Chapter Text
The group made its way to the parking garage opening and walked off into the deserted streets.
They walk for a few minutes, killing a few walkers. The rather large group stops however, noticing the ground starting to shake.
"What the hell is that?" Johnny asks.
Yeojin is the first to notice the shadow of an airplane on the buildings. "Woah look, that looks so close." She points.
They all stare until Haseul's yelling for everyone to watch out.
The group notices the fairly large airplane is headed straight for the Blockberry building. In a matter of seconds the airplane crashes and the building falls on the exact parking garage they just came from along with other surrounding buildings.
The crash and explosion causes the group to fumble and stumble on the ground.
"Is everyone alright?" Sooyoung asks.
Most of the group voices out their replies but a couple stay quiet realizing their friends and even family just got crushed.
"Karma's a bitch." Yeojin mumbles, which Yerim smacks her in the arm for. Yeojin lets out a small 'Ow' but gets up and helps the others.
Soon a cloud of dust and smoke washed over them.
"We have to move, this isn't safe anymore. That crash was probably heard by all the walkers in the city. Let's move." Jaehyun shouts over the now crying infant.
Hyeju is trying her best to calm the baby down but can't. Vivi notices and offers to carry him. Thanking god she changed and wore an oversized hoodie she puts Squirt inside her hoodie with a pacifier from his bag and makes sure to check on him every few minutes through her collar. Hyeju watches the whole process and is thankful these random people are helping her. She thinks how crazy it is that these people have shown more kindness to her than her own family.
They keep walking, occasionally turning back to see the Blockberry building burning down in the background.
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The walk to the hospital is longer than expected. The crash led walkers from all over and the main streets were blocked by dozens of them. The boys led the group through smaller alleyways but ran into a few obstacles. Mainly walkers, but also fences or dead-ends they stumbled upon.
During their walk many of them felt like walkers themselves. Simply walking and going through the motions. Sooyoung was filled with extreme guilt, leaving Bella behind and ignoring her calls. She wiped away a few tears when no one was looking, and tried to shake off the feeling since this group needed her at her best.
Chaewon let her tears fall. Sniffing softly as she thought about her friends. She kept thinking if she was more persistent they would've maybe come with her. She's the last one standing, and it wasn't even because of herself. Chaewon turns to watch Hyejoo help Vivi readjust Squirt. She just met this girl and already she saved her life.
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The group arrives in front of the hospital Hyeju talked about and they decide to enter through a side entrance. Haseul and Sooyoung figured the main and emergency entrances would be crowded.
The city had been evacuated, Jaehyun explained to them on the way, plus most walkers were captured and or killed by the army men in the airport. They still needed to be careful in case there were walkers in the building.
Jaehyun and Johnny manage to bust open one of the side entrances. It led to a hallway that was extremely dark. The light from outside managed to let them see that there were no walkers in the hallway so they piled in.
"Chaewon, come here." Sooyoung whispered, turning the girl around and opening the backpack she had on.
Sooyoung had packed all their flashlights in that bag. She handed one to Jaehyun, Johnny, Jungeun, Haseul, and Hyunjin. Keeping one for herself as well.
Hyunjin turned hers on and walked down the hall first. She noticed all the doors were closed but also blocked off by gurneys all lined up in front of every door. As she took another step she almost slipped on a pool of blood that was on the floor, coming from inside the first room.
"Woah be careful." Jungeun whispered, holding onto Hyunjin's backpack and making sure she didn't fall.
Johnny grew curious and tried to move the gurney away from the door but the wheel made a loud screeching noise. Everyone in the group tensed up, and turned their heads down the hallway. They did not see anything or anyone but all flinched upon hearing what sounded like dozens of walkers pounding on the doors lining the hallway.
Hyunjin quickly backed up huddling in close to the group that all now stood close together.
"Someone definitely did this. We have to go in. Keep your eyes open." Sooyoung whispered.
Vivi tried to keep herself from shaking and waking up Squirt. She kept meeting Hyejoo's worried gaze.
