Chapter Text
The sun shined brightly on Chaeyoung, making her reflexively cover her little brother’s eyes from the blinding rays. “Sissy! I can’t see!” He said whining, making Chaeyoung giggle.
“It’s okay Jeonghun, I’m doing this to prevent you from getting hurt.” Jeonghun pouted and Chaeyoung couldn't help but softly smile. She removed her hand from his face and bent down. “How about I buy you ice cream?” Her younger brother shook his head yes in delight and grabbed Chaeyoung’s hand tightly as they made their way over to the ice cream stand.
Chaeyoung doesn’t get ice cream for herself and proceeded to watch a dog run from their owner. She shook her head disapprovingly.
“People should care more for their pets…”
Jeonghun pulled at his sister’s sleeve. She kneeled to his height.
“What’s up, little bean?”
“Sissy, I have to pee…” He said shyly. She smiled. Maybe ma’s method of potty training is finally working after all.
“Alright,” She took his small hand in hers.
“Soon enough, you’ll be out of pull-ups and into big boy briefs.”
Jeonghun looked up at Chaeyoung in amazement.
“Really?!” He looked down at his pants.
Chaeyoung burst out laughing and ruffled her brother’s hair. “Sure Jeonghun, if you continue to work hard at potty training. I know you can do it, I have faith in you.”
As they made their way to the bathroom, Chaeyoung heard low, raspy growls from the side of the building, making her grip Jeonghun’s hand tighter. He looked up at his big sister with worry in his eyes.
They made it to the bathroom and Chaeyoung’s protectiveness overwhelmed her and she followed her little brother in to make sure nothing happened. Suddenly a blood curdling scream could be heard, making Chaeyoung’s blood run cold.
“Jeonghun, you need to hurry.” Chaeyoung informs him, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible so she doesn’t instill fear into his heart.
“Okay,” Jeonghun hummed.
Her anxiety swelled up and shot out when she heard another loud screech from not too far away.
It was enough to catch Jeonghun’s attention.
“C’mon,” she grabbed his hand and led him out of the bathroom anxiously.
His unsure steps made Chaeyoung pick him up. Something told her that they needed to hurry home.
“Your big sister is gonna start going a little fast now, okay?” Chaeyoung gave him a reassuring smile.
Jeonghun nodded.
There was a pool of dark red liquid that she did NOT want to walk through. She cursed in her head and walked through it reluctantly.
“Sissy, what is it?”
She thought and looked around as she walked faster.
“I’m not sure, just keep quiet, Jeonghun.”
As she neared a corner, a man with red stained clothing stumbled into a parked car. His groans sent shivers down Chaeyoung’s spine and she decided that sneaking past him rather than interacting would be wise.
A shriek of help emitted from the car, causing Chaeyoung to snap her neck towards it. An older woman was banging on the window and looking at the girl with wide eyes. The man began scratching at the window in desperation.
She swallowed a lump in her throat and closed her eyes tight. She thought about it before shaking her head and running away. Surely the woman could call the police…
Across the road, a stray dog sniffed at a pile of clothing. Chaeyoung, being ever the curious cat that she was, decided to take a quick look. Her presence scared the mutt away as she walked slowly towards the clothes. Flies buzzed around the clothing and what looked to be blood surrounded it. Regardless, Chaeyoung tried to uncover the base of the pile with her foot. What surprised her was the solid object that seemed to be under all the clothes - wearing it perhaps. Then it clicked for her. This was a fucking dead body. She tightened her hold around Jeonghun and ran to cross the street.
“Sissy,” Jeonghun yawned. “Why are you running?”
She shushed him and ran up the street. Up ahead, a car was caught aflame and more wobbling people were in the middle of the road, some crouched around what looked to be a dead dog. She picked up her pace with home in mind. It was only a few blocks ahead. Several feet later and she soon realized that she was surrounded by all these lifeless moving people. They all growled and moaned, but they otherwise ignored Chaeyoung. Jeonghun had fallen asleep to the constant rocking feeling of his sister’s bouncing feet. Now she treaded carefully towards home which seemed so far. Her adrenaline kicked in and she halted her breathing. She felt aware of every danger around her and picked up her ample stepping with one thought in mind: protect Jeonghun.
