearby,along with many familiar wheezes
"Great"hoyoung said to himself with a groan as he took off his jacket, unsheathed his knife and continued walking, hoping that they won't attack him and if this happened they won't be much coming after him at the same time.
a clanking caught his attention and he turned to the source of it to find a bike chained to the street light and a rabid biting into it that looked at him and ran to attack,he didn't know how to break the chain but he knew that had to kill it now
With a swift move he picked a relatively big rock from the ground and threw it at its head as strong as he could, instead of its head the rock found its way to the chest but it was enough to knock its balance so hoyoung took the the chance and jumped at it to stab its skull,he twisted the knife to crack the scull open to make sure he was done killing it,then stood up and wiped the blood off his hands, making the hem and the sides of his shirt all bloody
"Probably killing those guys while running are the best way to walk through"he said to himself and picked one of the metal rods between the debris and mumbled "but the knife might be a little inconvenient with many of them around"
Ignoring the bike, hoyoung ran in the road when three rabids came in his way, took a step back to be more balanced and swung the rod to hit one of them and snap its neck,then he pulled the knife with his left hand and jammed it through its eyes as he kicked the third, finishing the job by hitting its neck and decapitating it
"Woohoo four in less than five minutes,looks like I can still survive out here" he commented with a smile and doing a small happy dance,then a sound of something hitting the ground made him jump in his place and look around
"I guess it's my cue to leave,I would've preferred to have thar bike but it's too risky" he laughed nervously and went back to running for the next ten minutes to reach his destination,he killed some more rabids on his way which caused more blood to splatter on his clothes to the point it became partially red,he wasn't paying attention to it but something else was
After all it's the blood that attracts the predators
After few minutes Hoyoung finally reached the park and stopped to take a breath,few coughs started to make their way out of his mouth that gradually became louder,when he's out there there's no need to muffle the sound but if this continues he won't be able to breathe so he took the inhaler and one puff later he became better
He grabbed the bottle to gulp some water and take a rest for few seconds,shook his inhaler and sighed when he noticed that it's not that full anymore,if this goes on he'll be suffering by the end of the next month,he continued his way after hearing some dog's barking but decided not to run untill he finds the pharmacy, it's not that far anyways,after few minutes he finally found it,with a big glass front and a glass door
"Seriously?what was the owner thinking when he locked the door?"he asked in anger while shaking the locked door and after few attempts the pulled his hair with a huff
"Welp, desperate times calls for desperate majors,sorry in advance"hoyoung shrugged as he swung the rod and hit the glass door, making it shatter and fall immediately then ran inside
He jumped behind the counter to look through the cabinets until he found the drugs he wanted and slid open one of the doors,taking the most possible amount of medicine he could pack,he took every kind of drug he could find useful for the current and other possible future occasions as he skimmed through the cabinets
he stopped for a moment for a specific kinds of drugs, they're usually can't be given without a doctor's prescription and they're kind of hard to find so they have to be in a secure place,if they were there in the first place,but he noticed that some of them were there on top of the highest shelves,which was hard to reach so he grabbed the chair to stand on it when he heard another bark,then everything happened at once and in slow motion
A huge,wild Shepard attacked him and and knocked the chair off and hoyoung found himself falling down with nothing to hold on but the shelf,he tried to stand up as soon as he fell but the dog was willing to attack again so he placed the shelf in its jaw to prevent him being bitten,which worked but the dog was so strong he was pushed and his back crashed through the cabinets,breaking their glass doors
He gasped as his eyes widened in a mix of shock and pain while he kept struggling against the constant pushing of the hungry dog,he had to do something and quickly or else he'd be dog food
Hoyoung tried to gather power in his legs to push the dog away but there was no use since the Shepard above him was way stronger and his legs weren't exactly cooperating and probably he was suffering from many cuts now thanks to the shattered glass all over the place,if it wasn't for the cabinet supporting him from behind the dog would be eating him right now,after a minute of struggling and growling hoyoung's arms started to slowly betray as the shelf slipped in his hands
