𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝘽𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨

Chapter Two

Jennie

Seven years. I had just turned eighteen, the whole world spread out at my feet, and then the world had ended. Well, not technically, but a zombie apocalypse is pretty damn close. It sure feels like it sometimes.

I had always thought that zombies were just stories, the sort of horror movie monsters used to scare jumpy teenage girls. I can still remember the first time I saw one in real life. It was back at the very beginning, way before I made it to the Compound - known as Haven by the more optimistic occupants - when the world was still reeling from this sudden new epidemic.

I was out in Seoul at the time, still living in the same grubby little town where I'd grown up. I had made plans to leave, travel the world, but then suddenly there were people on the television telling us to stay inside and lock our doors.

So I'd gone back to the orphanage, the closest thing I'd ever had to a home. The town was quiet and eerie, everyone hiding in their boarded up houses. I went into the orphanage - it was so still, so silent - and in the main hall, there were bodies; children in matching uniforms, their skin striped with red and their skulls smashed in.

I turned to run, but there, in the doorway, was Sister Agnes. Only she didn't look like Sister Agnes anymore. Her skin was pale except for dark bruising around her eyes and purple veins along her neck. Those dark brown eyes that had so often been narrowed in disapproval at me as a child had faded over with a sickly grey fog. And worst of all, fresh blood stained her lower jaw and bits of flesh were caught in her bare teeth.

I thought zombie movies were bad, but nothing - nothing - compares to the reality of nearly being eaten by someone you know.

"Jennie?"

I startle out of my thoughts and realise that my best friend's face is only a few inches from mine. I flinch backwards in surprise.

"Gosh, Jisoo." I say indignantly, putting a hand over my racing heart.

"Welcome back, Dolly Daydream," Jisoo replies with a smirk, straightening up and folding her arms over her chest. "Nice fantasy?"

"Not particularly," I admit with a grimace, but there's something about the scruffy rogue's presence that always makes me feel better.

Jisoo saved my life in Cheonjiyeon Falls when a Corpse shoved me off a pier, and we've been inseparable ever since.

We don't know much about each other's pasts - although I suspect she might involve some acts of a dubious moral ambiguity - but it doesn't matter. Jisoo brings a bit of fun and humour into this world of death.

"Need a little cheer up?" Jisoo asks, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

I laugh and slap her in the shoulder. "Thanks but no thanks."

Jisoo shrugs and runs a finger through her brown hair, "Can't say I didn't try," she says unconcernedly. "Anyway, I just came to grab you. It's go time."

I stand up straighter and instinctively place a hand on the holster on my hip. It's time for another supply to run out into the Dead Zone. They are days I look forward to and dread in equal measure.

Nodding, I grab my jacket from the back of the chair and pull it on. "Right then, let's rock and roll," I say.

Jisoo grins. "You enjoy these a little too much," she says pointedly as we head out of the large house we live in and into the Compound.