•|Outbreak🔞|•

|ÖƝƎ|

THE AIR WAS damp.

The pungent smell of rotten eggs, old copper, and singed flesh stung the inside of Kim Taehyung's nose, and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. No matter how often he smelled it, he was still not used to the stench.

His footsteps were quiet and careful as to not attract attention.

He stood in the middle of an empty parking lot of a grocery store, eyeing the over-turned shopping carts, dead grass sprouting from within cracks in the pavement, and four broken-down cars with all of their windows busted out. The young male gulped, his skittish, almond eyes frantically darting around the open and seemingly deserted area, his grip on the kitchen knife tightening to the point where his knuckles turned white. 

He recently came across the weapon during a nightly raid, finding it wedged into a cream-colored wall, the wallpaper corroding from old age, and-after a slight struggle-pulled it out. After a short inspection, he figured that it was still very sharp, so Taehyung decided to keep it. He wasn't that good with guns, unlike some in his group.

Seeing the area was clear, Taehyung turned his head and cupped a hand around his mouth.

"It's clear!"

A black-haired male exited from a white van (courtesy of a dead delivery guy) with an M16 assault rifle casually slung across his back. He walked up to Taehyung with his hands stuffed into his jean's front pockets, sucking an annoyed breath through his teeth.

"Tell me again," Min Yoongi sighed, rolling his slanted eyes, "why I was the one that had to come with you?"

Taehyung walked up to the grocery store's closed, automatic sliding doors, Yoongi following behind him lazily, and rolled his eyes as well. 

"Jungkook needed to go with Namjoon to look for more ammo," Taehyung paused, sheathing his knife in the waistband of his dark jeans, "I didn't know where Jimin was," he placed his large hands upon the doors, attempting to pull them apart, "and you know Jin and Hoseok don't go out much."

"No one ever knows where Jimin is when he leaves the house," Yoongi muttered, watching Taehyung struggle to pry the doors open.

"Are you," Taehyung paused to let out a grunt, "are you going to help me, or just stand there?"

"I don't know," Yoongi shifted his stance, leaning his weight to his right leg. "Watching you struggle is a bit funny."

"Shut up and help me-"

Taehyung's fingers slipped off the doors, the male sharply jerking back, but he quickly recovered his balance by placing a hand on the wall.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Yoongi grumbled.

The raven-haired male pulled his gun over his head, grabbing it by the barrel, and harshly slammed the end of the weapon into the glass, creating a hole instantly. Yoongi reached into the opening, careful to not snag his skin on the broken glass. Taehyung was about to ask Yoongi what he was doing when he heard a small click, the promptly doors sliding open, and a gust of musty air hit him in the face.

"If the doors are locked, they won't open, genius." 

Taehyung scoffed, retrieving his knife from his pants.

"You could have told me that earlier, asshole."  

"Hey," Yoongi glared. "Apocolypse or not, I'm still older than you, punk." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

The pair walked into the store, mindful of where they stepped, with their weapons ready in their hands. Taehyung silently turned to Yoongi, motioning his head to a random aisle, signaling he was going that way, and Yoongi nodded before heading off in the opposite direction, his gun drawn in front of him protectively.

Taehyung stepped over a dirty teddy bear on its side with its left eye missing and the head torn down the middle, stuffing scattered around it. Empty bags of chips, bottles of soda, and small wrappers from God-knows-what, littered the particular aisle, and Taehyung sighed when he saw that everything was picked clean.

At some point, the male wasn't looking at where he walked and he accidentally kicked over a half-drunk bottle of sprite, a sizzling sound coming from the spilled soda fiz. Taehyung flinched, looking down.

"...Huh?"

He tilted his head to the side while reaching down and picking the bottle up simultaneously. His eyebrows jumped in surprise as his finger curled around the plastic. 

'This is...' Taehyung thought, flexing his fingers to see if what he felt was indeed real, 'cold?' 

"Hey, Taehyung."

Taehyung let out a short yelp, turning around to find Yoongi behind him with a small, fond smile playing on his lips and he glared.

"Don't scare me like that, man!"

Yoongi ignored Taehyung, thrusting an arm toward him. Taehyung's eyes drifted down to Yoongi's hand, and they softened. Taehyung felt like the wind was knocked from his lungs, the pit of his stomach lightly churning.

"'Map of the Soul: Persona,'" Taehyung uttered, his large hand coming up to slowly take the item from Yoongi.

"It's been how long since we've seen it?"

"Five years..."

Taehyung turned the album over in his hands, his fingers caressing over each, individual line of the pink and white pattern, and Taehyung's mind unwillingly wandered back to a day he sincerely wanted to forget. The screams of excitement, gradually shifting into those of terror, the shoving, the confusion.

The panic.

Yoongi placed a gentle hand on Taehyung's shoulder, perceiving that he shouldn't have shown him, and he gazes up at his former band member with guilt.

"I'm sorry," Yoongi apologized. "I didn't mean to make you remember, Tae. I know you took it harder than the rest of us."

A tickling sensation prickled Taehyung's cheek, the male now realizing he had been crying the whole time, and he sniffed, wiping his face free of tears. 

"No, it's okay." He shook his head dismissively with a weak smile. "I'm fine."

Yoongi squeezed Taehyung's shoulder, the younger watching Yoongi's brows furrow in worry. Though most used to think that Yoongi was emotionless, he has the biggest heart in the world. The man chooses to hide his concern behind sarcastic comments and a calm façade to seem uncaring. Always the tough guy.

"You sure?" Yoongi asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

Yoongi gave the male's shoulder one last squeeze before letting go, his arm limply falling to his side, and the pair stared at each other in silence, unresponsive to the growing tension around them. Not against each other, but against the outside world. Shadows of what have been, and will most-likely never be again loomed over their shoulders, weighing down their minds.

They were so focused on each other that they didn't feel another presence standing behind them until they heard the sound of a loading gun.

Click-click.

"Move."

Both men turned their heads, coming face-to-face with the muzzle of a pump-action shotgun, a male a bit shorter than Yoongi holding it with his finger on the trigger, and they froze up.

Taehyung's eyes widened.

"Don't shoot-"

Yoongi pushed Taehyung down, making a move to draw his gun, but he was too late.

Bang.