Jaehyun noticed Hyunjin was a little rattled and decided to take her place and go first. With cautious steps he made his way down the hallway followed by the rest of the group. Johnny was in the back of the line and noticed the little windows on the doors were covered by something which prevented a look into the rooms. Soon they all made it to the end of the hallway and now had to choose whether or not to go to the left or right.
After a few moments the sound of growling and banging stopped, most likely because the walkers couldn't hear them anymore. Haseul shined her flashlight on the wall which revealed directions to their destination. The operation room was on the third floor. The elevator was not an option, so stairs it was.
The stairwell was very dark and cold and they could hear a faint tapping sound every five seconds or so. Yeojin, being one of the firsts to enter, looks down the void of the stairwell and locks eyes with a person who was laying down on the floor covered in blood.
"You! Hey you, help me." The person screamed, causing Yeojin to back up.
The group panicked and moved to the corner of the stairwell away from the volute.
"Little girl! I know I saw you. Or maybe I'm hallucinating at this point." The unknown man said.
Jaehyun waved his hand, getting everyone's attention. He put his pointer finger up to his lips and then motioned for them to walk up the stairs but as close to the wall as possible so the man wouldn't see them.
He of course went first, slowly but surely. The rest followed but once they got to the third floor he waited for the rest of the group to go in. The sign next to the door read 'Surgical Floor', followed by another sign that said the next floor was the Pediatrics floor.
Haseul took note of that and would probably ask Jasehyun to go with her to gather more baby supplies since they were eventually going to need more.
Sooyoung opened the door cautiously and peeked her head in. She then casually walked in since the coast was clear. The rest followed and made their way to the first operations room in sight.
Sooyoung directed everyone with a flashlight to stand on the opposite side of the operating table. She went around with Haseul and found all the instruments she was going to need for the procedure. As soon as she found the ventilator she realized they don't have electricity and they were going to have to manually ventilate.
Another obstacle was anesthesia... She had no idea how much to use. That was not her job and she definitely hasn't worked with babies enough to guess. She gave Haseul a look and it looks like the younger girl understood immediately because she grabbed the needle from Sooyoung's grasp and then drew the medication to sedate Squirt into the syringe.
Jinsoul helped Vivi place Squirt in the middle of the operations table. Sooyoung took out the manual ventilator and waited for Haseul to inject the anesthesia to then insert the tube to ventilate. Once she got the tube in she explained to Heejin how to do it and left her with that job.
As she did that Haseul asked everyone their blood types and only Yerim had type O, which meant they could only use her blood in case Squirt lost too much blood. Haseul would also donate her blood if necessary but since she was operating she figured Yerim was a better option.
While most of the group was helping with the procedure Chaewon, Hyeju, Hyeongjun, Jungsuk, Jiwoo and Jungeun were standing by the door.
Chris and Felix offered to scout the rest of the floor and left a few minutes ago.
Hyeju had noticed Jungsuk place Jiwoo down and stretch out his limbs.
"I can carry her after if you want." She offered.
Jungsuk shook his head denying, "It's okay, I'm fine."
"No seriously, you're tired and it's okay she's probably really light." Hyeju walked over to where he left Jiwoo and looked down at her, "Hi."
Jiwoo looked up at the younger girl and smiled, "Hi."
"I'm gonna pick you up now." Hyeju deadpanned.
Jiwoo's eyebrows furrowed and she tried to resist but next thing she knew she was being picked up and thrown over Hyeju's shoulder.
"See, I told you."
Chaewon, Hyeongjun and Jungeun were very impressed with the dark haired EMT.
"I mean if you want to carry her, sure go ahead." Jungsuk chuckled out, figuring out Hyeju was just trying to distract herself from the surgery taking place a few feet away from them.
Hyeju almost drops Jiwoo though when Chris and Felix come rushing in, out of breath.
"We have a problem." Chris managed to say.
Sooyoung was millimeters away from making the first cut. They all look towards the two boys and wait for them to go on.
"There's people here. We hid in a room and heard them walk by. It looks like they were patrolling the floor and were talking about 'going back up to eat'" Felix explained.
"What should we do?" Heejin asked, still bagging the infant with the manual ventilator.
