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iv. phones and crazy people
( 4352 words ).

━━WHAT IS SMILING, but the upturn of one's lips to signify their content? the action of a feeling that courses through one when they are happy?

lee eunbyul had lost any reason to smile. even as gentle hands landed on her shoulder—whispered voices fell to deaf ears, she did not offer the consolation of the lift in her lips to let them know she was alright. she was anything but.

she had refused to move from the corner, bloodied knees curled up to her chest and head pressed to the wall. those who had the courage to step closer to her, found nothing but emptiness in her previously manic and fierce eyes.

eunbyul hadn't even noticed the warmth against her grip—the human pulse beating against hers as their warmth numbed her cold fingers. cheongsan's fingers interlaced with hers, thumb rubbing rhythmically against her bloodstained hands. his eyes, red and puffy—never once left the sliding door at the other end of the room.

it had been hours since ms. park had left them to follow after nayeon.

every now and then, eunbyul swore she heard the familiar lighthearted laughter belonging to her best friend, only for the light to leave her eyes as she remembered he wasn't human any longer. he wasn't with her anymore.

"cheongsan." eunbyul murmured into the stillness, eyes flickering momentarily to the boy beside her. her voice had finally caught up with her.

every head in the room snapped towards her, eyes trained on eunbyul intently. cheongsan leaned slightly to meet her eyes.

"yeah? need something?" he croaked out, raising his eyebrows.

"go clean your fucking wounds, dumbass." she muttered, gently pressing against the torn skin around his knuckles.

he'd been an aggressive griever, punching anything in sight. eunbyul thought she'd be like that too, but gyeong su's death was more than her anger. it washed over her likes waves of sorrow, closing in against her—suffocating her with chains of guilt, wrapping around her endlessly. there was no outlet to pour all that pain into, so she had incased it in herself, forever an echo in her mind and an arrow in her heart.

"it's fine." he argued.

"help me up." eunbyul asked instead, lifting her head from the wall.

cheongsan gently pulled her upwards, not before letting eunbyul sit on the rolling chair he'd been occupying.

"i couldn't hear anything," began cheongsan, as though eunbyul's voice had given him the courage to speak up.

"like what?" suhyeok, glad for the distraction and break of silence, answered.

"after nayeon left, and ms. park went after her." he said, pausing slightly through his words. "i didn't hear anything after that."

"you mean, screaming?" suhyeok supplied. cheongsan nodded.

"maybe they didn't die, then." daesu spoke up, hands interlaced and resting on his stomach. "they wouldn't have been quiet if zombie's were biting them. they must be alive."

eunbyul, as many others in the room, would've found daesu's hope to be absurd—laughable, even—had they not been yearning for anything to hold onto that kept them going.

the room collapsed into silence once more.

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━━PROBLEMS, LIKE ALL things in an already bad situation, were bound to occur. obstacles would clutter their path, drain their hope, crush their determination—all the things that were unneeded in the face of death.

their newest problem came in the form of bathroom breaks. at least, for the students locked in the broadcasting room at hyosan high school.

eunbyul was not one of these people. she was severely dehydrated and hadn't eaten since the first outburst of zombies flooded the cafeteria. ergo, she was in no need to go to the bathroom.

onjo, rather resourceful when she wasn't cowering behind someone or getting weirdly jealous over suhyeok, had taken charge on creating bathrooms from her experience of having a firefighter for a father.

while eunbyul could hardly count herself to be anywhere near friends with the shorter girl, she couldn't help but be appreciative of her survival skills (which almost everyone else in their company seemed to lack) and her non-academic related knowledge.

it was no great shock that eunbyul harbored a bland dislike for the girl, for no particular reason other than the fact onjo managed to irritate eunbyul with every word she spoke. whether it was a stupid response to a question in class (it might've made her laugh had it been at a different occasion and not on the topic of wars during their world history class—eunbyul dreaded history as much as any sane hyosan student did, but incessant bloodshed wasn't something she liked to joke about) or simply onjo stating her opinion (no, eunbyul did not agree that cheongsan's mom's chicken was salty, in fact it was like heaven had descended onto her tastebuds and it was all in onjo's head).

it was a silly sort of ill animosity, a flaw eunbyul knew had nothing to do with onjo herself. there was always someone who eunbyul had no reason to find irritating, but it still went and happened anyway. however, sitting there and watching the girl diligently looking ahead despite the loss of her friend isak, eunbyul felt a sort of resilience radiating off onjo, one she couldn't say she hated.

