Taehyun stood in the locker rooms, water rushing through is black hair. He stood in the shower with his hand against the wall not thinking much of anything as he watched the soapy water slowly swirl and disappear into the drain. The school still had a running supply of water even without the electricity, which happened to be a blessing for everyone. Though, without the electricity the locker room was pretty dark with only a little light being provided by tiny one way windows that lined the top of the room; luckily the windows were too high to reach from the outside which made the room comfortably safe for anyone who wanted to clean themselves up.
After a while of standing under the water, the artist turned it off and got out, grabbing a towel that he had personally washed the day before. He ruffled his hair, carelessly rubbing the towel over it as he attempted to dry it. Once his hair was semi-dry, he got dressed in a white button up shirt and then put a black cardigan over top of it; dressing warmer as the weather got colder due to the end of summer being just a few days away. When he was finished he picked up his weapon and went to the door, peeking into the hallway. The hallway was littered with glass and covered in puddles of water; not every window was broken, but a decent amount of them had shattered from either the weather or the infected. As a result of the window conditions, rain water had begun to leak into the school, creating puddles on the hallway floors.
He looked around carefully, checking for any form of danger; once he was sure that there wasn't anything in the hallway, he proceeded. He made his way up the stairs to the second floor and stopped to look out the window. His eyes went wide as he laid eyes on the scene outside. A huge horde of the infected were slowly approaching the school from about four blocks up the street.
"Aish." He hissed as he rushed to the third floor and down the hallway towards the clubroom; his footsteps echoed loudly as he approach the door. The noise drew in the attention of Yeongsu, who opened the door and looked around for the cause of the noise.
"What's wrong?" He asked as he took notice of the artist.
"We need to move now." He said; loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"What's going on?" Seojun was quick to stand and approach the door.
Hanwoo went to the window and swept the curtains aside to look at the road. "Umm, we need to go. Like right now, that's the biggest horde I have seen so far."
"Grab what you can carry and leave what you can't." Seojun turned to the group in the room.
Taehyun scanned over the people in the room, two people were missing. "Where is Hina and Minseok?"
"The nurse's office." KZ responded as she packed two books in her backpack.
"Meet at the door to the schoolyard?" He asked Yeongsu and Seojun as they grabbed their bags.
"Yes, now go." Yeongsu replied.
Taehyun grabbed two backpacks from the room and quickly ran to the stairway, skipping the steps on the way down. He reached the nurse's office and opened the door with force, the action startled the two people in the room as Minseok had a hand over his racing heart and Hina had stood up with her weapon at the ready.
"Grab what you can and make it quick, we need to leave immediately." He tossed the backpacks to them. They exchanged looks while Taehyun turned to keep watch at the door.
A minute or two passed before they were ready to go. "What's going on?" Minseok asked as they made their way to the meeting point.
"A large horde is coming directly towards the school, hundreds, maybe thousands of lurkers." He responded.
"God help us." Minseok said quietly as they joined the rest of the group at the door.
"Ready?" Seojun asked the group just as a lurker broke through a window down the hall.
"As I will ever be." KZ was the first to respond followed by the rest.
Pushing the doors open, Seojun came face to face with a tall, muscular lurker; the thing must've been about six foot eight as it seemingly towered over the detective.
"Aish." Was the only word that left Seojun's mouth as the creature snarled and reached towards him.
"Duck!" Taehyun shouted; twirling his weapon in his hands, he swung it over Seojun's head. A few brown strands of hair flew off the top of the detectives head as the blade passed over him. The blade of his staff cut through the creature's jugular causing it to stagger to the side, yet it was still alive as it regained its footing and cocked its head to look at Taehyun. He took a fighting stance as the lurker took a step away from him, it was blocking the way which meant a fight couldn't be avoided. "Watch my back, I'll take care of this... thing."
"Be careful." Seojun stated as he went back into the school as did most of the group. Yeongsu and KZ stayed by the door as they kept a watch around Taehyun to keep him safe from any other lurkers that may try to take advantage of the situation.
With his full attention on the tall creature he watched as it took a few more steps backwards, it dug its foot into the dirt and then propelled itself forward. It was fast, but Taehyun was faster as he remembered everything Kitt trained him for. It launched itself into the air, lunging at him as it tried to tackle him. He dropped to his stomach and barrel rolled underneath it. It landed on the ground where he had just been, Taehyun rolled back onto his stomach and whipped his body around, sweeping his staff across the back of its legs. The blade sliced through its achilles tendon which caused the creature to drop to its knees and fall forward as it could no longer stand. The creature now laid on the ground as it began to push its upper body off the ground with its arms, it turned its head to look at him as he drew his staff straight back. He gave it a bitter smirk as he drove the blade through its skull.
