Stay Alive [BTS fanfic]

Broken Wings

Kim Taehyung had been wandering around the fields and trees for a couple days, lost and with nobody to guide him now. The squad he'd been placed in had all strayed or been picked off during a fire-fight. Alone and losing all hope, he wandered on looking for anything familiar.

I've never been to this part of the country before. What am I even doing here? Somebody help, he prayed. I wish Jimin was here. He always showed me the way to go.

Who even knew where the other members were now? He refused to let his thoughts touch on the possibility they were dead. They can't be dead. Maybe...they were held back from being deployed and I was sent by mistake? If that was the case then his mission was to stay alive.

A hand grabbed the back of his combat vest and yanked him back. "Ah!"

"Shut up," a voice hissed, shoving him behind the cover of some bushes. "Idiot, walking around like there's no danger to worry about. If I was one of those bastards you would have had your throat cut open already. I've been following you for several meters."

Taehyung looked up from where he'd fallen on his butt, blinking in astonishment. You?

The scowling face was that of the fellow soldier who had burned his arm with a cigarette back then. His uniform and gear looked roughed up but he was alive as well. He was in a different squad. What happened?

He seemed to know what he was wondering. "We got mowed down by a gunner, just like that. The metal plate in my vest stopped the bullets for me. Everyone else got hit more seriously and fell. I didn't stop running. Maybe I'm a bigger coward than you are, huh, V?"

"It must have hurt a lot," Taehyung remarked quietly. "Taking the hits, as well as having to leave your squad behind."

He sat next to him and pulled off his scavenged supply pack, offering Taehyung a protein bar and some water. "How long have you been out here by yourself?"

"A couple days," he responded, grateful for something to eat and drink. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"I think the battle has moved into the city. I keep hearing booms from there. Out here is just a few stragglers from both sides of the conflict picking each other off and stealing supplies. I think the North Korean stragglers have been abandoned so they've been doing whatever they want. That's all I've figured out."

"Should we try to rejoin another squad?"

"If we can find one, but I think our best course of action is to head for the city. We'll probably find some more of our men there." He sighed and had a swig of water. "Fuck I stink. And I was hoping to at least have a shower soon, but it looks like the whole power grid for the area is down. You don't see any lights on at night either, do you?"

"No," Tae agreed. Last night he'd been lying in the grass at the edge of a field trying to sleep, but he couldn't sleep. The sky had looked so bright with its billions of stars, and no light pollution from the ground to dim it out. He couldn't bring his eyes to close for a long time.

He quickly smelled himself. "Don't worry, we both stink," he assured. A hot shower would have been nice, he had to agree. But it sounded like that wouldn't be available to them for a long time. He was getting used to existing without a lot of luxuries lately.

"V, why didn't you rat me out when you ended up in the hospital? I would have been punished," the other soldier pointed out with a little frown.

Taehyung wasn't really sure. It wasn't fear or stubbornness. He just didn't think it had been necessary, since he'd left him alone ever since. But he smiled and invented a reason. "I looked into the future and I saw myself needing your help, so I didn't tell on you back then."