Chapter 2
He kept count of the seconds that passed. Perhaps, due to the silence, or the darkness, or the sudden fatigue that came after the adrenaline emptied out, he fell asleep.
His memory of what came after was hazy at best.
He remembered feeling hot, suffocated by the walls that encompassed him.
He remembered wanting to climb out, but being too scared to move.
And then he couldn’t move.
The burning heat pumping through his veins, and the pain laced in each of his movements rendered his limbs useless.
In the midst of his pounding headache, he had a thought—he was going to die now. He was going to become that thing that had once been his grandmother. His mother was going to come back to find a monster wearing his skin.
It was the last thought he had before he succumbed once again to the overwhelming pain.
Su Yichen slipped in and out of consciousness as his fever ran its course. As his senses waned and ebbed, he would sometimes find himself disoriented by his surroundings. Other times, he would waken to thoughts running through his head with frightening clarity.
How long had it been since his mother left the room? How long had it been since he fell unconscious? Where was his mother?
Was she dead?
Was he dead?
Su Yichen didn’t know how long it had been before the heat started fading.
When he realized he was still alive, he found himself already staring at the door of his closet. The left side of his body that laid on the floor was oddly cool and warm at the same time.
His entire body felt strangely refreshed—revived.
When he tried to push himself to sit up, his hands landed into a shallow pool of liquid. After close examination he discovered he was lying in a pool of his own sweat.
Before he could think of anything else, he heard a sound. It was close; most likely coming from the same room (his room!). He didn’t want to look, but somewhere deep down he couldn’t help but hope it was his mother.
He slowly raised his hand, stretching towards the door. He stayed there, his fingers a few centimetres away. His heart was so pounding loud; he swore it was echoing in the small space.
In the end, he gave into his fear and moved his hand away. He shifted, trying to push himself further back into the closet.
Bad idea.
He slipped. His shoes slid across the sweat-slick wood, toeing the door ajar with a small thump. He held his breath as the fear overwhelmed him. This was it. This was how his end would come—not by a virus, but by his own stupidity.
He knew someone was there now.
There were footsteps; slowly getting louder as it came towards him.
He prayed that it would stop. He prayed that it wouldn’t come closer.
An oddly calm voice in the back of his mind told him that he should take the initiative.
He should bolt; slam the door into their face; knock them onto the floor and run. He should go to the washroom, located on the same floor first. He doesn’t know where everyone is. If he included his mom, there would be a total of four enemies—all adults. All with the size and ability to incapacitate him.
It was in front of the door.
He was going to die.
He needed to kick out his leg, right now.
He was going to die
Right now—
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Maybe it was better to die after all.
Ktf vbbg bqfcfv.
***
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Llr delfa jcv ecjrrewlcu cjaegf, ktlmt tf lctfglafv ogbw tlr wbatfg, wjvf la jiwbra lwqbrrlyif obg tlw ab wjxf wjcs oglfcvr. Snfc tlr afjmtfgr kbeiv boafc obgufa jybea tlw ogbw alwf ab alwf. Yc fifwfcajgs rmtbbi aglqr, tf kjr jiwbra ifoa yftlcv bc rfnfgji bmmjrlbcr—lo cba obg Bsif.
Kyle Huang was the first person he could give the label of friend.
***
His mind stalled, much like a broken record player that kept repeating the same second over and over.
It took him a few minutes to truly process the scene in front of him: Kyle Huang standing in front of the closet door with a bat raised in front of him.
Kyle’s face mirrored Yichen’s, painting a hilarious picture.
“Oh my god,” he breathed out, breaking the stillness. He sank to the floor as his legs gave out, “Geez, Xiao-Chen.”
Yichen was still gaping at him; his limbs still frozen. He was sure his legs would’ve given out in the same way if he weren’t already sitting down.
Then Kyle started laughing.
The tension slowly lifted from Su Yichen limbs, and a small, silly smile made its way onto his face.
They sat there for a few moments before Kyle stood up once again. He helped Su Yichen out of the closet. As he pulled the shorter boy closer, he made a face.
“Whoa, Xiao-Chen, how long’ve you been in there? You reek,” he complained, covering his nose in disgust, “You’re kinda wet too, what were you doing in there?” As if to make a point, he looked into the closet where Yichen had laid for several days straight.
