REMNANTS | JIKOOK ✔

Chapter 9. Infection

Jungkook followed Hoseok up the metal stairs that twisted to the top of the wall around the base, blinking in the harsh morning light. The smoke was calm in the still early air, a heavy grey blanket that cast a purple shadow over the rising sun and turned the sand around them to a muted carpet. Namjoon was already there, making notes into a handheld data pad. He barely glanced over as Jungkook stepped up beside him.

“There,” Hoseok was pointing down and Jungkook followed his arm to see a decrepit looking four-wheeler and its driver sitting in the sand a few meters from the wall. 

“He’s been here since first light,” Hoseok continued. “Tried to get in through the main entrance. We barred it of course.”

“He’s infected,” Jungkook said, stating the obvious as a cold flood of fear seeped into him. Even from this distance, he could see faint blue-green veins to the man’s face as he sat hunched against the back wheels of his vehicle. 

Hoseok made an affirmative noise.

“Reasonably advanced too,” Namjoon said, finally acknowledging Jungkook. “So far, no outward signs of aggression but he was vomiting earlier and you can see the veins and it's skin tone.”

“Is that the only one of them?” Jungkook asked, looking around but only seeing the single set of tire tracks through the sand.

“We haven’t sent anyone out to look yet,” Hoseok told him. “’Joon wanted to be sure of the airborne rate first.”

At that the medic, turned the data pad towards Jungkook, displaying a complicated graph with dips and spikes. Jungkook shook his head in confusion. 

“He’s definitely infected,” Namjoon said, simplifying. “But whether or not he’s infectious I’m not sure. He’s letting off vapors—my equipment is picking up on that. Better not to take the risk.”

Jungkook agreed. He recalled the numerous public health campaigns he had seen as a child, the posters of infectious symptoms that were plastered all over the cities in warning. Everyone knew the quarantine zones had long failed, but the thought of infection inside the base was chilling.

“How long until it fully manifests?” Yoongi questioned to no one in particular peering down at the driver below. Jungkook and Hoseok jumped looking to their left, finding Yoongi who seemed to appear out of no where and looked unbothered by the whole scene. Namjoon didn't acknowledge Yoongi, as if he knew he was there the entire time. “You said there were no outward signs of—”

At that moment, the man launched himself to his feet, letting out an unnatural cry, his head tipping back. On the wall, Jungkook and Hoseok flinched back. It was the same scream Jungkook had heard the night before and he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.

“About now, I’d say,” Namjoon said calmly.

Jungkook watched with horrified fascination as the man below them opened his mouth wide and screamed again. His teeth were sharp and his skin flooded with protruding green and blue veins. Jungkook could see the blue green almost dripping from the skin around his eyes and mouth. Suddenly, the man sprinted forward, throwing himself against the metal wall with such force, it shook beneath Jungkook’s feet.

“Holy fuck!” Jungkook breathed. 

Below them, the man scrabbled frantically, tearing at the metal and trying to climb up the wall’s rusted, orange brown surface to reach them at the top. He sounded like an animal, screaming and snarling and in his open mouth, inhuman fangs were clearly visible. The disease was like a twisted form of rabies; changing its victims into animals, vampires, with little thought other than destruction. Jungkook recalled the health warnings, the ones that had always seemed so irrelevant in this remote landscape. Difficulty breathing, elevated heart rate, vomiting, skin discoloration and pain: searing cramps that shuddered through every muscle in the body, slicing through every organ including the brain to send victims into a foaming, violent fury.