Chapter Text
In a dimly lit room scarcely larger than a walk-in closet, Cha Hyunsu lay curled up in a fetal position on the unforgiving tile floor. The wall behind him provided little respite from the discomfort as a pervasive chill permeated his clothing, sending shivers down his spine. Lush ebony lashes started to flutter against his pallid cheeks, casting ethereal shadows but remaining stubbornly closed. Only the faintest quiver beneath his closed eyelids hinted at how close he was to waking up.
As he slowly came to, he felt the heavyweight of exhaustion tugging at his eyelids and making them burn, begging him to rest more. Groggily, he managed to pry open one of his deep, dark brown eyes only to find his vision partly obscured by his disheveled dark hair that had tumbled over his forehead and eyes. Confusion clouded his sleep jumbled mind as he took in the scene around him. He was in a small, cramped janitor’s closet, overflowing with shelves filled with various cleaning supplies and random items scattered around them. He then became aware of the overpowering smell of potent cleaning chemicals wafting off of almost everything around him as they assaulted his nose and sinus cavity. His eyes instantly started to water as his nose filled up with the overpowering scent of bleach, a headache starting to form from how close it was to him.
It was startling to him, especially since when he fell asleep, he had been breathing in the crisp, if slightly dusty smell of the outside night air.
Blinking rapidly in order to clear his mind from the fog of sleep, Hyunsu slowly pushed his way up from the icy, unyielding floor, feeling the cold seeping through his clothes. His gaze wandered over the chaotic jumble of broom handles, mops, and a myriad of other odds and ends scattered around the compact space, the scent of bleach still seeping into this nasal cavity even though he was pinching his nose closed with the collar of his shirt.
Now more aware of his surroundings and able to make sense of his environment, a gnawing sense of unease started creeping up on him. Suspicion furrowed his brows as he braced himself against the wall behind him to help push himself up, frowning as he scanned his dim surroundings once more.
Suddenly, what sounded like a mash pit’s worth of screams sounded all around him. Shrill, terror filled cries that cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter. His small confines amplified the sound, so that each scream echoed through the room and felt like a sharp needle jabbing into his unprotected over sensitive ears, causing a wave of disorienting panic to wash through him.
Falling back onto his behind, Hyunsu desperately clasped at his ears, trying to drown out the ear piercing screams with the sound of his racing heartbeat. Only he was too late, as he heard and felt a sharp, painful popping sound within his ears before a deafening ringing started.
Gasping in pain, Hyunsu felt like bashing his head on the hard wall behind him to save himself from the agony throbbing from his shattered eardrums to his brain. Sadly he knew he couldn’t so he did the next best thing he could think of.
His hands shook as he rummaged through the various shelves around him in search for anything he could use to create a barrier between his slowly healing ears and the deafening screams around him that was making his already aching head worse. The pain caused him to become frenzied as he knocked over various products in his search for anything to muffle out the sounds.
He was about to give up and use his shirt when his hands landed on the familiar rough fabric of old rags. Not caring if they were dirty or not, Hyunsu grabbed as many as he could and shakily stuffed them against his ears until his ears were pinned to his ears and a good 3 inches of material separated his newly restored eardrums from a repeat event.
Now that the sounds around him were muffled to a low hum, Hyunsu slowly breathed out as he relaxed his tensed muscles, particularly his neck muscles, in order to hopefully calm down his racing heat as he slumped back against the wall he had woken up against. He honestly felt like crying, but shoved it down for when he wasn't stuck in such an uncertain situation.
Continuing to breathe slowly, ignoring the screams until they were an afterthought in his mind, Hyunsu gave himself a minute to calm down and reach a state of cool headedness that would help him figure out what was going on and how to survive it.
‘How?’ he kept questioning himself with, ‘how were there so many people here to make this much noise in the first place?’ Sure he knew there were likely camps out there that held a large number of survivors outside of the ones the military deemed important enough to save. But how did he wake up in the middle of one of them? And why were they making so much noise? Even if they were running from a monster, with how long the apocalypse had been going on they should know by now that loud noise draws hostile monsters in like flies to honey. Unless these ‘survivors’ were really sheltered, but if that was the case why were so many screaming at once? It was unlikely they were all incompetent of the situation surrounding them all. Especially with the chance of others turning within their camps.
These questions kept circulating in his head as his speculations ran wild. After a few moments of this, with the pain in his head and ears having reduced to a dull but still present throb, Hyunsu gingerly peeled back the layer of rags on one ear to check to see if his ears could handle the volume better now. He felt as if there was a stream of steam wafted out from his ear canal, but thankfully the cries and screams no longer seemed to deafen him. In fact it seemed as if his hearing had gotten even better.
Peeling away the rags, Hyunsu replaced them on the shelf beside him. Listening in, it seemed like the building he found himself in was actually pretty big and held at least a couple of hundred or so people within it that were running from something he couldn’t pick up on at the moment. Which was weird, with his new ability his ego showed him how to use yesterday he could ‘sense’ the presence of any monsters nearby. So whatever was making these people run away screaming for their lives, didn’t seem to be a monster at least from what he could tell.