Jaehyun gave his flashlight over to Hyunjin and walked to the door. "I'll just talk to them. If I get any bad vibes I'll just lead them somewhere else and distract them in time for you to finish okay?"
"Distract them for 5 hours?" Sooyoung asked.
Jaehyun's mouth opened then closed.
"The surgery is 5 hours?" Heejin asked, suddenly feeling her hand cramp.
"I can try and cut it down but it probably-"Sooyoung gets cut off by the door suddenly swinging open.
"Hands up! Weapons down!" The unknown group barges in armed with guns.
The group all put their hands up except for Heejin, Sooyoung and Haseul.
"Wait, Yerim? Yeojin? Heejin?" One of the armed girls asks.
Yeojin shines her light at the girl and realizes it's Yena.
"Yena? Oh my gosh what are you doing here?"
"Wait Yena? You're here right now, are you with-"
"They're upstairs," Yena says, cutting off Hyunjin, "Guns down boys, they're cool. They saved my friends and I a while back."
The boys nod and start walking off into the hallway leaving Yena alone with the group.
Yena finally notices what they're about to do and gasps. "Is that a baby?"
"Uh yeah, we are trying to save it's life."
Yena's eyes widened and she asked them to wait for a few minutes until she returns. The group does as she says and waits until she comes back with a person in a white lab coat. "Guys this is Dr. Kwon."
"Isn't she the lady from the first hospital we went to?" Hyunjin asks.
Haseul nods and chuckles, "The one that helped us escape."
Dr. Kwon smiles and does a little head nod before walking over to the table. "Nice to see you all again, you can all just call me Eunbi. So what's going on here?"
"Norwood procedure on a couple day old infant."
Eunbi raised a brow and looked around at the rest of the group trying to figure out who's kid this was. She really didn't see the point in going through the trouble of doing the surgery since it requires more procedures in the future and a long recovery process. She didn't want to say this out loud however since the child's mother or father could be present so she just nodded. "I can turn the emergency generator on and get my colleague to help."
"That would be great!" Haseul said.
"However, we're gonna need to convince Jihyo. She's in charge here and turning on the generator will turn on every light and attract walkers from outside. We managed to haul up all the walkers from the building to the basement but sometimes they do wander up the floors. We'll need to have people stationed by the entrances in case walkers do make their way in."
"Don't worry we'll help and defend this place." Jaehyun offered.
Eunbi then walked to Sooyoung's side, asking to have a little chat outside.
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"You know that procedure requires follow up surgeries. Do you really intend on starting something you can't finish?" Eunbi asked.
Sooyoung sighs, "I can't just watch this baby die-"
"Who's kid is it? The short haired one? The girl that has to be carried because I'm assuming she can't walk after giving birth?"
Sooyoung shakes her head, "It's none of ours, it was abandoned."
Eunbi nods, and lets out a long sigh before walking off, presumingly to get Jihyo.
In the matter of minutes the group collectively close their eyes and blink to adjust their eyesight. Eunbi and Jihyo, they're assuming, come in and set up the machines to complete the procedure since the generator was turned on.
Yena asks Jaehyun and whoever else could help to go with her to guard the entrances. Leaving only Heejin, Chaewon, Jinsoul, Jiwoo, Hyeongjun and Hyeju in the hallway outside the operating room.
Jihyo had kicked them out since they really shouldn't have that many people in there anyway. Yerim and Yeojin stayed since Yerim was their human blood bank and Yeojin stayed with her for moral support.
Jinsoul noticed a figure heading their way and immediately went up to hug her.
"Hi again. When Yena told me you guys were here I couldn't believe it."
Heejin hugged the girl as well, "I'm glad you girls are okay."
"I'm so sorry we left you guys, we got overrun and when we went to the house you didn't come back. We assumed the worst and took off since we ran out of food."
"Don't worry about it, we all found each other in the end anyway, I'm just glad nothing happened to you all."
Hyeju shifted a little to adjust Jiwoo on her back and made a noise with her shoe interrupting their conversation.
"Oh Yuri, these are some new friends of ours, meet Jiwoo, Hyejoo, Hyeongjun and a few others that are helping guard the building."
