outbreak | bts

031

Namjon, Yoongi and Jin sat together, quietly doing their own thing as they all tried not to look at the time too often. The scouts had left earlier that day and had been gone for around three hours. It was a little longer than their standard time.

The fact that they had a minimal contact rule made it hard to keep the concern at bay when there was no news in that time. So Jin passed the time by looking at foreign news apps that had nothing on what was going on in South Korea, Yoongi scoured social media and Namjoon pored over the map with the route that the scouts had outlined.

Yoongi frowned as he scrolled through Twitter.  Usually alive with gossip, the platform had fallen silent. There was no news on what was happening in Seoul in the present. It had been the same for weeks.

At first there had been regular news updates about the efforts that experts and the military were making to resolve the issue, but all reports had stopped after the explosion in Jungkook's school district. The government definitely bombed it, he thought with dissatisfaction. It must have been a last ditch kind of effort. That basically meant that the powers that be didn't have a plan anymore.

Now, even if he saw any Korean content on current events, when he clicked on it to view comments, it would give him an error. South Korea's Twitter must have been shut down. Why were they hiding the fact that they were going through an apocolypse? Yoongi nearly snorted. They needed to leave, fast, before any more potential bombings or other bright ideas from the higher ups came into effect.

A small clicking sound caused everyone in the terminal to freeze, whipping their heads to the source of the sound. Such was the low volume in the terminal. There was a collective exhale of relief when firstly Yujin, then Eunha, then Hoseok's forms walked into the terminal, followed closely by the rest of the scouts.

With the scouts returned to the terminal, all but the children gathered together at a selection of tables to hear what they had to say. Baekhyun started.

"One thing's for sure is that whoever takes the supplies to the boat will be in the most danger. The subway route is near perfect for moving all of us, and we were able to get the boat to a good enough place without trouble."

"The biggest difficulty is that the bridge doesn't provide access for vehicles to come down to the bank for obvious reasons, so the supply runners will literally have to park on the bridge- which is in a crazy state right now, by the way- and wait for the supplies to be taken out before coming back to the terminal and coming through the safe path." Jimin continued.

"Why can't we just leave our vehicles there?" Uncle Kang queried.

"If possible, we want to leave as little trace of us being there as possible. The boat only has enough safe capacity for...half of us at once." Jimin said after glancing over the general group. Yoongi felt his hands go cold. There wasn't enough room for everyone to go all at once?

The reasonable part of him had expected as much, boats were expensive after all, and this one was for private use, so of course Ms Ryu's son hadn't gone and bought a massve yacht for her, but hearing it aloud ribbed him. Namjoon had been silent as he took this in.

"How long will it take to carry one group to Mibeop and get back for the other?" He asked quietly.

"We're estimating maybe twelve hours to get there. We need to move slow so that nobody on the ground notices us but we also want to be as under the radar as possible in regards to potentially the government too. We were instructed not to attempt to leave Seoul after all." Jimin said with a wry eyebrow.

"So that means that if one group goes, the other will have to wait for a whole day, maybe slightly longer, before we can go?" Namjoon confirmed. The tension blanketed the adults in a thick silence. To know that half of them would have to remain in the terror of the city for even a day longer than necessary was repulsive.

"I'll get the supplies. I'm not that strong or fast so I wouldn't be that great of a help if one of the more vulnerable ends up out of commission but I'm a good driver and I can keep my head on my shoulders well." Joohyun volunteered, sick of the silence.

"I'll go too." Seulgi added herself.

"Me too!" Two voices called out. Yoongi shifted his head to see Yerim and Wonyoung gaping at each other. Joohyun was sending both the girls an icy look that suggested she most certainly did not wish for them to be part of this operation.

"You shouldn't go alone, Teacher." Wonyoung said, standing to her full height even in spite of her thundering heartbeat. This teacher had taken care of her and others when the chaos broke out. Because of this teacher, she and others had been safe.

Without knowledge of where her family might be or what they might be doing, since she hadn't been able to get in touch with them even after borrowing Eunwoo's phone, Teacher Bae and Teacher Kim were essentially all she had left from life before this disaster. She wouldn't risk losing even one of them. Joohyun cocked a surprised eyebrow at Wonyoung's unusual steady determination.

"...fine, but the moment anything happens you better find a way to safety." She warned. Wonyoung beamed at her, nodding her head eagerly. Namjoon scratched the side of his chin as he began looking up places they could go to get supplies on the tablet.

"My suggestion is that we get the supplies all at once, into two vehicles, and one vehicle's worth of supplies goes on the boat at a time. Thoughts?" Everyone nodded. A good idea. Hoseok leaned over his shoulder to get a closer look at the map.

"The supplies we need are meant to hold food as well as things like coats and hygiene items right? It would be easier to have one vehicle full of one kind of thing and the other vehicle packed with the other stuff." He said, pointing at the nearest set of food shops and the nearest furniture, clothing and home stores. They were in opposite directions from each other, on either side of the terminal.

"Yeah especially since the places where you can get food aren't exactly next door to the places you can get clothing and bedding stuff from." Jungkook added, leaning over Namjoon's other shoulder as Hoseok gestured.

"Convenience stores?" Byunhyun offered. Baekhyun shook his head, his eyes thoughtful.

"They won't have things like coats or blankets, mostly food and things like umbrellas. We'll need more than that."

"Mm, you're right." His older brother agreed, twisting his lips as he pondered. Jimin sent Hoseok an incredulous look.

"What exactly is the problem here? Weren't we planning to have the scouts get the supplies and bring them to the terminal?" He asked. Everyone stared at him.

"But it's too much for just the scouts to carry." Yoongi furrowed his eyebrows. Jimin returned the expression.

"So we take the vehicles there and pack them there and come back, no?"

"Huh?" Everyone blinked at him. Jimin gestured to the bus and coach park.

"Then when we move out, we just open the gate and let the relevant vehicle out." The adults were quiet. There was a long pause before anyone made a sound.

"Jimin-ah." Hoseok laughed. A proper, hearty laugh for the first time in weeks. Why had it not crossed his mind at all? Of course, they could just bring the supplies back to the terminal and then come out with them when the time was right! Giving Jimin a slap on the shoulder, Hoseok peered up at the group with a proud beam. Jimin's eyebrows lifted even higher.

"Were we not thinking of that?"

"I wasn't personally but that makes so much sense!" Yoongi felt his lips curl into a smirk as Namjoon bounced to his feet. Marching to a table with a beckon of his hand, Namjoon grabbed the map of the city and marked out the two shopping areas they would need to go to get their supplies.

"Shall we get things rolling then?"