from her seat in the farthest corner of the room, eunbyul sat with her eyes closed and head tossed back. it would've seemed as though she was sleeping had her dirty and chipped fingernails stopped their hollow rhythm against the windowsill.

she could feel woojin's eyes boring holes into her very soul, intent but nervous to approach her in fear of getting his neck snapped—something eunbyul could assure she'd never do anyway. probably. something she'd most likely not do anytime soon, was a better fit.

still, the raven haired teen did not bother to give him any chance to advance. vulnerability was at its fiercest in her at the moment, still raw from the fresh wound gyeongsu's parting had inflicted on her. eunbyul didn't need solace. she didn't want it—it would mean having to give up on the last dregs of happiness in her memories, having to watch the sun set for the final time under the horizon of her life.

and even though he only brought her an empty hollowness, eunbyul could never give that up even if it tore her apart.

instead, she allowed her vision to sweep across the unnaturally red grounds, greens looking far too grey to be anything more than the dying phantoms crying out for their former selves, their screams reverberating in eunbyul like a snare drum and chilling the very marrow of her bones.

hell, eunbyul decided then and there. this is hell.

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━━ ❝THE BATHROOMS ARE done.❞ onjo declared with grim satisfaction, as though the whole ordeal was more tiring than proud.

there was a commotion as several people rushed into the former broadcasting room's radio area, all clamoring their emergency business was more urgent than any other.

soon enough, however, the ruckus died down and left behind a little present; a serious talk about their safety.

"i'm saying no one will come to save us." namra stated, arms crossed and face so indifferent one might've assumed she was a cold-blooded killer.

eunbyul couldn't help but agree. the sentiment of safety sure was sweet, but it wasn't a guarantee. soon they'd encounter a problem that couldn't be fixed, and then what? would they simply die out, pretending that their efforts were valiant when all they did was instill their own demise?

"don't be so pessimistic." joon yeong intervened, looking jittery (whether from the need to pee or contemplation of their future, eunbyul didn't know) between the rest of their classmates.

but truly, at a time like this, what else more was there than pessimism?

"don't you know my mom?" namra continued. it wasn't a threat, but a point to back up her statement. "she would've torn the school looking for me, but she isn't here."

namra, while the idea was put out, did not execute her words correctly. eunbyul knew that all the stoic girl wanted to do was warn their classmates over the uncertainty of staying put, but she made it sound like her mother, the great authority figure she was, was far above theirs.

"what do you want us to do?" jimin replied snarkily, hostility clear in her tone eunbyul wondered how she didn't notice it before.

"i'm just pointing out the facts." namra shrugged.

"we all know that no-one's coming," jimin continued, malice rooted so far deep in her voice it was as though she hated every word that left any mouth that wasn't hers. "let's just discuss what we're going to do for now."

"we have to wait to be rescued." onjo insisted. of course she would, since eunbyul was sure her father would tear down the world for his only daughter. nobody could share her confidence in that predicament, since none of them, including eunbyul, knew if their families were even alive at that point.

"we shouldn't leave safety and go somewhere dangerous." onjo continued.

"what if no one ever comes?" namra countered.

onjo turned to face her. "we haven't waited that long yet."

"then how much longer should we wait? until we're all dead?"

"no." the shorter girl replied simply. "i'm saying let's wait for as long as we can. we can't go out right now anyway."

"probably because it's night time," suhyeok spoke up, leg propped up against a desk. "i'm sure someone will come for us in the morning—there are lots of helicopters flying around. let's just wait until dawn for now. "

the others nodded their heads in agreement. eunbyul shuffled from her place against the window, her eyes dark and lackluster as she spun to face the rest of the circle.

"it's getting dark." she said quietly. the room fell silent at her words, back's straightening considerably as they felt eunbyul's eyes roaming like a predator to their prey.

the blue eyed girl paused. "we'll make plans tomorrow. for now, rest."

nobody dared to protest and instead meekly did as they were told, some huddling closer together on the floor.

and if a blanket or any sort of object that produced warmth wound up covering their shivering forms, eunbyul had no idea where it came from.