With the amount of voices he just heard, along with the countless number of running feet around what obviously had to be a large building, there had to be more than a hundred at least.
There must be a long hallway outside his small sanctuary, as he could then hear hurried running accompanying terrified yelling and crying as a large group turned a corner. Their feet pounded on the hard floors, growing closer with each passing second.
And as they approached closer, he couldn’t help but notice the unmistakable scent of blood, rich and abundant on them. The metallic tang sliced through the chemical-laden air of the janitor’s closet.
The stench of which was so thick and cloying, it filled his nasal cavity while they were still at the other end of the hall. A shiver raced down his spine, and he couldn't help but wonder what was going on out there for there to be this much blood already. He had semi-forgotten how blood could smell so sweet.
He was busy staining his senses to the max, trying to scope out the situation and what exactly the group was running from, and sadly not really being able to sense anything at all which worried him. When he felt the familiar, yet still unsettling, sensation of his ego stirring from the back of his subconscious from which it slept when it wasn't trying to torment him. The brush of his ego’s presence against his mind helped like the barbed tongue of a tiger against his fragile neck most days, and while it still held that prickliness, it had lost the edge of meaningfully intent.
He twitched involuntarily as he tried to stay concentrated on the give back his senses were telling him as it grew more present and seemed to metaphorically stretch itself out as if to remove any kinks in it’s ‘body’ after being asleep for a while.
‘What have you gotten us into now,’ his ego grumbled, voice sounding deeper and grumpy as it ‘woke’ up.
Ignoring the grumbles going on in his head, Hyunsu decided to get closer to the door.
Taking a deep fortifying breath as he closed his eyes, Hyunsu heaved himself onto his feet and headed across the small closet to the metal door on the other side of the room, stepping over closed boxes as he did. As he reached out to put a hand on the cool metal, the group was already rushing past it. He counted a dozen or so people outside the door, still yelling or screaming incoherently about something being behind him. Hyunsu concluded it must be whatever is the cause for all of the blood permitting the building and focused in on the only other thing he could hear behind the group. Placing a hand on the doorknob as it started to rattle, not wanting one of the people outside to open it in search of refuge as he hasn’t reached a well enough emotional state to deal with anyone right now, even if it might save them from what they're running from.
Something his ego eagerly pointed out to him, cackling excitedly in the back of his mind, ‘Oh, how you’ve grown. Old Hyunsu would’ve opened the door no matter how far away the danger was or how he felt at the moment.’
Exasperated, Hyunsu mearly hummed in response as he tracked a seconded, more unsteadily, running group (that seemed to be growling with an aggressive ferocity?) as they came up behind the ones in front of them. As, while it was true, he had learned over the months since the monsters had started popping up that he only really cared for those he formed an attachment to. He may have gone to the survivor group in the beginning without Jung Jaeheon and the kids, he wouldn’t have so readily offered himself as a shield for them. And might have left with that damn psychopath. He had been suicidal and depressed, not stupid after all.
It was only his desire to make sure those few to survive that he actually stook around. Especially later on when his ego admittedly made his weak human body more durable and stronger when it wasn’t trying to drive him crazy and take over.
His internal reflection was interrupted by a harrowing, pain filled scream out in the hallway. Making him flinch back as it was almost right in his ear. It seemed like the second larger group had caught up with the stragglers in the first. And judging from the screams, they were what they were running from.
Shaking his head, not wanting to get involved he let a familiar sense of detachment settle over him as he waited for the seeming stampedes worth of strangely growling group to rush by. Their path followed by more screams of those they caught up with. All the while Hyunsu locked his empathy away for the moment.
As the echoes of the second wave of growls and footsteps faded into the distance, Hyunsu was left confused by the strange ripping sounds in random spots out in the hallway where the screaming had fallen. With a cautious curiosity to get a handle on the situation, Hyunsu finally unlocked the door and opened it a small slither to peer into the hallway, bracing himself for anything he might see out in the hallway that was making that unsettling sound.
Allas, no manner of preparation, nor gruesome sights that he had seen before, would have prepared him for this. Like a scene out of a zombie apocalypse movie, he saw the figures of what seemed to be zombies crowded around the multiple fallen bodies littering the hallway.
While blood and dismembered body part didn’t really faze him anymore, theri was just something about what seemed to be a undead student judging by the school uniform and multiple bite wounds along their shoulders, arms, and face bit into the hand of another human being and rip out and eat the various tendons and muscles their while two more almost worked on the bodies top half. Their efforts mirrored in other spots scattered across the long hallway, and causing blood vessels to rupture and spray against the white tiled floor and walls around them.
With his eyes wide and horrified, Hyunsu kept himself quiet by placing his hand over his mouth as he struggled to swallow what he was looking at. At least he knew he was in a school building of some sort, and he could see the bright blue sky, unobstructed by city buildings, outside the large windows lining one side of the long hallway.
His gaze was pulled back to the zombies as the small group closest to him by a couple feet, ripped the arm off the male student they were feasting on. A loud ‘Rriip’ filled the hallway as he observed a large puddle form underneath the body.
