From the Darkness

4. The Pride

Wooyoung didn't let San out of his sight. They found a crook at a few boulders to tuck away into, protected from the wind carrying their scent over the plains. San was wise enough not to make a fire, and he even offered Wooyoung his crackers when he noticed the lack of food on him.

"No rations?" He asked to make conversation. In the hours they spent together, he hadn't refreshed his bandages that now also peeked from his right leg where his pants had ridden up over his boots. Though wary of him, Wooyoung didn't want to pry. They would part in the morning at the latest.

"They are with my partner," was all Wooyoung said. He stunk of fouling blood, but he didn't want to expose himself to San to wash up. Smelling like them would rob the fouls of their interest.

"You're part of a team?" Disinterested eyes focused on the chocolate bar he crunched down on. Wooyoung was curious to see his full face, but his hair stubbornly stayed in place before his right eye. He only tugged his bandages as far over his lips as he needed to, protecting the rest of himself from the biting sand.

"It's just me and him. He's my boyfriend," Wooyoung muttered, distracted by his concern about Yunho. Perhaps he shoveled himself free by now and was waiting for Wooyoung to return. He wouldn't be so foolish to leave far since they could miss each other. Unless he thought Wooyoung discarded him?

A chill crept down Wooyoung's spine and he shook the thought off. No, he would return. Yunho needed him and they would continue together.

"Where is he?" San noted, ever so sharp in his deduction that they weren't supposed to be apart. Though Wooyoung scowled at him, he conceded. Not as if San could do anything with this information, and he might have some valuable advice.

"The building we camped in collapsed and sunk into the sand. I got out but he..." He left it at that, not needing to provide further details.

San scrutinized Wooyoung in the dim twilight. His gaze made Wooyoung feel even smaller, not used to being alone. Together, he and Yunho made an intimidating pair.

"And you believe he is still alive?"

"I know he is," Wooyoung snapped. His eyes blazed, uncaring of San's bulging muscles that crushed fouls with such ease. He hated how pity and ridicule filled San's stare.

"He always survives; I know exactly what he can live through. As soon as I found some resources, I will get back to him and nurse his wounds."

San looked as if he wanted to berate Wooyoung on mortality, but he gave it up. It wasn't his place to meddle with their matters.

"Got it. So you need shelter, resources, something to dig him out with, and something to drag him to your new shelter with. All that, while the fouls are on your heels?"

Wooyoung didn't like being questioned that way. He was a survivor; he knew how to handle himself. Just because San had an easier time by himself, he wasn't the better of the two.

But Wooyoung gritted his jaw and swallowed his pride. They agreed to camp together tonight, and they bested those fouls. No need to lose his cool.

"I'll do it, no matter what it takes. Once my partner is back, he can help me figure out a plan. I'm not leaving him."

San finished his bar and leaned back against the rock. His arms crossed behind his head and cushioned his fathomless expression. Camping with him would have been a nice change of scenery if Wooyoung didn't keep fretting about Yunho. He might still be buried, trapped in the sand for days as he prayed for Wooyoung to save him.

"You must be very attached to him. Your savior?"

"Countless times. Our settlement got infested, and we made it out together. We have been traveling for enough years that I lost count. We made it through thick and thin," Wooyoung stressed, clarifying once more that Yunho and he couldn't be parted and made it out alive, always. They even did when they were trapped in a basement once, surrounded by fouls and the stench of death as they tried to rip into their flesh to peel it from their bones.