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━━ AS DAYBREAK FLAPPED its golden wings and its feathers kissed eunbyul's face, she blinked open her tired eyes.

there was a weight pressing against her lower body, and cheongsan's dark hair splayed all over her thigh as he snored quietly on the floor, head propped up against her tingling leg.

eunbyul made no move to wake him or remove his head from using her thigh as a pillow, all too aware of the deep marks beneath his eyes and the drooping of his form. she hadn't been the only one to loose him. cheongsan had, too.

instead, the girl allowed him a little well-needed rest to replenish his strengths for what was to come. it was a small gesture in comparison to the gentle soothing words and companionship he had given to her.

everyone awoke with the sun, figures rolling off of each other and staring out the window. the sunrise wasn't remotely pretty today, in eunbyul's opinion. it was tinged with smoke and the redness rimming the horizon only served as a reminder of the crimson patches of earth pooling around their city.

as much as the rest of them wished for rescue, eunbyul already knew. she knew it would never come.

"they'll come for us, eventually." jimin tried reconsolidating her foolish hope, but as they watched the helicopters in a distance, mere specs of shadows in the light, nobody found it in themselves to agree.

still, they resigned themselves to be saved, and one could not sit and pray that something good could come from nowhere.

"we can't last long anyway." namra murmured quietly, her messy hair now completely fixed. "three minutes without oxygen, three weeks without food, three days without water."

"what's that?" suhyeok yawned, hair sticking in every direction. eunbyul found he looked even more stupid like that, although she supposed some might've considered it endearing.

"how long a person can survive." she replied, eyes dark and not quite with them.

"it's only been a day," interjected onjo. "we have to try our best."

"we'll show signs of dehydration, and by tomorrow, half of us won't be able to even move." namra said matter-of-factly.

eunbyul couldn't help but feel awe at her friend's bluntness. not even she could be so unrelentingly stubborn or straightforward.

"what around getting at?" onjo shot back, annoyance building in her voice as she gave namra a look. "are you saying we should leave? or are you saying we'll die anyway, so we shouldn't bother?"

namra paused and her eyes lowered in thought. the room all eyed the two girls.

"i don't know." she said at last, picking at the skin below her nails.

"then don't say anything." jimin muttered under her breath, but still loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

suhyeok opened his mouth to speak, but eunbyul beat him to it.

"she's being realistic." eunbyul inhaled a breath through her nose. "i can't speak on behalf of anyone, but i don't want to die here waiting for something we don't even know will come."

"i've been thinking for a while. looking at it objectively, there's no guarantee that we'll be rescued, let alone found."

"i'm thinking of leaving." she finished, looking around the room. "preferably alone, to not pressure anyone. we need to get a grasp on the situation before we act instead of waiting like sitting ducks."

"that's what i was trying to say." namra looked at eunbyul gratefully. "grasp on the situation."

"we could find out if we had a phone." cheongsan spoke up.

onjo tensed and lowered her eyes. eunbyul guessed it was the guilt from accidentally dropping their communication device last time.

"we don't have one, though." daesu flattened his hair against his head, looking downcast.

"the teachers office." suhyeok chimed in, looking particularly proud of himself for pitching in ideas rather than terrible throws that usually missed (yes, eunbyul was referring to the book incident that had cost her greatly).

"how far away is it from the broadcasting room?" eunbyul asked as cheongsan stood up from the floor and stuck his head out of the window.

"one floor down and... two rooms across." he replied, jumping back down. "i'll go with you."

"cheongsan..." onjo trailed off, scooting closer to the boy in an attempt to change his mind. "don't be stubborn, it's dangerous."

"i won't stop you, if you want to come. i can't guarantee your safety, either." eunbyul said seriously as she looked at the boy.

"that's okay." cheongsan said softly. "i didn't expect you to anyway."

"i'll go too." suhyeok stepped up, throwing his blazer on and walking over to them.

"suhyeok..." onjo murmured, but the boy was to focused to hear her.

"i don't know whether you two are brave or just stupid, but it's good to have guts." eunbyul managed a minuscule smile to grace her lips.

"and hopefully they'll stay intact by the time we get back." suhyeok joked lightly.

eunbyul almost grinned. almost.

"namra's in charge." she added, sending the rest of the students a chilling glare. a warning to not turn on each other while they were away. "and don't fight."

with the rest of her words dying on her throat, she, cheongsan, and suhyeok shared a look and one by one climbed through the window and scooted onto the ledge.

