outbreak | bts

036

Eunha felt her blood run cold when she heard Jimin's yell faintly from the outside. No, no no no no no no no no no, what was he doing? What the hell was he making a racket for? If he did that then- she paused. She remembered. Jaehyun's panicked voice on the phone not even fifteen minutes prior. His breathlessness.

Jimin was planning to be a distraction.

Fumbling, Eunha wasted no time in pulling out her phone. She needed to update someone at the terminal that they had a situation on their hands. She was blinking fast and breathing fast and called Jungkook without thinking, remembering a beat too late that he had been out scouting as well.

What if the scouts on their side were in the middle of something too? It was long past their original curfew time. Still, relief rinsed away her panic the moment the line clicked through and Jungkook's cautious but stable voice filtered through.

"Eunha? Are you okay?"

"Ah, Jungkook-ah, Jimin oppa, he, he..." Eunha found herself rambling as she struggled to relay the situation. Jungkook's voice took on a gentler note, the one he used to instruct new and nervous members of the taekwondo club.

"Hold on Eunha, breathe, okay? Can you tell me what's going on? Are you safe?"

"Mm, Seulgi unnie, Gyeom and I are on the minibus right now. We were with oppa at firzy but Jaehyun called us a little while ago and told us to hide. It sounded like he was running from something he sounded so scared, then Jimin oppa went out and we heard him yelling from somewhere high up just now. I think he's trying to be a distraction or something."

There was one tick, two ticks, three ticks, four ticks of silence on the other line and Eunha temporarily feared that Jungkook may have collapsed. Jimin was practically his older brother. There had not been a single person within their grade that didn't know how much Jungkook adored Jimin. She herself knew that it was Jimin's constant presence that anchored Jungkook and in turn kept the rest of the high schoolers stable.

"So, so, Jimin hyung sounded like he was somewhere up high? Like on a roof?" Jungkook sounded like he had been winded and was gasping for air, gasping for something to stabilise himself with. Eunha felt her own chest begin to rise and fall faster, catching onto his panic.

"Y-yeah, like on a roof. I don't know what to do. What should we do? I-I don't know what steps we should take now." She asked, her voice cracking. Three of their team were running for their lives who knew where out there and one was breaking every rule they had put in place for their safety in order to be a distraction for them, to give them the chance to come out of this drama alive.

The weight of her hopelessness began to press hard on her mind. Eunha didn't realise that her head had moved until she felt her forehead press against her curled up knees. The sound of the phone shuffling hands made her lift her head to look at the device held loosely in her grip.

"Eunha? Eunha!" A female voice pierced through the static that was starting to buzz around her ears. She nearly dropped the phone for the second time. Yugyeom who was across the aisle from her sat upright so fast he sit his head on the back of the seat he rested against, flinching. He stared between the phone and Eunha's face with disbelief. Seulgi also sat to attention when she noted their reactions. What was wrong?

"J-Jihyo? Jihyo! Jihyo, how-?"

"Eunha we'll talk properly later but you have to make sure you get back here safe and sound first; all of you." Jihyo's tone carried an all too familiar authority and Eunha swallowed, her grip tightening on her phone.

"Okay. I'm listening."

~*~

It felt like his arms were going to fall off, but Baekhyun couldn't stop pumping them. He could barely feel anything below his knees, but he knew that the moment he slowed down, the moment he tried to take anything deeper than a dry, shallow breath, he would die.

Because they were being hunted right now.

When the three of them rounded a corner, Baekhyun spared a brief glance at the horde on their tails, regretting it immediately. The sight of the group was quickly burning onto the back of his eyelids and he wondered if he would be able to sleep that night. Assuming they made it out of this situation alive.

~*~ Earlier ~*~

They were done. Thanks to Seokmin coming to help them out, Baekhyun and Jaehyun had managed to collect more than they needed and were in the process of grabbing additional snacks. Baekhyun had mentioned prior to their departure from the minibus that the boat ride might make some people feel queasy so a snack might help. Now they were just trying to max out on the snacks with the time they had left.

Exhaling, Jaehyun looked over their haul. The snacks had been deposited in the back of an abandoned van while they grabbed them from any random store that sold them, and Jaehyun sat watch in the shadows of the vehicle's open door. All they needed to do was pack this stuff up, get back to the minibus and they could be on their way.

They were a fait way aways from the store the minibus was parked behind and kind of short on time if the rapidly darkening sky was any sort of indicator. The air took on a faintly salty tang and he sniffed. Was it going to rain?

Jaehyun turned around at the sound of approaching feet behind him and saw Baekhyun and Seokmin grinning him with hands full of fabric tote bags. They got to work immediately, all three of them hopped into the back of the van so as to stay hidden.

The snacks were successfully packed and hardly made a sound even as they hauled the bags onto their shoulders. Jaehyun jumped down from the back of the van first, grimacing firstly as the bags thudded against his legs and secondly as several cool drops of rain spattered against his cheek. Hopefully it would be okay, since they hadn't encountered any zombies so far.

Once Baekhyun and Seokmin were also down on the ground, the trio began making their way up the street, careful to stand in the deepening shadows of the darkening day. Jaehyun pursed his lips. They might not make it before the street lamps turned on at this rate. Still they continued forward, ignoring the way the persisting drops of rain began to dampen their hair, weighing it down.

Jaehyun was uneasy though. With only the sound of the rain and the slight sticking of their shoes against the wet pavement, it was suddenly too quiet. He remembered this feeling.

It was when his squadron at naval camp had been boat rowing on the sea and a freak storm broke out before they could make it back to their base ship. The waves had piled up and leapt at their group with insane speed and power that knocked every single one of them into the ocean.

His heart began to pick up speed as the memory hit him hard in the chest. Jaehyun's head flew around as the hair on the back of his neck stood upright inspite of the the droplets of rain attempting to smooth them down.

They were here. They were definitely here.

They bypassed an alleyway but Jaehyun froze at the entry way. Seokmin and Baekhyun looked back at him, confused, unaware of the terror coursing through Jaehyun's very being.

At the far end of the alleyway, hidden in the deepening shadows, a faintly glowing pair of eyes regarded Jaehyun, the eyes slowing moving from up and down. A cold sweat broke out all over Jaehyun's back as he beheld this being, paralysed.

The creature locked eyes with him once more, before his previously hidden jaw opened, and widened, luminescent teeth peeking out.

It was smiling at him. Fuck.

Jaehyun ran.