Vengeance

fifty two

Over the course of the next few weeks, things finally started to get back to a semblance of normal. Once they had gathered all of the dead, they held a funeral for all those who had lost their lives in the tragic incident. They were all buried in the garden, and friends and family left small mementos at the grave sites to mark them. Jeongin placed Seungmin's favorite plushie next to his grave. Chunja made a drawing for her mother. Jinyoung picked a bouquet of flowers for Jackson. By Wooyoung's request, a separate grave was made for the lost members of Yeonjun's group. Though they didn't have the bodies, he wanted to have something for him to remember them by, and helped him find flowers to mark it. They also set aside graves for Yunho and Hyunjin, hoping to recover their bodies and bury them with the others.

After everything had started to settle again, Jinyoung took over operations for the cause, electing Yeosang and Jongho to take over the medical team in his stead. They worked together to get the cures mass-produced so that attack teams could spread out across the country to start curing the masses. Changbin and Felix joined them, taking over the administrative portion of the work, ensuring the work remained ethical and efficient. Though both Changbin and Jongho had offered countless times to go out with the attack teams, Yeosang and Felix made sure they knew they'd already done more than enough fighting.

Those who still had some fight left in them joined these missions, both bringing the zombies back to life and saving any remaining survivors. Jeongin and Chan made the first team. Minho and Han took part in the less serious missions with them, but opted to stay back and help with the medical wing when they wouldn't be of much help. Wooyoung, San, and Yeonjun made the next team, and Mingi ended up joining after he'd recovered from the special serum. They were hesitant to bring him along, knowing he'd been so frightened the first time around, but they knew he didn't have anywhere else he'd rather be, and didn't want him to be left on his own.

Yuta became Jinyoung's second-in-command, taking over if Jinyoung left for important meetings with the government or medical officials. Once the missions got under way, a few of his members that had been turned were able to come back to the mansion and he was reunited with them, finally feeling like he had a bit of a family once more.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong stayed back at the mansion to take care of Chunja but as more and more survivors were arriving, many were either lost or orphaned children, and they decided to start up a sort of nursery system for them. Every so often, children would be reunited with their parents as the cure was distributed but some of them had lost their parents entirely. Many of these children ended up being adopted by other families at the mansion or took a liking to Hongjoong and Seonghwa and became members of their rapidly growing little family.

One of the orphaned boys got lost in the mansion for a while and ended up stumbling into the lab. He got scared by all of the equipment and masked doctors and made a scene, causing Changbin to try to diffuse the situation. The boy ended up taking a liking to him, quieting almost immediately as he sat down, clinging to his leg. Felix found the situation adorable and after they couldn't get rid of the boy, decided to take him in.

When he wasn't off on a mission, Chan would make many visits to the nursery, always bringing back fun toys and snacks he found while he was out. They all loved him and treated him like he was Santa Claus or something. Jeongin would sometimes make appearances as well, entertaining them with his goofy grandma impressions and silly faces. Han had taken Minho to visit a few times but they never lasted long as some kid always decided to ask him why he only had one arm, resulting in Minho angrily chasing little munchkins around the room with a plastic ball.

Instead of kids, Han and Minho ended up making an animal sanctuary, taking home strays that they found on the missions whenever they had space. It brought a buzz of life to the mansion as some owners were reunited with their pets and others became first-time pet parents.

After they'd gone on many, many missions, Wooyoung and San began to stay back at the mansion as well, joining in with the nursery. Wooyoung's brothers were rescued on one of the missions and he often took his little brother with him to play with the other kids. After San had watched Wooyoung spend time being cute with the little ones one time too many, he proposed the idea of adoption and they ended up taking on a few youngsters of their own.

Jinyoung sat back on the soft material of Jackson's bed, still unable to bring himself to switch rooms. He still woke up each morning from nightmares of the vision he saw, but knew that the room still held so many other positive memories they'd shared.

As he took a sip of coffee from his mug, his cellphone began to ring on the nightstand and he released a deep breath. It was almost non-stop these days. So many important people had gotten ahold of his phone number. Even though no one really knew everything that he was doing for this country behind the scenes, he felt like more of a celebrity than he had in his idol days.

But as he lifted the phone to his ear, the voice on the other end nearly caused him to drop his mug.

"Hey, Jinnie. We heard the news, dear. How are you holding up?"

It was Jackson's mom.

He bit back tears as he tried to smile.

"I'm doing alright. I've taken over things for him so I'm keeping busy."

"You're not fine, are you dear?" her voice was soft, and the words brought the tears he'd so desperately hidden away for months right back to the surface.

"It's been hard," he managed, sniffling as he let out a bitter laugh.

"I know, dear. It's been hard on us, too. But our Jackson's always been such a sweet boy. It always made us worry he'd go early for having too big of a heart."

Jinyoung nodded through his tears, trying to keep his voice even.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep him safe. I'm sorry I couldn't protect your son."

"It's not your fault, dear. You know there's no way to change his mind when he's got it set on something. He's always been stubborn," she laughed and he chuckled softly.

"That's Jackson for you," he smiled, wiping his tears.

"I just wanted to call to let you know you'll always have someone on your side. I'm your mother as much as I was his. Whatever you need, I'm right here. If you just want to chat, I'm here. Even about the little things. Tell me about your day, if you want. I know he's left a hole in all of our lives and I know I can't fill it for you but I want to try. It breaks my heart knowing how close the two of you were."

Jinyoung had to pull away from the phone for a moment, letting it all out. She waited patiently, knowing he needed some time. Eventually he brought it back to his ear with a small smile.

"I would love that. Thank you," he said softly.

"Good. I look forward to hearing from you then," she said sweetly.

"Thank you for calling," Jinyoung said quietly.

"Of course, dear. Talk to you soon, okay?"

Jinyoung nodded.

"Talk to you soon."