ONCE THE KIDS are all safe and accounted for, and Yoongi is healed enough (though there's a tiredness to his eyes that Jimin can see and feel in himself), they begin walking.
All of them, the entire Resistance and those they had saved, began walking west.
Yoongi had told them that there was a way to new land. A way that was blocked by a large stone wall, but a way nonetheless. And they have to take a chance; there's nothing here for them that can make them stay.
Jimin leads the group, walking ahead of everyone.
Seokjin and Yoongi are still injured. Though, Seokjin had stubbornly insisted on bringing a bird cage along with him, one that held a healing dove. Why, Jimin has no idea, but to each his own.
Namjoon is hovering around Yoongi and Hoseok is walking in the back, head down and hands in his pockets, standing out from everyone in his odd clothing.
As Jimin pushes his way through bushes, he stops.
Because in front of him is Kim Taehyung, holding a bloody dagger, two dead bodies at his feet.
;;
KILLERS ARE EVIL.
It's not something that's said out loud, but it's common sense, an unspoken consensus between everyone.
Killers are evil.
Taehyung's known this since the beginning of time. He's known it since Yoongi told him, a dull expression on his face but Taehyung could feel all of the pain he was hiding. Taehyung's known it and he's never questioned it, not once.
Taehyung is evil.
His hands, stained with blood, are still grasping the dagger that he'd taken from one of the Rogues.
Both Rogues are lying at his feet, dead in pools of their own blood.
Taehyung just stares at the bodies blankly. When the bushes rustle and out steps Jimin and the rest of the Resistance, Taehyung doesn't move.
Taehyung can't move.
His feet are rooted to the ground and he can't stop staring at the blood pouring from the wounds on the Rogue's necks -— and Minnie is behind him still, and at least she's safe, although all else has gone to hell.
"Taehyung?"
"Holy shit!"
"Did he kill—"
"What's on his neck—?"
Taehyung feels throbbing on the left side of his neck. Pain pulses through him and he wonders why.
"It's the mark of a killer," says Yoongi. He and Jimin are the only ones to step forward and come closer to Taehyung; everyone else hesitates.
Yoongi tilts Taehyung's head to the right and runs his cold fingers along Taehyung's neck. Taehyung shivers.
"Black veins?" Jimin asks. "Why—"
"The first time you kill someone, you get a mark on your body the same place you killed them." Yoongi pulls down his shirt a little, exposing the black, web-like marks over own his heart. "Anyone who's killed someone has them."
"They hurt," Taehyung rasps. "It hurts, it hurts—"
"I'll handle Tae," says Yoongi to Jimin. "The rest of you can get rid of the bodies and find a way to get past the stone wall. And tend to that little girl, too, she looks scared as fuck."
Jimin looks between the two killers, uncertain. "You sure there isn't anything I can do for Tae?"
"I'm sure."
Yoongi turns Taehyung away from the bodies and walks them towards the shade under a large, old tree.
"Yoongi—" Taehyung begins. His chest feels heavy and he can't breathe.
"Take a breath," Yoongi instructs, "in and out. Sit down."
Taehyung plops down on the ground, and Yoongi sits in front of him. Yoongi's hand is on his shoulder, comfortingly yet awkwardly at the same time. In the distance, Taehyung hears what sounds like a horn. Yoongi's attention snaps to it for a quick second, as well as everyone else's. But Taehyung's mind is too cloudy to recognize it as the sound of a conch shell.
"Yoongi hyung. . ."
"Breathe," Yoongi repeats, attention back on Taehyung. "Just. . . don't think too much. Just breathe, kid."
Through his hazy state of mind, Taehyung thinks how grateful he is to have someone like Yoongi.
