| Four | afterlife

Baby I'm preying on you tonight,
hunt you down, eat you alive

"What is that?"

The purple slimy creature hissed at once at the couple, blood spat all over whilst the face of the man was sucked and eaten on completely. Saebom was eyeing the poor man who was dead, the horrific faceless expression of his and then at the creature that lunged at them. Immediately Yi Hyun raised his baseball bat and hit the creature off from their way. When it was about to attack Saebom she shot it, one bullet and the creature blew in purple shiny disgusting slime.

They were stunned, both of them calm yet bewildered of what was happening.

"You okay?" Saebom turned towards Yi Hyun, concerned about the man who nodded, "was that from the sphere?" She asked, both of them looking up at the sky filled with huge spheres. Yi Hyun immediately rushed towards the dead man, hoping if anything could make sense to him but he was unresponsive.

"Jagiyaa," Saebom alerted as she pointed to the direction in which a herd of creatures heading towards them, "lets go..."

Yi Hyun was on his feet, more so because of the sweet endearment his ex-wife called him than the purple creatures rushing towards them. "Car... Sae... car." He headed towards the car whilst Saebom kept shooting on the creatures heading towards them, each bullet killed one each and her aim was just too crispy to be missed. "GET IN THE CAR, SAE." Yi Hyun screamed and Saebom immedialely got in the car, and they drove off the road.

"Ottuke?" Saebom asked, as she looked at the rearview mirror, the creatures were only increasing and multiplying, following them at much higher speed than they suspected. "How far is the school from here?"

"More ten minutes." Yi Hyun sped the jeep through the road, taking nasty turns to get the creatures off from his car. Some of them had already caught up to them and Saebom had readied a rifle each. "Hold tight." He said, and took another rough turn which made the creatures from the side of the jeep to dangle away. "Another turn," He took a mis-turn, a less likely travelled road but stopping the car was not the question at the point.

"They are not even stopping to catch a breath." Saebom huffed, pissed at the creatures. "Are they all from one sphere? The one that fell in the nearby base camp?" She asked, Yi Hyun hurrying through the road.

One of the spheres somehow clung to the jeep glass and made its way towards Yi Hyun's side, jump scaring Yi Hyun into almost crashing the vehicle. Saebom on the other hand watched how the creature was smart enough to hold on to the jeep than try to burst in.

Were they capable of being smart and reasonable?

"Hyun-ah look out!" Saebom pointed at the group of teenagers ahead of them, and Yi Hyun took another turn, almost knocking the group but stopped just in time. Before Yi Hyun and Saebom could step out of the jeep and help the teens, the two creatures who had made it so far had ripped them apart within a flash of a second. Saebom watched how quick they were into piercing their fleshy pointed tentacles into their chests, smashing their brains and sucking the body.

She stood frozen, the gun pointed at them but it was too late anyways, there were dead. And as she stood still, the nasty creatures hissing and eating the teenagers, she felt her heart heavy thinking about how they were only kids and that her kids were equally in danger too. Yi Hyun took the gun from his dashboard and killed all of the creatures, including the one on their jeep, panting as they stood in the middle of a deserted area and bodies of kids in front of them.

"Sae, we need to go." Yi Hyun held her wrist, lowering it. "They are dead."

Saebom gulped, as she met Yi Hyun's eyes. "They are wearing Sungjin uniforms, Hyun-ah," She did not want to say the next set of words, she did not want to rip his heart too. "What if-"

"ANI ANI," Yi Hyun held his ex-wife's arms, shaking his head even though things were blurring for them now. "You know the twins are okay, you know they are strong enough to beat anything that comes their way." The thought of imagining their twins lying torn apart was scaring and killing them. "Let's go, Sae, we need to go."

Saebom glanced one last time at the lifeless bodies of the poor kids and without wasting anymore time, she sat in the jeep. Yi Hyun held her hand, nodding as he sped his jeep, "we'll protect them, I'll protect them, I promise."

_

The class of 3-2 were dead.

"If this is the afterlife, it sucks." Wang Tae-man yelled only to get hit by empty cans, papers, pen and the class president even threw her diary at him. "What? Why?"