"No not not now"he said in a groan as the dog slightly pulled back before launching at him again,this time from a different direction and unfortunately the shelf broke down but hoyoung took the chance and jumped to the opposite direction,but the Shepard had already made its mind so it attacked again,this time there was nothing to support him but his arm,which slid through glass and got its fair share of cuts,now he's lying on the ground while using half of the shelf as a sheild
There was one last solution but it's more of a gamble with a weak chance of success but hoyoung was willing to take it,he collected his strength to pushed the dog away,not enough to throw him but enough to be able to slightly stand up,he fell to the side as he kicked the dog in his ribs to move it away,the dog ran to him again but he was prepared this time,he stood on one knee and prepared for the next few seconds
The moment the dog launched at him he took the moment and jumped, wrapping the jacket tightly around its neck and holding its front leg while his feet was pinning its lower body,as it wiggled to break free he took his knife and stabbed the dog in his neck, that's when things got harder
The dog was going berserk while swinging left and right,as it was struggling to break free from hoyoungs grip it got cut many times because of the glass on the ground while hoyoung was trying minimise his injuries as much as possible,he tried to stay standing while holding the dog's neck but the dog was much heavier and stronger so his back hit the ground multiple times before the
Dogs' moves became slower,blood was spluttering everywhere and it was a mess that ended after long two minutes
After this whole hell ended hoyoung sat on his knees,his clothes were torn and covered in blood, breathing heavily and shaking like crazy,he placed his bloody arm on his mouth as he gulped
"I.......I lived"he said in a shakey voice "I killed it, I'm still alive"
He chuckled in disbelief as he held his chest, never in his live he thought he would be this happy for being alive,he stood up but his vision spun and his feet started to wobble so he sat again, could it be because he lost too much blood?
"This has to be a joke,you can't die like that bae hoyoung"he scolded himself as he took his backpack to drink what's left in his bottle,wore it and stood up,this time he was more stable
"You still have to comeback or else gyehyeon will blame you for not being able to sleep in the night" he added with a grin
"I have a weird question in my mind"minchan said out of the blue
"What is it?" Kangmin turned to him while drinking the tea gyehyeon has prepared earlier
"If zombie apocalypse happened in Europe during the plague,do you think it would've spread like that?"
"No because back then they burned people in their houses to avoid the spread"yongseung answered making the mood awkward
"What? it's real,they did that in Venice"
"You ruined the mood yongseung stay quiet"
"I'd say not so much because the midieval knight had this metal armour which can't be bitten"Yeonho argued "one will try to bite you and you'll just swing the metal arm and hit its head and send it flying to the Honolulu"
"Well you got a good point"dongheon praised him
"It's settled then"minchan said determinedly as he stood up but he got dizzy so he sat again "I'll build an armour tomorrow"
"You're sick you have to heal tomorrow" yongseung said to him
"I'm going to be fine tomorrow and you'll see"
"Hyung what are you thinking of?" Kangmin asked gyehyeon as he watched him fiddling with his walkie talkie and staring at the cloudy sky
"O-oh nothing"he answered after snapping out of his thoughts "I just have a bad feeling that's it"
"That's rare"
"Indeed"dongheon nodded before talking again "by the way does anybody know where hoyoung is?"
"I don't know He's probably walking around the school"yongseung answered as he raised his shoulders and held the kettle "does anybody want more tea?"
"I want to refill my cup"Yeonho said as he raised his mug
During that time they heard something fall followed by a loud thud downstairs, wondering what that sound might be dongheon, gyehyeon and yongseung went downstairs to check.
only to see hoyoung sitting on the stairs and covered in blood from head to toe
"Before you say anything, that's not my blood,I just had a messy fight"hoyoung told them as he tried to stand up only to almost fall again but he was picked by gyehyeon and yongseung
"You're crazy,why did you even get out?"yongseung asked as he supported him to walk
"Oh you're the one to talk"
"Well I didn't come back covered in blood and barely standing"
"I can stand up and walk normally you're just overreacting"he argued and pushed them while handing gyehyeon the backpack
"I don't think it was worth it"gyehyeon said to him as he opened the bag,it was full of medicine bottles and containers enough for the next few months,along with bandages, rubbing alcohol and disinfectant products "did you bring those to yourself after all of this"
"It's for storage you idiot,you don't know what might happen"hoyoung hit gyehyeon's head while walking when dongheon stopped him in his track
"Hyung is there something wrong?"
