Cold and Damp (Intro)
Title: Cold and Damp
Pairing: Hanchul, Kyumin, Kangteuk
Genre: Zombie!AU
Rating: G - NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: After Seoul becomes infested with the living dead and the government abandons them; it's only natural that they realise hidden feelings in the midst of disaster.
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It had been all over the news, people shouting about their loved ones simply crawling out of their coffins.
The undead uprising.
An outbreak of Solanum; a virus that, upon reaching the brain, destroys and replicates the once living cells in the frontal lobe, while killing the rest of the brain, turning a human into a zombie within twenty-four hours of infection. Memories, thoughts and emotions are void and lost, the only thing remaining is hunger. The hunger for human flesh.
A cut, a scratch, a bite. That's all it takes. Infected saliva in an open wound, a scrap of infected blood under a fingernail, which you then use to scratch your skin, breaking the top layer - you'll be dead within hours. The point of infection rapidly swells, turns purple, goes numb. You either die and re-animate, or you turn instantly - reaching out for the nearest source of fresh meat.
It started in larger continents, places like America and China. Smaller villages and isolated countries hadn't been affected by the plague at all - at least not until people started flocking there, thinking they'd be safer, unknowingly spreading the plague with every sick family member or companion they brought along.
China was the first to close its borders, becoming a quarantine zone. None in, none out. Rumours of genocide, mass murder and the building of an undead army were ripe and many, no-one knew what was true and what wasn't. Russia was next, followed by Germany and North America.
Conspiracy theories were plastered all over the web and the news, all pointing to North Korea. Satellite images showed the country to be empty - not a soul to be seen. 'Underground bunkers' and 'hundreds of massive submarines' were the best answers people could give - though some simply thought that maybe they'd taken the quickest, most effective form of defence: massacre.
The remaining parts of America not yet closed off to the outside world were raving about their miracle cure - created only a week after the outbreak. People migrated, swarmed to this God-sent saviour - hardly any finished their journey, and if they did, it was to an ill end. The cure was false - though some would call it a way out. Instant death. Poison.
England was destroyed, completely savaged due to it's lack of army personnel who were fighting a pointless war in the East, leaving the entire country defenceless. Scotland fell next, bringing with it the rest of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Japan was saved by it's mountainous landscape - for a while. Kyushu and Hokkaido were the first of its islands to be lost, their inhabitants fleeing to the mainland and spreading the infection. Its people were skilled, thousands trained in ancient techniques, and they learnt fast. Their war is still ongoing.
South Korea - silent and insignificant in the eyes of the world - was the last to be torn apart. Nearly two weeks after the world had been turned to rubble and ash, the infection finally seeped into South Korean soil. By then, people were well aware of what was coming - but that didn't mean they didn't panic. If anything, they panicked more. Seeing every other country succumb to the terror of the undead stole all hopes they had of surviving, and many simply gave up. Many just sat in their homes, waiting for their defences to break down, for the teeth to sink into their flesh. Some fought, and lost. Some hid, some fled, some survived.
But there was nowhere to flee, because soon enough, nowhere was safe.
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