DS Chapter 5

“Our parents… they’re okay, right? They’ve evacuated safely, right?”

Logan lifted his gaze at the sound of my fearful voice. His dark eyes locked onto mine, and my throat tightened.

“They should be.”

“Was my mom… was she at your house?”

I remembered Logan running from his home, waking me up with cold sweat dripping down his face.

The pounding of my heartbeat echoed in my ears as I held my breath, waiting for him to speak.

Please, no… It couldn’t have happened. She must have been somewhere else. Just as the wave of anxiety surged over me, Logan averted his gaze and said quietly,

“…She wasn’t there.”

His words released the breath that had been trapped in my chest, and I sighed in relief.

Thank goodness. She must have evacuated safely. Dad is probably waiting for help at his office, and Mom… she’s probably at someone else’s house.

But Logan’s expression remained dark. Seeing his face, I could only guess that his family hadn’t been as fortunate.

He was fleeing alone, after all. If his family were safe, he wouldn’t have acted like that.

So, I carefully schooled my expression, choosing not to offer any words of comfort.

It felt wrong to say anything about a pain I couldn’t begin to imagine.

‘He’s handling it surprisingly well.’

If it were me, I’d be in complete panic, crying all day, and consumed by grief.

It was strange how Logan hadn’t shed a single tear.

* * *

We settled near the lake, watching and waiting as the situation unfolded, doing nothing in particular.

Aside from clearing out a dusty container to make a place to sleep, the hours dragged on in boredom.

“There aren’t any zombies showing up here.”

“It would take them more than eight hours to walk all the way here.”

“Guess zombies can’t run marathons, huh?”

Even my attempt at a joke couldn’t bring a smile to Logan’s serious face.

At any rate, no zombies appeared by the lake, far from the city. It was lucky we were in a small town with a sparse population.

If we were in a big city, the infected would be swarming. In those huge cities with millions of people, it would look just like the movies, with hordes of zombies everywhere.

Isn’t it more dangerous to go into crowded cities? Here, there are no people, no zombies either.

By the second day, even the cars fleeing the city had mostly disappeared.

The lakeside was eerily quiet. Out of sheer boredom, I spent one day scratching a pile of lottery tickets we had stolen from the convenience store. All of them were duds.

Fifty tickets, and not a single winner. Could my luck get any worse? It felt like a bad omen, so I dumped them all into the lake.

What’s happening in Camden? Are my parents hiding safely from the zombies? As time dragged on, my worries piled up.

On the seventh day, the radio went silent, and not a single car passed by anymore.

Staring blankly at the lake was starting to drive me crazy. Even living off chips and energy drinks was getting old.

At this point, I couldn’t help but wonder.

How long are we going to stay here? Why isn’t there anything on the radio? In the movies, even when the phones were cut off, the radio would still be broadcasting.

What if the zombie outbreak has already been resolved, and we’re the only idiots still hiding? It’s way too quiet.

I approached Logan. He was washing his face at the lakeside.

He seemed so calm. Unlike me, he didn’t seem bored by this lakeside escape.

Every morning and evening, he would patrol the area, watch for cars on the road, and occasionally crawl under the car to make repairs. Then, claiming he needed to cool off, he’d go swimming in the lake.

“How long are we going to stay here? It’s so quiet now, maybe things are back to normal?”

The truth is, thinking that everything might be okay was just my wishful thinking. With the radio cut off, there was no way things had improved.

Any last bit of optimism I had had completely evaporated. I stopped flipping through radio frequencies or counting the days until college started. My worries about my parents, however, still lingered…

Logan straightened up, shaking the water off his hands. His gaze was fixed on the distant fields.

Like me, the dark circles under his eyes stood out. He must have had trouble sleeping too. Seeing his tired face, he finally looked human to me again.

In a calm voice, he spoke.

“Once we run out of drinks, we’ll move.”

We had three 2-liter water bottles, four cans of energy drinks, and one bottle of fruit juice left. Even if we rationed carefully, it would all run out within a week.

