The Journal

We made our way back into the old shed, and sat on opposite sides of the bare floor, the journal tightly in my hand. I was afraid even though I didn't want to admit it. This journal could contain things I didn't want to see; stuff about my father and this whole fucked up situation. I began to shake.

"Hey." I looked up to find Sangchul smiling at me, his hand rested on mine. "It's alright. I'm here." That gave me the strength I needed. I opened the journal to once again reveal the map of the forest, the small shed labeled in dark ink. As I flipped other pages around, I found more maps, one of them guiding us away from the shed and deeper into the forest, where a large X was marked.

"Maybe he wants us to keep going. To continue following these maps," I said out loud. There were some pages filled with blanks and in code, others simply had coordinates and drawings of elaborate creatures. Several also contained survival tips, from what the pictures represented. But one thing was for sure, she couldn't understand any of the writing present. Every single "word" was in code she had never seen before. As she reached the end of the journal, there was a page written in the same code, and at the end, her father's initials.

"What the hell is all of this?"

"I don't know," whispered Jiwon, "but we should come up with a plan."

"Yeah, what do you have in mind?"

"Ok. First we pack up everything we can and gear up, by this time of day, those fucking zombies are probably close by."

"Alright, then I say we should go out and find your mom and Minsuk, I'm gonna try contacting him again." We looked at each other for a couple of seconds. I tried to hold back more tears.

"If they don't come up...we leave and follow the X on the map," I said with sadness.

"Alright, take your time and I'll get started on packing up the stuff." Sangchul got up, touched my shoulder, and made his way to the small room where he started packing up all of the ammo and supplies.

* A Few Minutes Later *

I finally got up and stretched a bit. I had flipped through the journal some more and had tried endlessly to decode the words to no avail. I started to walk towards the room where Sangchul was in packing the stuff to find....

"AAAHH!!!" Sangchul was shirtless, his god carved abs in the open while he struggled to put on the military gear bottoms on.

"Oh fuck-" Sangchul looked up in surprise as he tripped back on his bottoms. He fell down with a hard thud to the floor.

"I'M SO SO SORRY!! I DIDN'T KNOW!!!" I turned back around and ran to the kitchen, my face feeling flushed from embarrassment.

"HEY, hey, Jiwon," Sangchul walked into the kitchen just as he finished zipping up his bottoms.

"Don't freak out it was an accident."

"Yeah, yeah I know but, for goodness sakes put a shirt on!" I felt my whole body heat up more and my feet began to wiggle. He looked down slowly at his stomach and then back at me with a smirk on his face.

"Why? I thought you might like it." He walked closer to me and before he had the chance to get too close I panicked and landed a straight punch on the side of his face. He flew back on the floor from shock and pain.

"OH MY GOSH IM SO SORRY!!!" I hurried by his side and helped him on his feet. "You shouldn't joke around with me like that! Look at what I've done now!"

"Noted, ow," he said as he touched the side of his face, a red mark starting to form. "I'm sorry, just wanted to lighten the mood." He gave me one of his charming smiles. I blushed again and turned around, careful to avoid eye contact.

"Go put the rest of the gear on, I'm next," I said.

"Want me to help you??" Asked a playful Sangchul.

" Sangchul..." I said annoyed.

"Ok, ok im going," he laughed. He quickly got geared up, and he looked even more muscular than before if that was even possible. I hurried to get dressed as I had forced Sangchul to lay down under the table so I knew he didn't have any intentions of peeking.

"This gear makes me look fatter," I mumbled to myself. "Hey Sangchul, let's go-" To my surprise, he had fallen asleep, mouth wide open. "What a baby," I said as I sat beside him. He looked calm and relaxed. His hair drooped down on his face where it half covered his eyes. I reached out to clear his face when...

*RAAAGH*

A loud growling noise erupted through the forest. Sangchul woke up and smacked his head on the table. I quickly got up and walked over to a window, the view of the forest clear around us, and in the distance, a group of about 20 zombies getting closer to the cabin.

"What is it?" Asked a confused Sangchul. I drew out my gun, loaded it, and locked it back in place.

"We've got company..."