"Sorry hoyoung but you have to go to the quarantine room"dongheon said in a stern tone "you're staying there for a week to make sure
"But I wasn't bitten"he replied in confusion
"You can't be too careful,now come with me, gyehyeon bring the shower kit and clean clothes"
"O-okay?but I don't think we to go to such measu-"
"Just do as I say"
They kept trying to convince him that hoyoung is okay and there's no need for him to be locked in the room but dongheon ignored everything they said until they reached the bathroom
"It's only a precaution,Just clean yourself from the blood and change your clothes to clean ones, gyehyeon you'll watch him"
"Why me?"he yelled in frustration "I was stuck with him for the last four days and you want me to watch him now?"
"Don't worry there's no need to watch me, I'll just kill myself if I found myself transforming"he replied as he grabbed the shower kit and the clothes "I'll take five minutes and I'll go to the quarantine room alone"
As hoyoung started to clean himself he noticed the amount of cuts he had from the fight as it stung as water passed by it,some were big and some were small but all can be taken care of since they're clean now,but one injury on his left arm was another story,the throbbing pain was getting stronger by the minute and it's obviously the worst one and can't be hidden without it bleeding on the new shirt,in the end he tore the somehow clean part of his old shirt, cleaned it with water and soap and wrapped it around the cut before wearing the new one and leaving the bathroom
"This shirt needs to be thrown away or burnt"he said as he handed gyehyeon the shirt "where did the others go?"
"They left to sit with the others and get some rest, let's go"gyehyeon answered as he walked in front of him to the quarantine room and cuffed his left hand to the rails of the bed so he won't escape
"Take off your shirt,I need to look for bites or injuries"he said to him as he brought the bandages but hoyoung protested as usual
"I don't think there's a need to do that"
"Could you please, for just once, be cooperative?"
"It's okay I can take care of myself"
"Look I'm not in the mood for doing this so take off your shirt before I call dongheon hyung to solve it"
"Okay"hoyoung huffed and unbuttoned his shirt
"Those are terrible cuts"gyehyeon said in shock as he looked at the wounds and started to clean them and cover them with bandages then he reached to his left arm and unwrapped the cloth around it before hoyoung would notice
"How did your arm end like that?" He asked and yelled in panic as he looked at hoyoung's left arm while he buttoned his shirt with the good hand
"Well I fell on broken glass so what do you expect?"
"I'll go get someone to help"he stood up to leave but hoyoung grabbed his shirt almost immediately with his injured hand to stop him
"Don't do it"he said as he tightened his grip,blood oozing out of the cuts"don't worry about it,it'll be fine,just forget it"
"Your arm obviously needs care"gyehyeon argued and removed hoyoung's hand"just take a look at ,I can't even touch it without the fear of it bleeding more"
"I've dealt with worse situations before, I'll just clean it and wrap it up"
"And how are you planning to do it with your hand cuffed to the bed"
"I can handle it don't worry about me"
"I'll just go and tell them"
"Don't go"hoyoung yelled almost immediately and grabbed him tighter in panic
"Why are you so against it"
"Just don't tell them"
Gyehyeon stayed silent "You're being ridiculous"he then left "I'll go tell them"
"No wait"hoyoung stood up to chase him but he forgot about the cuff on his hand so he was pulled back to bed and sat there silently thinking of what might happen
"Does anybody of you five knows how to deal with wounds"gyehyeon asked casually as he entered"we might have some sort of an emergency right now"
"Were you bitten?" Yongseung asked and the the other four looked at gyehyeon in unison
"Yeah,no" he replied "that guy right there injured his arm outside and it was worse than I imagined,he said he fell on glass or something"
"Is he okay?"Yeonho asked in worry
"Well he was stubborn about not telling anyone and insisted on treating it himself so I'd say he's good"
"Hyung weren't you reading something about first aid the other day"kangmin turned to dongheon
"We have such a book?"minchan asked in surprise
"No we don't"dongheon replied
"Then what were you reading?"
"Who cares about reading history will you come and see or not?"