Judging that it would be better to get away from this situation and find a better place to scope out what was going on, Hyunsu glanced around to make sure none of them were paying attention to him and slowly came out of his hiding place. Stepping fully into the hallway, he made sure the door stays unlocked behind him by leaving it cracked open a bit. Glancing down when his boots hit a wet substance, Hyunus grimaced as he saw the blood from the severed shoulder had trickled down the hallway and he had inadvertently stepped into it.
Stepping back, he wiped the sole of his boot against the floor until he had smudged all the blood off so he wouldn't leave bloody footprints everywhere he went.
Looking up, Hyunus in time to catch the female zombie munching on the severed arm discard the picked clean radius bone. Exposing her face, intrigued by the sight, Hyunus observed everything he could about her while he still could get a clear look at her face without them noticing him. She had a bite mark on the left side of her face, leaving her cheekbone and teeth exposed from where it would normally be covered with her cheek muscles, and he could see her teeth chewing and gnashing the raw flesh of her former schoolmate. Blood, dark red and runny, ran down the bottom half of her face, both from mouth and her exposed left side. But, despite the gruesome sight of witnessing something he knew to be human flesh being eaten, that wasn’t what had caught his attention.
His zombie theory just might be right. As this girls, and others from what he could glimpse, eyes were glazed over in a white film, clouding over her original eye color until it was a cloudy white gray with no pupil at all with black and blue veins snaking away from underneath the bruised, bloodless flesh around the eyes. The zombie girl he was studying seemed to lose interest in the body before her, leaving it to the other two as she stood up on bloodied knees and started to stumble away, her body producing a startling creaking noise with every move she made.
Soon enough the other two, along with the others in vicinity he could see, followed her example and abandoned the fresh kill, barely a minute or two after they started feeding on them. Wary now that they were all standing up and moving, Hyunsu started to slowly back away from where he stood, not turning his back on this new threat for even a moment.
His progress stalled slightly as the downed bodies started twitching one after another in weird ways as their limbs started creaking and crunching as they withered around on the floor, just like the zombies stumbling around them. He jumped slightly in his boots as the one closest to him shot up into a standing position with an unusually speed as they screamed through what sounded like damaged vocal cords up into the air, followed shortly after by others doing the exact same thing, except one who’s leg tendons had been chewed off but still managed to push its upper body off the floor enough to seemingly announce its grievances with the world before it started to crawl forward.
Hyunsu stumbled back in shock as the reanimated corpses started to scent the air aggressively with their heads turning this way and that as if to sniff out which direction food was.
“Something doesn't feel right here, I can’t sense any monsters nearby,” His ego, who’s presence he had forgotten about, suddenly interjected, the suddenness of its voice startling him enough to make him jump back a little more. Causing the heel of his boot to accidentally collide with an abandoned water bottle he hadn’t noticed till now, sending it clattering across the hard tiled floor with a jarring clanking sound that pierced the air like glass. The groans and growls of the zombies in front of him muted themselves as they snapped their heads in synchronicity towards the noise. Each of their sickly white eyes locked onto the bottle that now laid on its side at the opposite wall.
A collective snarl echoed across them as they all hungrily scanned their surroundings for fresh, warm bodies, their movements jerky and disjointed. Hyunsu braced himself as he noticed the newly turned were more frenzied then those that had recently eaten as they started to draw closer to him, following where the sound had come from. Despite the fact they had taken down and eaten their former school mates, likely due to the reckless behavior and strength of being dead, Hyunsu was confident in his ability to defend himself against these arguably weak creatures. His new healing factor alone would guarantee that he’d survive any damage they could inflict on him, and likely fight off whatever was making them undead in the first place.
Only, to his astonishment, they seemed to pay him no heed, ignoring his presence entirely as if he wasn’t there at all as they shuffled past him without even turning their bodies towards him. One even got close enough to lightly brush past his shoulder with nothing but a small growl of acknowledgement. Hyunsu turned to watch the shuffling group in bewilderment wondering why they were ignoring him entirely, but still somehow sensed their schoolmates, with something obviously other than eyesight, enough to chase them down and kill them.
Giving the bottle a considering look, he concluded in the absence of sight, they must've compensated with hearing and/or smell. Which didn’t add up as even if they had a low sense of smell, the one that had literally just brushed against him would have surely caught a whiff of his living scent?
Still confused, but grateful and fully willing to take advantage of this unexpected boon, Hyunsu crept closer to an open classroom door as they all seemed to collectively decide there was no food here and started to slowly shuffle in a random direction in the hall. Grimacing as his boots sploshed and squelched on the leftover blood and some guts left on the floor, the movements making the putrid scent rise in the air while the sounds were thankfully disguised by the zombies making similar sounds as three of them shuffled past him.
Bile rose to the back of his throat at the smell and sounds, burning the back of his throat and nostrils where it had come up before he could swallow it back down. Coughing and hacking, Hyunsu brought up a thick, sleeve covered palm to muffle his coughs as it burned the back of his throat and hurried over to the classroom door as some of the zombies turned towards the noise. Not bothering to close the door, Hyunsu turned away from the gruesome sight and hurried over to a window that overlooked what seemed like the back of the school that had a beautiful mountain in the near distance. Idly noting he was on the second floor of what seemed like a large story box building.
