It was an ordinary morning for Aiden.
The now routine search for supplies, assisting Jane’s vaccine research, light als and conversations with Sean’s family and Liv in the afternoon.
It was one of those everyday routines that ended the day.
He was even feeling at ease about the frustration of not knowing when the vaccine research would be completed.
Occasionally junk dealers or so survivors knocked on the door, but the research facility mbers had decided not to let in any more people, so they coldly turned them away.
The area around the research facility had beco quiet.
Queens seed to be becoming more and more stable, to the point where one might think the zombie outbreak would end like this.
The number of rampaging zombies seed to be decreasing gradually, and it felt like they could relax now.
However, the uneventful day began to shatter with Liv’s crying.
At first, it was a slight fever.
Seeing her coughing a little, Aiden thought it was a cold and gave Liv so cold dicine from their supplies.
Like that, one day, two days, and a week passed, but Liv’s condition kept getting worse, and only then did Aiden realize the seriousness of the situation, but it was the worst-case scenario.
"Aiden, is our Liv going to be okay?"
Aiden couldn’t easily answer Lyla’s question.
Frequent coughing, low-grade fever, and a lethargic appearance as if much strength had left her body, and a gradual decrease in weight.
It was undoubtedly the early symptoms of tuberculosis.
"It looks like... tuberculosis."
"Tuberculosis?"
Tuberculosis is a disease that can be treated in modern society.
But it’s a disease that can only be cured when taking antibiotics steadily and with continuous managent.
There was no way the research facility would have antibiotics for tuberculosis.
"We need to go to a hospital. If there are antibiotics left there, that would be fortunate, but..."
"Then let’s quickly find a hospital...!"
"I’ve already found one. But... it’s quite far away."
Sean and Lyla looked ready to rush out imdiately.
Aiden showed them a map, pointing to the closest hospital to the research facility.
"It’s about 8km away. Even though zombies have decreased a lot lately, it’s not an easy journey."
"But we have to go! What parents would sit still when their child is sick!"
"Let’s go."
Jane, who had co down from the third floor at so point, said to Sean and Aiden.
"Jane? What are you saying?"
"I was just thinking I needed to go to the hospital too, Aiden. I need more various dicines and equipnt."
Aiden was flustered.
"Aiden, let’s prepare right away. We need to move quickly."
Sean urged Aiden.
Without giving ti to organize thoughts, Jane and Sean were preparing to go outside.
"What kind of nonsense is this...!"
As Aiden was about to shout sothing, Lyla grabbed his hand.
"Aiden... Please. Please help us..."
Aiden couldn’t shake off Lyla’s hand.
"Haah... Take good care of Liv. Make her drink small amounts of water consistently, and there should be clean blankets left. Cover her body well with those."
"Thank you, Aiden..."
Only then did Lyla let go of Aiden’s hand.
Aiden hurriedly ard himself and went down to the first floor.
In front of the iron door were Jane and Sean, fully ard and packing bags.
"Jane...!"
"Aiden! I know what you’re going to say, but I have to go now too."
"Damn it!"
Sean diated between Aiden and Jane.
"Aiden, I know how you feel. I’ve been with you and Jane until now. But please. Ti is of the essence."
Aiden knows too.
Tuberculosis will spread quickly. It’s unknown how fatal it might be for young Liv.
"Aiden. There’s no ti for argunts. You know well that I’m not soone who just receives care from Aiden."
"...Let’s go."
Aiden had nothing to say.
Because Jane was right.
Creak
The tightly closed iron door opened.
Like that, Aiden, Jane, and Sean headed for the hospital.
* * *
Thanks to moving without hindrance all morning, the three were able to arrive in front of the hospital around 2 PM.
Strangely, no zombies were visible, and although there was an ominous feeling like the calm before a storm, they had no energy to pay attention to it.
Not knowing how many supplies might be left, the three entered the hospital.
The inside of the hospital was even quieter.
Even as they slowly examined the first floor interior and went up to the second floor, not a single zombie was seen.
"Did the zombies move? Or did soone wipe them all out?"
But there were no zombie corpses left either.
"At this rate, it seems okay for us to split up and search for dicine."
Aiden divided the search areas.
"Sean, since you won’t know the types of dicine at all, just gather anything that looks like dicine, and if there are injections or other clean dical supplies, bring them all."
"Okay, everyone be careful."
Sean moved first, and after telling Jane where dicines might be, Aiden moved to the 5th floor.
Aiden, who ca up to the 5th floor, first threw so objects into the corridor.
Clang!
A harsh sound hit the floor, but no sign of zombies was felt.
It was even more suspicious.
What on earth happened in this hospital?
For now, Aiden started searching the 5th floor interior.
There weren’t many types of dicine.
Still, he could find clean syringes and other dical supplies.
"As expected, there wouldn’t be many supplies left... So common cold dicines and digestive dicines are left. Should I be thankful even this is left?"
But he couldn’t find the crucial tuberculosis antibiotics.
Hoping to find them downstairs, Aiden looked out the window for a mont.
Being on the 5th floor, the surrounding scenery ca into view.
At that mont, Aiden saw sothing strange.
"Huh? What’s that?"
Roughly estimating, a black wave? No, so kind of swarm was moving at quite a distance.
Its speed was quite fast.