"Okay I'm coming"dongheon stood up and sneezed because of the cold "I need warm water and a cloth to clean the cut and bandages and disinfectant to wrap it up,I'll go see the problem while you bring the things I asked for"
"It'll take ten minutes"
"Hurry up then because that's too much time"
"The water needs time to be warm"gyehyeon yelled as he took the pot and poured water in it from the faucet and dongheon left the room
"Hey hoyoung, gyehyeon said to me you need help with your injuries"dongheon said as he entered "What's wrong with it?show me"
"Don't worry there's nothing wrong, gyehyeon was just overreacting"hoyoung said while hiding his terribly injured arm behind him "you shouldn't be here, you're still sick and I might be infected"
"Well if something happens then it's unfortunate"dongheon shrugged as he pulled a chair and sat in front of him "now roll up your sleeve"
"W-why?"hoyoung asked nervously as he placed his arm behind his back"my arm is completely fine"
"You can't fool me hoyoung"he folded his arms"I can see the blood,show it to me"
"It's not that bad so I don't really think that-"
"Stop avoiding the order and show me.your.arm"dongheon said sternly which made hoyoung gulp
"O-okay"he answered hesitantly as he pulled up his sleeve,and yeah it was pretty bad
There was a deep cut starting from his elbow down to the middle of his arm and part of the skin was torn up,parts of the skin was also peeled off along with other shallow cuts
"Could you tell me in which context did you think that your arm is okay?"
"And in which context do you think that you can do do anything about it?"hoyoung asked sarcastically "don't bother it I'll be fine"
"At least the big cut is almost a straight line"dongheon mumbled while checking if glass shards were inside the wound before speaking normally "Actually I think I know what I'll do, it'll hurt though"
"What are you thinking?"
"You'll know later" he said to him as he left the room for few minutes and came back with a long cloth and a ruler, started wrapping the cloth around his and tied it before putting the ruler between the wraps and twisting it making a tourniquet
"Ow ow ow,stop it you're squeezing it too hard,I feel my arm about to fall off"said hoyoung to him as he struggled but dongheon just ignored him
"I need to stop the bleeding,everything Will only take ten minutes so endure it"
"Hyung what are you trying to do?"hoyoung asked as he felt more anxious,more pain starting to run inside his body instead of adrenaline
"Stop the bleeding"
"I know that but what are you planning to do?"
"I'll treat your wounds,you don't have any other dangerous cuts do you?"
"No,It's because I fell on my arm it's like that, other than that it's fine"
"Are you sure?"
"You can ask gyehyeon if you want to"He shrugged and as they were speaking gyehyeon got inside while carrying what dongheon had asked him to bring,along with an additional tool
"Hyung I brought everything you asked me to get and boiled the staples,why do you want it though?"
"You idiot I told you to stay silent about it"dongheon yelled as he placed the table in front of the bed so he could work more comfortably,and now hoyoung could've sworn that his heart became in his throat
"You better not try to use that stapler on my arm"hoyoung said threateningly but the crack at the beginning of his sentence pretty much exposed that he was scared "it's not that important and I can live with a scar"
"You'll get a scar anyways"gyehyeon argued "this way it'll heal faster"
"You stay quiet"hoyoung yelled at him
"Hoyoung I need to do this so it can heal without the risk of infection"dongheon assured him as he wiped the blood off to get a clearer view "there's no need to be afraid, actually it's not that deep,but it might need like ten staples"
"That much?"
"Well it's quite a tall one"gyehyeon commented
"This might burn"dongheon warned him before disinfecting the wound,which stung but hoyoung didn't react more than few flinches when the disenfetcant touched the injured areas,however he couldn't help but to squeeze his eyes shut when dongheon grabbed the stapler
"Gyehyeon I need your help here"he called him as he placed the staples inside "pull the sides of the wound to close it and try to pin his arm to the table"
"I'm not going to pull it away you know"hoyoung commented
"Say that when your eyes are open"gyehyeon said to him as he held his arm firmly and dongheon placed the stapler on top of it
"This is the first one"he pressed the stapler and heard the click,if it wasn't for gyehyeon pinning hoyoung's hand on the table he would've pulled it away immediately
"Is everything okay"
"Yeah,yeah I'm fine"hoyoung assured him, eyes are still closed and biting his lip"Just- just hurry up and finish it"
"Okay"he proceeded for the second one "nine more to go"
As dongheon continued stapling the wound hoyoung was silently counting the remaining staples while squeezing his eyes shut and clenching the pillow to his right,trying to take deep breaths from time to time in hopes he calms down,he wanted to scream and tell dongheon to stop but didn't dare to,so he just pressed his lips until this whole ordeal finishes,luckily for him it was over when the countdown reached two,the wound didn't need more than eight staples
"We're done,you can relax now"on those words hoyoung relaxed and leaned his head on the table while dongheon wrapped his arm with the bandages
"do you have any other wounds?"dongheon asked as he removed the tourniquet
"I told you before,No"he replied with a muffled voice,still not raising his head
"Gyehyeon does he have any wounds?"
