STAY ALIVE [AOUAD]

10 The Drone

"Hey Su-Hyeok" Dae su pipes up, receiving the attention of the rest of his classmates. "Are you okay? where's y/n and Cheong-san? And the phone?" Wu-Jin inquires shortly, assisting the male to enter the room. "Su-Hyeok, where are they?" On-jo implores in concern, watching the taller boy averting everyone's eye. "We got separated. I'm sure they'll be fine" He hesitantly announces, dropping his disgruntled shoulders. The students murmur a few swears and statements of distress, while su-hyeok takes a glance at Wu-Jin who simply looked away. "I'm sorry I came back alone"

A few tight-lipped minutes passed as the students sat in their spots. Some minor chit-chats are heard, but they held any sheer significance. Nam-ra was fiddling with her lighter, that lay in her skirt's pocket. Her slender fingers occasionally stroked the engraved initials on it. Wu-Jin was no different, bothered to the moon and back about his best friend. Not that he didn't know she was tough or did not acknowledge it. The fact that another person is with her and the chances of her getting herself killed that way. He learned it the hard way. "I'm sure Cheong-san is fine, he's really fast. And remember he's with y/n. Knowing her, she'll bring him back without a single scratch" Su-Hyeok assures On-Jo, still incapable to look the girl in the eye.

"I don't know why he never listens. Ever since we were kids, he never listens to me. I told him not to go" On-Jo annoyingly states, forming tiny fists with her hand. Su-Hyeok mutters a 'sorry', in between, but the girl was too focused on cussing her friend. "And y/n, that idiot probably got dragged on by him too. You just left behind two suicidal maniacs" On-jo adds, now crossing her arms in dismay. Su-Hyeok looks bewildered for an instant, not denying her words. "I'm sure they might be safe in some hiding-place right now" Su-Hyeok spoke, peeking outside to the whirring of choppers.

"Joon-Yeong. Didn't you mention that your science club made a drone?" On-jo turns to the boy with glasses. Joon-Yeong fixes his uneven color and nods, replying. "Yeah, you want to look for y/n and Cheong-san with it?" The girl moves closer to Joon-Yeong, and the other listens silently. "Could we?"

"Well yeah. But it's in the science lab" He pointed out, shrugging his shoulders. "We can go and get it" Despite her timely response, no one was enthusiastic about it. "But that place is crawling with zombies" Hyo-Ryung speaks up from her position next to Ji-Min. "That..." No further discussions were held for the plan to set to foot. There was a short debate on letting On-Jo go back to the science lab, but the girl was too persistent to say no. She may not agree, but in one way or another, Cheong-san and her were quite similar, stubborn-wise.

"Oh my God, it's a zombie sir" The police cadet Ho-Cheol gasped loudly. Jae-Ik had found him at his station and passed on the info about the whole laptop and Hyosan high. The two had quite a lot of run-ins with infected citizens and miraculously ended up in Cheong-san's parent's chicken stall, alongside saving a kid aged less than ten. Their mission was either to reach Hyosan High or pass the information to higher authorities. Jae-Ik locked the glass door firmly, blocking the hoard of infected citizens from entering inside. The child they rescued a few minutes ago whimpered loudly, wiping her endless tears.

"In there?" Jae-Ik asks as he moves his eyes around. On the handle of another closed door was a high school student, who had her hands tied to it. She was infected and snarled at them and the kid. "Park Hee su?" The detective mutters in surprise, stepping forward a little. "You know her?" Jae-Ik does not answer, recollecting the day y/n had dragged the poor girl to her apartment. He remembers being introduced and y/n hanging out with the girl in her home for the entire day. His eyes immediately shifted to her hoodie, which laid flat against her body. Now y/n wasn't a fan of gossip, but when Jae-Ik had pestered the girl about the sudden guest, she had no option. It was her way of looking out for people, questionable, I know.

"Oh shit! Look!" Ho-Cheol shrieks again, pointing to a set of chairs placed before the leather seats connected to the wall. A baby lay between the furniture, unexpectedly wailing at the commotion. "Is it a baby zombie?" The cadet asks warily making Jae-Ik wish to hit him but chose not to do so. "No, it's alive" He promptly answers, giving Hee-su a pitiful look and moving to the crying newborn. Jae-Ik shifts the chairs and picks up the baby, sitting down and examining its moist face. "Why don't you go check the fridge for milk or something" He orders, nodding his head at the police cadet. "Why? Are you thirsty?"