"doesn't this bring back memories." eunbyul said humorlessly, remembering not so long ago when the three of them were hanging onto the fire-hydrant fashioned rope for their lives.

it might've saved most of them, but not all of them.

"oh, and daesu?" she poked her head through the window just as daesu had stormed over and prepared to climb. "don't even think about following. they need you in case the door breaks."

"you're right." daesu said proudly, immediately removing himself from the window. "i'm too valuable to die."

"exactly, so get over here." joon yeong rolled his eyes and pulled daesu away.

"eunbyul?" cheongsan called from the front of the line, angling his head to look at her from suhyeok's other side.

"i'm going!" she replied loudly, giving the rest of her classmates a final glance and retreating back to hold onto the ledge.

it's a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights.

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━━THE TRIO SLIPPED in quietly through the window, ducking behind the closest desk. they huddled so close their shoulders, elbows, and knees knocked together, warm breath fanning in every direction from the tight space.

eunbyul put a finger to her lips, pointedly staring at suhyeok, who was breathing rather loudly until he calmed down.

they crawled as fast as they could through the classroom, increasingly cautious of the weird crunching sound coming from a corner of the office.

"what's that noise?" suhyeok mouthed as the three of them hid behind a desk and some printers.

"let's check." eunbyul mouthed back, using her hands to motion them forward.

the sight that greeted their eyes was shocking, more so for eunbyul than the rest. eunji, the girl whose dread stemmed from the bullying of myeon hwan and his cronies, was mercilessly destroying phones (that eunbyul and the rest of her classmates desperately needed).

with every grunt the girl gave, there was a downward swing of her arm and yet another device was ruined. without thinking, eunbyul pushed both boys behind her, gave them a look, and mouthed,

"i'll take care of this. stay put." before standing up and, with cheongsan and suhyeok tugging urgently at her jacket, making her way over to the girl.

"eunji." she whispered quietly, tapping the girl on the shoulder.

with a manic craze in her eyes, eunji turned around and made to throw the brick at eunbyul, but was stopped with ease. only when the girl's blurry eyes formed out eunbyul's familiar face did she drop the phone and begin to sob uncontrollably.

"what happened?"

"gwinam—post—bastard!" she cried, not noticing the phone eunbyul had discreetly slipped into her jacket pocket.

"you mean the pictures he took of you that day?" eunbyul pressed on.

eunji nodded angrily, putting her focus back on slamming the brick so it connected with ah device she could find.

"i deleted those." eunbyul recalled.

eunji paused.

"i don't care. i want to die." she murmured under her breath. "i want him to die."

eunbyul began to back up, sensing a strange change in eunji. the hostility was natural, but the bloodlust? eunbyul had never heard eunji speak like that.

"i want everyone to die." eunji's head turned and fixated on eunbyul.

suddenly the phone in her pocket gave a loud buzz.

"i'll kill you, you two faced bitch!" eunji yelled as she sprang up from the floor, but eunbyul was already sprinting to the other side of the room.

"get out!" she yelled to her two companions, one of which was already halfway out of the window.

cheongsan was too late, eunji was clambering over to him, eyes so far gone eunbyul didn't know how she hadn't noticed that before. wrenching the zombified girl off cheongsan, the two bolted out of the room, not before cheongsan yelled "we'll find another way back!" to suhyeok and they took off.

neither knew where they were running, as long as it was away from bloody faces and the incessant growling of the zombies. the two managed to outrun and outmaneuver a few zombies and get back inside the school. eunbyul handed cheongsan the phone she managed to snag and he pocketed it, glad that their goal had at least been accomplished.

with their hearts heaving in their chests, cheongsan managed to find an open door and they quickly rushed in, not before shutting it so abruptly it could've fallen off its hinges.

turning rapidly in case of finding any zombies, eunbyul was surprised to find a very bloody gwinam holding the principal captive.

her eyes flickered to the knife in his hands, and didn't fail to notice how unnaturally red it was stained.

"unbelievable." eunbyul barked out a laugh, her glare stony. "you're vile, yoon gwinam."

almost defensively, the teen leaped away from the man as though he hadn't been caught in the act, pleasant surprise filling his sweaty face as his eyes landed on the raven haired girl.

"you're alive!" he exclaimed, but made no move to get nearer to her. if he had, eunbyul could make no guarantee that the knife in his hands wouldn't end up embedded somewhere in his body.