"Let's go." He called to the rest of the group as he kicked the dead body and then spit on it disrespectfully.
"Show a little respect for the dead, will you?" Hanwoo said as he walked through the doorway.
Taehyun rolled his eyes at the comment, but didn't respond. They made their way through the schoolyard, fending off a few lurkers. When they reached the fence bordering the school, KZ stopped, causing everyone to wait as they stopped to see what was going on.
"Hey, Yeongsu. Doesn't that look like the lurker that ran away from us?" KZ asked, pointing to a lurker that was standing on the hood of a car. The lurker was just standing there watching them from a distance, it tilted its head as it noticed KZ point at it.
"I'm surprised you are able to identify it, what makes it stand out from the rest?" Hina asked.
"It's less decayed than most of the others, as well as it's wearing designer clothes." KZ said as she turned her attention back towards the front of the group. "Let's keep moving."
Taehyun stared at the lurker for a moment longer, it seemed to be smarter than the rest. Questions filled Taehyun's mind as he looked the creature up and down. "Why did it run away? Why did it come back? Why is it watching them from on top of a car? Why is it less decayed than the others?" He thought to himself as he turned to join the rest of the group. One thought seemed to stick with him as he followed the others, he decided to voice his main concern as he sped up to jog next to Seojun. "When I was outside the apartment for the first time with Kitt, we witnessed the lurkers using some kind of communication with each other. What if that lurker that had run away was like a scout?"
Most of the group turned their heads to look at Taehyun, trying to grasp what he had said. "You didn't think to mention that before?" Hanwoo asked.
"No, I only witnessed it that one time and a lot had happened that night. I had totally forgotten about it until now." He responded.
"I noticed it when we first arrived in Daegu, before we met with Hina. That's why I ended up leading you guys into the city, I saw what looked like a group of lurkers communicating amongst themselves. I didn't remember it until just now, it's hard to remember some stuff when everything going on around you is hectic." KZ said.
Hina seemed to take everything into consideration. "A form of communication actually seems probable. Maybe those certain ones are smarter than the others, they decay at a slower rate because their bodies aren't fully dead; the ones that aren't smart and are just instinctual, decay faster because they are dead while the parasite is just keeping the body moving. That one that ran away seemed smarter and very well could've used some form of communication to lead the horde to where we were staying."
"When we all went on that run with Kitt, we had to drive through a horde that was blocking the bridge; that time I noticed how a few lurkers did move out of the way of the truck while other ones walked towards it." Taehyun said, talking about that day left a bad taste in his mouth.
"It's very interesting, you should share more of your findings with me when we reach a safe place, I'd love to learn more about what you have noticed." Hina said as they turned onto the road by the river and began to follow it upstream.
A lurker staggered out from one of the buildings in front of them, KZ was the quickest to react as she smacked it across the head with her weapon. She used a pair of nunchucks that had barbed wire wrapped around the batons. She had made it from the legs of a chair and a chain that tied a door shut. It was quite lethal with the barbed wire as it would tear into the flesh of its victims.
The lurker fell to the ground, its face torn by the impact of the nunchucks. Yeongsu then made sure it was dead as he smashed its head with his baseball bat. "Where are we heading now?" Yeongsu asked as he stepped over the corpse.
"I noticed that the lurkers don't go through the water, so I figured we would cross the river that this river is connected to, it had a smaller population over there before everything happened since it was a little more isolated." Seojun said, leading the group towards his destination.
They jogged a few miles up the road until they came to the main river. They stopped at the edge of the last building before the road crossed the river. The detective peeked around the corner, Taehyun also joined him as they looked at what was around the bridge. A couple dozen lurkers were skulking about, sneaking across would be their safest bet. Seojun, having the same idea as Taehyun, gestured for the group to stay silent and to follow him when safe. The artist watched as the head detective quietly ran to a nearby car and crouched down behind it. He then peeked around the back of the car at the lurkers, when it was safe he gestured for the group members to follow.
They made it a quarter of the way across the bridge when they spotted a barricade of vehicles towards the middle of the bridge; two tanks blocked the far end and a bunch of cars leading up to the tanks were jammed against each other to prevent the lurkers from crossing. "We will have to climb over in order to cross. Be careful and be mindful of lurkers that could be stuck between the vehicles." Seojun whispered to the group as they continued to quietly weave their way around the abandoned cars.