"I've dealt with them already"
"Why can't you guys just listen to me?"
"Because you're stubborn and hide a lot of stuff"
"And you don't give us enough reasons to trust you"gyehyeon butted in and hoyoung hit the table and stood up
"What about you give me a reason to trust you so I tell you what I hide?"
"Alright guys don't fight now it's not the best time to do so"dongheon said in a loud voice as dragged gyehyeon away and looked at hoyoung to see something he didn't expect to see "hoyoung are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Huh?I'm fine what do you mean by that" he stopped midway when his vision blurred and felt something running down his cheeks,he immediately covered his eyes and sat on the bed when he realised he was crying
"Why are you crying?"gyehyeon asked as he looked at boy trying to wipe his tears
"I don't know and it won't stop,I cant stop it,oh my god this is so embarrassing"
His crying was silent,no sobbing,no sniffling,just a stream of tears that he's trying frustratingly to stop, gyehyeon and dongheon stood there in silence, seeing hoyoung crying was a first so they didn't know what they had to do,in the end dongheon sat in front of him, gently removed his hands from his eyes and patted his head,which made hoyoung look at him confusedly
"You know it's okay if you cried,right?"
"I wouldn't mind if it had a reason"
"So what?it happens so let it all out and relieve yourself"
"But I can't do this"he shook his head "I can't be weak in such time"
"But hoyoung,crying is not weakness and you're not weak"he consoled the crying boy while holding his cheeks "you have to let it go or else things will go out of control,like now"
Hoyoung stayed silent and looked down then up with a smile"Isn't it funny how you're saying that when I might be dead in the next week?"
"Don't say such a thing"
"How about you guys just leave me alone for now? I'm tied to the bed so nothing bad will happen"
"But what if something happened when I'm not here?"gyehyeon protested
"I told you before,stop caring it doesn't suit you"he sighed "I'll just call you on the walkie talkie,go look after the others, they need it more"
Gyehyeon stood there for a moment before complying with a sigh "okay,but I'll lock the door from outside"
"I wouldn't care less"
"Try to get some sleep"dongheon told him as they left the room and gyehyeon locked the door, hoyoung waited until the footsteps faded, burried his head in the pillow and screamed to the point he had to stop and take a breath
He slumped against the head end of the bed and facepalmed,thinking of how pathetic he looked like earlier,he wanted to punch or kick something but his good hand was immoveable and the other one was stapled and wrapped few minutes ago,and he for sure can't throw a tantrum and cause a commotion
Things are already messy and keep getting worse and worse, first what happened that day with minchan who probably knows what's going on,then he hit his head and couldn't do anything but to lay down for a week, then those nightmares and now this,what's next? he'll collapse in front of everyone and cry that he wants to live?
He knew that he's becoming more vulnerable and he didn't like it,his chest hurt and his wounds were burning but he couldn't do anything but to lie down,pull his knees close to his stomach,hold the pillow tight and cry his heart out,this time there was nobody to look or listen to him,he felt safe to break down just for once but something in him wanted a small bit of comfort
During that time gyehyeon and dongheon were walking to their room, unknowing of what's happening inside the quarantine room
"I think it's better to keep what happened inside a secret"gyehyeon suggested
"Why?he just cried it's not that important"
"It might be for you but not for him,for him it's a thing that might cause unnecessary attention"
"Well I won't argue with any of you two"he shrugged and walked to the other room where the others were basically dying because of flu,but now they have medicine
"I thought we didn't have any"Yeonho commented with confusion
"Hoyoung brought it from outside" yongseung answered "he said that we might need it more later on, that's why he's locked there"
"That man is crazy"minchan chuckled "if the apocalypse didn't kill him his stubbornness will"
"And that's a fact"gyehyeon agreed with him with a nod
"Unless gyehyeon hyung killed him first" kangmin said out of nowhere in an attempt to tease him
"Will if he tried to do something I'll definitely end it at the spot"
"Okay we get it Daffy duck,sit down and take a breath no one is killing anybody"yongseung deadpanned as he placed a towel on his head "I feel like I'm about to throw up"
"You're not alone"kangmin added while taking a breath from his mouth"also why the room is so cold?"
