SURVIVE

CHAPTER SIX: OF MURDER AND DEATHS

“What…?” Soyeon uttered, as Song Jin nodded, Soyeon regaining control of her body and going back down towards the second and first floor, finding her sister who had just been on her way to the rooftop, coming from the garage.

“Oh, little sis, why are you still awake—”

“Song Jin Oppa needs you upstairs… quick.” Soyeon said as she dragged her and pushed her to go up, as Minnie raised her brow at what her sister had been acting.

“I’ll… I’ll just wake up Yuqi. You should go, fast, Song Jin Oppa can’t hold the door by himself.” Soyeon said, as Minnie nodded, confusion on her face, as she made her way upwards, towards the rooftop, finding Song Jin barring the door, as she also heard banging from the other side.

“What, does Chan need help? Is he trapped outside; we need to help—”

“No, Minnie… I saw him, he’s turned into… one of those things.” Song Jin said, as Minnie widened her eyes.

“Which means… we have to kill him.” Minnie said, as she grabbed Song Jin’s pistol, clicking it ready, aiming it towards the door.

“On three, alright? Open the door on three and I’ll fire on his head.” Minnie said, her hands shaking, as Song Jin nodded, slowly turning the knob—

Song Jin pulled the door open and Chan coursed through, gnashing his teeth as Minnie shoved him out into the rooftop, pushing him away until he was outside, as the corpse kept trying to get near him, trying to bite onto her flesh—

A single bullet, a single pull of the trigger and the corpse stopped moving, falling down to the ground, blood pooling around it. Minnie dropped the gun onto the floor, some of the blood splattering onto her face and her body, quickly wiping it away before it could affect her. She slumped down, staring at the dead boy, also staring at her dirtied hands.

“That must be why he was always disappearing this past two days, Minnie. He didn’t tell us he was bitten.” Song Jin said, as he sighed, putting a hand over her shoulder, Minnie nodding at that.

“What is this fuss—”

Yuqi stopped talking as she saw the familiar body slumped down the ground, blood pooling under its body, as she widened her eyes, unable to say anything as she moved closer and knelt down near the corpse, her mouth open as tears began to flow from her eyes.

“Did he…” Yuqi trailed off, looking at Minnie who only nodded, then pointed at her leg, Yuqi seeing a big bite mark, which wasn’t fresh, as Yuqi had quickly observed.

“By… By the state of this, it wasn’t just last night… This must have happened in the day of the outbreak… when we were running away from the convention center, Minnie.” Yuqi said with a shaky voice, as Minnie widened her eyes, her memories taking her back to that day, as she had saved Yuqi from getting bitten—

Both of them had failed to notice what had happened to Chan, who only followed them into the car, not saying anything.

“He… He must have been bitten when I was busy killing off the undead that almost killed you, Yuqi.” Minnie said, as Yuqi nodded, gritting her teeth.

“Which means we could have saved him at that time.” Yuqi said, as Minnie nodded, tears falling.

“Don’t think like that, please. It’s not your fault, either of you.” Soyeon said, as Yuqi sighed, holding Chan’s cold hand one last time.

“Can we burn him here? There must be a reason why he stayed here.” Yuqi said as Minnie nodded, disappearing to get the tools needed for the burning.

Soyeon put a hand on Yuqi’s shoulder, the doctor immediately hugging the girl as she cried onto her shoulder, Soyeon patting her back, calming her down.

“It’s too fast… Here I am realizing that death is too fast, Soyeon. What if the next day I lose you or the others? Or what if one day it’s my time to go?” Yuqi asked, as Soyeon shook her head.

“We’re going to survive, unnie, don’t worry.” Soyeon said, as Minnie went back to the rooftop, waking up the others who widened their eyes in shock, Shuhua hugging Miyeon and averting her eyes from all the blood and gore.

“Yuqi, I found this inside his jacket, addressed to you.” Song Jin said, as he and Minnie tried their best to fix the boy before burning him, as Yuqi nodded and took the letter that was a little splattered by the boy’s blood, proceeding to read it aloud.

“To my mentor, the one who always saved me, the one who I admire the most, to my Yuqi noona.” Yuqi started, as the others quieted down to listen.

“I am writing this under the overdose of antibiotics to keep me from dying, so bear with me. If you’re reading this, then I might already have passed away, as I was bitten trying to save you while we were in that convention center, but I wasn’t able to fully save you; it was Minnie who did, killing that undead who almost bit you. But I had already decided that you would be able to live a long life with these people that you had been friends for a long time.” Yuqi said, as tears began to fall from her eyes again, but she continued to read the contents of the letter.

“I guess it would be too late if you learned while reading this that I had a crush on you for a very long time, ever since I first saw you in Song Medical University, and I was deeply overjoyed when I learned that I would be in your team, and that you would be guiding us. I was so happy back then, but I was too clumsy that you always saved me.” Yuqi said, as Soyeon smiled at her, nodding for her to continue.