“I see what you mean,” he muttered hoarsely through his burning throat to his equally bewildered ego as he opened the window to catch some fresh air, the wind coming from the mountain curling a pleasant breeze over him as he clutched at his now sore stomach through his old, matty, dark sweater, the self hug also allowing him some comfort, “do you have an idea what could’ve happened to put us here?”
“No,” his ego answered, surprising him with its uncharacteristic confusion and soft tone. “But I can most definitely say we're not in our home dimension anymore.”
The revelation hit Hyunsu even harder than seeing real-life zombies. “How can that be!” he hissed aloud, disbelief coloring his words before he started coughing up a fit as the small remnants of his burning throat protested before it healed completely. “Shh, you idiot! We had actual monsters running around. Does dimensional displacement really seem out of the realm of possibilities?” His ego reprimanded him, its voice a harsh whisper in his mind. “Besides, whatever those things were, they are definitely not a result of our kind of infection, it doesn’t transmite like that and you know it! And I can’t sense a single trace of a monster anywhere!”
“Shit,” he hissed quietly under his breath as he surveyed his surroundings in a new light, his arms tightening around himself as his mind wrestled with the rational points his ego had made and his disbelief at being in what was essentially a different world, that was evidently in the midst of a zombie virus outbreak. His gaze lingered on the blood pools that stained the floors outside the open classroom door behind him where he had witnessed the zombie creatures eat dead bodies, and then said dead bodies rise and walk around as if nothing happened.
Still processing it all, a realization struck him with chilling clarity. The whole time he was near the zombies, he hadn’t actually registered them as monsters or dead humans with his new abilities. Instead, his mind had labeled them as a normal human, just deathly sick. Now aware of this, Hyunsu deliberately focused on what his nose and new sensing ability were telling him. He could hear, smell, and subconsciously track the different hordes as they roamed around the building within a certain range, but it wasn’t just the ‘sickly humans’ he could sense.
Needing to see, he left the classroom to go venture outside in the hall until he was at a window overlooking the front of the school, peering out to see that what his senses were telling him, was correct. The courtyard below was a writhing mass of both undead students and teachers rushing out of the school doors after a large group of the living who were making a break for the school gates. Some of the zombies even diving out of various story windows above and below him with no concern for bodily harm as they just got back up, or in some cases ignored their broken bones entirely and crawled towards the literal buffet before them made up of the screaming group of survivors. If he was reading the large sign beside the gate correctly this was a school in Hyosan, so he was still in South Korea at least.
His mind whispered to him that this level of unpreparedness hinted at this being this worlds ‘doomsday.’
The gates that now allowed the students they once protected to be cornered or overtaken by the relentless horde, their screams of pain and terror echoing through the air. The streets were no better, as after the initial group had passed the gates they didn’t shut it behind them, allowing their undead pursuers to pour out into the streets filled with unsuspecting bystanders.
Hyunsu watched it all with a silent apathy as a numb detachment once more settled over him, a grim resignation overcoming him. Of course he would be dropped into another world in the middle of their own apocalypse. Why would anything ever go good, or even easy for him.
His ego had fallen silent alongside him as he stared out at all the chaos going on below him as more zombies rushed past him, obviously drawn to the noise and not even bothering with him. Now that there wasn’t enough room in the hallway for them to skirt around him, he got bumped into more frequently.
He noticed earlier they didn't have the scent of a dead body, but now that he was closer to them, and so many at that, he noticed that despite the stench of blood and various bits and ends that clung to them, they lacked the telltale odor of death that should have accompanied their animated corpses. Something he unfortunately had become familiar with during his time in his own world, the sickly sweet tang of flesh rotting always shrouded those that had died no matter how long they had been dead, whether it be a few minutes or a few days. Yet, these zombies, who should by all rights be covered in the scent of death, both their own and the leftovers of their meals that adorned their faces, perplexingly lack the telltale odor entirely except for their faces where bits of flesh sat. Which was likely the reason his tracking ability registered them as sick humans instead of the literal walking dead.
His nose wrinkled as he got a face full of copper from the nearby blood pools that were now being smeared, and slipped in, by the rushing bodies around him. Getting past the heavy scent of blood, Hyunsu noticed that amidst the various odors that assailed his senses, one scent in particular stood out amidst them all. A living fragrance that was so seductive, so tempting to the primal part of his brain now that he was paying attention to it that it all but beckoned him to it like a siren’s call. Calling him to come bath in its entirety. It wasn’t merely the musky fruit fragrance that made up most of the scent that tantalized his brain, but something deeper in the chemical layers that make up the fragrance itself is what was drawing him in. Something that latched onto something inside him and nestled itself down into his soul like a hook, line and sinker.
