Rebirth; A New Age || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter 4 : Home Base

"We aren't alone anymore!"

In the back of his mind, Seonghwa knew a day like this would come. He knew there would be a day when they finally did meet survivors and then would have to make decisions accordingly. It was a blessing in his opinion that they hadn't met any in the two-year time frame they were out and about trying to survive on their own. It wasn't like Seonghwa was against humanity, he didn't hate people, he just couldn't trust them any longer.

It had taken him so long to trust Wooyoung and Yunho who were about as harmless as could be- and that was even before he had been getting news of these psychotic people going around.

San and Jongho - which apparently were their names, looked anything but harmless. They didn't necessarily look crazy as Seonghwa would have expected an insane person to look, but the oldest also figured that if they were smart about it, they would try and appear normal.

The guns they carried were not small. Seonghwa had only seen guns like those in the action movies he'd seen- full-grade military rifles that could blow the head or limb off a zombie with one bullet. They looked proud too- like they weren't nervous to be there- almost unbothered. The two men were clean like they had never seen dirt once in their life and Seonghwa felt mildly jealous of that.

Part of him still wondered if it was a fever dream- like he was imagining all of this happening because he had finally gone crazy. The two men hadn't said anything, just standing in the moonlight with watchful eyes that were darting between Wooyoung and Seonghwa. It was probably best they hadn't said anything, Seonghwa was still fuming, face red with anger.

"Did you hear me?" Wooyoung asked once Seonghwa had not replied, still standing stiff with millions of warning sirens going off in his head. "We aren't alone- there are other people out there- more survivors just like us!"

Seonghwa almost wanted to laugh. How naive were they? Did they really think a blessing like this would come without a worse price to pay?

Wooyoung must've sensed that Seonghwa was not happy, looking back at Yunho for a moment and then turned to one of the men behind him. The man had cheekbones so sharp that they formed little shadows under them from the moonlight, and had taken a casual stance like this was an everyday thing for him.

"San- you said that your base is just in the next city over?" Wooyoung tried again, his voice sounding a little more desperate than before.

The man nodded, his eyes almost shining.

Seonghwa immediately knew this man was dangerous.

"It is, there aren't a lot of us, but we have good protection and plenty of resources," he followed up with, the tone of his voice sounding soft. San shifted from one foot to the other, a gentle smile on his lips as he regarded Wooyoung.

"Hear that?" Wooyoung turned back to Seonghwa. "It's not too far away and they have protection and resources!"

Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows and had to make a conscious effort to not grip the stick in his hand so hard because he might actually snap it into two.

He looked between Yunho and Wooyoung, almost in a state of disbelief that this was happening.

"I need to speak to you two alone," was the first thing he had said, nearly shocking himself from how harsh he sounded even to himself. He then looked over to San and the other man standing next to him - Jongho - and gave them a dangerous look. "And I would suggest that our guests do not move from the very spot they are standing in, because if they do, I will not hesitate to kill them myself."

Wooyoung remained unmoving for a second and had the audacity to look upset about what Seonghwa had said, but Yunho moved into the action and helped push the youngest along to follow Seonghwa who had walked back up onto the porch and made sure to be out of earshot from the other two who stayed still where they were standing.