“That was why I partook in the confidential research that they offered me to do, as a way of improving my skills and as an extra credit, but they didn’t tell me that I was partaking in the murder of millions, noona.” Yuqi said, as Minnie widened her eyes and went next to Yuqi, also trying to read the letter.

“It was my choice to keep you shrouded under everything, so they would not bother you with all this medical research they were making. I also lied about Avery noona being busy that day, and decided that I should take you on the day the pandemic started to the convention center, away from the hospital, where they were basically infecting everyone with the virus in the air. In your study I left the blood of Soojin’s brother and of myself, and some of the research that I was able to get my hands on. You must be careful in handling the blood, noona, because if it would be dropped onto a wound, you would easily turn into one of those undead.” Yuqi read, as Minnie widened her eyes, surprised from all that information.

“The virus’ name is X-75, which also means the Phantom Virus. I don’t know why they had decided to do this, but the release of the virus into the world was intentional, and not just an accident. They planned to release it in a place that I wasn’t informed of, in the date that I know, which was two days before now, and they did it on schedule.” Yuqi said, as Minnie gritted her teeth, Chan’s letters proving his theories to be right.

“Goodbye, noona. May you be happy, and the rest as well. May you all survive until the end, and I’m sorry if I also became the cause of the pandemic that we had brought to us all.” Yuqi said, finishing the letter, as she folded it neatly, looking down, as Minnie gritted her teeth, silence enveloping them all.

“Let’s burn him now, please.” Yuqi said, not knowing how to process all that information, Minnie nodding and brought out a lone match, striking it against the concrete and setting the cold corpse on fire, as Yuqi sighed and put the letter on her pocket, staring at the smoke that reached the night sky.

“Let’s go, we’ll clean this tomorrow.” Song Jin said, as the others nodded, going down, but Yuqi refused to go, Soyeon and Minnie staying with her as Yuqi held onto Soyeon’s hand all the time.

“We had been working together for years, and I didn’t know he engaged in such research that caused all of this.” Yuqi said, as Soyeon sighed.

“He wanted to protect you, Yuqi.” Soyeon reasoned out, as Yuqi nodded at that, staring at Chan’s body who burned bright orange, erasing his body slowly and turning it into ashes, swept away by the wind.

“So, I was… right. Someone was behind all of this, and intentionally released the virus they were creating to the world. But why? For what purpose?” Minnie asked, as Yuqi sighed.

“Some of the people in the Zeus Companies were complete lunatics, people who believed that a cleansing by death and fire is what this world needed.” Yuqi said, as Soyeon scoffed.

“Or they wanted rich people to pay for their safety and kill off the people who can’t afford that. Sounds like capitalism to me.” Soyeon said, as Minnie chuckled at that, staring at the night sky.

“Well… at least we know what frequency we should be tuning into when we find a radio tomorrow.” Soyeon said, as she got up and waved at them, going down to continue her sleep.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Yuqi-ah?” Minnie asked, accompanying the girl as she stared at the night sky, the orange embers slowly dying off, the last of Chan’s ashes taken away by the cold breeze of the night.

“I’d be okay, I guess? I… I see death every day in the hospital, but I didn’t expect that it would hurt this much when it’s someone you know that dies.” Yuqi said, tears welling up again, Minnie giving her a tissue, which she immediately used to wipe her tears away.

“He saved you from guilt, Yuqi. He carried all this… this burden from the research they were creating, and I guess seeing you happy without knowing anything relieves that burden little by little. As he said, he liked you.” Minnie said, as Yuqi sighed, her hands clutching the letter carefully, her last memories of him.

“But I can’t like him back, Minnie. I see him as a little brother, and it strikes me with guilt that I didn’t know that he has these feelings for me, and even did that for me.” Yuqi said, as Minnie sighed and rubbed her back, trying to comfort her.

“I’d do that for Miyeon or for Soyeon as well, Yuqi. We all have our reasons to do so, and sometimes we do that for the people we love. To keep them alive, because we want them to be happy, even if we aren’t. I’m telling you; Chan wouldn’t want you to keep blaming yourself because he died, or because he’s one of the people who started all this because he wanted to protect you; he chose this because he wanted to protect you. For you to be safe, and happy. The least you can do to honor his death is to be happy, and survive as long as you can, Yuqi.” Minnie said, tears finally falling from Yuqi’s eyes as she cried again.

But little by little, she felt the burden of Chan’s death slowly go away, as she finally managed to smile, holding on to the happy memories she had of him.

“And I’m sure he knew that you didn’t like him the way he did, that he was contented in admiring you. Chan wouldn’t want you to cry forever because of him, alright? He wants you to be happy. Can you do that for him?” Minnie said, as Yuqi nodded and smiled, hugging her side.

“Now, let’s go to sleep. You and I both need it.” Minnie said, chuckling, as Yuqi smiled and nodded, following the man out of the rooftop.

Yuqi took one last look, lingering for a few seconds, imagining that Chan was there, waving at her, bearing his usual cheery self.

“Goodbye, Yuqi noona!” He seemed to say, as he slowly faded in Yuqi’s imagination, Yuqi smiling as she waved back.

“Goodbye, Chan.”