ji-wan was sitting next to chi-yeol. "you okay?," she asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. "yeah..." he said, a bit hesitant. ji-wan nodded before her eyes landed on so-yeon. the girl looked deathly pale so ji-wan got up and walked to sit next to so-yeon. "can i see it? i might be able to help," ji-wan asked softly and so-yeon nodded, turning to ji-wan and lifting her shirt a bit. "damn it. where are the other cars? don't tell me we're the only ones who escaped," sighed hee-rak. it was a fairly deep cut on so-yeon's stomach. she needed a piece of cloth to put pressure on her wound and the fabric that so-yeon's shirt was made out of was too thin.

"no way. they must be behind us," tae-man said, taking his green bandana off his neck. "perfect. wang tae-man, give me that," ji-wan said, putting her hand out for the bandana. "w-what? why?," asked tae-man, holding the bandana close to his chest. ji-wan raised an eyebrow with a straight face, making tae-man look at his bandana with a sad look before handing it over to ji-wan. "so-yeon. this will hurt but i have to keep applying pressure onto the wound ok?," asked ji-wan, folding the bandana so the fabric is more thick. so-yeon nodded. ji-wan placed the folded bandana on the wound and put her hand over it, "i'm going to apply pressure on it now, alright?," ji-wan asked and then started pushing down on the wound.

so-yeon gasped and grabbed onto ji-wan's shoulder. "i know..i know, i'm sorry," ji-wan said, caressing so-yeon's hair and pushing back the strands of hair that were stuck to so-yeon's forehead. "i wonder if the shelter is alright. the shelter our parents are at," jang-soo wondered, making soon-yi start crying and call out for her mother. "yah...stop crying, will you? its annoying," joon-hee scoffed, making soon-yi quieten down. "uh...i'm sure they're fine," ji-wan said when she made eye contact with soon-yi, nodding reassuringly. "the others must be in another truck, right? including sergeant won-bin," asked so-yoon. yeon-joo nodded, "yeah. they're probably okay," she said, holding so-yeon's hand.

"woah...i think i'm going crazy. i'm dead scared but sleepy as fuck at the same time," said hee-rak as he nodded off. this prompted the other students to close their eyes and relax a little more. ji-wan felt more at ease now that there weren't anymore screeching spheres near them. she couldn't fall asleep like the rest of the students however because she had to apply pressure on so-yeon's wound. she would start losing a lot of blood because at the rate she was bleeding, she might lose consciousness. just as the students closed their eyes and started drifting off to sleep, the students were thrown into the air. in seconds, everyone who was sitting opposite of ji-wan, was jerked forwards, causing them to fall forwards.

ji-wan put herself around so-yeon to shield her from tae-man who fell right on top of her. ji-wan felt something blunt hit her head as she pushed tae-man off of her. the peaceful moment was long gone now that they all started screaming. the familiar screeching of a sphere made ji-wan widen her eyes before looking around. the sphere had jumped onto tae-man, who was keeping it away from his face with his hands. "tae-man!," shouted ji-wan as some of them started firing their rifles. quickly, she grabbed tae-man's rifle that had fallen down next to her and aimed it at the sphere. "hold still!," shouted ji-wan. tae-man kept thrashing around, making it way more difficult to have a straight shot. "kill it already!," he shouted and ji-wan looked through the scope. the very moment that tae-man stopped moving, she fired a shot.

everyone quickly rushed out of the truck. ji-wan stopped in her tracks when she saw so-yeon on the ground, holding her wound and squirming. "so-yeon! are you okay?," she panicked, crouching down next to her. "young-shin! get her right side," said ji-wan. young-shin rushed in and helped so-yeon up on the right while ji-wan helped on the left. the two rested so-yeon against the fallen truck and ji-wan unlatched so-yeon's gear. the girls gasped when they saw blood gushing out of so-yeon's stomach. "yah...this won't do," ji-wan said, trying to think of ideas on how to stop the bleeding. "ji-wan, why don't you do that thing again? with tae-man's bandana?," asked young-shin. "no...this is worse than before. that bandana won't help much. but still, can you go try to find it?," asked ji-wan and young-shin nodded.

when he returned with the bandana, it was all dirty and slightly ripped. "so-yeon can get an infection if we use this dirty thing..." ji-wan sighed, putting the bandana down. soon-yo screamed. everyone turned their heads towards her to see her holding her grazed knee. ji-wan sighed, "everyone. look away," said ji-wan as she put her rifle down and unbuttoned her school shirt. "y-yah! what are you doing?," panicked tae-man, covering his eyes. "just look away you idiot!," she shouted in anger. everyone went silent before they turned to look away. ji-wan quickly removed her shirt before she was left with her black long sleeve. she quickly removed the black long sleeve before putting her school shirt back on. her black long sleeve was more stretchy and would cover more area.

ji-wan then ripped her black long sleeve in half in the middle, making everyone turn back again. "stay put. this should help," said ji-wan, nodding at so-yeon who nodded back. ji-wan placed the sleeve against so-yeon's wound and started wrapping the rest of the shirt around her waist. the shirt looped around so-yeon's waist twice before ji-wan tied the two sleeves together. she tightened it above so-yeon's wound which made the girl jump a bit but it kept her from bleeding out. "woah..." chi-yeol said. ji-wan then latched the gear thingy around her waist and pulled at the strap to tighten it. so-yeon gasped in pain. "jang ji-wan, what are you doing? take that off, so-yeon is in pain," asked soo-chul, walking up next to her. "the more pressure that's on the wound, the less blood she loses," ji-wan said with a straight face.

