"Hurry," Jennie yelled as she dove at the Jeep sitting in the driveway. Rosé, Lisa, and Jisoo shut the fully packed trunk and ran to get into the seats. The four figured that their neighborhood would be a parking lot once the sun rose, so they decided to head out in the middle of the night for their escape. Jennie's boyfriend and his friends were leaving soon after them to go through the break in the DMZ that Kyungsoo and Xiumin were opening for them.
Nearly a week after a global anarchist terrorist attack, multiple organizations and government branches had fallen. Several police officers, mandatory military officers, and government officials had abandoned their posts to flee with their families. Roadways, airports, and waterways were chaos as everyone tried to get to one of the reported safe zones.
All four girls gave up on that as soon as they heard of the number of flights being delayed, the swamped airports, and the medical screenings that would just take too much time. Rosé slipped into the passenger seat while Lisa and Jisoo jumped in the back. "Everyone ready," Jennie asked quietly as she turned the engine over. When the three other occupants murmured their agreement, Jennie flipped off the headlights and carefully made her way down the street, only using the light from the moon to illuminate the street.
The plan was that Kai, his friends, and their architect friend Ten would flee to North Korea with the girls to one of the remote areas to hunker down until the virus was under control. Few cars were out as everyone prepared to head for the airport or docks once the sun was up with only a few like-minded people heading out early. Every airfield in Korea had been given the orders to stop all night flights so the pilots and staff would have time to rest as the demand for more trips grew.
"Where are the guys," Rosé asked while she watched the map on her phone. The light from their normal GPS might be too noticeable in the dark. The last thing they wanted to do was give everyone around them the same idea. It wouldn't take that long before North Korea became the last resort of the remaining citizens. The group didn't worry too much about meeting Chinese neighbors when they got to the north since they would have to cross a river just to be held off by the North Korean soldiers.
"They'll meet us at the DMZ. Kyungsoo and Xiumin cleared the way with a few of their buddies in service. A few more families are going to cross with us, but we'll probably be the last ones there. They secured some old North Korean trucks to get us past Kaesong and into the mountains. Kyungsoo said he stole an old map of the North from a briefing room," Jennie explained. "We'll be fine. We just need to be quick and stay calm." Reaching over, she took Rosé's hand while looking at Lisa and Jisoo in the mirror. "You hear me back there? We'll be fine."
"I know," Jisoo told her as she snuggled into Lisa's shoulder. "I'm just nervous."
"There's no need to be. Everything will be okay, we just have to wait out the virus. The bubonic plague faded out, this will too," Lisa reassured her. Nodding, Jisoo laid her head on her wife's shoulder and tried to fall asleep before they began the real trek.
Not long after that, Jennie pulled up beside a medium-sized military truck and van. Kyungsoo ran up to the driver's side door as Jennie rolled down the window. "Did you clear all the personal things from the car?" The girl in the front seat nodded before he ran to the back and raised the gate lift. "Guys, move everything to the van." Quickly, Chanyeol, Kai, Suho, and Sehun ran to the back and began moving the girls' supplies to the van as Xiumin took the license plate off of the Jeep.
"Okay, you four go to the van with Ten and Baekhyun. We're heading out in seven minutes." The four girls rushed to the back of the van and tucked in between the boxes. Chanyeol and Sehun placed everything carefully in the back as others brought supplies to them.
"It's time," Xiumin called softly. As the Jeep was rolled back to the nearest street, the truck and van got ready to move.
"It's it too quiet, isn't it," Rosé asked as the van joined a fleet of vehicles on the Northern side of the border. "Where are all of the guards?"
"Most of the guards on our side are in the cars around us," Ten said as Kyungsoo told them to get down. The four girls, Ten, Suho, Chen, and Kai laid down on the floor like a jigsaw puzzle as the vehicles crawled through the empty road to Kaesong. "I don't know where the Northern guards are."
The ride was tense and silent after each unit went their own ways. "Where are we going," Jisoo asked Kyungsoo.
"We're going to Kaesong and heading east from there. Once we get to Wonsan, we'll mostly be going north until we hit Hamhung. From there its northeast until we get into the Hamgyong Mountains. I heard some medics at the base that they expected the virus to only last through the winter. They were hoping the cold weather would at least make the virus dormant enough to find a proper cure."
"What is it?"
"They said it reminded them of rabies mixed with something more deadly like anthrax. If you get scratched or bitten then you start exhibiting symptoms of rabies before you go berserk and become violent. People have been beaten to death already. The incubation and acute periods last only a few days but everyone that's made it that long goes into a coma and dies from fluid in the lungs."
"Kyungsoo," Chen yelped before hitting his friend's arm.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you but I don't want any misconceptions about this. The virus is a death sentence and the only way to prevent more cases is to isolate ourselves from the infected. I don't want to kill anyone but if there's a threat, I won't hesitate." Swallowing hard, Lisa looked over to her wife. Jisoo slowly scooted over to wrap her arms around the taller woman's waist.
"I guess it's a good thing the treatments didn't take, huh," the blonde said. Only a few weeks before the pandemic broke out, Jisoo's brother had given the couple a sample to start a genetically intact family of their own. So far, the treatment didn't seem to stick. As Kyungsoo announced their entering of the first city of their journey, their old lives were left behind along with Lisa and Jisoo's dreams of being parents.
A month after getting to the Hamgyong Mountains, the group had named themselves Jericho after one of the oldest settlements in human history. They erected the frame for the longhouse Ten designed and were beginning to fill in the walls as the weather started to chill. "We need a place for us to stay for a while in case the quarantines take longer than we expect but it needs to be simple enough for us to conserve resources. Even with the military radio Kyungsoo stole, we'll still need to get back through North Korea. Who knows what we'll have to do to get back to Seoul. Hell, we might have to into China first."
The girls mostly tended to the garden they began cultivating while laughing at the boys having to lift trees Amish style. Usually, at night the four would join in and help out their friends and soon to be housemates. Until the longhouse was finished, the community members roughed it in tents Kai and his friends brought. While the girls were giving the garden a last once over before they joined the building, Lisa was hit with a dizzy spell.
Rosé caught her before she could tip over and helped her take a seat as Jisoo and Jennie brought her water. "Are you okay," Jisoo asked as Lisa took a small sip of water.
"Yeah, just got dizzy there for a second." The oldest woman in the group furrowed her brow as the tallest among them stood back up. "Really, I'm fine. Let's go help the boys; someone needs to show them how it's done." The Thai skipped over to their dishes and laid her cup in the dirty pile before joining the trio while they talked to Ten.
"If Jennie and Lisa could help Chanyeol, Xiumin, Kai, Sehun, and Chen bring the walling over here, Jisoo and Rosé can work with the rest to secure it to the frame."
"Lisa's been having dizzy spells," Jisoo chimed in. "Can she help me secure and Rosé help bring the walling?"
"Yeah, whatever you need." As the four split off to their assigned spots, Ten called out to Lisa, "Take it easy!"
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Part two: I Love You
