void

Prologue

What was heard in the beginning, was a cry.

A cry, with an underlying howl, as the blue-haired boy swung his metal bat with all the energy his five foot eleven form could impose on the limping, rotten figure before him. To the untrained eye, it would seem that the boy was scared - but he wasn't. Because, truthfully, he had done this so many times now, it was like second nature to him.

To be fair, Yeonjun had always wanted to be on the baseball team.

"Would you hurry the fuck up!?" The black-haired boy hollers from the back of the faded navy jeep already beginning to pull away from the abandoned 7-Eleven. The highway is two miles east, and if they want to make good time, they have to hurry.

Problem is, Yeonjun likes to play.

The former boy swings the bat around the entirety of his palm, the handle looping around it once, twice, a third time before he finally grips it regularly again, pulling back and then wrenching the weapon forward, colliding with the figure's skull, already concaving from the previous blow.

"Now he's just messing around." The boy hisses to the driver of the Jeep, a blonde boy, far more patient than he, as they both roll their eyes and take their seats. Yeonjun laughs; a wild, loud laugh practically lost in the wind, as the body finally falls to the ground, not breathing and not moving.

"That's two hundred and five!" He screams in celebration, pulling his backpack off the ground easily before bolting towards the car, his legs quick to catch up with the already moving vehicle as his friends laugh at the statement.

"He keeps count?" One of the youngest boys asks loudly, his face growing curious as he looks at the other boys.

"'Course I do, you've got a lot to learn if you don't, man!" The eldest replies loudly when he gets close enough, tossing his bag into the open back of the trunk and using his momentum to leap up and grab the handle dangling from the roof of the car. He lurches himself up and onto the moving vehicle, his hair ruffling from the wind before he finally takes his own seat proudly.

"You're insane, Yeonjun." Soobin finally says. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."

They smile at eachother, and then Soobin speaks up again.

"So where we headin', Beom?"

"East." The boy behind the wheel replies, accelerating now that his friend is in the car. "Let's just hope shit's better there than here, yeah?"

Everyone in the car voices their agreement, before they all spot the figure in front of the jeep moving towards them slowly.

"Hold on!" The driver yells, gripping the wheel tightly as he pushes the gas even more. Loud screams of excitement can be heard from within the car as the limping figure turns it's head up expectantly, facing the boys.

The collision is easy, and soon, they're leaving the figure with tire marks over it's entire body, finally on their way to merge onto the highway.

"New York, here we come." Soobin mumbles to himself, staring out the window at the vast wasteland that used to be Los Angeles. The group cheers again.

Forty hours to go.