"but still...it looks like she's in pain," he said. "that's the only thing keeping her from bleeding out right now. if you release that, you cut off the blood supply to wherever that blood is going," she said directly. it got on her nerves that soo-chul thought she wanted to do that, like she wanted to hurt her. the group soon moved a bit up the road where they let so-yeon lie down. "we should go check the truck for anything that can help us," young-shin said and ji-wan nodded. jang-soo followed the two as they made their way back to the truck. after a while, the three returned with a medical kit that they handed to yeon-joo. "the soldiers are dead," said jang-soo, making everyone sigh in frustration.

"then what do we do now?," asked soon-yi. "isn't it obvious? we should go back to seoul," so-yoon said. "yah...are you crazy? can't you see were out of bullets? we return just so that we can die?," asked joon-hee, kicking her feet. "what else can we do?," challenged so-yoon. "where were we assembling again? shouldn't we go there?," asked soo-chul. the destination still might be far away and they're defenceless and alone. "mount soak," said tae-man and young-shin pulled out a map that he found earlier. "it's about 20 km from here to the gathering place," said young-shin. the other sighed in defeat. "how on earth can we walk 20 km in this blazing heat? rather than getting tired midway, let's wait before we get rescued," shouted hee-rak.

"if we do decide to stay, then i think we should find shelter or explore the surrounding area for any resources," ji-wan said, defiantly. "yah, what if a sphere jumps out as we stay here?," asked so-yoon. "then at least we will have enough energy to fight them. if we do decide to walk, we won't have any food and will run out of water very quickly," ji-wan pointed out. "and look. there aren't as many spheres here compared to seoul," chimed in hee-rak. "there are no traces of fallen spheres," noticed tae-man. "what? why aren't there any here but tons of them in seoul?," asked joon-hee. "the only thing is that there are less people around here compared to seoul," ji-wan shrugged.

"i can't go. i'm going to wait here," soon-yi said. "guys, it didn't seem like any other cars passed by on our way here. isn't it better to go to mount soak?," asked chi-yeol. "will you use your goddamn brains? let's just stay here, you idiots!," hee-rak shouted. ji-wan knew that he was going to throw a temper tantrum if he didn't get what he wanted. "then what are you going to do when we eventually run out of water? and i might as well remind you that so-yeon is injured. we can't possibly think of taking on such a big journey with these conditions," ji-wan sighed, starting to get frustrated. "so will you two take responsibility if no one comes? huh?," shouted so-yoon. hee-rak cursed under his breath, about to get up but ji-wan shouted, "are you blind? so-yeon's condition isn't getting any better and soon-yi can barely walk. i'm just saying we look around and find a place where we can rest until we decide what to do next!"

"yah. look around, will you? where on earth can we rest?," asked hee-rak, making ji-wan groan in frustration. "you idiot! thats why i'm saying we should fucking look around!," she shouted. "forget it. i can walk. let's go to the gathering place," so-yeon mumbled, trying to get up. "cha so-yeon. sit down," said ji-wan just as so-yeon held her wound and fell backwards again. "the bleeding stopped but her wound is severe. she'll get worse if we don't get her treated fast," said yeon-joo, helping so-yeon get comfortable. "then let's search as we walk," suggested jang-soo. hee-rak cursed on top of his lungs, "yah! do you only use your brain to study? we don't even know what's around. are we going to look around blindly?," asked hee-rak.

"do you have a better idea? have you even tried helping? either give us a better idea or keep your mouth shut and go along with what we decide on!," ji-wan asked bitterly. "for god sake!," groaned hee-rak, walking briskly towards ji-wan. "if you're too lazy to get up and do something then stay here and let the rest of us try to look for something!," she said, raising her voice so its loud and clear. "fine! do whatever the fuck you want, i don't care anymore!," huffed hee-rak, going back to where he was sitting before. "we saw it today, didn't we? what happened to our friends," yeon-joo said sadly. for ji-wan, this brought back memories of woo-taek. in an instant, her eyes flooded with tears. she had first lost young-hoon and now woo-taek as well. hell, she even lost her favourite soldier, ja-yoon unnie, and ms.park as well. ji-wan must be pretty bad luck for the people around her.

"i don't want any of us to fall into danger. i don't want to lose anyone," yeon-joo said and joon-hee started crying. "let's search the area first. if we don't find anything after looking for 30 minutes then..." young-shin stopped, not knowing what to say. "then we can just do what we can with the truck," ji-wan completed his sentence, wiping her tears away. "then, i'll search that side first," said chi-yeol, getting up and looking towards their left. "i'll come with," ji-wan said, starting to walk off in the direction by herself. "yah, yah! when did we have such good teamwork?," asked hee-rak, making ji-wan turn around for a bit. the girl chuckled before starting to walk again, "protect the ladies, private woo hee-rak," ji-wan said, smirking to herself.

