Rebirth; A New Age || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter 12 : Au Revoir Mon Amour

They had finally found a place to stop after driving for more than half the day, Wooyoung had switched out with Yunho after some point. Seonghwa wasn't entirely sure when it happened, but all he knew was that when they finally caught up to the others who were multiple minutes ahead of them, Wooyoung was in the driver's seat with only one hand at the bottom of the steering wheel.

It was mainly countryside, about as flat and dusty as it got, and when they finally stopped, Seonghwa had to force his body to move from its slumped position in the backseat. His entire body protested, aching everywhere and the migraine he was sporting did not help any of it.

Hongjoong seemed to be no better as he groaned softly, sliding out of his seat, and made a noise again when his feet hit the ground. He still had Seonghwa's torn shirt pieces wrapped around his arm, the cloth was stained a dark red and brown color, a heavy contrast to his still pale skin.

They had stopped right before a small countryside town, a population no greater than one hundred but most likely was completely abandoned by now. There were only two other trucks ahead of them, and Seonghwa chose not to think about what that really meant. He prepared himself for the worst, limping forward to greet the others that piled out of the two vehicles and stretch out their cramped limbs. It was clear to him that there were more people in those two jeeps than what the room actually allowed for, but the headcount number was still much smaller than he wanted it to be.

"Yeosang," Seonghwa mumbled, pulling the blonde in for a relieved hug when he finally saw him hop out of the jeep. The hug was instantly returned, a very firm and comforting hold with both of his palms pressed against Seonghwa's back.

"I'm glad you made it," the shorter told him, the I didn't think you were going to, was unspoken but still communicated with the silence that followed.

Seonghwa might've still been somewhat delirious, a lack of water and blood loss plus the combination of the heat was getting to his head. He wasn't overly responsive, but so were the others, which he assumed was normal after the night they had just experienced.

But right before he was about to pull away, he felt strong arms wrap around him from behind, sandwiching him between two people. His first guess was San, but he could see out of the corner of his eye that the man in question was off to the side talking with Wooyoung and Hongjoong along with some of the other survivors. So by process of elimination due to height, he could tell the man behind him was Jongho.

He did his best to reach an arm back and pat the youngest's side, knowing that Jongho wasn't really a big fan of skinship himself unless he was the one to give it out on occasion. The action spoke volumes so they didn't have to physically speak, and Seonghwa could feel Yeosang's body vibrate against his in a soft laugh.

"How many survived?" Seonghwa asked when they all pulled apart.

Yeosang looked around, his lips moving as he counted silently.

"Twenty-two."

Twenty-two.

Twenty-two out of the fifty or so that still remained alive in the base. Seonghwa found himself looking around, seeing the way that some of the people around him limped as they walked or others found themselves sitting down, nursing wounds they obtained from the fight. It was disheartening, but Seonghwa thanked his utter exhaustion for not allowing himself to think too much about it. As selfish as it may have sounded- he was just thankful that the ones he cared most about were okay. Not everyone there was lucky enough to say the same, and that much was evident by the soft cries as some of them were hunched over with their faces in their hands.