Sempiternal: •Broken• || Book 2#

34. Growing group

"Oh no."

"IT'S REALLY THEM!"

They are used to silence at this point and squeals of excitement only work to leave them deaf and with uncomfortable smiles. They look at each other, incredulous at what just happened.

They were packing up to continue on their way, noticed some anomalous activity and so they hid. Jungkook had stayed on a lower floor, so he knew nothing of this move. By the time he set foot outside the building, despite the sunny day he had a small group of at least fifteen people. All staring at him and ending in a huge exclamation of joy and disbelief.

Jungkook just went upstairs, with the same stunned face to show the rest what he found at the door: twelve women, three men and all of them equally fan. One even has a shirt with the Army logo on it. It's cute. Quite tender and surprising at the same time.

"We'd been seeing them for a few days! But we didn't know how to approach them and not have them think we were a threat" says the tallest of them. Has short hair and she looks very, very dirty for no apparent reason. "So we decided to wait for a sunny day so as not to attract attention-"

"Also to coincide with the patrols' break."

"And Yes! it's you guys!"

Namjoon and Jin give each other a nervous glance. It's clear what's going through each other's minds. Hoseok is the quickest to recover and greets them animatedly.

"Wow, this is going to take a while."

. . .

"That's fifteen new lil' sheeps we're not going to be able to take with us whether we want to or not." says Jin through his teeth.

"We should." states Jungkook to general surprise.

"Why, did they tell you something important?" asks Namjoon in surprise.

"Yes. They talked to me going upstairs. They said everything to convince me that they are not bad and not to push them up the stairs" Jungkook clarifies and Yoongi resists laughter. That would have been a sight to behold. A bunch of penguins rolling down the stairs. "They've been here since day one," Jungkook reports. "They know about this place."

"How could they have been here since day one? The bombing must have killed them."

"Jimin survived the bombing. If they are more or less a big group and if they hid in the subway, they sure were fine" Yoongi assures thoughtfully, "If they have been here for so long, they must know which way to go Right? Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes. They have a route that leads to Gimpo. It's on the map, but it's not very obvious and even less so now with the debris that has fallen" He stretches the paper on the table and with a marker draws the route. It's long and a bit messy. "They haven't wanted to go there because there are a lot of rumors circulating between groups."

"Are there more groups around here...?"

"It's like the tribes before. You know the territory and you don't touch so you can be in peace." clarifies Jungkook.

"So what do they say?" asks Jin with discouragement.

"The vast majority say Gimpo is no longer functioning, but they comment that it is the same groups that have sent to steal whatever there may be and there have been no returns" clarifies the youngest. "There must be people inside. There is no doubt about that. What may be left is who is managing it. There's no certainty that it's the Korean militia."

"That's worrisome." mutters Namjoon with a hand on his chin, "but then again, it's something that works well enough. We need to go and... well..." He turns to Jin with an awkward and almost pained gesture. This discussion they already had and this time it's even worse because everyone is here.