Yuri waves, "It's nice to meet you. I can't wait to show you all around. We have a nice set up here."
"That would be great," Heejin starts but as she makes eye contact with Hyejoo she realizes Hyejoo isn't going anywhere, "But maybe in a few. I don't know if you know what's going on in there but we would really like to stay and wait for it to be over."
Yuri nods, already up to date on the situation. She thought it was best to keep quiet about how all the medical staff in her group think it's a waste of supplies and not worth it.
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In the operating room all the doctors worked in unison to save the child. Haseul did her best to keep up and assist them. Yeojin and Yerim stood a couple of feet away, waiting in case they were needed.
"Were either of you a peds surgeon?" Sooyoung asked.
Both of the doctors looked at one another before shaking their heads.
"I'm a nuero-surgeon." Jihyo introduced.
"And I'm a general surgeon." Eunbi added.
Sooyoung nods, finally understanding why Eunbi was taking the lead surgeon's spot even though she said Jihyo was in charge.
"I'm going to be honest, I am a bit nervous since I haven't worked on a heart since my internship, let alone a heart this small." Jihyo admitted.
"Are there not any peds surgeons here?" Sooyoung was brave enough to ask.
"According to the staff that worked here, the day this all started was a day of plastic surgery. The next day would've been peds. So unfortunately the peds surgeons were not in the building besides the interns and one resident." Jihyo explained.
"So there is a resident here a little more experienced in pediatric surgery?"
Jihyo and Eunbi give each other a look.
"What?" Sooyoung questions, stopping her motions.
"I'm assuming you walked up the stairs on the east wing stairwell?" Eunbi started, Sooyoung nodded, "Did you happen to look down the stairwell?" Sooyoung shook her head.
Yerim and Yeojin softly gasp, seeming to predict who they're talking about.
"That man? It's him?" Yeojin interjects.
"So you saw him?" Jihyo asks, now looking over at the younger girls.
"He saw me." Yeojin confessed.
"What is he doing down there?" Sooyoung asked.
Jihyo and Eunbi looked at one another once again, this time however with a troubling look in their eyes.
Haseul stopped her movements with Sooyoung following.
"Alright what's going on?" Haseul asked.
Jihyo took a long deep breath and sighed, "When we first got here that man was basically the leader of this place. He ran this place like a prison." Jihyo explained.
"More like a brothel." Eunbi muttered under her breath.
Sooyoung's eyebrow rose, "What do you mean?"
Jihyo's shoulders dropped, and it was now Eunbi's turn to let out a long sigh. "That was his currency. He would trade extra food or medical supplies for sexual favors."
The younger girls gasped.
Haseul turned to them, "Cover your ears and sing a song to yourself."
Yerim immediately complied, choosing to sing Feel My Rhythm by Red Velvet, while Yeojin took a minute but started singing OMG by New Jeans.
Sooyoung cleared her throat after a moment and asked, "How did he end up down there then?"
"Basically all the doctors left that were not locked up made a plan to get rid of him. So I was the bait and got him into the stairwell alone. The other doctors were at the bottom of the stairwell waiting, while some waited by the door for my signal. He was tired of waiting and tried to make a move, so I did the signal and me and two other doctors pushed him over the railing and he fell three stories, but was still alive. The other doctors were supposed to finish him off but we decided to tie him up and leave him there. I'm pretty sure his legs are broken too so we never really worried about him getting out. But his screams did worry us since the entrance you came in from has a bunch of walkers locked into the rooms." Jihyo told the girls calmly.
Sooyoung and Haseul shifted on their feet.
Sooyoung chewed on the inside of her cheek, "I actually don't think that I would've been against your plan."
"Me neither." Haseul added.
Sooyoung gives Yeojin a look to stop singing, which Yeojin stops and elbows Yerim to as well.
"Let's just continue-" Eunbi was saying before the monitor started beeping.
"Blood pressure is dropping." Haseul states.
The infant's chest cavity was now filling up with blood.
Jihyo turns to Yerim and waves her over.
"Haseul arterial puncture." Jihyo demands.
Haseul brings Yerim over and prepares her arm to stick the needle, while Sooyoung and Eunbi try to get the bleeding under control.