Taehyun was crouched against a car behind everyone else, he looked back to make sure they weren't spotted. He went to follow the rest of the group as they began to move towards the next vehicle; not paying attention to the finer details, his leg caught on the metal of the front fender. The fender was sticking out as the car had clearly become damaged from an accident, it was jagged and sharp. Pain shot up through Taehyun's leg as the metal caught his lower calf muscle; he bit his lip harshly and let out a quiet grunt of pain as it tore through his skin. He staggered as his leg freed itself from the metal, blood beginning to flow from the wound.
Yeongsu was quick to turn around as he heard the pained grunt from Taehyun. "Tae." He gasped loud enough for the group to hear, but not loud enough to draw unwanted attention. Yeongsu immediately rushed to the artist's side as he limped a few steps towards the rest of the group. He wrapped his arm around his waist to help him walk, then Jiwon also came to help him from the opposite side.
"Hey guys, I don't mean to rush you, but I think those lurkers can smell blood pretty well." Minseok stated as he pointed towards the dozens of lurkers at the start of the bridge. The lurkers had their faces tilted in the air as if they caught the scent of something, then as if on cue, a few of them released a loud snarl and turned their heads in the direction of the group.
"Quick to the barricade!" Seojun shouted as he got behind Taehyun to cover their backs while the other two helped him towards the pile of cars. The artist turned to look back at the lurkers as they rushed quickly towards them. He hadn't seen any of the lurkers move at that speed since they had arrived in Daegu. He noticed the head detective drew his pistol; he shot a lurker mid-air as it dove at him and then immediately turned to shoot another as it ran around the car next to him. The infected were moving in quicker than the group had anticipated. Hanwoo climbed onto the barricade and drew his gun to provide cover for Seojun as he slowly fought his way to the pile of vehicles.
Taehyun climbed onto the first car and headed towards the tanks cautiously. He had to make his way around a car that was so jammed in that the front end was sticking straight up in the air, the obstacle forced him to step onto the guard rail that overlooked the river in order to get around it. He looked back briefly as he heard Yeongsu hit a lurker with his bat as it attempted to climb the barricade. The artist came to a stop as he saw the huge blockade behind the tanks, multiple trucks with spiked barricades were blocking the exit of the bridge. It would be nearly impossible to climb over them with his injury.
"Slight problem. I won't be able to get over those trucks." Taehyun said to the group, as he swayed on his feet.
"We can help you up." Jiwon said as he moved past Taehyun to get to the next car, he extended his hand to Taehyun to help him over the vehicles. He slowly reached out to take his hand, but as he reached out, he got light headed; he staggered, shaking his head a bit trying to clear his clouding vision.
"Taehyun, you look awfully pale, are you doing alright?" The model asked with concern, but wasn't acknowledged as the artist staggered again. His weapon fell from his hands and clattered to the ground. "Hey, hey catch him!" He heard Jiwon shout as he suddenly saw the model rush towards him trying to grab his hand as he fell backwards over the railing.
He watched as the sky filled his vision while he plummeted to the river below. Landing in the water with a loud splash, the cold water washed over him, barely waking him from his fading conscience. He managed to resurface, the cold water keeping him awake for a moment longer. He struggled to swim his way over to the shore and then weakly pulled his body out of the water. He stood, staggering his way up the river bank. He barely made it to the top as his vision started going black; once to the top he began to fall face first towards the ground, as he fell he caught a glimpse of what looked to be the silhouette of someone who was up the road a bit. As his vision continued to fade, he laid there hoping that it wasn't a lurker that he saw. His mind then went blank as everything around him grew dark.
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Taehyun woke with a start as he sat up from where he was laying. He placed his one hand over his rapid beating heart and the other on the mattress under him. A confused expression crossed his face as he looked at the mattress he was now sitting on. He had a blanket over his body and was in a dry set of clothes that were a tad too big for him. Moving the blanket off his leg, he looked at the wound that was now wrapped in gauze. When he had collapsed on that shore he thought he was as good as dead.
He glanced around the room, it wasn't anything spectacular as it seemed like an abandoned room. The musty scent that basements often had could be smelled as he turned his attention to his weapon that was leaning against the bedside table next to him. His thoughts drifted to his friends as he reached for his weapon, he just hoped that they were safe. He ran his hand over Kittichai's name that he had carved into the wood of the broom stick, he couldn't bare the thought of losing someone else. While deep in thought he failed to hear the door open.
"Oh, I'm glad to see you're finally awake." Someone spoke from the door causing his hand to freeze as it hovered over the name. His eyes were wide in disbelief as he slowly turned to look at the speaker; his eyes filled with tears as they landed on the person in the doorway. "It's been a while. How have you been, Tae?"
He covered his mouth as he let out a muffled cry. He wasn't able to speak properly as he stuttered the words out, barely audible,
"K-Kitt? You're alive?"
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The End of Part 1.