"Get her!"

Gullible as she was, Kyu-Ri had been led straight into a trap. The man who she thought was injured had been faking his wounds, and his acting was good enough for Kyu-Ri to lower her guard momentarily. Kyu-Ri didn't wish to see another person die, but as the situation turned against the Korean, it might just be herself winding up dead.

Snap!

The sound of a bullet grazing the ground by her feet caused Kyu-Ri to stumble. She needed a place to hide, but where? Most buildings were boarded up or infested with the infected, but Kyu-Ri needed to take her chances. To Kyu-Ri's right was a large apartment complex, with the first floor nearly impossible to enter, with boarded up windows and locked doors. Using the flat top of her baseball bat, Kyu-Ri feverishly tried to break the boards free, hoping that she would live another day rather than lay on the street as dead meat.

"Get the fuck in!"

It was less than polite, yet Kyu-Ri understood the message as she climbed through the gap that was made for her. She had received assistance from a stranger, who laid down lead against her pursuers, yet Kyu-Ri wasn't done by any means. At least two of the bandits were down, while another was wounded, but the fourth was in a desperate struggle against the stranger that saved Kyu-Ri.

The Korean thought about cowering, hiding somewhere from the violence, yet she was forced to make a difficult choice as the female's pistol slid within her reach. Kyu-Ri had never fired a pistol, much less kill someone who wasn't one of the infected, but it was either the stranger or the bandit. It would be wrong for Kyu-Ri to abandon her savior in their moment of need, much unlike what they had accomplished moments ago.

Snatching the pistol from the ground, Kyu-Ri fumbled with the handgun as she aimed it at the bandit. Kyu-Ri hoped to God that she wouldn't hit the female on accident, but she couldn't wait to line up a perfect shot.

Bang! cracked the pistol, echoing within the alleyway. The recoil shook Kyu-Ri violently as she struggled to regain her composure from the shot.

"I... I shot him," Kyu-Ri responded once the situation appeared to be under control. The gun in her hands fell to the ground as Kyu-Ri attempted to come to terms with what she just had done. "I-Is he dead?"

Not long after Kyu-Ri dropped the gun, the female picked the weapon up and executed one of the bandits. There was no attempt for surrender, just an execution that caused Kyu-Ri to cringe at its display. She had felt slightly intimidated, yet Kyu-Ri had no intention to let the stranger know.

"Al-Alright," Kyu-Ri replied as the woman thanked the Korean for saving her. The female made note of the remaining bandit, and told Kyu-Ri to either leave or go upstairs to where she had been staying. Not being keen on staying out here any longer (and the fact that she didn't want to witness another execution), Kyu-Ri chose to opt for the latter, nodding to the stranger as she went inside.

Entering the building, Kyu-Ri noted that the building had an eerie atmosphere. The bottom floor was well defended, yet there was no sign of any living presence. Was her savior living here alone? It was a likely conclusion, Kyu-Ri had considered, even more so when she had walked upstairs to a room with a massive hole in the outer wall.

Kyu-Ri flinched as she heard the shots fired from the stranger's pistol. With a massive hole in the wall, the sound freely echoed throughout the apartment as loud as possible, with little to muffle the vibrations. Was killing the bandits worth it, in the end? The extra gunfire would likely draw infected to the area, and no one could know for certain if they were the only bandits in the area. Not to add the waste of life... there weren't many living humans left, after all.

Not long after the gunfire, the stranger returned to the apartment complex, and made her way up the stairs. "Ah!" Kyu-Ri exclaimed as she saw the female enter. "I'm sorry for bringing all this trouble your way..." She would continue, bowing before the female. If it wasn't for Kyu-Ri, the stranger wouldn't had expended a healthy amount of ammo, especially with such an item being rare in the apocalypse.

A faint clicking sound echoed throughout the apartment complex. The gunfire from previously had drawn a bunch of clickers to the area, who were now seeking their victims through their clattering noises. Fighting them was difficult, as it was hard to get a clear blow before they ripped you to shreds, but if you were silent, you could sneak past them since clickers were blind from the fungi on their face.

"If you see a bottle or something that makes noise toss it into that open apartment so we can sneak past them and get the hell out of here,” The female whispered, to which Kyu-Ri nodded. Snatching a brick from the ground, Kyu-Ri tossed it through the door of the open apartment that her companion mentioned. As expected, the clickers screeched as they heard the noise, racing towards where the sound came from.

"We should get going before anything else shows up," Kyu-Ri would whisper back, pulling a folding pocket knife from her pocket. It wasn't exactly the best defense against a clicker or a bandit due to its small size, but with the right entry point, it could cause a lot of damage if it severed an important vein or nerves.

As they prepared to leave, the female grabbed Kyu-Ri's hand. It was a motion Kyu-Ri agreed with; getting separated when clickers were near was never a fun experience. At least when you were together, both parties had equal chances in regards of escaping the clicker nest alive and without a bite.

The two of them continued their way through the building, and entered the next floor down. However, rather than continue the way they were originally going, Kyu-Ri's companion had noticed a fire escape, and immediately went to use it. Kyu-Ri would follow suit, climbing through the apartment window and landing softly on the metal flooring, but the duo hadn't escaped trouble just yet.