Kyle stiffened from the scene within the closet, but Yichen really didn’t notice; he was occupied with examining his own condition.
Yichen gave himself a sniff and pulled back, also disgusted by the fishy smell that covered his entire body. Now that he noticed it, his shirt was strangely stiff for the most part, but was thoroughly soaked on his left side.
“You should take a bath,” Kyle suggested, much to Yichen’s surprise.
It was then that he started to really question the boy’s presence. His concern and doubt must’ve shown, because Kyle then said, “It’s fine. The house is pretty safe right now. I even slept here last night.”
For a moment, Yichen’s mind went blank. With a numb nod, he turned stiffly and made his way towards the door.
Kyle watched the back of Yichen’s figure until he exited the room, before frowning and looking back into the closet—at the one-inch deep pool of sweat and grime that had the imprint of a child lying on his side.
Yichen stumbled mindlessly towards the bathroom. He was halfway there when the implications of Kyle’s words finally sank in. All at once the nausea, guilt, and relief washed over Yichen; they conflicted with each other as they welled up within him, almost burying him in their wake.
The house was safe.
***
The two boys agreed to reconvene in the kitchen once Yichen was all cleaned up.
He didn’t get to see much of the house after he came out of his room. He only single-mindedly made his way to the bathroom on the second floor.
Yichen didn’t realize how much he needed a shower until he felt the warm spray of water against his skin.
The water rushed down and swept away the gritty layer of sweat on his body, and along with it, his mire of thoughts. It left his mind completely blank, save for the white noise of water hitting against the shower tiles.
Ah, if only he could stay like this; hidden away, protected under the curtain of water.
He stayed under spray for a long time, or at least it felt so, before he realized that he was taking too long. He quickly washed himself properly.
When he finally stepped out of the shower, he saw a set of neatly folded clothes sitting on the nearby hamper. At some point, Kyle had kindly dropped off a set of clean clothes while he was still in the shower.
Su Yichen smiled. Kyle had always been a very considerate person… unlike himself. An errant thought flashed through Yichen’s mind; his soft smile faltered.
***
Su Yichen and Kyle Huang met on their neighbourhood playground and clicked almost immediately. When Kyle found out that they were in the same school and in the same class (much to his shock, since it was already late-November), he pulled Su Yichen into everything that he took part in.
He was always the one to remind their teachers whenever they overlooked Yichen—and reprimanded him when he didn’t even bother to speak up during those times.
His care and support was what helped Yichen get through elementary school without being completely estranged from his teachers and classmates.
Even after Kyle moved away, and they were separated, he still gave Yichen advice and would update him regularly about his daily life.
The fact that Kyle had always treated their friendship as something precious, only made ‘the incident’ all the more mortifying and unforgivable. He became too ashamed to stay in contact with Kyle after what happened; how could he?
Thinking about it a little more, Su Yichen realized that it had already been two years since he last saw—spoke with Kyle.
***
When he came out of the bathroom he realized what a mess the house had become.
The small ficus tree beside his grandmother’s room had been overturned. The dirt spread all across the floor with traces of footprints here and there, as if someone had completely ignored its presence as they walked past.
There was some dark brown substance speckled here and there on the floor and the walls; some larger than others. The most noticeable ones were the large streaks on his bedroom door, and the multiple trails that led to the top of the stairway. There was an odd stain right in front of the steps that looked a little like a mutilated daisy or badly drawn star.
He found Kyle in the kitchen, flitting around near the stove.
Kyle turned around almost immediately when he heard Yichen enter. His shoulders stiffen for a brief millisecond, before relaxing again. “It’s almost done,” he said with a small smile, “I figured you might be hungry.”
Yichen didn’t answer, only moving to sit at the table. Truth be told, he didn’t feel hungry, or rather all his senses were still somewhat numbed.
Kyle placed a bowl of plain congee and a plate of burnt eggs in front of him. He stuck a spoon in front of Yichen’s face. “Eat up,” he said with a firm look that said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Yichen wisely took the spoon and mechanically scooped one bite after another into his mouth—each becoming easier after the last.