"Stop talking about death, you idiot." Bo Ra, one of the girls said, tired yet skeptical about the term death. "Kwon Ilha, can you pass me the bottle of water?"

"Fuck no." Ilha replied, laying on the class floor, "i have zero energy to even lift my finger."

"You are all such drama queens." Soyeon rolled her eyes at her classmates, all of them slumped over the empty class. "It's just the first day, and the adrenaline is rushing within me."

"Well, that's because you have a crush on Lieutenant Lee," Woo Heerak said, cringing at the girl, "which by the way, is so gross." Half of the kids muttered an yes, the other half didn't even bother.

"You're gross. You and your smelly best friend Tae-man." She pointed at the poor boy who gasped in response. "Ya Tae-man, go have a bath you're stinking."

This time the entire class agreed, muttering curses too.

"I just had a bath," Tae-man sat back, eyeing his class. "Five days back." And he was hit with papers, pencils, one of them even hit him with the rifle.

Nara sat in the corner, her body was aching truth be told. It was just one day and they were trained like they were all offical army officers. They weren't given any breaks, not even to Kim Deok-joon who wanted to poop. Running, aiming and group hurdles, all of it in the same day. She let Ae-sol rest her head against her shoulder and rest. While her hand constantly fidgeting with the pager in her pocket.

True to her father's words, their cellphones, tablets and everything extra ranging from cosmetics to comics to games or books, other than their school books were taken away. It was pure torture if it wasn't for the company of their classmates whining together. It was dusky, the sun was setting and they had two more drills for the night for which they were not ready yet.

Although Nara did notice how Kimchi and So-cheol were missing from the group ever since they begged the Platoon Leader to give them a five minute recess. Everyone had dropped themselves in the empty class of theirs, Deok-joon had gone to the bathroom at once and some of the classmates had dozed off. Only Kim Chi-yeol and So-cheol were missing and it was worrying her.

Her twin was a mischievous idiot. He was just as extrovert and funny as she was silent and shy. Nara also worried about Kim Chi, the boy she liked for being simply cute.

"Ae-sol," Nara nudged the girl who woke up, "mian, i need to use the washroom." She softly whispered to the sleepy Ae-sol.

"Should I come?" Ae-sol asked, having nothing to do but to stick to Nara. "I don't-"

"Don't worry Ae-sol-ah," Bo Ra said from besides, eyes still shut. "I won't trouble you for now. I'm too tired anyways." Nara glanced at Ae-sol who agreed to stay back and the brunette immediately got out of the class to lookout for the boys.

She dodged the military officials who were patrolling the floors and got down the stairs, when she saw faint figures in the dark. She tip toed towards them, only to hear them whisper.

"I told you to back off." That was her twin, the irritation in his voice was a gift from their mom. "Nara is my sister and it creeps me the way you ogle at her."

Not this again.

"Mianhe, I know and I wasn't ogling at her." Kim Chi-yeol fumbled for words, Nara was ready to storm in. "I swear, I wasn't even looking at her, I don't like her." Nara halted, she didn't expect Kimchi to say that.

Not that she wanted him to like her, but it still stung a bit.

The whistle blew off, it was Lieutenant Lee asking for the class to come down and get started with the drill. Both So-cheol and Kim Chi turned to see a very furious Nara standing close by, giving them a fright of their lives.

Kim Chi-yeol pushed the spectacles on his nose, whilst So-cheol averted his gaze, a thing he did whenever he was caught off guard. "What are you doing here?" He asked her twin.

"Platoon Leader is calling us, we need to go." She said with zero expressions, and not a single glance at Kim Chi.

"Jung Nara..." Kim Chi-yeol approached the girl but before anything else could happen, Lieutenant Lee called out to the three.

"Jung Nara, Yoon So-cheol," He yelled, the rest of the class were already on the field. "Your parents are here. Come ahead please."

On cue Nara and So-cheol looked at each other and then at the two familiar people emerging behind the Lieutenant.

And there they were, Sae-bom and Yi Hyun, eyes teary and clothes bloodied.

_