Sooyoung is becoming overwhelmed with the amount of blood. Sooyoung has always been one of the best in her field. she 's used to hip replacements or ligament reconstructions, not teeny tiny bleeding hearts.
"Yeojin, come. Put a glove on and try to wrap your hand around here," Eunbi pointed towards the small heart with her chin, "and try to find where the gushing is coming from. It usually feels like a little hole."
Yeojin was moving in slow motion, waiting for Eunbi to say she was joking.
"Eunbi, leave her out of this, she's a child." Haseul stopped what she was doing to glare at the general surgeon.
"She has the smallest hands, she'll be able to maneuver better in there. Yeojin get over here."
"No. Yeojin, stay still."
Yeojin was now getting a bit overwhelmed, especially since the beeping monitor was increasing in speed.
Yerim started to tear up for some reason watching as Yeojin was trying to decide what to do.
Once the beeping turned into a continuous beep, Yeojin dove right in and wiggled her fingers around to see if she could find the source.
Jihyo and Eunbi slowly started to stop their movements while Sooyoung continued.
Haseul tried to stop Sooyoung by putting a hand on her shoulder, only for it to be shrugged off.
Yeojin was pulled away by Yerim and brought into a bone crushing hug.
Sooyoung just kept going. Her body became hot and she was sweating. Her vision began to blur but because of the tears that threatened to fall at any second.
Eunbi turned off the monitor and that seemed to have triggered Sooyoung who abruptly stopped and looked up at her.
"You're giving up!? We can still do this! Come on, Yeojin, get back here! Haseul! Eunbi! Ji-" She screamed until Jihyo injected her with something.
She began to slowly close her eyes and fall into Jihyo's arms.
"What'd you give her?" Haseul asked.
"Alprazolam. She'll be out for a while." Haseul nodded, now focusing her attention on the two young girls in the corner.
Eunbi noticed and offered to show them a place to calm down.
Haseul took the help and joined them. As they walked out of the waiting room the rest of their group rushed to them.
Hyejoo noticed Yerim and Yeojin crying and assumed the worst. She began to tear up and fell to her knees. Chaewon kneeled next to her and immediately hugged her trying to calm her down. Haseul whispers to Jinsoul about Sooyoung and to help Jihyo bring her up.
"Where's Sooyoung?" Jiwoo softly asks Haseul, interrupting her conversation.
Haseul sighs, "Jiwoo she's not doing so well right now. Jinsoul is going to take care of her for right now."
"Can I go? I want to see her."
"Jiwoo you can barely walk."
"I know but I want to be there at least." Hyeongjun walks up behind them and bends down for Jiwoo to get on his back.
She jumps on him quickly and stares at Haseul. "Can I go now?"
Haseul blinks a few times before ultimately giving in and nodding.
Jinsoul opens the door to the operating room and they walk in.
Jihyo explains to them that she needs to talk to Hyeju and that they can just wait and keep an eye on Sooyoung.
"I'll explain what happened to you girls after." She said, before finally walking out.
Once she steps into the hallway, she finds Hyeju on the ground on her knees crying, while Heejin and Chaewon kneel next to her.
Chaewon is hugging the girl with a few tears falling from her eyes as well, while Heejin is looking up at the ceiling blinking so the tears don't fall. She also has a supportive hand placed on Hyeju's shoulder. Jihyo is glad she at least has a support system and figures she already knows the bad news based on the way Eunbi, Haseul and the girls came out.
"Hyeju right?" Jihyo warmly says, trying to stay as calm as possible.
She didn't realize how much it was actually affecting her until now. She's always hated losing kids, it's only ever happened to her twice but that didn't make this any easier.
Hyeju didn't even look up at her, opting to continue to sob into Chaewon and Heejin's arms. Heejin slowly let Chaewon completely embrace Hyeju and stood up to face Jihyo.
"What happened?" She croaked out.
Jihyo took a deep breath and composed herself, Heejin thought it was almost robotic the way Jihyo's face changed into a blank stare. "Unfortunately due to the amount of bleeding we were unable to complete the procedure. We tried to revive your, uh, the patient, but were unsuccessful. The patient died about 8 minutes ago, I'm so sorry for your loss."
