bulletproof | insomnia series

trial 4: question

Jiah's POV

Felix is the first to locate the scream and speeds away which surprises all of us. We look over to see a girl running away from the zombies in the field. Zombies? They came from the zombie pen. How did they get out?

Changbin starts running over as do the rest of us and we all start taking out our weapons to defend ourselves. I take out my katana and slice the heads of the zombies one by one.

"Lucy!" I hear Felix yell and he is now holding the little girl who was running away from the zombies. She must be Lucy.

"How did these zombies get out?" Renjun asks Changbin as he stabs one in the eyes.

"I don't know!" Changbin honestly answers.

"Let me go!" She yells. "They're my friends!" She screams. I look back at Felix to see him restraining the girl in his arms. I almost get attacked by a zombie from being distracted until Jisung stabs the one in front of me. Jisung eyes me and I look back at him guiltily.

"Focus, Ji," Jisung tells me and starts attacking more zombies.

I nod but the thought of her screams makes me even more curious as to why she released them. Why does she think they are her friends? They kill other people. They kill our friends. I slice another and another until there are none left. There is blood splatter all over my face from the amount we had to kill. I let out deep breaths to recollect myself. I look over at my peers to see Jinyoung among them, also worn down.

There is now a woman in front of her. I notice the woman holding Lucy's hands is probably her mom. I watch them carefully in silence as does the rest of my friends. They're probably just as intrigued as I am. I've never seen a human this young act likes this towards zombies.

I see Hyunjin and a mysterious, new girl standing beside him. They're watching the whole thing also but they look like they've just been crying. I wonder what happened. I

"Lucy, listen to me, Zombies are not humans. They do not want to be friends. They want to kill you. They will eat you and then you will become one of them and kill just like they do," she explains. Her mom seems like a decent one but how did she not notice her daughter's interactions with these zombies? I look back at the pen and see that the fence has been cut, allowing them to escape.

"But we kill..." Lucy says sinisterly. "What's so different between us and them?"

This conversation between this young girl and her mother triggers a memory I had with my mom.

*flashback*

13 years ago

"Do you believe in love, mom?" I ask as my mother combs my hair in front of her vanity. I see my mother smile a little as she takes another strand and combs it.

"Of course, I do sweetie," my mother says in a soft tone. Although I want to believe her answer, I know that deep down, something is holding her back from fully telling the truth. I frown a little and look down at my hands.

"Then why don't you try to love again?" I ask and then my mom shrugs in the mirror.

"I love you and Jisung, that's enough for me," she says happily. I nod and think some more.

"What if our love dies out? Like what happened to you and dad?" I ask and feel my mom's brush stop in the middle of my hair. She slowly starts combing again.

"It will never die out, sweetie," my mother reassures me.

"Then why did dad leave?" My dad left when I was little. I never knew why. My mother pauses while combing my hair, making me realize I asked a question that was too personal.