The morning sun shone through the now clean windows, hitting Nine in the face. Nine gently rocked Eights, only to realize that he was already awake. His eyes were bloodshot, and bags formed underneath them. “Are you okay?” 

“Not really.”

“Sorry.”

Eights held a small journal up. “I found this while you were sleeping. It’s my parents. They found the Hidden City.”

“That’s great. Do you plan on looking for them?”

“They just left.” Eights grasped Nine’s hand. “Do you think they still want me?”

Nine clasped their hand in Eights, “We should look for them.”

“Will you go with me?”

“I would love to.”

The forest grew silent as the two teens entered the dense briar. Nine held a paper in their hands. They carefully observed the crudely drawn map. Eights walked ahead, whacking at the shrub to clear a path. “Are we still going the right way?” he asked.

“I can’t be certain. I’m not the best at reading maps.”

“You mean my parents sucked at drawing them,” Eights laughed to himself. “They never could pick up the survival skills grandpa taught either. That’s why they always wanted to go to the Hidden City.”

Nine tapped their fingertips against their leg, “Isn’t it weird that we haven’t come across any zombies.”

“Not really,” Eights ran a hand through his hair. “Zombies tend to stick close to the ruins of old cities. Unless something loud like a car draws them away, they won’t move.”

A chorus of growls sounded throughout the forest. Grr, grr, grr, the sound grew louder. Eights and Nine looked at one another.

Nine darted behind a large boulder, and Eights followed them. The group of zombies grew closer, and a faint rumbling shook the forest floor. Nine looked over at Eights, whose eyes widened.

“I’m sorry, I jinxed it.”

Eights peeked his head from behind the stone. A horde of zombies trudged toward them. “We gotta run.” Eights jumped up from the ground, grabbing Nine by their arm; he pulled them through the forest at a fast pace. 

The stampede followed them. Nine stumbled. As Nine fell, catching themself with their hands, the paper map flew out of their hands toward the horde. Eights dashed after it, only to fall flat on his face.

Nine held tight to Eights’ ankle, “Don’t go.”

Eights glanced at the flying paper, then back at Nine. Their leg bled profusely.

“Damn it!” Eights lifted Nine off the forest floor and carried them princess-style. Nine grabbed onto Eights tightly as the boy took off through the forest.

The growls grew louder with each step Eights took. His arms and legs began to burn, his breath grew shallow, and his heart drummed violently inside his chest. 

“I think I can run.” Nine insisted.

Eights began to see white stars floating around the air. He lost speed, and Nine wiggled out of his arms, falling to the ground. 

“I’m okay now.” 

“No, I can do this.” Eights’ chest heaved up and down. His face was soaked with sweat, and his legs felt like jello.

Nine grabbed Eights’ shirt, “Look!” They pointed to a building hidden behind some overgrown foliage.

Nine dragged Eights towards the building. The zombies closed in as the two trudged to the walls surrounding the building. What felt like hours passed slowly, and Eights’ wavering steps grew longer and faster as the promise of rest was just in front of him. The walls towered over the two. Eights interlaced his fingers while squatting against the wall.

Nine kicked and clawed their way to the top of the wall before reaching back to Eights, “Here!” They reached their hand out to the boy. Eights held tight as he began to pull himself over the wall. The zombies were right on his tail. One zombie reached up with its decaying hands, grabbing Eights’ foot. 

Nine’s face turned red as they strained to pull Eights up. Eights kicked his legs with the little strength he had left until his shoe popped off his foot, sending the zombie flying backward. Eights scrambled up the wall and dropped down on the other side, landing on his back. Eights groaned. He looked up at Nine, who was dangling on the wall. Their legs thrashed, “Hold still.” Eights grabbed Nine by the waist and lowered them to the floor. Nine crumbled to the ground the moment their feet hit the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Eights asked.

Nine reached carefully to touch their cut leg, “I think it’s worse than I thought.”

Eights ripped a piece of his shirt and gently wrapped it around Nine’s leg. “That’s the best I can do right now.” Eights lowered himself to Nine to pick them up once more.

Nine pushed Eights, and their faces turned bright pink. “J-just help me walk. It was too embarrassing being carried like that.”

“Are you sure?” Eights knelt beside Nine.

“Yes, plus you are exhausted. What if you pass out before we get inside?”

“Okay,” Eights wrapped Nine’s arm across his shoulders, lifting them off the ground. 

The two limped into the building, where a receptionist’s desk greeted them. Thick coats of dust covered the floors and counters. Eights and Nine limped through the hallways until they eventually found a medical room. Eights helped Nine sit before thoroughly searching the room for bandages. He found the bandages, but now he needed a way to clean the wound. 

The boy found himself in front of a faucet. Wouldn’t it be nice if this worked? Eights thought to himself. He reached over and turned the knob. The faucet sputtered on, spewing out black liquid. It ran for a few seconds before turning clear.

“It must run on well water or something.” Eights filled the canteen with water and headed back to Nine. He poured the water over the wound. Dried blood and dirt clung to the leg before finally washing away, revealing the long cut on Nine’s leg.

“It looks like you didn’t get cut too deeply, which is good. Eights gently wrapped the bandage around Nine’s leg. “That should help.”

“Thank you.”