"You guys opened the window on a cloudy winter day what do think it'll be like?"gyehyeon scolded and closed the window "wrap yourself with a blanket and drink warm water,I'll put the kettle on the stove
"It's still cold, can't we turn on something to warm up?"he whined as he wrapped himself with the blanket and snuggled near minchan for warmth
"Sorry buddy but the heater broke down that day"minchan patted his head while hugging him "unfortunately it's unfixable or else it might blow into our faces"
"Should we bring something to burn to stay warm?"Yeonho suggested but was immediately shut down by dongheon
"Yeah sure,and set the whole school on fire in the process"
"Hyung I promise you we'll be careful"kangmin promised before asking again "please let us burn something, it's freezing"
"No, gyehyeon did the water boil?"
"We're almost out of gas"he stated and poured the hot water in the mugs
"Great,"he sighed and covered his eyes "we should've brought an electric stove or a kettle or something"
"You were against the stove when we wanted to bring one"yongseung argued
"And I'm still against it because it consumes too much power,but it's better than nothing"
"Well we can always leave and get what we want"kangmin commented and few nos said to him
"Why?"he asked in frustration "you guys left before"
"Only because it was necessary"minchan replied to him while drinking the warm water, immediately starting to feel warm "but I have to say something, it's slowly becoming unliveable here"
"I think you're hallucinating because of the flu"Yeonho said but minchan refused to listen
"My brain might be fuzzy but I can still think straight, we're running out of supplies,the purifiers gets clogged easier and the solar panels are not generating enough power as it used to,I do the maintenance and check the meters so I know,just ask hoyoung about it and he'll show you a full notebook"
"If things are going that why didn't he tell us?"kangmin asked,kind of feeling betrayed
"I think he tried before but we don't listen"yongseung answered with embarrassment obvious on his face "probably he likes to work by himself at this point"
"I guess we need to find alternative solutions then"
"Let us get rid of this stupid cold first and then we talk about solutions"minchan replied angrily to dongheon
"For god sake stop being angry"Yeonho whined "everyone has cold and everybody is suffering"
The situation stayed like that until sunset and everyone was asleep again except gyehyeon who was washing dishes and yongseung who was writing in the notebook,few minutes later gyehyeon took a plate,filled it with rice and the soup he made earlier and put it in the microwave
"Are you going for a second?"yongseung looked at him and asked in confusion
"No you idiot it's for hoyoung" he took the plates from the microwave and put it on a tray "I don't think he ate anything since morning"
"I'm going with you"
"No,stay here in case someone wakes up, I'll be in that room until midnight and if something happens call me"
He unlocked the door and went in to see that hoyoung was sleeping so he placed the tray on the table and looked closely,
he was in a fetal position,his head laying on his cuffed hand and hiding his face with his injured one,the bandages on his wrist were slightly wet,he looked like he slept long time ago and sleeping deeply too
He looked defenceless with no chance to fight back
Gyehyeon froze in his place for a moment,did he just think of....... killing him? Well he has a knife and in he can just say that he started to transform so he's safe in case someone doubted him,for him getting rid of hoyoung became easier than ever,but for some reason it didn't sit quite right to him
His feelings and thoughts were jumbled in a hot mess,part of him saw it as an opportunity to out an end for the nuisance he's been dealing with since hoyoung arrived but something feels wrong about it,his conscience was basically beating and chewing him up to the point he just grunted in annoyance and decided to get over with
He walked to the sleeping boy and gently shook his shoulder,hoyoung immediately responded to the touch with with a flinch and woke up with a hitched breath
"Got a bad dream?"gyehyeon asked casually as he took the tray and waited for hoyoung to sit
"Not exactly,more like a memory"he sat and rubbed his eyes before looking at gyehyeon "I'm not hungry, there's no need to-"
"Just shut up and eat your food"he complained as he threw the tray on his lap"it's not about being hungry,it's about you needing nutrition"
"If I don't have the appetite then I don't need nutrition"
"What kind of stupid logic is that?"gyehyeon asked with an annoyed face
"When your body needs something it asks you"
"Yeah I don't believe this,stop making excuses and acting like a baby and eat"He said as he pushed the tray closer to hoyoung,who just looked at it and fiddled with the spoon
"What now?"
