Sempiternal: • Contaminated • || BOOK 3#

5. Jackpot

"THANK YOU!"

Hoseok goes jumping up and down in excitement with everything Yoongi brought him. Being almost, almost the whole list. Of something more than anything else, but roughly speaking, it's what he asked for. The producer grunts under his breath, shoulders aching.

"This should be enough for a while. However long it takes to get to Chuncheon" Jin says as he notices everything they were able to bring. Doing a little counting, it's more than they'd had last time. "Maybe we can go back through other sections tomorrow though. We already jotted down where the accumulated infected are."

"We should name them," comments Jungkook stretched out on the seat, eating some hard gummies and not taking his eyes off the window in front of him. "It would be better than 'infected' or zombie."

"Maybe biters." Taehyung ironizes. Jungkook throws a gummy bear at him and though he tries to catch it with his mouth, it hits him on the lip and it's Yeontan who eats it.

"Walkers."

"Growlers."

"Infectious."

"The Dead."

"The Undead."

"Runners."

"Sickers."

"Does that word exist?"

"I have no idea."

"Why not betas?"

"Wouldn't that mean there's an Alpha?" inquires Yoongi and Namjoon breaks into a cold sweat. He didn't think twice about saying it. Precisely because of that: there are, or were, Alphas. He shakes his hand feigning disinterest. Jungkook pulls his lips out a little and squints his eyes.

"Perhaps... Bloooooood... black... Blackod."

"Really Did you mix Black and Blood for that? Sounds like a name from Game of Thrones." Yoongi tries not to scoff. Jungkook reddens and looks away, abashed.

"It sounds good enough and shorter than saying 'infected. "Even to us it works. Purpleod."

"In Korean it would be better." opines Hoseok.

"Pigeomeun and Borapi."

Jungkook wrinkles his nose. It's not like there are many options or they can think of better ways to name them.

"Yagtalja."

There is a brief silence, with everyone turning to Jungkook. They conclude that it's the best word to describe them: predators.

~ * * * ~

He climbs to the gate on top of the train and slides down to land on the padded snow, softening his fall. Jungkook shakes off the snow on top of him and sets a course back to town, carrying only a backpack and little more than his determination to find a transmitter. There must be one of those long-distance communication tents for heavy-duty work and such. Not to say that some paranoid must have kept a long-range communicator for himself.

Being nighttime, the horrified growls echoing in the snowy solitude are very much to be expected. He lets out his breath, causing a huge cloud of cold mist. It doesn't take long to reach the village, but it does take a while to get what he came for in the first place. It seems to be nowhere to be found.

He picks up something or other that catches his eye. From nice clothes, why not? Cables, leather and combat gloves galore, he trades in his shoes for steel-toed mountain boots.

They're heavy, but he knows that this way, a kick will be much more likely to shatter a Yagtalja's head. It will also be extra exercise for his legs. On the way to continue, with his legs already cramped, he hears something and looks up at the sky.