Hyunsu’s heart began to race as he started to aggressively sniff the air, his focus sharpening into a keen edge as his mouth started to water for some reason unknown to him. Following the scent trails that lingered in the air, the very thing that had caught his attention in the first place, Hyunsu turned in the direction where the intoxicating scent was coming from. The longer and deeper he inhaled it the more it seemed to fill his mind with a pleasant haze, slowing down his thought process and drawing him in like catnip. (Monsternip?) With each deep inhale, a tingling sensation in his eyes intensified until he knew his ego had been drawn to the surface enough to turn his eyes into deep, devouring pools of black. And he surprisingly welcomed the transformation, as the scent seemed to blur the staunch lines he had drawn between him and his ego as the only thing he could focus on was the complex notes that wafted through the air, above all the other, less interesting scents.
A rumbling purr made its way up from his chest all the way up to the back of his throat. Audible in a way a cat's purr was, something that he hadn’t known he was capable of. He startled at the scensation, his focus shifting momentarily from the intoxicating scent to the perplexing yet pleasant feeling of his chest vibrating under such deep rumbling sensations. But just as he was distracted, he was once more willingly pulled under the pleasant influence of the scent of someone his new instincts were all but screaming belonged to him. The rumbling purr increased in crescendo as he stumbled drunkenly forward in a trance like state as he ignored the zombies around him in order to follow after the scent trail that would surely lead him to the person that was having such an odd, yet pleasant affect on him by smell alone. (He idly wondered what this person would look like, and if they would allow him to stick by them. If he could keep up this comfortable feeling settling in his chest he would gladly offer himself up as a shield for the person. Especially if they were a regular human, if only to keep this tantalizing scent intake.)
His mind coulded and heady from the euphoria feeling the scent induced in his mind and body, he barely registered it as he bumped into and shoulder checked the rushing bodies running in the opposite direction from him.
A euphoria that was abruptly shattered as the musky oaky scent took on a notably sharp edge of iron and copper, a jarring realization that pushed his mind from the fog it had been resting into a startling and unsettling clarity.
A low, furious growl replaced the rumbling purr from deep within as his face screwed up into a vicious snarl. A sound so furious it even caused the walking bodies around him to take heed as he felt his focus sharpen to a pinprick.
Surging forward, Hyunsu propelled himself through the wave of bodies in front of him. Swatting away the zombies that were in his way with nary a thought, leaving some with more broken bones and ruptured skin. His ego started growling in his ear with a rare urgency, demanding he go fast so they could get to whoever the scent belonged to and protect them. Something that he obviously agreed with as he pushed himself to go even harder, making the trip even shorter by taking a shortcut by simply bypassing the zombie crowded stairs by jumping on top of the railing and dropping to the bottom floor.
Saving his knees from some momentary pain he managed to land on the shoulders of one particularly unlucky fellow as he then used his momentum as the zombie fell to springboard quite a distance over the heads of a few others into the lower level hallway.
Following the scent trail Hyunsu branched off from most of the horde into an offshoot hallway that led him to the jammed open door of the school’s cafeteria where the scent was the strongest. The one door that was open was leaking pink stained water into the hallway floor, as an actual dead body laid in its way from closing.
His nose twitched as with every step he took it stirred up the blood mixing in with the water that splashed around his boots as he stepped over the fallen and followed the alluring scent deeper into the cafeteria. As he crossed the threshold, a scene of leftover chaos unfolded before him. The whole place was in disarray; upturned tables were strewn haphazardly around, some seemed to have been used as shields while others were simply laid on their sides with limp bodies hung over them, discarded food littered and smeared on the floor, and numerous motionless and bloody bodies scattered around the room. Blood and water painted almost everything, with the sole exception being the ceiling.
The smell of soggy, waterlogged food, blood, and the general dampness in the room all mixed together into a sickening concoction of smells. Causing him to recoil as his stomach started to churn (mostly the sodden food in particular), making him wrinkle his nose in disgust and clutch at his stomach in order to once more stop himself from throwing up for the second time that day.
The pink water sloshed around his weathered black boots as he navigated his way around the wreckage of the cafeteria to the far wall where a small horde of zombies were clamoring over each other to claw at the closed metal curtain keeping them out of the kitchen area. The makeshift barrier was holding in well against the combined weight of thirteen bodies bearing down on it as the only thing they managed was to stick their hands and forearms through the small slits between each rung. Reaching towards a source of noise in the kitchen, where the sounds of a struggle were going on inside. And consequently the one Hyunsu was looking for. Now that he was nearer to them he could actually pick up chemical signals in it that oddly translated into emotions in his head. And his target was broadcasting a heavy dose of Frustration, Fright, and Desperation. Making him and his ego go stir crazy as he was hit with a wave of raw need to get to the person and make sure they were safe.
Unwilling to waste more than a second on the mindless undead that was in his way, Hyunsu allowed his instincts to take over as he felt his arm start to shift. Stretching back and becoming larger until it started to resemble a weird-looking wing, composed of the same superheated bone blades that helped him cut his way out of his cocoon last night. The combined heat had the air around his new appendage shimmering with an intense heat haze that made the dampness around him explode into a heavy cloud of steam that enveloped the most of the cafeteria, letting off a low hiss as the air displacement rushed a wave of heat right into his face.
