outbreak | bts

006

Jimin stared at the phone before looking back at Jungkook. Mingyu? That was one of his friends, wasn't it? Why wasn't Jungkook taking the call? As he bent down to grab the phone, Jungkook's hand stopped him.

"M-Mingyu got turned into a zombie. I saw him with my own eyes! It can't be..." Jungkook rambled, eyes wide with panic. He didn't want to hear that creature that used to be his friend growling down the line and reminding him that life was no longer the same as it used to be.

Jimin looked at him for a short while, eyes drooping in sadness for his friend before he moved his eyes back to the device. How terrible it must have been to witness your friend transform into something so barbaric and inhuman. Bracing himself, he picked up the phone and answered the call despite Jungkook's panic filled gasp.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Hello? Is that Jungkook?" A rushed whisper came down the line. Jimin paused. Was this the voice of Jungkook's friend?

"N-no, this is a friend of his. He freaked out when he saw the caller." Jimin replied blankly, still mildly unnerved at the possibility that he was on the phone to a zombie. A small sigh was breathed down the line.

"You must be Jimin hyung, right? I'm one of Jungkook's high school friends, Jaehyun." The voice continued to whisper. It didn't sound like the zombies they had encountered. Jimin turned to Jungkook and put the call on speaker.

"It's Jaehyun?" He asked, unsure if Jungkook really knew who that was. But surely this person would have had to know Mingyu in order to be able to unlock his phone and make the call to a non-emergency number. Jungkook's face was disbelieving as he held his phone.

"Hello? Kook-ah, are you there?" The whispers continued.

"J-Jaehyun-ah! Are you okay? Where are you? What happened? Why did you call using Mingyu's phone?" Jungkook's words tumbled out him in relief and he felt tears prick in his eyes. Not everyone had been lost.

"Mingyu gave me his phone to put on charge since I sit next to the plugs. He left before I could give it back to him though. I'm trying not to waste my phone battery. And um... if by okay you mean alive, then yeah, we're just barely hanging on."

"What do you mean? What happened?"

"Did you leave school again? Is that why you're with your hyung?" Jaehyun's voice sounded distant as some shuffling noises came down the line.

"Jaehyun!"

"Sorry. I needed a distraction. I went to the bathroom with Seokmin instead of going straight to the lunch hall while Gyu, Minghao and BamBam went ahead to get us seats. Came out and there was just all this screaming coming from the lunch hall." Jaehyun explained. The room was quiet once again, with Yoongi lowering the volume of the television as everyone listened.

"Eunha, Yuju and Mina kind of crashed into us running out of their classroom- you know, since all of them were skipping on lunch to support Yuju's vegetarian challenge- and we all kind of made it to the staircase leading to the lunch hall before...they burst out. It was awful. I literally watched as loads of our classmates and underclassmen got attacked. Jungkook-ah, Mingyu, he's..." Jaehyun's whisper became strained and Jungkook knew his friend was holding back tears.

"I know. I saw him and the others myself." Jungkook swallowed in an attempt of recover from the sudden dryness in his throat. Jimin wrapped his arms around his young friend's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder. Jungkook clutched onto Jimin's clasped hands with his free hand, grateful for the support.

"Jaehyun, w-what about Eunwoo and Yugyeom?" Jungkook asked, afraid of hearing more bad news. Jaehyun was silent on the other line for a while.

"...honestly, I don't know. The five of us ran to the gym office and we've been camped out here since. We were stupid to come in here."