Beneath the fire escape were two runners, although both of them had their backs to the apartment building. They could try to sneak away, or even try to distract the runners with some debris, although that option would risk drawing the clickers to them. "I think we should take them out before they draw the clickers to us," Kyu-Ri suggested, wondering if the woman thought the same as she did.

"Kyu-Ri," Kyu-Ri responded, returning the smile with one of her own as she took the pistol. Kyu-Ri didn't have any formal training with firearms of any nature, but at least the female, now known as Riley, seemed friendly enough.

With haste, a plan was made for them to escape through the alleyway from before. Within the alleyway, there were only two known threats (besides the clickers in the apartment complex): a pair of infected runners. The infected were distracted as they ravaged the corpse of one of the bandits, leaving Kyu-Ri an opening to climb down to the ground and make her approach.

Dropping from the fire escape, Kyu-Ri waited behind a group of metal trash cans. She returned her pocket knife to her pocket momentarily, and reached for her aluminium bat that was poking out from Kyu-Ri's backpack. The bat was a strong weapon against runners, but it could only land a few blows before being dented to the point of being useless. Nonetheless, it had served Kyu-Ri well since she had found it in the few incidents she needed to use the bat.

Keeping a crouch, Kyu-Ri silently approached the pair of runners from behind. Neither of the runners had looked upwards from the corpse, but taking on two infected at once was still a dangerous maneuver. The Korean needed to finish this ambush quick, and without too much noise or being mauled to death.

Slipping her bat around the neck of one of the runners, Kyu-Ri yanked the infected individual towards the ground with all the might she could muster. Even in his infected state, the man was probably at least twice the size of a lightweight like Kyu-Ri, but she needed to create an opening. With one of the infected temporarily out of the way, Kyu-Ri raised her bat, smashing it into the skull of his companion before it could screech and alert the clickers in the apartment complex.

Before Kyu-Ri had the chance to double-tap the infected with her bat, however, she needed to make sure the other infected was still down on the ground, which made it easier for the Korean to finish off the runner. Striking the fallen runner as it scrambled to stand, Kyu-Ri made a bloody mess of what was once a human, her bat soaked in fresh blood. Once she was finished, Kyu-Ri would go on to finish the other infected before waving Riley forward.

Not long after Kyu-Ri finished off the infected, Riley came racing to her side and explained to the Korean about the coming threat. Apparently, the bandits from earlier had back up somewhere, and soon enough, the apartment complex was ablaze with shouting and clicking noises.

"I think the bandits attracted the clickers," Kyu-Ri explained in a quiet whisper. Her gaze returned to the complex momentarily, as if Kyu-Ri was wondering if it was the right decision to leave people to the mercy of the clickers, but shook her head. They were still being hunted by the bandits and any possible infected in the area. "So, if we want to get out of here, we should do so now."

Kyu-Ri didn't know of any warehouses around here, but she had been able to trust Riley with her life so far. The idea of sleeping somewhere safe rather than out in the open sounded appealing as well, so Kyu-Ri waited for her new companion to lead the way.

Once Riley had narrowed down their location, Kyu-Ri was quick to follow her. She had no idea where this "warehouse" was, or how long it'd take, but Kyu-Ri preferred to not stick around next to some bandits and a clicker nest.

After a few minutes of jogging, the duo reached the entrance to another alleyway. Whilst Riley peeked her head around the corner, Kyu-Ri waited behind the woman, keeping an eye on their six. It was doubtful that Kyu-Ri would be able to whack a bandit with her bat before they fired, but an open eye was better than being ambushed.

Whoosh!

The quietness from before was startling when a sudden noise clattered within the alleyway. Kyu-Ri tensed up, much like how Riley did with her gun, but she was quick to relax once they were sure that it was a deer that had caught them off-guard. "A deer was the last thing I would've expected to be in this city," Kyu-Ri commented, as if she was mesmerized by the gracefulness the creature showed.

Kyu-Ri bit her lip as Riley pointed out both a clicker and a runner.

Crouching behind the trash cans, Kyu-Ri agreed with Riley's plan. From what they could see, all there was just a clicker and a runner. Kyu-Ri wasn't so keen on staying the night with clickers nearby, but thankfully, everything seemed to be bolted shut to the point they needed to break in through a window.

Returning her bat to her pack, Kyu-Ri waited for Riley's signal. Upon the clattering of the rock, and later the screech of the infected, the Korean hopped upwards. She hoped the windowsill wasn't covered in broken glass, but to her luck, Kyu-Ri squeezed through the window without injury.

Crawling onto an industrial shelf, Kyu-Ri made a hasty descent towards the ground. The warehouse seemed to be storage for some sort of company, although there was no time to thoroughly search the building. Kyu-Ri needed to find a way in for Riley, and before the infected (or something even more deadly) stumbled onto her companion waiting outside.

It wasn't long before Kyu-Ri found a door that seemed to open to the outside. However, the door had been blocked by a large crate caught between two shelves. "How am I going to open this..." Kyu-Ri muttered, struggling to come to an answer.

Manually lifting the crate seemed to be the only option, therefore Kyu-Ri pushed with all her might to force the crate upwards. As she struggled, the weight would grow even more difficult for the Korean to bear over time as she twisted the door knob open and pushed the door open with her foot, hoping Riley would notice before the infected did.