Promising to experiment more later on, Hyunsu ignored the complexablitites that twist his insides as he snarled at the zombies in front of him. Getting into position, Hyunsu swung the bladed wing with a swift and powerful blow that cleaved through the cluster of bodies like butter. The force sent their dismembered bodies hurtling across the room until they slammed into the opposite wall. Deep, carbonized black gouges replaced them along the now mared metal lining and textured cement walls, a testament to the lethality of his new appendage.
Now that he didn’t need it at the moment, he allowed the bladed wing to retract back into his regular arm as he made his way over to pull up the metal curtain to duck inside the kitchen. The edges of the now charred, torn and stretched material of the left side of his hoodie fluttered around the tanned skin of his now bare shoulder as he ducked under it.
Straightening back up from his crouch, Hyunsu’s gaze swept across the cluttered kitchen as he let go of the metal curtain, his gaze landing on the struggling and grunting forms of two male figures on the other side of the metal island table in the middle of the room, one of which had to be who he was looking for, of which was currently broadcasting a sense of controlled panic.
There, only just able to keep the snapping jaws of death away from his face by a few inches with nothing but a broken mop handle, was someone who was unmistakably the most breathtaking person he’s ever seen. A male student, which Hyunsu had already guessed, who was trying his best to balance keeping the zombie from ripping into him from where it loomed over him and pinned him to the hard tiled floor, and reaching for the handle of a large kitchen knife that was only just out of reach of his long, tanned fingers that were just barely brushing up against the dark wood of it’s handle.
He seemed to be considering putting all his bets on a last ditch effort of shucking off the zombie as he placed his grasping hand on the other side of the mop and started bunching up his muscles to push against the jaws of the zombies as hard as he could. Not that he got the chance to risk it as Hyunsu rounded the table with a growl of his own and snatched the back of the zombies school uniform and hauled it off of his apparent anchor in all this madness with an impressive display of his knew found strength as the creature did it’s best from where it dangled in his grip to thrash and wirther in a bid to get loose and resume trying to eat the warm body in front of it.
Holding it at an arm's length away from them, Hyunus turned his attention away from the struggling creature to the person in front of him. As soon as the zombie no longer blocked his view on his new anchor to life, he found himself locked onto a pair of bright black eyes as his world seemed to shift on its axis. The gaze back into his own stirring up a weird feeling in the bottom of his gut, nothing bad, although it did oddly feel like the lining of his stomach was fluttering which was concerning. He could only think of a single word to describe how he felt about the individual in front of him, beautiful. Almost as if everything about the stranger was somehow Hyunsu’s catnip.
Their wide, almond-shaped eyes seemed to bore into Hyunsu’s soul as his breath caught in his throat, the twin obsidian orbs portraying a fierce intensity from their depths that coincide with the delinquent-like air around him. Obviously having been in his fair share of fights, as evidenced by a rather attractive cut scar running across the left side of his top lip. His black mullet was matted down across his forehead and under cut from both water and blood, which was streaming down his face from what little water beads was running down his face that also had dried patches of blood. If Hyunsu had’nt had the ability to sense any open wounds, he probably would’ve been more worried due to all the blood he had drenched on him. Something that oddly made him more attractive to Hyunsu, as obviously due to his scar and his earlier struggling against the zombie currently still wiggling in his grasp, he was a fighter.
Hyunsu found himself mapping out each and every detail he could see about him, and putting together his own little image of him from the little context clues he could put together. Past Hyunsu would've recoiled, but the Hyunsu now wasn’t as insecure in himself as he was about fighting back then. Although he wouldn’t put up too much of a fight with the one in front of him as the small details such as the delicate way his wet black hair curled against his scalp in such a cute way, to the way he could catch glimpses of sharp canine teeth poking out from his peachy plump lips were enough to distract him. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now that he was focused on his mouth and how it shaped around the words he was saying, he realized that his Simkung was actually talking to him. And he hadn’t heard a single word of it.
For some reason in that moment, a realization dawned over him, despite whoever he may turn out to be, as Hyunsu wasn’t obvious to the familiar feel they had to Dohun, in a way that they were used to being the biggest bad in the room, he just wouldn’t, couldn’t, be able to bring himself to leave them now that he’s found them.
His yeppeo, which he needs to learn the name of so he could actually refer to him as something other then he/him/yeppeo, must've gotten tired of his silent staring without any reply to his questions. As the next thing Hyunsu knew, he was on his feet in front of him with the kitchen knife from earlier in his hand, an attractive look of annoyance on his face as he took matters into his own hands. With Hyunsu’s gaze not leaving his face even once, he watched, as if in slow motion, as the knife slashed through the air before sinking into the soft flesh of the zombies in his grips throat. Unleashing a spray of cold black blood that splattered itself across his cheek. He felt as if his knees were about to fall out from under him as he stared back at the fierce eyes that were glaring up at him from a three inch difference.
As much as he could appreciate how the blood added a layer of savagry to his pretty looks, Hyunsu couldn’t help it as a grimace worked its way across his face as the congeled, gross liquid slowly dripped down his face. Dropping the fountain of blood that had become of the zombie and bringing his arm up to his chest, he bunched up the remaining sleeve of his dark sweater to wipe off the revaulting blood from his cheek.