— at mount soak

one by one, the group of students started jumping off the truck. bo-ra looked around to see if she could spot ji-wan anywhere but there was no sight of the truck that she left it, let along ji-wan. na-ra was also on the look out for a certain brunette haired girl. the group of students walked further into the camp grounds, they were greeted with distraught looking students from other schools. "are you all okay?," asked lt.lee, no one responded but then yoo-jung jogged up to the man. "what about the first vehicle? they were ahead of us," she asked, causing the rest to start looking around for any sight of their friends. lt.lee however did not have an answer so they were all guided away to where they would be staying.

"why aren't they here yet," asked il-ha, pacing a hole in the ground. "nothing could've happened to them right?," asked ha-na, making the rest look up at her. "they should already be here by now. something bad must've happened to them," said ha-na. this made bo-ra anxious. it felt like there were invisible weights on her shoulder and chest because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get ji-wan out of her mind. there was nothing new about that but it was different this time because she didn't know if ji-wan was in danger. bo-ra took a deep breath in and out, trying to clear her mind.

"no way. they'll be here soon," said na-ra, still hopeful that ji-wan will suddenly appear in front of them with her signature wide grin on her face. "you saw what happened. ih-hye was trying to get into the vehicle and—" bo-ra cut ha-na off, "yah. yoo ha-na," she said, knowing that yoo-jung in particular was very close to in-hye. bo-ra did not enjoy overthinking so she wanted to shut down the conversation as quickly as possible but she also wanted to think about a logical reason as to why the other group of students hadn't shown up. then the lieutenant and sergeant walked in with sullen faces. the students looked at them expectantly, "starting from now, stay here until further orders." he said, disappointing them.

"what about the others?," asked yoo-jung. "we haven't heard from them yet," the man said, "you haven't heard from them? they should already be here," deok-joong said. bo-ra's heart started to wrench at the thought of something terrible happening to ji-wan. "don't worry. they'll be fine. let's wait a little longer," said sergeant won-bin. "until when? you should've just fucking let us leave when we wanted to," argues il-ha. bo-ra ran her hand through her hair and sat back down. why wasn't ji-wan here?

— in the middle of nowhere

ji-wan and chi-yeol ran back to their original spot with huge grins on their faces. "guys! we found something," cheered ji-wan. "where?," asked soon-yi, filled with hope. chi-yeol turned around and pointed at the direction that they just came from. "over there," he panted. "are you serious?," asked hee-rak, making the others look at him. "it's a bit far away so we should get going immediately," advised ji-wan, knowing that the risks start to rise once the sun sets. everyone started to get ready and picked up their gear. soon-yi got on tae-man's back and then they were off. ji-wan stayed back to carry soon-yi and so-yeon's rifles. "wait...shouldn't we leave a sign of where we went incase someone comes back for us?," she asked.

young-shin perked up at the idea, "oh! good idea!," he said before rushing over to the truck and drawing an arrow on it. "we make a pretty good team," smiled ji-wan when young-shin returned. "i guess we do," he smiled before the two of them started walking up the road. "hee-rak, you're going to get eaten by a sphere if you don't hurry," ji-wan cooed, not looking back. young-shin and ji-wan chuckled silently when they heard rushing footsteps running up behind them.

after a long time of walking, hee-rak started complaining. "where is it? are you sure you actually saw it?," he whined, making everyone come to a halt. so-yeon had to stop to rest as she was exhausted and tae-man fell to the ground once he put soo-yi down. chi-yeol looked back at them sheepishly, "well...it should be here somewhere," he said. "for fuck sake! why did i even let him guide us. its over there you idiot," ji-wan said, pointing towards a peak of the house they saw before. "thank god!," sighed joon-hee as the group quickly made their way towards the house.

as they made it to the house, the group scattered and ji-wan went straight to the water tap. she quickly filled up her bottle and started chugging the water. when ji-wan says that the water was crispy. it was fucking crispy as fuck. well any water would be crispy if you just walked for about 30 minutes straight. "that hit the spot!," she cheers. she was acting like they just got saved or something. ji-wan then cupped her hands, collecting water before splashing her face and then ran her wet hands through her hair. "i feel like a whole new person," ji-wan smiled, putting her arms out and taking a deep breath. from the side, soon-yi, joon-hee and hee-rak stared at her. "i think she has a few loose screws," joon-hee mumbled, watching her in amusement.

ji-wan was looking around the area, trying to see if she could find anything useful. she was about to enter a shed when she suddenly heard soo-chul. "i couldn't save woo-taek," cried soo-chul. ji-wan stopped dead in her tracks, her breath caught up in her throat. "what do you mean? isn't he in the second vehicle?" chi-yeol asked desperately. "woo-taek. i left him behind. ji-wan she...she tried to do something...she tried but i stopped her..like a coward," cried soo-chul. ji-wan looked down and noticed the ring that woo-taek had gotten her. a rush of memories started flooding ji-wan's mind.