Dark Waters ✓ tk

SEVENTEEN

"Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.

You forget some things, dont you?

Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

The three men made their way towards the big farm house, surrounded by dried out corn plants. The weather was warmer than usual and since no one tended the plants anymore, they died in the fields. The rustling of dead plants irritated Jeongguk to no end, since whatever or whoever would be in the farmhouse would be able to pick up on the noises immediately.

"Couldn't Namjoon fly us to here or something?", he huffed, rolling his shoulders backwards, preparing for some kind of fight. Jimin rolled his eyes at the werewolf's tough behavior, who was also cracking his neck now.

"I'm sure if there were mutants nearby, they would've stormed towards us a long time ago", he spoke up. Yoongi snorted at that, "That's true. They don't have brains, that's why they probably always try to eat ours".

Jeongguk shushed both chuckling boys, giving them a nice hard glare when they mocked his shushing. They stood next to the farm house, in front of a big shed that probably held all the farm machinery. "I'll check in here. You two go check the house".

Jimin rolled his eyes again. "Whatever you say chief", he mocked before turning on his heels to go around the back. Yoongi just shrugged his shoulders and followed the kitsune, not really caring if Jeongguk's brains got eaten if he went alone.

The werewolf sighed and walked around a bit, trying to find a spot where he could enter the shed instead of using the big and heavy doors. He found a small hole in the rotten wood and started pulling off his shirt so he could easily shift into a werewolf, not ripping his clothes in the progress. When he was butt naked, shivering a little by the breeze, he shifted into his wolf form.

He crawled through the wall and ended up stepping onto a pile of hay, making a lot of sound. Internally cursing he quickly jumped off the hay, eyes wary of any attacker that may be hidden inside of the shed. When he didn't see anything move or make any sound, he calmed down again.

He started sniffing around, trying to find something valuable that may be inside of the shed. He could smell lots of animal scents, though almost every one of them were faint. The animals were probably killed by mutants, or eaten by humans a long time ago. Food had gotten scarce, so even the cutest pets or most loved farm animals were gone, probably into stomachs.

As Jeongguk kept sniffing around, he picked up on a scent, one that stood out immediately once he found it. It was a dog scent, and it was very prominent in the room. Jeongguk frowned. It was almost as if the animal was still there-

"BoRk"

Jeongguk's ears perked up at this, turning to the location where the noise had come from. A dog being on a farm didn't seem weird of course. But a dog, being on an abandoned farm, in the middle of an apocalypse, and being silent all the while Jeongguk had been in the shed... that was a lot weirder. If a dog had survived living here, there surely must be someone trying to protect it. The dog would have been eaten by mutants, or disappeared together with the farmers.

"Shhh Wally", he heard someone whisper.

Bingo

Jeongguk tiptoed towards the voice, that oddly sounded like that of a child. He peeked around the corner, seeing a dog's tail sticking out from underneath a pile of hay. It was wagging a little and if Jeongguk hadn't known any better, it seemed like the kid had buried himself and the dog underneath the hay to be hidden from him. But if that was the case, then that meant they were already aware Jeongguk was going to be in the shed before he even crawled inside.