"It's for the baby. We need to feed it somehow. It's dehydrated" Jae-Ik replies, attempting his best to lower his annoyance with the oblivious male since there were two children present now.

Back at Hyosan high, Nam-ra was leaning on the window sill, looking at the trash of an infected city. Patches of smoke emerged from here and there, a few car alarms going off with occasional growls from the zombies. Su-Hyeok silently moves next to the girl, resting his hands over the railing. "I can't stop thinking about this one thing. What if eventually everyone in the world but us ends up turning too?" Su-Hyeok expands his eyes at the thought, not anticipating the girl to be so pessimistic. "No way" Nam-ra does not budge, sparing the troubled boy a glimpse. "But if that were true?" She pushes blankly, watching a few zombies fall over themselves. "Nah. Then we'd be the minority. And all minorities have a way of going extinct"

"We're not the minority. But what if that happens? You think you could make it through this?" Nam-ra's question makes the boy uneasy, but he discovers it a little reliving that the girl was chatting now. "I don't know. But I don't wanna be a zombie. You don't recognize anyone. And... I won't even recognize you" Su-Hyeok states, looking at the girl, appeased with his answer. "In case I do get bitten, I have a favor to ask" Nam-ra starts up, but Su-Hyeok cuts in instantly while she grimaces lightly, unhappy about the interruption. "No. Don't get bit. You can't. Don't even think about dying"

"Let's go up" Suggests Cheong-san, turning on the flashlight of the useless phone. "Beats me" Y/n followed after the worried male as he ascended the pipe. The girl was thanking the heavens for the current situation since there were no zombies and she wouldn't have to run around or kill them. Being deep in providing unwanted indebtedness to hallucinatory entities, the shooter came back to her grasp when her head bumped against the boy's butt. He had stopped moving, focussing the flashlight on the next metal door they came upon. "It doesn't open from inside" He addressed the shorter girl, receiving an irritated sigh from her. "Just kick it open san, you're the boy, fighting!"

The unnerved boy smiles sadly, pitying y/n's way of cheering that required some social classes. "Urgh" A few more of these noises left Cheong-san's mouth as he kicked and pushed on the metal door. Sweat and heat piled up in the room as he panted heavily, pounding his feet on it, while the girl stared at the male with utter boredom. Finally, y/n heard a loud thud and looked up to see Cheong-san's foot was outside and the door was wide open. "Come on" He muttered before climbing out, unable to recognize the school for a moment. The sudden natural light blinded him for half a second. Y/n jumped out promptly, preferring to yell a few cheers for the boy's accomplishment but declined her wishes when a hoard of infected came around the corner.

"I'd rather get bitten than run around again and again and again-" Without giving the girl additional time to complain, Cheong-san grabs her hand and commences running. "I'll hear your complains when we're safe n/n, I'd appreciate it if you try to save yourself now!" The shooter shrugged in agreement, gifting the boy a thumbs up and taking her hand away from him. Before the boy could register, y/n had zoomed past him, stopping in front of the music class. "And I did" The teen boy sighed in disappointment, but was not truly surprised. He should have understood that the girl was an athlete and let's face it, a future policewoman.

Slamming the classroom door shut, Cheong-san leaned against it, trying to gather some air in his lungs. However, a familiar growling could be heard from inside as they both moved to the room's center. In the corner of the room, an infected female student was laying, while a piano was toppled over her body, trapping her on the floor. Cheong-san grabs ahold of a music sheet stand and moves closer to the threat, y/n watching in curiosity whether he was going to kill it or not. But her gaze soon shifted and she pulled out her gun, pointing it outside the window. A barely put-together drone whirred in front of her, a note stuck over it.

Y/n's face morphed to a happy grin as she recognized the writing and waved joyfully at the camera. The drone then moved away, flying past the school gates and to the messy hell of a road. The high schooler moves closer to the window, leaning against the white-painted wall. The school ground was still fussing with infected students and it was no different inside the school. The once boisterous and optimistic Hyosan was nothing but a wasteland of demise and grieving because a father failed to protect his son. Hyosan's faith lies in no one's hand and the few survivors left will have to protect themselves with their strength.