“I figured you’d might want something easy on the stomach,” Kyle said, shovelling a bite from his own bowl, “I’ve been here for approximately two nights and a day now, but you’ve probably been in that closet for a lot longer right?”
“I—,” Yichen coughed, his throat hoarse from disuse, “I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know how long I’ve been in the closet,” he rectified before falling silent once more.
Kyle patiently waited for Yichen to formulate his thoughts.
Su Yichen didn’t know how much he could tell the other, didn’t know how to phrase his words without making it sound like a story from some horror show. More importantly, Yichen didn’t know what to say because he didn’t know what had happened—not really.
His mind and memory were filled with so many holes and blanked out areas that he didn’t know where to begin.
As if sensing his confusion, Kyle offered to tell his story first.
“I was with the basketball team,” he began, “They were holding a special joint training camp with our sister school. I just so happened to be visiting the club at the time, so all the third years dragged me along to help train some newbies.”
There was a subtle bitterness in his tone that made Su Yichen cringe. His eyes flickered to Kyle’s elbow before returning to his bowl.
Kyle didn’t seem to realize his discomfort; he only continued his story.
“The place they rented isn’t too far from here, about a two-hour walk. I got sick on the first night,” he chuckled, “Can you believe it? First night. I was so bummed. They thought it was a cold at first, cause I was a little warm. But then it started getting worse—I don’t really remember anything during that time other than it being really hot and everywhere hurting like hell. It was our manager, Ai, who told me afterwards.”
Yichen’s eyes widened at his words. They were almost a reminiscence of his own experiences.
“My fever was pretty bad, and really long apparently. Most fevers would last a couple of days but… mine ran for about a week, and they stopped being able to measure my temperature—it wouldn’t register apparently.”
“Why didn’t they take you to a hospital?” Su Yichen asked, thinking of his aunt and Xiao-Mi.
“They wanted to,” he said, “by the second day I was burning so hot, Ai said she saw steam coming off me. But the other kids started getting sick too. ‘Bout half of our guys plus the other manager was down on the second day, and we didn’t have any means of getting ten guys and a girl to a hospital. We came by a school bus, but it’s rented so we couldn’t keep it with us; there was only one of the teachers, Mr. Donavan’s car. They tried calling the local clinic, but the line was always busy. So Mr. Donavan went out on the second day to find a doctor. He didn’t come back… he didn’t even answer when our coach tried to call him.”
A pregnant pause filled the air.
Yichen did a small calculation in his head, and thought about his aunt and Xiao-Mi who tried to get help; it was probably the same clinic.
He wondered how much of his aunt’s words had been a lie; how much of it was the truth.
“When I woke up, it was already the sixth day. Ai was crying when she saw that I was okay.” Kyle had a wistful smile on his face; it disappeared as soon as it came.
Kyle fiddled with his congee as he continued to speak.
“Most of the guys were down by then, only a handful were still fine. Even the coach was out. A lot of them were coughing up blood. I asked Ai-chan if I was the same, cause they all looked pretty bad but… she said I only had a really high fever and my pulse was really fast. She told me everyone had a really high fever and fast heart-rate, but I had the highest — around 500bpm! They measured it like… ten times just to be sure they weren’t crazy,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t really believe them at the time. I mean, can you imagine? 500bpm! It’s a wonder that I’m still alive!”
His chuckles slowly died down. Su Yichen could almost see the end of Kyle’s story with his own eyes. He could match up almost every scene with the ones that occurred in the house.
“Apparently, the guys started getting really antsy when the coach got sick, and it was really tense before I woke up. When I did, we thought everything was probably going to be fine. But it wasn’t.” Kyle’s words were dripping with sarcasm, as if ridiculing himself for his past beliefs.
“Some kids stopped breathing a day after I woke up. Then they started getting back up again.” Kyle kept pausing, as if the words were getting harder and harder to say aloud, but Yichen waited patiently, because he knew…
“Zombies.” Kyle finally breathed out, thick with tears building up in his eyes. “They became zombies.”
He sniffled while still jabbing at his luke-warm congee.
Yichen suddenly thought of his grandmother. He remembered her sitting on the bed, staring out with her white glazed eyes.