"Well,but my hand is cuffed to the bed"hoyoung replied while shaking his cuffed hand
"Your other one is free,you can use it"
"Okay"he said as he shakily held the full spoon"I don't think I can do this, should I really eat?"
You could say that gyehyeon lost his temper and sighed in frustration
"oh FOR GOD SAKE it's only food"he yelled in anger and a yelling contest started
"I'm trying but I'm not left handed and it hurts"hoyoung yelled back in defence "and stop nagging,who are you my mom?"
"I'm not nagging you just don't cooperate"
"because I can handle myself and nagging is the only thing you did the whole week you gullible-"
"Look who's talking,the one who nags 25/8"gyehyeon moved his hands sarcastically
"IT'S TWENTY FOUR SEVEN"hoyoung yelled at him but he continued with the mockery
"Did you off the power?put everything back in to its place,finish your food,don't go at night alone yada yada yada JUST GIVE US A BREAK YOU EVEN NAG IN YOUR SLEEP"
"I'm not like that and I don't nag in my sleep"
"Yes you do"
"Not I don't"
"YES YOU DO"
"NO I DON'T"
"shut up you two we want to sleep"the fighting stopped for a second because thanks to dongheon yelling in the walkie talkie
"Uhhhhh"hoyoung nervously picked it before speaking again "did you hear us"
"Everything"he deadpanned "also gyehyeon if hoyoung can't use his left hand just feed him"
"Hell no, I'd rather get my hand amputated before doing that"
"And I'd rather starve, what's my guarantee that he won't poison me"
Few minutes later they were facing each other with a frown gyehyeon spoon fed hoyoung, obviously both of them hate it
"Open your mouth"gyehyeon ordered as he filled the spoon
"I hate you"hoyoung responded while glaring
"Well that wouldn't have happened if you just obeyed silently"he told him and put the spoon in front of his mouth "now eat"
Hoyoung stared at the spoon for a second before opening his mouth, chewed for few seconds and swallowed,only to be faced with another spoon
"I told you I don't want to"
"Stop arguing,I won't leave you until it's halfway done"
Hoyoung continued eating silently, somehow puzzled by what's happening, never in his life thought that gyehyeon will take care of him,then gyehyeon spoke
"What did you dream by the way?"
Usually he won't answer but this time he didn't feel like arguing so he answered,it was only a dream after all
"My first kill"
"Your first what?"
"I mean the first rabid gyehyeon"hoyoung replied "well he was halfway there but he couldn't have survived so I had do it"
"Well you're not from here so you probably didn't know who you ki-"
"They were my older brother and sister"
"Oh"gyehyeon went silent before speaking again"I thought you had nobody here in Korea"
"Both of them lived in Korea,I thought you guys knew"
"Buddy,We know nothing about you,the only thing we know that you came from New Zealand"
"Wow,I guess I really don't say anything do I?"
"Yeah you don't"he replied as he placed the spoon on the side after finishing quarter of the food and took away the tray "so,do you want to talk about it or?"
"About what?how I killed them?"
"There's no problem if you don't want to talk, I just thought that'll give you some piece of mind"gyehyeon assured him as he sat beside him and leaned his back to the the wall with hoyoung doing the same
"No I don't really mind"hoyoung sighed before starting the story "we were in the hospital and brother went out to get some coffee,then there were yelling and screams from outside as everyone kept running back and forth in the corridors"
"You didn't know that there was something wrong?"
"As I told you,it was the hospital so you just assume it's emergency, probably if we knew there could've been time to escape"he shrugged with an expressionless face "anyways he took a long time so sister called him and he told her to lock the room and that he'll be there in a second"
"So you locked him out?"
