"What the fuck?!", Yoongi almost screamed, but he didn't.

"How...? That's not possible...", Seokjin sighed heavily and the HT crackled.

"I don't know how they got in...", Jungkook whispered from the other side, "But we're trapped in the bathroom."

Seokjin suddenly snatched the HT from Hoseok's hand.

"Jungkook, how many of them did you see?", Seokjin could feel his hand shivering and sweating. He couldn't hold onto the HT properly.

"I don't know...", Jungkook replied, "We saw three of the..m... therskf shzatrd hklzsgfvb........."

The HT started making static noises again and Seokjin tried to fix it by turning all the knobs present on the device.

"Hello! Jungkook! Can you hear me? Hello!", Seokjin yelled at the machine.

"He...llo... I can't...... he....", the voice broke off as Jungkook spoke and finally, it became a series of crackling noises.

"Damn it! This thing is not working.", Seokjin cursed under his breath.

He looked at Yoongi and Hoseok. The creatures were inside the store. But how? The only door was the one through the back of the building and he was damn sure that it was secured. There were no other entries as far as they were concerned.

"How did those things get in? Were they... um... always inside?", Hoseok asked, visibly panicking.

"No... We checked the entire building right?", Seokjin breathed, "There was nothing inside."

"We should check...", Yoongi said, walking towards the door.

He opened it, slowly without making any kinds of noise, and stepped out, followed by Hoseok and Seokjin. They could sense some hints of that rotten stench in the air inside the supermarket and they knew that there was an unknown opening somewhere.

They tiptoed past the other rooms towards the store area, as quiet as possible. Hoseok suddenly noticed something while passing by the hallway that led to the storage area from the manager's room.

"Guys...", he whispered, "Look at that!"

Seokjin looked into the room Hoseok pointed into, it was the staff's break room, to find a broken window with no grills.

"Oh God no!", Yoongi screeched and Hoseok had to cup his mouth.

They hurried back to their room and locked the door.

"Oh my God! What are we supposed to do now? How can we...", Seokjin mumbled as he walked in circles in the room.

Yoongi peeked through the keyhole while Hoseok took the HT and started turning its knobs. They didn't know what to do and the fear was getting to them, their minds were paralysed. They couldn't think properly and they felt helpless.

June 29 | DAY 5
05 : 26 pm

"We can't just sit in here like this... We have to go help them.", Hoseok urged.

Seokjin looked at Hoseok and nodded, but he was too scared to go out of the safety of the room. He had to stand up against himself.

"Okay! Let's go to them.", Seokjin stood up, his eyes glistening with determination.

Yoongi and Hoseok looked at each other and then at Seokjin. They had made up their minds. They were going to face everything and move through, together.

Hoseok put the HT in his pocket, while Yoongi drank a whole bottle of water. Seokjin didn't say anything, he was trying to find his inner peace.

Hoseok went to the door and opened it and Yoongi stepped out. He looked at Seokjin and followed Yoongi. Seokjin felt hesitant, his mind told him to stay, but he decided to go, to overcome his fear.

They were extremely cautious and alert, looking around in all directions and going as quietly as they can, putting effort into each of their footsteps. They could smell the blood in the air, but they couldn't see or hear anything.

The bathroom was on the other side of the supermarket, so they had to traverse the whole floor to get to it. Along with it, the store was huge too, with a large number of aisles and departments which were now heavily cluttered with a variety of items. This made their job even more difficult.

Hoseok led the way, followed by Seokjin and then Yoongi. They decided to stick together and watch out for each other, the best defence mechanism in situations like these.

They walked so slowly that it took them almost half an hour to reach only halfway.

They were doing well until that moment where Hoseok accidentally kicked a soda can. It flew away and ricocheted off something else on the floor, producing a loud din.

They quickly paused and froze. Hoseok slowly turned back and looked at Seokjin.

"Sorry.", he whispered and Seokjin nodded at him, gesturing with his hands that it was okay.

Yoongi had his eyes closed tightly, if something did happen, he didn't want to witness it.

They maintained their positions for a moment there, listening to other sounds. Nothing was audible except their own breathing and a rhythmic tapping noise from somewhere in the store.

Seokjin gulped and looked around. They couldn't see anything because of the shelves, but that meant that the creatures if they were inside, couldn't see them too.

Seokjin signalled Hoseok to keep moving. They started moving again, but Hoseok suddenly stopped after a few steps.

Seokjin could see Hoseok's legs shaking, but he didn't know what Hoseok saw. Hoseok slowly turned around and looked at Seokjin. It was a bit dark inside the store, but Seokjin could clearly see the fear on his face and he knew.

They were inside.

The creatures, two of them, stood in the very next aisle, dormant. Hoseok noticed that they looked motionless and he didn't want to attract their attention. So he held his breath in and started moving backwards.

He carefully took a step backwards and looked at Seokjin who was right behind him. Seokjin did so too, but he stepped on a plastic cup and it crinkled, making a very small but sharp sound.

Hoseok suddenly looked at the creatures to see them looking straight at them.

"Run!", he shouted as one of the creatures let out a blood-curdling screech and started dragging their legs towards them.

They ran with all their strength, all their lives, but still, the creatures were right on their tail. The rotten stink filled the air as the creatures got closer and Seokjin could feel it piercing through his lungs.

Hoseok darted off to the front and Seokjin followed him, Yoongi right behind them. They turned a corner and they lost the creatures from their tail, or so they thought.

"The bathroom... Over there!", Seokjin spotted the bathroom door a few metres away and they rushed towards it.

Hoseok got to it first and banged on the door.

The door suddenly opened revealing Jungkook's irked face.

"What took you guys...", before Jungkook could finish his sentence, Hoseok interrupted.

"Zombies!", he panted, "Zombies behind us..."

Jungkook quickly pulled Hoseok in and waited for Seokjin and Yoongi to get in. Seokjin almost reached the door, but suddenly he heard a loud noise from behind him and turned around.

There was Yoongi lying on the floor with his hands wrapped around his shin, he had tripped on something and had hurt himself. He saw one of the creatures was advancing towards him, with its hands held up in front of its body, only a couple of feet away from Yoongi's legs.

Yoongi had no other option but to close his eyes tightly.

~~~

Heyo guys, this is getting interesting now, isn't it? Please leave your comments here and tell me how you feel about the story till now. If you can, leave your votes too please, hehe.

And, I'M A FAN OF BILLBOARD HOT100 #1 SINGERS Y'ALL, I'M SO PROUD. Also, a belated happy birthday to our baby Jungkookie, may God bless him.

Anyhoo, next chapter on September 9, 2020.

Love,
PAPRIKA 💜