Rebirth; A New Age || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter 2 : Three To Tango

Seonghwa walked down the street, crowbar resting on his shoulder, and a smaller knife in his other hand.

It was an insanely hot day and the bandana he had tied around his forehead was drenched in sweat and so was the ripped shirt he was wearing. The sun was bearing down so hotly that Seonghwa was sure if he cracked an egg on the pavement it would cook instantly. If he looked down the streets far enough, he could see the heatwaves off the pavement like he was in the desert.

Maybe he was a little delirious and very dehydrated, but he could've sworn that the crows flying above him were circling like they thought he was dead. He couldn't blame them, he definitely looked and smelt like it.

He had managed to find some water bottles that had fallen under the shelves in the local supermarket. It was a miracle, he had gone without water for far too long that it was becoming dangerous and now that summer was really starting to settle in, the heat was making it even worse. He almost didn't even go into the store because it has been baren for a long time now, and there were creatures outside of it that made it dangerous to even attempt.

But Seonghwa was both stubborn and desperate.

He had been able to tuck four bottles under each of his arms, eight in total. That was all that was there anyway, but at this point, he was thankful for anything.

Materials were so scarce as it was.

He had a few hours to get back before the sun would be setting, it was barely enough time but if he pushed himself he could do it. He could feel the exhaustion in his legs, the food he had been eating was so low on protein that of course wouldn't do much for him. The splattered blood on his face and hands had dried up and was finally flaking off his body, but Seonghwa didn't have the mind to scrap it off the rest of the way.

He kept walking down the street, so familiar but so different, passing by the interesting sight of two cars piled on top of each other in such a way that he had no idea how it happened even though he looked at it every day.

Seonghwa was nearly panting from the heat and exhaustion, even a little dizzy as he made his way back. So when he heard some sort of a shriek, the man only played it off as his own hallucination or a noise one of those creatures was making. It wasn't rare that he would hear noises, especially at night the whole city was alive with them. But noises like that, a full-blown shriek of pure fear that reminded him of something more humanoid, was definitely more on the rare side.

He knew there were probably still people in the city, somewhere at least. But it wasn't like he could help them. If they weren't smart enough to run for the hills then Seonghwa decided they were already a lost cause.

So he kept going, slowly putting one foot in front of the other, his body on autopilot. He didn't hear anything after that and Seonghwa shrugged it off as probably an animal that had gotten stuck in a trap that people had set up a long time ago to find food.

But that had been months ago. Seonghwa couldn't remember the last time he had seen a live person walking the streets. The traps should've been gone or full by this point, but it didn't really matter.

At least it didn't matter until Seonghwa heard the cry again, though this time it sounded both closer and more urgent. It stirred up Seonghwa's adrenaline, blinking his way out of the fuzzy headspace he had put himself in to conserve energy.

That cry had been really close.

He stopped walking, holding the water bottles tighter in his arms as he held his breath to keep listening. Seonghwa stood at an intersection in the middle of the road, closing his eyes for a moment to concentrate on the sounds around him, a cool breeze causing him to break out in goosebumps for just a few seconds.