"No he managed to come to us, I don't know how this happened but he transformed right in front of us,he wasn't bitten,nor injured,he just..... transformed and attacked"
"How did this happen?"gyehyeon asked him in confusion,he thought that you can only be infected because of a bite
"I told I don't know"he replied and covered his eyes "he pinned me down and growled at me while spitting blood on my face,sister pulled him away right before he bit me but she was bitten so I grabbed the knife from the fruit basket and everything happened so fast after that,my brother was dead beside me and my sister was hitting on the door from outside,I blocked the door from the inside as I covered my ears from the screams and before I knew it everything became black"
Gyehyeon just listened silently to the story,he didn't know how to respond to that, he's not in the best place to judge after all,few seconds later hoyoung spoke again
"If it wasn't for me, they've probably been alive now"
"Don't tell me that you're blaming yourself for what happened"he said to him
"Well I shoved a knife in my brother's neck and locked my sister out to be eaten alive so what do you expect,we even were in the hospital because of me"
"But that doesn't mean that they won't get infected"gyehyeon argued "you said it yourself,that your brother transformed without being bitten"
"You don't know,I probably didn't see it"hoyoung basically denied everything that gyehyeon said "and what about my sister"
Gyehyeon huffed in annoyance,not knowing how to deal with hoyoung's stubbornness and convince him that it was okay,so he decided to tell him something
"If I told you a secret,do you promise not to tell anyone?"he asked
"I don't know, depending on how dangerous it is"
"I'm keeping your story a secret"
"Fair enough"hoyoung nodded before talking again "I won't tell anyone,what do you want to tell me"
"I don't know how to say it,I never told anyone"he scratched his head nervously before speaking again "I killed my senior that day,and she wasn't even infected"
"Wait.......w-what?how?"hoyoung looked at him not knowing how to react,the fact that the person in front of him killed a human threw him off guard
"Well it was that cursed day and we were on the roof, doing club activities like any normal students,then a rabid reached the roof and tried to bite us,I killed it and went to the door to lock it but few seconds later I was attacked from the back"
Gyehyeon continued the story without any interventions,even making sure that the walkie talkie are turned off
"It was her telling that I either get down to fight or die here,apparently she wanted to use a bait to distract rabids from the roof,I refused so she attacked again, scared for my life I grabbed the shovel from her hand and kicked her away, making her fall from the roof,I looked down to see what happened then the others came and we blocked the door"
"Did you"hoyoung's voice trailed off before asking "did you think about it?"
"I try to brush it off,most of us do the same"
"Most of you?"
"Yeah,dongheon and minchan"he explained "minchan killed his friend and dongheon killed his students after they transformed,you need to be cruel to survive"
Hoyoung didn't speak immediately,he was thinking of what to say for few seconds, although what he said later was probably the cringiest thing he ever said in his life
"I don't think that you're cruel,I think you're quite nice"
"You really didn't say that did you?" He looked at him before bursting into laughter "dude were not in a romantic novel"
"Why are you laughing? I didn't say anything funny"hoyoung asked with slight irritation "stop laughing"
"What you said was funny okay?"he answered between his laughs "what will you say next?it was our fate to stay together"
"Okay stop"he told him but gyehyeon didn't stop laughing "just stop I get it"
Hoyoung tried to make him stop but to no avail,his embarrassment was through the roof and before he knew he was laughing too
"And why are you laughing?"gyehyeon asked between his laughs
"I don't know"hoyoung replied while laughing "it just won't stop"
They laughed for solid five minutes and only stopped to take a breath
"I didn't laugh like that in a long time"hoyoung said as he wiped his tear and took a breath
"Me too"gyehyeon replied "let's keep everything a secret between us"
"You got it"he assured as they fist bumped
"You know hoyoung"he started talking again "you're actually a good guy, I don't know why I even hated you that much in the first place, what about we start fresh?"
He didn't get an answer, instead he felt a slight weight on his shoulder,he looked to his left and saw hoyoung sleeping and leaning on his shoulder
He sighed and left the bed after fixing his posture and covering him with the blanket,then he took the walkie talkie and turned it on
"Is everybody okay here?"there was no answer from the other side, apparently everyone was asleep so he just shrugged and locked the door to go back to everyone so he also could sleep
Hoyoung had another nightmare that night
He couldn't move,the lights were flashing and moving around him so fast he felt dizzy, incoherent voices were ringing through his ears
He woke up with cold sweat,but before he could grasp someone grabbed his shoulder and pin him down,he didn't have time to realise who he actually was because he was busy looking at the knife about to stab
__________________________________
(A/N):I really need to stop torturing this boy ; _ ;)
And yeah I mistakenly published it while editing so sorry about that
Also I sometimes feel that the last few chapters were kind of disappointing or bland so I apologize for making you wait for a not so interesting chapters and thanks for following up until now
Anyways life is fun and now I have a cat for few days
Now I'm begging mom for a cat despite the fact that I have a zoo in the house