Follow Me

I carefully began to climb down the tree, making sure to keep quiet as I went along. I didn't want them to find me in such a vulnerable state.

*Snap* The branch began to break from my hold. Fuck.

*A few months ago*

"RUN!!!" Yelled out Sangchul as he drew out his weapon, making sure to aim directly at the oncoming monsters.

*BAAM BAAM*

"Minsuk, take mom!" I called out as I reached for my own pistol. Both me and Sangchul aimed down at the monsters, the violent force of the guns shaking our bodies with great strength. I turned around slightly to see my mom and Minsuk disappear through the thick forest. My mother looked at me once more, tears streaming down her now dirty face.

"Help me close the door! Hand me that rock!" I turned back around and quickly picked up a large rock, heavy enough to place on top of the door to keep the monsters from reaching us. They continued to bang on it.

"What the hell are those things?" asked Sangchul as he stood up, still aiming his pistol at the rocking door.

"My guess would be..."

"Zombies..." answered Sangchul. We both stood in silence, reality hitting us like a train wreck. But why? Did they have to do with what dad had said about, "experiments going wrong?" "We better get a move on. We need to find Minsuk and Mrs. Jeong," said Sangchul. I nodded. We ran towards the direction we had last seen them, the darkness of the forest also enveloping us, even in a bright and sunny day like this.

*A couple hours later*

"Eomma! Minsuk!" We had reached our limit. We were tired and thirsty and we couldn't deny the grumbling sound emitting from our stomaches. There was still no sign of mom or Minsuk.

"Let's take a break," said Sangchul, pulling my hand towards the trunk of a shady tree. "I already tried using both my phone and intercom to reach Minsuk, but there isn't any signal in this forest," he said as he sat down, laying his back on the trunk. I looked down at my phone. I tried to reach my mom, Saeko, Seoyeong, Yeongae, pretty much anyone in my contacts list. Nobody answered. I looked up again, it was getting dark, making it more difficult to see with all the tree canopies in the way.

"5 more minutes and we better continue, given the time and location, it should be dark in just a couple of hours. Two hours max," I told Sangchul.

"Yes ma'am." He smirked.

"And get that stupid grin off your face."

"Whatever you say princess." As I sat down next to him, I felt something nudge my side. The journal. I reached down into my pocket and pulled it out. It was tiny enough to fit inside of my palm, and was covered with a smooth brown leather. Dried blood was splattered on it, so I attempted to scrape away some of the marks with my nails. Memories of my dad came crashing back. He died in my mother's arms and I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. I pushed the thought away and continued what I was doing.

"What ya got there?" Asked Sangchul. He always scrunched his nose in a cute and funny way whenever he was curious.

"A journal. My dad gave it to me right before he..." I trailed off. "Anyways, I'm about to look inside. Wanna see?" I asked teasingly at him. He smiled. I moved in closer to where he sat and turned the leather cover over. A small map was inscribed on the first two pages. As I read the markings on the map, I realized it was a map of the forest.

"Hey, isn't that your house?" Sangchul pointed at a the bottom lefthand corner, a building labeled "HSE" was displayed on it. "And look, that must be the tunnel from which we came from." A snake like shape seemed to lead from the house over to a clearing in what appeared to be the forest. As I continued to study the map, small red markings were scattered all over, leading all the way to a small cabin. Each one had a number on it.

"If we can find these marks, we might find that cabin. Start looking," I said. We both got up and started looking around. We checked the ground, the rocks, and every tree we came across.

"Hey Jiwon! Look!" Sangchul called me over to a large tree, bearing a red symbol with the number 4 on it.

"Good job! Now we need to keep going east in order to find the cabin!"

"Don't I get a prize? A kiss perhaps?"

"In your dreams pervert," I scoffed. We both laughed. I knew he was just joking around, but deep inside of me, I wish he would. I felt my face get red just from the thought of it.

"Hey, you feeling alright? Your face is all red," asked Sangchul, a worried expression written all over his face. He reached a hand out to touch my cheek.

"I'm fine, let's go," I shook his hand away and started walking, my steps leaving Sangchul behind.

I felt my heart beating fast and the spot where his hand touched my cheek burned. Why the hell am I thinking of stuff like this right now! Dammit.

As we continued, making sure to not come up against any unexpected guests, we made it to another clearing, smaller this time. And in the center of it, a shabby and broken down cabin stood, spooky looking in the dark.

"Let me go in first," Sangchul said, placing himself in front of me, pistol drawn out. I followed his steps and brought out my own revolver, ready to shoot at any unexpected movement. I prayed mother and Minsuk were alright, but I felt like at the moment, this was more important. And as messed up as it sounded, this was now reality...