“They started biting people who were close by, attacking the ones who weren’t… We ran out, our captain, Ai, and me… He got sick too, right after me, but he woke up just that morning,” Kyle tried to wipe away his tears, but it was useless, only making his eyes redder by the minute.
Su Yichen handed him the entire tissue box that was on the counter.
“Thanks,” he said before continuing, “We locked ourselves in the mess hall. It was Marco who took us there.”
Kyle didn’t specify who Marco was, but Su Yichen could guess that it was his captain.
“He was pretty cool, you know? He even—he reacted really fast and told us to block the doors with the chairs and the tables. We armed ourselves with the pans and knives from the kitchen.” Kyle let out a breathy laugh.
“He told us that we could probably escape through the windows. They were kinda small and really high up, but… there were some chairs and stuff remaining so we tried using those to climb up. We were trying to escape when they found us. I don’t know how they did it, but they broke in—”
Kyle’s voice cracked as he struggled to continue, as he looked into the eyes of the boy across from him, Su Yichen could see the despair and guilt in his eyes.
“Yichen— they got in from the door I blocked off. I went up first, and Marco was holding up Ai towards me, all I had to do was grab her hand, but… I couldn’t—I just…”
Kyle could no longer hold his sobs back, he wept into his arms over the table.
Yichen stared blankly at Kyle’s head full of auburn hair. He didn’t know how to comfort the other boy.
The two boys were like statues, frozen in place. Their food sat cold on the table, abandoned.
When the other boy’s cries softened, Su Yichen moved his hand closer to Kyle’s. Slowly his fingers grazed the back of other’s hand. After a while, without even looking at him, Kyle turned his hand upwards to grasp onto Yichen’s.
They stayed that way for a while, holding each other’s hands in comfort.
Su Yichen finally broke the silence, “It’s not your fault, Kyle. Under that kind of pressure—the weight of that many people… I’m sure any of those doors would’ve been broken through just the same. Ai and Marco, I’m not familiar with them… but I’m sure you did your best to try and save them. In that kind of situation, it wouldn’t be strange if no one survived. I, for one, am happy that you survived. You found me because of it.”
He squeezed Kyle’s hand in reassurance. “Thank you for telling me that, Kyle. You’ve been very brave through a very hard time. Very few people would’ve done the same.”
Kyle chuckled through his drying tears, “Stop, you idiot. You’re so embarrassing. That part about you really hasn’t changed much.”
Su Yichen smiled softly, then said, “Now it’s my turn to talk.”
Author’s Corner:
Hello, hello. Welcome to BIA, I hope you enjoy it as we continue on. Going forward I will try my best to upload every Tuesday. There might be times when I update a little late, but I’ll let you know either beforehand or in Discord.
Enjoy~
God this is making me tear up already, you have beautiful writing, and I do hope these kids get the life they deserve after all these trauma.
Scary apocalypse…
Wow, this is interesting! 🙂
More…🤩🤩🤩🤩
Loved the chapter 💙
this is so cool! excited 😁
Oh damn, these two boys sure are strong. Kyle managed to hold it all in and act normal until he told his story.
Thanks for the chapter!!
I love the writing. For some reason when i right i keep on using the word ‘and’. I hate that i do that so mucj
Ahhhh! hooked
Thanks for the chapter <3
I bet I would be one of the first to dye, I simply froze in those situations, like a statue, mind’s blank. If you’re in a desperate situation, I’m the worst person to have by your side.
Love this 😭😭 I’ve read a LOT of apocalypse stories but this hits differently
Aww I love our babies already
Aaaah omg how will kyle react when he learns who the zombies in the house were…
A pregnant pause? I see the author also lurks in ao3.
Poor Kyle! Survivor’s guilt is some terrible pain!
this.. out of all of the BL apocalypse novels I’ve read so far, I must admit this is probably the most realistic. I want whatever the author is smoking.
Ahahaha +1 me too, me too.
I be snorting this story like Crack, I’m crying just from how emotional this plot story 😭
So sad, I’m glad they found each other. Hope nothing happen to them.
I felt tired to cry, I only feel sad for them 😞
Kyle Is so cute..And so is our mc..I feel sorry for both of them! Marco seemed like a nice person 🙁
Thank you for the chapter!❤️❤️❤️♥️♥️♥️♥️