Further ahead she could see a writhing person on the ground and one of those wobbly people hunched over them. She had no choice but to walk directly past the occurrence. As she neared closer, her eyes caught onto the writhing person and with pain and horror, the man reached out slowly to her with his red hand. Something about the way crimson covered the man and the other person digging into what looked like bbq on the man’s stomach made Chaeyoung’s denial disappear.
This man was being eaten by this grey moving corpse. It was zombies. All of these wobbly bastards were zombies. The scene right beside her was like that out of The Walking Dead and Chaeyoung couldn’t help but gasp as her lungs inhaled for oxygen. The dying man shook his head and the zombie turned towards Chaeyoung. The man grabbed the zombie’s shredded clothing and tried to tell her to run. Something just would not allow her to snap out of it. Her eyes were glued to the horror before her. The zombie growled at her and began trudging towards her. Still, the man held tight to the moving body.
“Go… Run…” He tried to say, but it only came out as gurgles. At this point the zombie was dragging the open man along with it, leaving skid marks of blood across the street with his own stomach pouring out onto the concrete.
Chaeyoung shook her head and started moving her legs, unable to look forward, eyes still locked with the zombie's presence.
It took her bumping into a solid object to snap out of it. She looked forward and there stood a zombie with one eye hanging out of its socket and an unhinged jaw with goopy crimson flooding out, seeping into Chaeyoung’s own shoes. It kept all her will-power to avoid screaming and she pushed the zombie away with her foot before setting into high gear. Her house wasn’t far from here, just about 2 blocks. She would make it. Jeonghun would be home in no time. She was the fastest kid on the track team. Only when there weren’t hurdles though.
A group of people came running out of a house to her left and screaming, some hopping on others and biting them, blood lashing out everywhere. She looked forward and continued running when a woman ran out and stopped her.
“Please! You have to help me!”
She was covered in blood and a chunk of her neck was most definitely gone, purple coloring spreading all around it.
Chaeyoung was bewildered.
“Huh?”
“Please! These men attacked my husband and they bit me! I need a phone to dial 911! Please you have to-!” Chaeyoung saw a figure jump at the woman so on reflex she pulled the woman out of the way and started running with her hand in hers.
She felt Jeonghun lift his head off her shoulder.
“Sissy?”
“Jeonghun please be quiet!” Up ahead were more of those zombies, so she made a split second decision to cut through a neighbor’s yard. Opening the gate she pulled the woman in with her and Chaeyoung led them to the backyard.
“Okay, we’re going to have to jump this fence up here, can you do that?” Chaeyoung asked with heavy breathes.
The woman looked drowsy but nodded regardless.
The fence was tall and sturdy, but Chaeyoung didn’t know what the otherside held. She tried to look for a peephole but found nothing so she pondered something risky.
“Okay, ma’am,” She got the exhausted woman’s attention and noticed the purple around her neck was dominant and certainly spreaded. But this was her and Jeonghun’s only chance.
“Sissy. What’s going on?” He looked at her as she held him out towards the woman.
She looked her deep in her eyes.
“Take him while I go over this fence and check if it’s clear, okay?” The woman suddenly looked alerted and nodded.
There’s what’s like an alleyway behind houses on each side and behind this fence should be that path. However, there are a lot of gates that open to it so the chances of zombies are high and it’s risky, but she absolutely has no choice.
“Sissy?” He whined in the woman’s arms.
The short girl looked at the boy with affection and warmth, wanting to give him all the calm in the world. Chaeyoung smiled brightly at him.
“Sissy will be back soon, okay? You be a good boy with this woman, okay? Don’t leave, okay?” She said more anxious than she would have liked. Kissing him on the head, she looked up at the woman seriously.
