AU↠Zombies || Open
If only they knew in the past, what a “zombie apocalypse” really meant. What the world looked like when wiped clean of basic human decency.
Jongdae doesn’t remember where he was when it happened. Where he was when the reporters started broadcasting, when the whole world started to fall. His memory of the period is sporadic, days bleeding into memories of nothing but the surrounding death, the taste of vomit in his mouth and the smell of putrid rot filling his nostrils until he was suffocating in it. Jongdeok, his brother, had been the first one to go: hit by a fleeing car, dead on impact. Then his father: stabbed by a coworker who had claimed insanity as their best friend. And then finally, his mother: killed by the pull of gravity tugging her to her grave after she had jumped. Jongdae doesn’t blame her.
Within the first week, Jongdae had already dyed his hands with red. It wasn’t one of those things, it was a man, mid-forties. One shot to the head was all it took… and then he was running. Although, there wasn’t really anywhere to run to (not that he knew at the time). The whole country was covered, and it was impossible to get out of Korea. The North had shut their walls and all the boats out to sea were already far gone.
In the beginning, it was rough. The teenager had spent his time scaling trees and buildings; finding what little he could in terms of weapons and food. They seemed to be unable to climb without a proper foothold, and as long as Jongdae was quiet, they would never know he was there. Whatever was powering them had only learned how to find its food through sound and sight, smell was thankfully out of the question.
Jongdae’s weaponry had changed as time passed. The first year he had spent with a titanium bat. The next, a crowbar. He would stab through the eye and into the brain. A clean strike. What was wonderful about handheld weapons was that they wouldn’t leave you for dead at the last minute like a gun might. Around that time Jongdae had stumbled into a chemistry lab, oddly untouched by the chaos. It was there Jongdae grew into his affinity for fire, the chemical reactions glowing in the pupils of his eyes as they burned bright.
The fire had burned his hands at first; Jongdae was unused to the quick movements needed in order not to burn himself. But it worked, and that was what mattered. It was just so easy to light them on fire, so very quick. Their screams were hard at first, but it didn’t take long for Jongdae to get used to them.
There was very little that he was not brazened to anymore.
Jongdae isn’t really sure how he managed to find a place like this, food still lining some of the shelves, packaged, and light in weight. At the back he manages to spot water of all things, and grabs the three bottles sitting on the shelf, quickly throwing it into his backpack before his raid of the store. Passing by the storefront, he notices the small group of zombies outside and exits to the roof, surveying the rooftop, the man spots a ladder off to the side, starting to make his way towards it. Earlier he had spotted a boy, oddly familiar, but Jongdae had paid little mind to the other. It seemed as if he was handling his own situation rather well, hardly in need of any help. Besides, Jongdae didn't travel with others. It always ended badly.
Shrugging his presence off, Jongdae is about to climb down the ladder when he sees it, a large horde slowly making their way over; at most seven minutes away. He looks back down to the boy, seemingly unaware to the approaching group, most likely too distracted to notice them.
He’s split between running for himself, and saving the other male.
Descending the ladder he’s already tugging open his shoulder bag, a can of beer in hand and a piece of fabric in being torn in his mouth, fashioning a malotov cocktail once he reaches the base of the ladder. Perhaps it was some unresolved hero complex he thinks to himself, tugging up a cloth mask and lighting a match against the side of the building. Perhaps, he was just crazy like everyone else left on this planet.
Stepping into the clearing in full sight of the boy, Jongdae throws the cocktail at them, eyes lighting up as they catch fire, a piercing shriek vibrating his eardrums. They catch his attention for only a second longer before Jongdae turns towards the boy and grabs his arm, already beginning to tug him away from the horde, “We need to go, now. There’s a horde on their way down the road. They aren’t far and if we’re not careful we’re going to get caught up with them.” Jongdae leaves out the part about how the screams are already alerting the creatures of the human presence nearby. Glancing over to the direction he had seen them from on the roof, Jongdae can make out the beginnings of their figures from his spot and his pace quickens, determined to get the both out alive.