The motion seemed to send his yeppeo into another incredulous rant that he could actually hear this time. “What the hell, man!? Are you freaking kidding me!? You were seriously just gonna stand there and let that undead freak snack on you? One damn bite and you’d be joining the ranks of those brainless, face-chomping bastards!!” A low, husky voice hissed in frustrated alarm as they backed away, eyeing him up and down for any signs of a bite even though the arm he had been holding the zombie with was bare and obviously bite free. Not really paying his yeppeos colorful language any mind, in fact he found it kinda of cute, Hyunsu latched onto the concern his words conveyed and simply answered by giving him a closed eyed smile as he tilted his head to the side teasingly, the majority of his disheveled shoulder length hair to tumble over his face as he deliberately tried to silently communicate how non threatening and unbothered he was.
“Don’t give me that stupid look! What the hell…” Whatever tongue lashing his yeppeo was about to give him was interrupted by a sharp cut off scream originating from the pantry in the back of the kitchen. Both of their heads instantly snapped towards it the instant the muffled sound of pain was heard, followed by an almost inaudible shushing sound. Glancing over at his companion, Hyunsu made sure he got his attention before bringing his pointer finger up to his lips in the universal sign to stay quiet, before quietly marching his way over to the heavy metal door that led to the pantry. The highschooler followed behind him, calling him all kinds of cute nicknames under his breath as he came to stand slightly behind him, peering over his shoulder as he got ready to open the door.
With his hand firmly on the cold handle of the metal door, Hyunsu looked back at his new companion to make sure he was ready before cautiously opening the door wide enough for the both of them to look into.
The scene before them left both of them speechless as neither of them would have expected this to be the source of the scream, nor a scene that they would’ve found on the other side of the pantry door. Their expressions of shock were mirror on the faces of the two women occupying the spacious insides of the pantry, the only difference being the two boys felt a little bit awkward since one of the women was a highschool girl laid up against some produce bags with an older lady in between her splayed legs.
The girl seemed to be in the throes of labor from what Hyunsu could see from his awkward angle at the door, her face was contorted in pain as she bit down on a piece of leather burlap, probably from one of the produce bags behind her, as she gripped onto the elderly kitchen staff, as hinted by her apron and hair net, lady’s hand. The older woman’s face had a mask of determination and concern mixed in with her shock as she looked up at them from where she was seemingly coaching the girl on what to do during the birthing process, her weathered, but bright with determination, eyes met his with a mix of urgency and a silent plea for help.
From beside him, Hyunsu could feel his companion moving before he came to stand in front of him, his shock and confusion palpable. His earlier bravado momentarily faltered under the unusual circumstances, “H-hee-su? What the fuck?!” he muttered in concern as he stumbled forward untill he came to kneel by the red faced and panting girl.
Meanwhile, with his right eye twitching in sudden annoyance he couldn’t explain, Hyunsu closed and locked the pantry door behind him. Subtly sniffing the cool air, he was relieved to find that there was no hint of an intimate relationship between them, nor was the baby his new companions. They appeared to be friends at the least, a fact that eased Hyunsu’s inexplicable tension.
Moving to the side of the elderly woman assisting Hee-su, Hyunsu tried to ignore the grossness that was going on beside him, even though his nose twitched with the tingling scent of whatever was going on down there now that he was closer, as his curiosity was piqued by the ongoing hushed conversation in front of him. Their voices were low, from more of his companion going out of his way to match the girl’s volume then anything, but he could still easily pick up what they were saying.
His companion’s concern filled voice trembled slightly as he spoke up first, “Why the hell didn’t you say something?! I would’ve helped you!”
Hee-su, he heard the girl’s name was, managed to speak through gritted teeth, her voice strained but tinged with resignation. “I… I didn’t want to involve anyone,” she gasped, her words punctuated by a sharp intake of breath. “It was a mistake, Gwi-nam. I didn’t know what to do.”
So his yeppeo’s name was Gwi-nam? What an interesting name, and it fits him well.
(AN cuz it’s interesting: Did you know that together Gwi-nam basically means “Husband who came back early” or “a person who is scarier than a ghost” or, but less interestingly, “a spoiled son who was born and raised in a prestigious family.” Source, “Talking Trends: Gwinam”)
Newly coined Gwi-nam’s eyes widened as he seemed to piece something together. Hyunsu watched in fascinated silence as, after a few seconds after his realization, Gwinam jolted himself out of whatever he was thinking about and gave Hee-su’s other hand a squeeze as they exchanged a meaningful glance between them, possibly the circumstances of how Hee-su’s pregnancy came to be. Something that didn’t seem to be a pretty picture since they both put off a similar mixture of pain, regret and shame.
If they were going to say anything else, they were interrupted by a sharp hiss from Hee-su as another strong contraction hit her. The older lady spoke up for the first time since they entered the pantry.