“Please take care of him. If I’m not back in 10 minutes,” She looked around quickly, “Take him to 132 West St. It’s down the way just a little while, but watch out for anyone walking, they WILL try to kill both of you.” The woman nodded along with her words.
Chaeyoung climbed the wooden fence and with one last glance at Jeonghun, she jumped to the ground.
The second her feet hit the ground, her first instinct was to hide and scout. She crouched down behind a trash can, pinching her nose from the foul smell emitting from it. “Okay Chaeyoung, first thing is first, check your surroundings.” She reminds herself as she takes a look around. The only things she sees is the undead, taking their victims and tearing at them like rabid animals.
She takes a deep breath to steady her nerves, “I’ve got to do this for Jeonghun.” She tells herself. After composing herself, she takes one more look around and finds an opening in between two houses. She gathers up all her courage and makes her way over, hiding behind bushes and other trash cans in the process. Once there, Chaeyoung noticed that one of the garages was open; she felt compelled to investigate it and so she did.
Inside, it looked like a woodshop with drills, hammers, and other tools. Chaeyoung wasn’t picky when it came to choosing a weapon for protection, she decided on a hammer that looked as if it hadn’t even been used yet. As she marvelled at this tool, the short girl failed to detect a presence looming over her until she heard a loud moan, instantly gaining her attention.
Chaeyoung’s fast reflexes helped evade the rotting corpse as it lunged at her. She took a second to refocus and get her bearings together while walking behind the zombie, being as quiet as possible. The short girl swallowed the lump in her throat and rammed the hammer straight into its skull. Its head was much softer than Chaeyoung imagined as it broke open so easily, showing the most important organ in our body; the brain.
Chaeyoung drove the hammer even further into its brain, earning red liquid to squirt all over her face. The zombie went limp and Chaeyoung just stood there trying to process what exactly she just did. “That thing isn’t human, it’s a fucking monster.” She muttered, wiping the blood off her face and making her way into the house to see if she could find any food for her brother.
The long haired girl made her way back to the fence undetected by the roaming dead with food in her pocket, a bloody hammer, and a smile on her face, excited to see her little brother again. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d explain the hammer to Jeonghun, but she’d come up with something once she saw him.
Climbing over the fence once more, she scans the area in search for her brother and the woman. Chaeyoung might’ve came back a little after 10 minutes, but the woman and Jeonghun couldn’t have gone that far in such a short amount of time. She looked around, whispering for the both of them, but there was nothing. Chaeyoung let out a frustrated sigh, “what the fuck?” she harshly whispers, agitated.
As she was going to make her way through the other backyards in search of the two, Chaeyoung stops in her tracks, tuning her ears to the noise she just heard. Turning around, her eyes land on a shed which was open just a little but Chaeyoung could clearly see a body in there. Unsure if they were dead or alive, she took her chances and went to go find out. Peeking inside to see more clearly, Chaeyoung’s heart dropped and her eyes widened in disbelief.
There in the shed was not only the woman, but also Jeonghun, with her on top of him. He was as pale as snow with blood trickling down his mouth. Only then when he heard a small gasp did he look up to see his big sister. “Sissy…” he began as tears rolled down his cheeks. “It hurts sissy…”
Chaeyoung trembled as she reached for the hammer, eyes locked with Jeonghun.
She felt anger, betrayal, regret, and fear. She turned her now blurry vision to the woman she naively trusted. Pulling the hammer out, she took unsteady steps toward the woman. Her breathing was now heavy and rapid, almost as if she were having a panic attack.
This shouldn’t have happened. It’s all this woman’s fault.
Jeonghun. Tears began streaming down her face. Jeonghun.
Then she closed her eyes, tears squeezing their way out along with the emotional scream that she cried out.
Next thing she knew, she was carrying her lifeless brother in her arms, soaked in the woman’s and her own brother’s blood. Sitting there in a shed, bathing in two other people’s blood while holding the one who mattered the most in her life’s corpse, did something to her. That day she died right along with Jeonghun and that woman. Along with the majority of the world.