Purple Scent

Ch. 2: Unexpected Encounter

"By the way, I'm Yul. This is my younger brother, Jaewook." he offered his wide hand for me to shake, but I just looked at it and nodded in acknowledgement. He wrinkled his face a bit and retracted his hands when he realized I wasn't planning to shake it.

"I'm Geuhan." I said and laid my head back at the headrest of the driver's seat and sighed, feeling already exhausted.

"Thank you for saving us." Jaewook said with a small toothy smile.

"You're welcome, but sorry, I didn't do that to save you. If they stayed there, they'll found where I am probably soon, and although Yul shot the gun without thinking, I think I should still thank you for killing that one." I simply said, intently mocking and thanking his reckless act at the same time.

"You have bruises on your arm." the Jaewook younger guy noticed, which made me look over my arm. It was a bruise as big as palm of my hand, with a cuts and scratches within the affected area.

"Oh, it's okay. I got that often. It's just small though, compared to this." I said and lifted my left feet slightly, revealing my leg with a big scars as if a leopard had scratched me. "It's nothing to be proud of, really, but I got this 2 years ago, when I went out for getting food. I was a newbie back then, like you." I shrugged and they were shock to see the scars.

Jaewook took a small box bellow the seat beside him, and gave it to Yul. Yul took my arm without consent—but I think I had to give him—and leaned over to treat my wound. The disinfectant that seeped through my skin had a small piercing sensation, which was not new to me. I watched him apply the antiseptic solution—the brownish liquid people hated for its not so pleasant smell. Couldn't relate; can't smell it, and can’t remember how it smelled.

He then carefully wrapped my affected arm with a clean bandage and pinned it with safety pins.

"How do you know about that creatures?" Jaewook asked, the sudden question made me look at him, hesitating whether to tell it to them or not.

I sighed, "They are called Violet Harpies. Long story short, it was a mistake on a research facility by a person who's really greedy and desperate." I simply said, shaking my head at the thought.

It's been a long while since I had to remember that memory. It's a memory I had thrown at the back of my head. But I guess, it wasn't meant to be hidden there.

"They are called Harpies because they resemble one. It's like a mythical creature from Greek mythology, right? I get that part. But they aren't color violet.", Yul said and laughed a derisive laugh. I chortled and leered at him.

"Sarcastic ass." I remarked and he just waited for me to reveal it. "I would leave that part as a mystery. I'll leave that part as your wonders yet about to discovered." I said and they didn't asked anything about it furthermore.

I heard a soft bark behind me, which made me look to the furball I already had imagined in my mind. I was right, it was a puppy.

"You brought a puppy?", I asked. This is ridiculous. How could they even bring a puppy at this time? I mean, almost of the animals had extincted, as far as I know. It's ridiculous and amusing, at the same time.

"Yeah, he's Coco. Coco's mother died few days ago so he was left alone. So I thought we shouldn't just leave him behind. He's just more than a month old.", Yul said and it went out of its dark den⁠ under the seat beside Jaewook, where he took the medicine kit.

Coco walked towards me and jumped to reach his forefeet on my seat. He tilted his head to the side and wagged his tail. I raised it and settled on my lap, but he reached up to lick my face. I giggled and settled him properly on my lap, patting his head to behave. It's been a while since I saw an alive puppy. An alive pet or animal in general.

"Oh, he hasn't taken a bath so it has a small hint of smell." Yul notified me shyly.

I chuckled and scratched the back of Coco's ears, "No biggies, I can't smell it anyways." I simply said. Jaewook laid down at the back seat and about to sleep.

"Why is that?" Yul asked out of curiosity, crossing his arms under his chest, turning his body towards me with interest sparkling in his eyes.

"I was caught on an accident when I was younger and after that, I somehow developed a condition called 'anosmia'." I explained and added, "I'm not sure if you had heard of that condition before, but it's a condition like hearing impairment or visual impairment. In short, my olfactory nerves were damaged. So, I couldn't smell anything."

"That sounds cool." he said out of amazement. I shook my head.

"It's not cool. Being impaired never was. The fact that you can't smell anything but that smell you don't want to smell, it's just not cool." I simply said. After that, the atmosphere became quiet, as sleepiness drew towards us, the puppy joined the slumber, sleeping on my lap.

---

I woke up when I felt wet and sticky thing touching my hands. I opened my eyes to see it was Coco. I looked around and the two were still on their deep slumber. I let out a silent grunt, looking out the window to see the sun had already replaced the darkness of the night.

It's 6:27am on the monster truck's digital clock.

I noticed a black tinted van beside the brothers' monster truck. I didn't want to wake the brothers soon yet, so I opened the door as quiet as I can and jumped down, Coco who was still on my arm held by my hand. I peeked through the window and saw a few silhouettes inside, so I knocked.

Wow, I had been seeing a lot of people in less than two days, at least I knew I wasn't the only one in this city.

After a few seconds, the window on the driver's seat rolled down, a yawning person to greet me, fanning his mouth with his hand.

I squinted my eyes and analyzed the familiar face of the driver. "Heeshik?", I guessed. His eyes widened in shock, he opened the door and stumbled to welcome me with a big bear hug.

"Geuhan, oh gosh. It's been a while." he said and hugged me ever so tightly while  patting my back.

"Let go, I can't breathe.", I choked and whispered to him and pushed him away.

He chuckled, "Sorry. Hey, how are you?", he said as he jumped around excitedly, his hands holing my arm.

I just shrugged and smiled, "As fine as ever.", I said. His eyes trailed from my face to my arm, noticing the bandage wrapped on it.

He gasped, "What happened to your arm? Are you okay?" he yelled, followed by the doors of the van sliding open. Heeshik's loud voice must've awaken the others up, making them all rush out with an obvious half-asleep face.

"I just scratched my arm a bit." I shrugged. It's never a big deal on me. Scratch, cut, bruise. I got them every time I go out. I got used to it that it never pain me the same way again.

"There's no way it's just a scratch." he looked at me and sighed, "You're still the same. Still the same Geuhan." he shook his head but recovered with a grin, "It's been a while." he said yet again. I turned around to look at the other guys he's been with.

"These are my friends. We've been together since the outbreak." he said and introduced their names respectively. One of the skill I developed after the outbreak is the memorization. I had to memorize the routes and places around the city, and it taught me not to go outside the city yet since I don't know what's beyond that. Memorizing names and faces wouldn't be new and difficult.

"I see. Where are you headed to?" I asked, petting Coco on my hand. Heeshik looked at the puppy and smiled before looking at me.

"We're actually going at your place." he grinned expectantly, the other guys watched me carefully.

I raised my eyebrow, "What for?" I asked. I squinted my eyes, suspicion creeping inside me. Heeshik looking for me was already enough to suspect. If someone needs something, it's me who would have gone to him, not the other way around.

"To discuss about something." his face shed into a serious one in a matter of second. When he said "something", I got what was that about.

It's about the Violet Harpies.

***to be continued