So, the day we would leave the quiet and dull lakeside was now set.

I felt a wave of relief wash over me, as if I had finally reached the last chapter of a long, boring novel.

‘Finally, we can leave this lake.’

We had to go back to Camden. We could’ve considered going to another city, but I wanted to check on my parents first.

Besides, the situation wouldn’t be any better in another city, and going somewhere with more people might just be an unnecessary hassle.

“For now, let’s head where there are people. Someone has to know what’s going on, why the radio’s gone silent, right?”

“They’re not going to welcome us right away.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the incubation period. They don’t know when we might turn into zombies, so they’ll kick us out.”

“Then should we head to a grocery store? I’m really craving pizza.”

Logan chuckled, dropping his head slightly. It was the first time I’d seen him laugh since the zombie outbreak began.

‘He’s finally smiling.’

His usual cheerful grin curved smoothly across his face. Logan was normally someone who laughed a lot, outgoing and sociable.

Among our friends, he was always laughing. Seeing his constant grin often made me think of a golden retriever.

But over the past few days, he had been a completely different person—heavy, gloomy, and distant. His mood was so cold, it made me hesitate to even talk to him. But honestly, who could stay the same in a situation like this?

I was usually the one with a serious expression, acting stoic and all business. How dare he steal my image like that. It was downright annoying.

“Grocery stores were probably looted a long time ago. Maybe there’s still food left in some restaurants.”

“Isn’t downtown crawling with zombies? The first outbreak started in the downtown area, remember?”

“Exactly. Which means there’s probably still food left there.”

His logic made sense. Since the first outbreak happened downtown, no one would have dared to go back.

I looked at him, impressed. With a brain like that, why had he refused to go to college?

“You… you’re pretty smart, you know?”

Logan laughed openly at my compliment, his laugh oddly comforting to hear.

It was the kind of laugh that felt like a gentle hand soothing an upset stomach, tickling me right in the chest. Without even realizing it, I found myself smiling along with him.

We had finally run out of water and food.

To be honest, I wasn’t too worried about drinking water. Even though the lake water was dirty and unappealing, we could still drink it if necessary.

The bigger concern was food. Since neither of us knew how to fish or hunt, we had no choice but to return to the city to find more.

Logan and I got back into the car. Thankfully, the fuel gauge still showed a full tank, so at least we didn’t have to worry about running out of gas.

Logan started the engine. I fastened my seatbelt and swallowed nervously.

It had been about two weeks since that day. What had become of the wrecked city? Were there more survivors now? My heart pounded with a mix of worry and anxiety.

We drove out of the bumpy dirt road and onto the road we had taken before. Soon, the gas station we had raided came into view.

“…”

The convenience store looked like it had been looted several times since we last visited.

At the entrance of the gas station, two rotting zombie corpses lay untouched, abandoned where they had fallen.

We didn’t slow down as we passed the station. Although the road was familiar, it felt oddly foreign, and the queasiness in my stomach grew, as if I were getting carsick.

About five kilometers from Camden, Logan reduced his speed, carefully scanning the area. I stayed alert as well, checking our surroundings and behind us, not daring to let my guard down.

We didn’t know when or where a zombie might jump out. From this point on, we had to move cautiously.

The road had been a mess when we escaped, and now it was even worse. There were more vehicles blocking the streets, some overturned as if they had crashed.

We were about to truly enter the city.

The tension doubled. A sense of foreboding weighed heavily on me, and I suddenly felt compelled to speak to him. In this terrifying world where we could die at any moment, I didn’t want to leave anything unsaid before I died.

“I… liked you when we were kids.”

Like a soldier before battle, sending out a doomed final confession, waving the proverbial death flag.

Logan turned to me with a bewildered expression, as if to ask, *Why are you telling me this now?*

“What?”

“I just did. You were my first love, I think.”

“…”

Logan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. His dry lips parted slightly as he returned his gaze to the road.

As he slowly turned the steering wheel, he responded in a cracked, quiet voice.

“Me too.”