ODDS OF SURVIVAL - TAEKOOK

CHAPTERTWENTYSIX

They couldn't go home; not now, it wasn't safe. It seemed like a certainty that they would be followed by whoever had been shooting at them, and Taehyung couldn't lead anyone back to their home.

There was far too much at risk, and Taehyung couldn't bear to think of losing all that they'd built.

So he drove away from home, turning down wildly overgrown back roads that he had memorized after so many weeks staring at maps of the area.

While he wasn't lost, he hoped anyone trying to follow would be completely disoriented and lose track of them.

He tried not to look at Jungkook. He was afraid to see how heavily he was bleeding, or if he was even still conscious, but he could hear breathing beside him so at least he knew Jungkook was alive.

It was getting dark, though. Turning on the headlights would make them far too visible and he couldn't risk it. He needed to stop while there was still a bit of light, so he could see to treat Jungkook's injuries before he bled out all over the front seat.

If he remembered correctly there was a place up ahead where he could pull off of the road, so he slowed down and watched for any break in the encroaching foliage.

When he saw it he slammed on the breaks and made a sharp turn onto an overgrown gravel road, spurring a hiss of pain from Jungkook as he was roughly jostled against the door.

This used to be a short driveway leading to a small parking area for people to leave their cars while they went hiking or camping or whatever rugged adventurous nonsense people used to do here.

Now it was so overgrown Taehyung nearly missed the turn in, and the little square of gravel that used to be a parking lot was nothing more than a level area where the weeds and grass weren't quite as tall.

Each breath Jungkook drew beside him was ragged with pain. When he stopped the car he was still afraid to look over and see the full extent of Jungkook's injuries, but there was no time to waste.

Stalling could only put Jungkook's life in further danger, so Taehyung flung himself out of the car and scrambled into the cargo area to gather all the medical supplies they had, lined them up neatly across the car's open tailgate, then went to the passenger side to collect Jungkook.

There was blood nearly everywhere he looked. The right side of Jungkook's face was entirely obscured with it; his wild and overlong hair was matted with it and stuck to his cheek and neck.

Jungkook's shirt was almost entirely soaked with it and stained so dark it was nearly black closest to his injuries.

As he helped Jungkook out to lay on the clearest patch of ground he could find, Taehyung tried to reason that it wasn't as bad as it looked.

It seemed like a lot spread through the thin fibers of Jungkook's shirt and across the unabsorbent surface of his skin, but there weren't puddles of it in the seat and floorboard.

Jungkook was cringing and holding pressure on his side, and that surely helped minimize the bleeding, right?

He'd read a couple of first aid books and even taken a class on it once, but in the face of an actual emergency it felt like everything he'd learned was wrung out of his brain like water from a sponge.

Jungkook's silence wasn't helping; he hadn't spoken a word since being attacked. The fact that he wasn't spewing an endless string of profanity was possibly the most worrying thing of all.

"Jungkook," he was mildly surprised at the raspiness of his own voice, but he supposed he had been shouting a lot.

He dropped to his knees at Jungkook's side and tentatively reached out to touch Jungkook's blood-covered hand where it was clamped over his wounded side.