Looking up from where she was… doing whatever between Hee-su’s legs. The older lady had that stern, ‘listen to what I say and I won’t dox your ears for being boneheaded,’ look only experienced Ajumma’s could pull off effectively. Gently patting the hand she held, she looked at Hee-su's eyes with a solid certainty. “It’s time to start pushing, Dear,” she declared, her gaze firm and unwavering.
With a sense of authority from her years of experience that demanded obedience, she gently let go of Hee-su’s hand and directed Gwi-nam to stay where he was by Hee-su’s side, offering support by allowing her to hold his hand. As she settled herself into a more comfortable position between Hee-su’s legs and prepared herself for the imminent task at hand, she turned her attention to Hyunsu. Her face seemed to soften slightly and her eyes held a brief moment of curiosity.
“What’s your name, young man?” she inquired, her voice softer but still commanding.
“Cha Hyunsu,” he replied, meeting her gaze with a steady resolve. Noticing out of the corner of his eye how Gwi-nam perked up slightly from where he was rubbing Hee-su’s shoulder with his free hand. A wave of satisfaction swept through him, it seems he wasn’t the only one to take interest in the other’s name.
Nodding in acknowledgement, the older lady swiftly refocused on the task ahead. Hyunsu, already seeing it coming, readied himself to carry out whatever the elder woman requested. “Can you please go over to the sink, and look through the drawers for me? There should be a sharp pair of shears and bag clamps in one of them. Bring me at least two of them and grab that hand sanitizer too,” she instructed, her tone calm yet urging him to hurry.
Without hesitation, Hyunsu nodded in understanding and swiftly moved to the designated area. His hands deftly searched through the drawers until he found the shears, and four of the bag clamps she asked for. Closing the drawer and grabbing the pump bottle of hand sanitizer, he returned to the older ladies side.
Handing them all over one by one, Hyunsu watched in muted awe as she efficiently prepared everything in a neat row on a towel beside her, a second one having been placed in front of her.
Still standing and ready to assist in any way he could, Hyunsu waited until the Ajumma indicated that she didn’t need him to fetch anything else, and directed him to take Hee-su’s other side.
As another wave of pain surged through Hee-su, causing her to clench down on the burlap to stifle her screams, Hyunsu found himself in close proximity to the intense smells and sounds of childbirth. The overpowering odors of amniotic fluid and blood plugged his nose, threatening to make him nauseous, while the wet squelching sound Hee-su’s body made every time her abdominal muscles so much as twitched, alongside the muffled screams, echoed in his ears.
Grimacing and struggling to maintain his composure at the sounds and smells, Hyunsu tried to muffle his senses by shoving his nose into the wooly, sweaty fabric of his black sweater as he brought up his shoulders to hunch around his ears. Barely registering the ironclad grip Hee-su had on his hand as her silent screams shot through his ears.
Glancing over at Gwinam, Hyunsu noted his companion was making an effort to remain composed despite being in a similar condition to him. Gwinam’s pale complexion betrayed his inner turmoil, yet he persisted in offering words of encouragement to Hee-su. He admired how much he was willing to push past for a friend, and felt a pang of sadness he didn’t have someone even remotely like that in school. If Dohun didn’t run them off.
After what felt like an eternity of tense anticipation, a wet squelch broke the heavy, pant filled silence, and a slimey, wet, wrinkly, and pink popped out of Hee-su and into the Ajumma’s waiting arms. The tiny cries of the newborn filled the air, as Hyunsu felt more then saw Hee-su body collapse in relief. The new mother was obviously exhausted, but Hyunus only had eyes for the new life in the room.
With practiced efficiency, the Ajumma immediately went to work, clearing the baby’s airways to ensure the baby's well-being. Hyunsu observed in awe as she carefully tended to the newborn, identifying him as a bouncing baby boy before placing him on the double-folded towel in front of her to free up her hands.
Hyunsu then watched in morbid fascination as the older lady, from what he could see over Hee-su’s skirt, used the bag clamps to cut off circulation on two parts of the cord attached to the baby that ran back into Hee-su. After cutting the cord, the Ajumma then swaddled the baby in the towel, and placed him in Hee-su’s arms with a warm smile before leaning back and placing a plastic bag under Hee-su. Who was looking down at her new baby with a tired smile that spoke volumes as she gazed down at her newborn son, a mix of joy and exhaustion etched on her features.
Beside her, Hyunsu couldn’t tear his gaze away from the heartwarming scene unfolding before him as mother and son meet each other face to face. He couldn’t help it, the baby was just so fascinating (and cute), with his little squished up pink face, sparse smattering of black hair and closed eyes that had longer lashes then he thought babies would have. Letting out a quiet coo, Hyunsu glanced up at Gwinam to find he was in a similar state of fascination.
And that was enough to make him start purring again for some reason; the oddity of the sensation caused a wave of rationality to wash over him, reminding him of the reality of his situation.
All of a sudden, it felt like a bucket of ice had been dumped on him as he realized he had just helped deliver a baby. Well not delivered, but he had helped!
While it was a startling and odd experience, plus discovering he was somehow in another world in the midst of a zombie outbreak, to process, Hyunsu couldn’t say he regretted it since he got to meet Gwinam. And that to him, as he no longer had a group, was worth it.