"How? Why? Sooyoung said-" Hyeju raspy voice was interrupted by Jihyo's stable one.
"I'm not sure what Dr. Ha told you, but before the operation we did let you know how complicated the procedure was going to be. None of us are pediatric surgeons so it was even more difficult for us to maneuver and the bleeding was uncontrollable."
Something about the way Jihyo's voice was so monotone, barely expressing any emotion riled Hyeju up. It was like a flip was switched.
She bawled her fists and abruptly stood up. Chaewon almost falls backwards but stays balanced because of her hold on Hyeju.
"Where's Sooyoung?" Hyeju growls.
Jihyo has seen this shift in the patient's family all the time when told unfortunate news. In moments like these they might skip a stage of grief and go straight to anger. "Hyeju, calm down," Hyeju's breath started becoming heavy, "Sooyoung didn't do anything wrong okay."
"She told me it would work! She told me he'd be fine. Where is she!"
Heejin and Chaewon are now facing Hyeju holding her back, while Jihyo keeps her ground in front of the furious girl.
Eunbi came back down after helping Yerim and Yeojin calm down. She noticed what was happening and rushed over, "Woah, woah, Jihyo what do you need?"
Jihyo didn't even look back at her and just shook her head, without breaking eye contact with Hyeju.
Chaewon kept whispering to Hyeju to breathe after noticing the girl starting to turn red from holding her breath.
Heejin was observing the two doctors in front of her, wondering why they weren't telling them where Sooyoung was.
Eunbi whispered to Jihyo something which finally made Hyeju break the silence.
"What is it? What's with the secrets? I know we don't know you and you probably don't trust us, but I just want to talk to Sooyoung!"
Jihyo took a long sigh, "Eunbi was just asking me if I should sedate you like we did Sooyoung."
The three younger girls furrowed their eyebrows and gave questioning looks.
"What do you mean? You did what to Sooyoung?" Heejin asked.
"She went out of control, continuing to operate even after we all stopped. She got too emotional. We had to sedate her." Jihyo explained.
That seemed to calm Hyejoo down enough for her to loosen up again and let her arms go limp. Jihyo let Eunbi bring the girls up to the room she will bring Sooyoung to once she had cleaned her up.
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Hyujin and Jaehyun followed Yena after splitting up into smaller groups to cover the perimeter of the hospital. Hyunjin was just finishing up telling Yena about everything that happened after they got split up.
Yena gasped, "The building fell on the garage?!"
Hyunjin nodded in silence.
Jaehyun couldn't help but chuckle at Yena's reactions.
"Damn, you guys went through a lot more than we did."
"I'm just glad we all found each other again." Hyunjin sighed out.
Yena smiled brightly, "You're just happy you found Heejin."
Hyunjin was taken aback at the comment but still as a force of habit lightly nudged Yena's shoulder. Yena and Jaehyun laughed watching Hyunjin's face grow pink.
They got near the entrance they came in from and Hyunjin asked, "How did you guys even do this?"
Yena shrugged, "It was like this before we got here but Eunbi told us whoever got bit or was infected in any way got locked down here. There were way too many at one point so they just reinforced with the gurneys." J
aehyun's sneaker accidentally squeaked and the walkers started up again.
Growling and slamming their fists on the doors to get out.
Hyunjin and Yena flinched.
"Maybe we should head outside a different way." Yena suggested, hand still on her chest after all that.
She showed them their guard posts and introduced them to more people. Hyunjin and Jaehyun were impressed and wondered how everything was going upstairs.
Then Yena's radio suddenly went off.
"This is yellow, what's up?" Yena spoke.
"Yena, it's Yuri. The baby passed, please let the others know to come up."
Hyunjin covered her mouth and blinked away her tears, while Jaehyun just stood still looking everywhere but at the girls.
"Copy. We're heading up." Yena quickly replied and turned to the two, sighing softly, "I'm sorry for your loss. I'll take you back to your friends, they probably need you guys right now."
Hyunjin simply nodded, following Yena and Jaehyun back up.