It was a swarm whose end couldn’t be seen, as if it was wrapping around all of Queens.
Aiden opened the window and looked more intently.
"W-what is that?!"
It was zombies.
And not just a group of zombies, but a wave of zombies itself.
Hundreds, no, thousands of zombies were approaching.
Aiden, startled out of his wits, ran mindlessly.
From all their observations and research so far, zombies don’t form groups.
And they don’t move in such an orderly fashion towards one point.
Sothing was wrong.
They couldn’t handle such a wave of zombies.
Pitter-patter!
"Jane!! Sean!!"
Perhaps because of Aiden’s urgent cry, Jane and Sean quickly ca running.
"What’s wrong?"
"What’s the matter?"
Aiden urgently took them to the window.
"Look there...!"
"!?"
Sean and Jane were terrified.
In the short ti since Aiden had seen them, the zombie horde had already co within 1-2km.
-Kieeeee!
The cries of zombies were getting closer.
"A-Aiden, what’s going on?"
"I-I don’t know either, we need to flee to the research facility first!"
"But! The antibiotics still...!"
"Damn it! Show what you’ve brought!"
Sean hurriedly opened his bag.
The area he was in charge of seed to have quite a lot of dicines, as there were many different types of drugs.
Aiden rummaged through the bag, checking the nas of the dicines.
"Rifapentine...!"
Aiden, having found that na, pressed the dicine bottle into Sean’s hand.
"You must keep this. Understand?"
"Y-yes! Can this save our Liv?"
"It should at least help her hold on for now! We don’t have ti! We need to escape! Let’s go, Jane!"
They ca down to the first floor.
Boom boom boom boom!!
The sound shaking the earth was heard nearby.
They just ran without thinking.
Aiden knew the fastest route back, so he took the lead and ran.
Inevitably, Jane started falling behind due to physical limitations.
-Graaah!!!
Zombies were chasing at trendous speed behind them.
"They’re running?"
Aiden, who briefly looked back to check Jane’s condition, was surprised.
Because until now, their observations hadn’t revealed that zombies could run like this.
Aiden slowed down a bit and stood next to Jane.
"Jane, don’t look back, just keep running forward no matter what. Sean! Adjust your speed!"
Sean, who was running ahead, looked at Aiden.
"Huff huff...!"
His eyes looked anxious.
Sean didn’t slow down but rather ran even faster.
"Se-Sean! Together...!"
Aiden was about to call him louder but stopped.
Because he knew why he was running faster.
It’s not that he doesn’t understand Sean’s feelings; he needs to survive to deliver the dicine to Liv.
Of course, it’s more likely due to the primal survival instinct to stay alive.
He knows that if he matches the slow Jane, he’ll be in danger too.
He turned his body in a different direction from the return route and ran like crazy.
Aiden and Jane could only watch his back quickly disappearing.
Regardless of Sean’s situation, Aiden and Jane were in danger at this rate.
Aiden quickly scanned the surroundings.
It was to find a place where they could hide.
Then, he saw a two-story comrcial building.
"Follow , Jane!"
"O-okay!"
Aiden grabbed Jane and entered the comrcial building.
Crash!
Aiden hurriedly started setting up a barricade with broken objects in the first-floor store.
Then he went up to the second floor and haphazardly spread broken furniture and bookshelves in front of the stairs.
They caught their breath for a mont.
And they went to the end of the wall and sat down.
"Huff huff, Jane, are you okay?"
"Aiden... Can we survive safely?"
"What are you saying, Jane. Of course we have to survive!"
"But... I never imagined this, a horde of zombies... Sothing’s wrong."
"Yeah, yeah, it’s strange, but let’s just think about surviving and returning to the research facility for now."
Boom boom!!
Grrrr!!
They could feel the zombies getting closer.
Aiden and Jane covered their mouths to not let out even a breath of sound, waiting for the zombie horde to pass by, hoping they would pass safely.
Boom boom!! Crash!!
The sound of sothing breaking, a roar as if the earth was splitting.
The sound of furniture they had blocked on the first floor breaking, and the sound of zombies pounding on the second-floor stairway door.
Trendous vibrations continued.
It seed like the zombies were rummaging through various buildings as if looking for surviving people.
Crack! Thump thump!! Crunch!
The sound of the second-floor stairway door breaking grew louder.
Aiden gripped the rifle he was holding tightly.
And he took out his pistol, checked the bullets, and put it down where he could reach it imdiately.
He shouldered the submachine gun and quietly turned the muzzle towards the door.
Screams, roars, and the shaking of the earth.
Just when it seed like all of that would never end.
The noise started to decrease.
The zombies that had been rummaging through the comrcial building seed to have left, as there were no more sounds of things being broken.
"Have they passed?"
Jane asked.
Aiden carefully poked his head out the window as quietly as possible.
Only the road, more destroyed and desolate than before, was visible, and no zombies were seen at the mont.
"It seems they’ve passed, Jane."
Just in case, Aiden spoke very quietly.
And he very carefully started clearing away the furniture in front of the door one by one.
Like that, although it took ti, they were able to clear all the furniture and co down to the first floor.
Only then did they check the ti: 6 PM. The sun was setting.
Without saying anything, the two headed for the research facility without delay.
Hoping desperately that the research facility would remain safe.
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