The two wandered the building until they came across a door with a sign that read, ‘Warning: Authorized Personnel only.’ Nine wiped the dust from the sign, which displayed four diamonds: red, yellow, blue, and white. The yellow section had a two, the red section had a zero, and the white section had a weird symbol Nine had never seen before.

“Why does this blue section have a crossed-out one with a four beside it?” Nine asked aloud.

Eights rubbed dirt and grime off the window, revealing a small room with oddly shaped glass bottles and other strange equipment. “We should go in. It looks way less dusty in there than out here.”

“I don’t know. This sign makes me feel like we shouldn’t go in there.” 

“Don’t be silly. That was written years ago. It’s probably irrelevant now.” 

Nine puffed out his cheeks, and under his breath, he remarked, “That’s a pretty big word you used there.” 

Eights turned back to look at Nine. His mouth dropped open. “Look who has the courage to make fun of me now!” 

“You made fun of me first.” Nine crossed their arms over their chest. 

Eights pushed open the door and strutted into the room. He quickly made himself comfortable lying across a table in the center of the room.

Nine followed behind, still pouting. However, their pouting didn’t last long as they began to explore the room, which was filled with many things that Nine had never seen before.

“Many of these containers are labeled with words I don’t know.” Nine picked up and set down vials and containers sitting on shelves.

“Not everyone can use big words like me, you know,” Eights observed the vials from his perch. He frowned as he examined it, “I guess whoever wrote these spoke a different language.”

Nine chuckled. Eights interlaced his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes. His rhythmic breathing turned into loud snores within seconds.

Nine gawked at how fast the boy fell asleep, and they continued to examine the items in the room. Some of the cabinets were locked, and he could not see what was in them. Other cabinets were sitting in the open as if someone was about to pull something out of them. Finally, Nine came across a small bookshelf. Many of the books were on safety. Other books had titles with difficult words, but one book looked different. It was much smaller. Nine pulled it off the shelf to read, ‘Laboratory Journal #116.’

Nine flipped through the pages. Many of them had different handwritten notes and detailed instructions. The content was challenging to understand, much like everything else in the room.

Just as Nine was about to close the book, an envelope fell to the floor. ‘To whom it may concern’ was written on the outside. Nine picked it off the ground and turned it over. They carefully tore it open, revealing an old piece of paper. It crinkled loudly as Nine unfolded it.

“Dear Reader, if you find this, I implore you to read it until the end. This letter contains crucial information about what happened to our world.”

Nine glanced at Eights, who was still sleeping on the table. They walked over to the boy and rocked him back and forth. Eights groaned, rolled over, and began snoring once more. Nine pulled themself onto the table and made themself comfortable.

“As you may know,” Nine continued reading, “this world has been overtaken by the dead. However, a worse danger exists. Other than those mindless zombies, there is another type of dead. One with intelligence. Some of them once worked with me in this lab. We were hired to find a cure for death, and a cure we found. And though this cure was a success, something made my colleagues lose their humanity.     

After our success, I made a grave mistake — one that cost the life of one of my dear friends. He turned into one of the living dead. My colleagues were blinded by their greed and decided to confront my friend in his rabid state. This is when everything went wrong, and the twelve of them turned into something else.

Their obsession with immortality has not faltered to this day. They continue to harass the humans around them. So, I have taken it upon myself to find a way to kill them. It took me around one hundred years to perfect the serum. However, I only have myself to test it on. I can only hope it worked and I died a normal death. If the serum worked as it should, I should be safely stored within one of the lockers in this lab. I labeled it dangerous to prevent people from opening it and disturbing my place of rest.

Nine slowly turned their head to the right. The cabinet they avoided while they searched the room stood in the corner with the word danger written on it.

Nine turned their attention to the letter once more. If I succeeded in reversing my immortality, I ask for your help now. I was unable to bring myself to kill my old colleagues. No matter how evil they have become, they were still important to me at one point. So, I ask that you kill them for me. There is a sage beside the cabinet I locked myself in. You’ll need the serum in there to kill The Twelve. The code is 123596. Please find a way to kill my colleagues.

“What are you reading?”

Nine nearly jumped out of their skin, “You’re awake?”

“Yeah, I just woke up. So, what are you reading?”

“It’s a letter from someone who worked here in the past. I think, no, it was written by someone who knew The Twelve.”

Eights’ eyes grew wide. “Let me see that.” Eights snatched the paper from Nine. He gripped it tightly, and his hands trembled. “This has nothing to do with us. We should go. That horde has probably moved on by now.” 

“Wait,” Nine grabbed Eights by the wrist. “I think this letter was meant for us. Think about it. Who other than me can get to the Twelve without being discovered and kill them.” Nine bit their tongue. They glanced at the ground. It felt like it was miles away.

Eights yanked his arm away from Nine. “You can go if you want to. I’ve escaped, and I’m never going back there.”

“You’ll be on the run for the rest of your life. Do you really think The Twelve will let you stay alive after escaping them?”

“I know them better than you. I know they will send people after me. I still have time before that. So, are you coming with me and living for a few more days, or are you going to run to your death?”

Nine huffed, their eyes clouded over, “I guess I’ll go die then.”

“Fine!” Eights’ voice trembled, “Go ahead and get yourself killed for all I care.”

Eights stormed out of the room, leaving Nine alone. They walked over to the safe and typed in the code. The safe opened, revealing twelve vials, some needles, and a sheet of paper with instructions.