From the Darkness

11. The Coyotes

Jongho's addition to their traveling group posed little difference from before. Essentially, their peculiar stranger now walked along with San's and Wooyoung's pace instead of creeping behind them at a distance. He was persistent, Wooyoung had to give him that. No matter the glares and scoffs he received from Wooyoung, he was firmly locked in his new position, eyes sparkling at Wooyoung.

While San scouted out the path to the cliffs, Wooyoung tried his luck at digging more information from the madman.

"How did you say you know about me?" He dismissed it last time, barely listened. Now, he was just as disinterested in a deal, but he spent enough time with Jongho to ponder his motives. And to find a method to avoid a similar situation next time.

Jongho lit up at the question. Though his shoulders were burly under the tight stretch of his dark shirt and his vest hung open to further accentuate his broadness, Wooyoung could tell his eyes were younger than his. More hopeful. More naïve. Eyes that hadn't seen the worst of survival yet.

Compared to him, Wooyoung felt ancient, marred from loss and pain.

"Your name crossed the desert at lightning speed! The water gatherers and traders witnessed your aim and they know to avoid the one with the raven hair. I came to confirm their words myself and I saw how you and your other companion worked. It was a marvel. I'd find no mercenaries like you two. Well, perhaps three. He seems to know what he does. But isn't he sick?" Jongho ended with a glance at San.

Wooyoung shrugged. It wasn't his place to tell.

"You seem like a maniac, approaching someone others warned you about."

The smile that dashed over Jongho's lips was fleeting, but it reminded Wooyoung painfully of Yunho. So youthful and full of warmth. Whenever Yunho smiled, he became a goofy idiot whom Wooyoung needed to protect at all cost. Until he didn't smile anymore and his skill with his knife became as lethal as Wooyoung's aim.

"I'm in no position to make demands. Any day without action is wasted and I don't know how much longer I can upkeep the secret. The sooner I act, the better, so I sought you out. Had I known my presence might save your companion, I would have contacted you sooner..."

Though it was creepy how long he silently spied on Wooyoung and Yunho, Wooyoung took the compliment. He, too, would have done things differently if he could turn back time. He would make sure he would be the one dying, never his precious Yunho.

"The secret?" San asked as he slowed down to match their pace. Intrigue glinted in his eye and from this angle, the one hidden behind his hair seemed to glow almost yellow in its shadow.

"Yes. My cure. The cure. To everything."

"To becoming a foul?" San followed up, suddenly invested. Perhaps he was the better match for Jongho's project. Jongho got protection and San the cure he sought for his community.

Wincing, Jongho swayed his head left and right.

"By extent. The fouls are a byproduct of our climate crisis. If we resolve it, the fungus also dies, since it finds no more hosts."

"The fuck," Wooyoung muttered. "You found a book? You sound like a book." Just as pretentious, just as utopian. Useless glimmering lies to spark enough hope to keep humanity living, even when their time on this planet was long since over.

Instead of being insulted, Jongho stretched his shoulders.

"Something much better. Few of us know why the world is how it is since all the records got destroyed in the holocaust but I can answer all of your questions."

"Sounds like you found some good pills," Wooyoung scoffed, but San mulled Jongho's claim.

"Or an ancient artefact from a time before the world succumbed to human frenzy."