"help me tie this bastard up, yeah?" he murmured to cheongsan as an afterthought as he turned to tighten the ropes around the principal's wrists.

"what are you two doing!? untie me right now and kill this scum!" the man screamed, face going red from anger, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.

"shhh." gwinam said to the man as he pressed the knife to his throat. "no one asked you to speak."

cheongsan lifted the phone up and opened the camera.

"cheongsan. don't provoke him!" eunbyul whispered urgently under her breath, but the boy beside her was no longer listening.

"if you don't stop, i'll send this video to the police." he sad through gritted teeth. "you're nothing but human trash."

"i'll kill you." gwinam mumbled, yet still hid the knife behind his back as cheongsan began recording.

"no one respects you just because you act tough."

"don't you get it? i'm the boss at this school now." gwinam said, amusement and anger filling his voice.

"my ass you are. you're just a scumbag who'll spend his entire life serving others." cheongsan spat.

gwinam looked enraged. eunbyul knew that he was no longer the same weakling now that he'd gotten a taste for power. he was deranged. they had to get out of here.

"say that again."

it was terrifying. watching someone be connsumed by death's greedy hands again. eunbyul and cheongsan stepped back just as gwinam took a step forward, wiping the blood off the knife and onto his shirt.

"am i still a loser?" gwinam asked, coming closer still. "give me the phone."

and all of a sudden all eunbyul could do is watch as the two boys fought, one for their life and the other to quell the anger building inside him. neither noticed her as they took their fight outside, cheongsan running as fast as he could and gwinam aiming his knife to the former's back.

shit shit shit shit, was all that ran through eunbyul's head as she too chased behind them both, her sides aching painfully and her legs feeling like boulders.

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━━FEELING AS THOUGH she was carrying the weight on her shoulders, eunbyul ran to the library just in time to knock a zombie off of cheongsan before it took a bite out of his leg.

gwinam had been relentless in his rage and newfound goal to kill cheongsan that he hadn't even noticed the zombies that begun crowding around them.

with caution, eunbyul helped cheongsan atop the bookcases, but soon they were brought crashing down, and both teens were forced to jump from one to the other as they fell like dominos.

"get back here!" gwinam roared as he tore over to them, mercilessly slashing the neck of any zombie that went in his direction.

he reeked of murder. eunbyul could smell it from a mile away—such a horrific scent, marking him with death's hands.

"come on, run!" eunbyul called to cheongsan as they made it to the last bookshelf standing, three figures on the teetering wood.

gwinam lunged for cheongsan, crying out his hymn of fury as the knife in his hands aimed to plunge into cheongsan's chest. with no opening to help him,eunbyul was forced to look away, instead knocking off zombies to prevent them from climbing aboard.

but something felt different. like a premonition that rung in her ears endlessly, a haunting whisper of forebodingness encased her.

would someone die here? would she die here?

with the fatigue of her limbs (among other things) weighing her down, eunbyul stepped in just in time to intercept a knife wound from gwinam. his weapon pierced the skin of her arm, warm blood rushing down the injury.

it was then that the air shifted into something more sinister, and eunbyul felt like the end was near.

"eunbyul!?" both boys cried out as she winced in pain, blood splattering and staining the wooden shelf.

what happened next was a blur. gwinam took his opening and knocked cheongsan almost fully off the bookshelf. cheongsan in turn slammed the phone in his hand right into gwinam's eye. and as gwinam's writhing body fell to the floor, an oncoming zombie unknowingly launched cheongsan.

eunbyul didn't know why she did what she did, but in that moment she pushed the boy out of the way, and the zombie sunk its teeth into the flesh of her arms and tore it off.

pain like she had never felt ricocheted all over her body. she felt nauseous but at the same time far too awake to comprehend. pain so overwhelming her eyes watered and she dug her nails onto her leg to stop from screaming any more.

"go!" she yelled at cheongsan, who looked horrified and a mix of emotions her watery eyes couldn't see.

and as he spared her one last glance with his hands already on the library doors, she felt that sense of an end had come far sooner than planned.

( until dusk ).

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kind of an anticlimactic chapter ik but it's not the end yet!! enjoy this overdue chapter,, it's not my best work tho lmao

btw thank you guys sm for 1k<33

thoughts on the story so far??

if there are any mistakes please lmk sometimes they pass me even when i proofread !!

please vote and comment if you can<33

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( annie ).