𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝘽𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨

Chapter Nine

Jisoo

My first thought as I crawl towards consciousness is, fuck I hurt. Every inch of me aches like I was beaten with a baseball bat and my head is pounding. I want nothing more than to curl up and go back to sleep until I stop hurting.

Then my memories come filtering back, and my eyes snap open. The last thing I remember is being thrown across the room by a massive Corpse, and then I collided with something, and everything went black.

I sit up and survey the room, trying not to gag at the thick stench of death hanging around me.

The enormous Corpse that attacked me is lying in a heap beside me, a small puddle of sludgy brown blood beneath its head.

As I stand up, I can see that the room is littered with bodies, some the dull grey of Corpses and the rest mangled mounds of flesh that used to be humans. The copper and meat smell of gore makes it difficult to keep my stomach from rebelling, and I put a hand over my nose to filter the scent.

My first instinct is to check the room for survivors of either side. The moment I'm sure that no one else is alive - or undead - in the room, I check myself over for injuries.

If I was bitten, I may as well pick up one of the abandoned guns and end it all right now. I won't come back as one of those things.

To my surprise, even though I'm covered in blood, it appears that none of it is mine. The only injury I have is a gash on the back of my head from where I hit the shelf, but the majority of the blood on me is a dark muddy brown. It must've spattered on me when someone shot the Corpse that attacked me.

I have no idea how I'm still alive, but it's nothing short of a miracle. How did I survive when everyone else is-

"Jennie," I say, a sudden franticness sweeping over me. I dodged around shelves to the last place I saw my best friend.

There are spots of blood, both brown and red, but there's no body. I immediately began scanning every inch of the room, scrutinising every body for some sign of Jennie.

I find what I think is Suga, the quiet wall guard. There's Hae-in - we dated for a while last year, and his death hurts me.

On the other side of the room, I find Kai, one of his arms mauled and the back of his head bashed open. As much of a bastard as the guy was, I feel bad that he's dead.

Although I check every body in the room, none of them are Jennie. I allow a moment of hope to swell in me.

Perhaps she escaped. Maybe she survived somehow and, thinking she was the only one living, she made a run for home. Maybe she's back in Haven right now, safe and sound.

Of course, it stings a little that she left me behind.

I grab one of the backpacks and load it full of weapons that I pick up from among the dead. I tuck handguns and knives into my belt and boots, defending myself as well as I can.

Then I grab a roll of gauze and wrap it around my pounding head to staunch the steady drip of blood from the back of my skull.

Content that I'm as well off as I'll get, I make one last circuit of the room just in case I missed Jennie under some table or something, and then I leave.

It's nearly dark out now - I must've been out for quite a while - and I skirt carefully through the hospital, more than a little bit paranoid.

On the ground floor, I run into a stray Corpse, and I take it out with a knife to avoid making more noise than I have to.

The last thing I want is to attract more. Odds are I won't make it back to Haven alive anyway, but that's no reason to make it harder on myself.

When I slip out of the back of the hospital, my eyes are instantly drawn to the van we arrived in, which is still parked near the doors. I frown.

If Jennie survived, wouldn't she have taken it? I jog over and peer inside, checking for Corpses or to see if maybe she's hiding inside. It's empty except for a water bottle and a few blankets.

"Jennie, where are you?" I wonder aloud.

If she's dead... My chest seizes at the very thought, and I have to brace myself against the side of the van as my knees threaten to buckle beneath me.

There's nothing for it. I climb into the driver's side of the van and am grateful to see that the keys are still in the ignition.

I can only hope that Jennie found another way home because the idea of her being dead is too much to bear.

She's my best friend, the closest thing I have ever had to family. A hell of a lot closer than my real family, for sure. I send out one last prayer for her safety and then shift the van into drive and set off into the darkness.

It's a long, quiet, lonely drive north toward the Haven Compound. I drive slowly and keep an eye out for movement as I travel, but the only figures that I spot are Corpses that stumble toward the van before I move on.

My heart has settled into a painful, dull ache by the time that the Compound walls appear on the horizon at sunrise. Please, please let her be there.

I pull up in front of the garage doors and am stopped by the hulking beast of a guard who comes through the doors.

I see him squint through the windscreen and he frowns, approaching the window. "Chan, did Jennie make it back?" I ask before he can say anything.

"Isn't she with you?" he responds uneasily. "Where is everyone else?"

Panic seizes hold of my chest, and I can't fight back a wave of nausea.

Throwing the van door open, I lean out and vomit onto the dirt path. I feel a heavy hand land on my back, but all I can think about is Jennie. She's gone. Gone. She didn't make it back. She's gone. I'm alone. She's dead. Dead.

"Jennie," I moan through bile-coated lips, and then the ground comes rushing up to meet me as everything in me gives out.