Musen 11 ✔

Chapter Eight:

They all woke up to the patter of heavy rain against the roof of the car. Seokjin's eyes were the first to flutter open, the rest following suit. It was a groggy set of minutes coming to terms with reality and leaving behind the distorted remains of slumber.

The road in front of them was blanketed in blackened darkness. It had to be midnight with how black and starry the sky looked, or perhaps the rain had blocked out all form of light.

Dong-in was still passed out in the drivers seat and so it was up to them to determine where they were. They remembered driving before falling asleep. Amidst the patter of the rain, something else had roused them from their sleep. The ground sounded like it was shaking, like their car was vibrating. But the engine was turned off so that couldn't possibly be an option.

"What's that sound?" Hoseok asked no one in particular, straining his ears to hear it appropriately.

It sounded like a siren, a very loud siren, mixed with. . .explosions? Dong-in's eyes flew open and he hastily reached for his gun on reflex, only relaxing when he saw that none of them were in danger.

He repeated Hoseok's question. For the siren and explosions had gotten louder and who in their right mind would be making this sort of noise knowing fully well the situation that the world was in.

"Listen closely," Namjoon said.

Everyone quietened down and strained to hear past the rain. After a couple of seconds, they could hear the sounds of small moans and racing feet all around the car.

"Hosts," Jungkook said.

As if on cue, one bumped into the car and then another, and another. Soon enough, the group were caught in the middle of a Host rampage. Everyone readied their weapons and paused. The strange thing was that the Hosts weren't struggling to get in their car, they were all rushing to the siren and explosion.

"Citizens of Seoul, please keep away from the explosion. Citizens of Seoul, please keep away from the explosion. Citizens of Seoul. . ."  The loud voice on the intercom rang out amidst the rain and crashing sounds.

"Something's attracting them on purpose, to detonate them." Jimin spoke in an uncertain voice.

"The government?" Taehyung asked.

"Whatever it is, we have to move. The car can't handle this much collision," Dong-in brought his hand to the key.

"Wait!" Yoongi said, "They'll hear. When we turn on the engine, they'll hear,"

Namjoon quickly caught on. "I think its best for us to tune in to the explosions. It probably has a timer so we'll count and turn on the engine when it goes off,"

They all concurred to the plan, listening attentively to the explosions as they counted how many seconds between each one. Ten second. Each explosion was ten seconds apart.

"Okay, you ready? One. . . two. . .three. . .four. . .five. . .six. . .seven. . .eight. . .nine. . .go!"

Dong-in turned on the engine just as another explosion went off, the sound thankfully being swallowed in what was going on a mile or two away. He put the car in reverse and turned on the headlight. Through the mirrors, they could see that more Hosts were coming their way. Dong-in simply drove over them and went well on his way. They were going back but they couldn't necessarily head towards the explosion. They'd just find a place to stop for the night and continue the next morning.

It was a little hard to see in the pouring rain but they managed with Seokjin wiping off the fog the rain created inside the car every two or so minutes. They drove in silence, every eye searching for a possible safe spot.

Soon enough, they spotted on a former grocery store by the looks of it. It had one of those iron roll up doors that some garages had and it was pulled up halfway through. Dong-in left the wheel for Seokjin, going down with a flashlight and a gun to roll up the door fully. Once Seokjin had driven inside, he dropped the door so that only an inch or two remained between it and the ground. It would be no fun being locked in there.

They all came down, flashlights in their hand as they surveyed the place. It looked severely run down, almost all of the shelves were empty except for a few that had canned food and some other useless items. The place looked clean enough, of Hosts, that is. They brought out blankets and settled unto the ground while Dong-in followed Sonya out back, a bottle of water in hand and a cotton strip so she could change. Thankfully she wasn't stained but she was soaked. First day periods are always like that.

The rest of the team set up camp in the abandoned grocery store. A couple windows were broken to which they grabbed a bunch of discarded news papers, wet them a bit and plastered on the holes just so looters couldn't see inside. Namjoon and Jin set up the sleeping arrangements while Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook retrieved the canned food from the car. By the time Dong-in and Sonya had come back, everything was ready with flashlights as the only source of illumination but that was enough.

They ate and discussed here and there about irrelevant things before Namjoon grabbed his phone and cleared his throat.

"Okay, so you guys, I wanted us to make a list of the things we already know about the Hosts. I thought about what Jungkook said and being accustomed to them would let us stay one step ahead, even with them mutating," he shuddered and then looked around the group expectantly.

"Good idea, Joon!" Seokjin praised him, "Okay, we know that they are. . ."

Attracted to sound. Cannot see. Able to smell blood. Fast on their feet. Takes thirty five minutes to turn. Symptoms of flu before nosebleed, pores and maggot parasites. Emit black blood. Make a sort of grinding sound with their teeth. Infect open wounds even without biting. Somehow evolving. No known cure for an infection.

"Is that it?"

"There's something else," Dong-in sighed. "About the first time I encountered them. . ."

Before Dong-in could begin talking, there was banging on the door and the voice of a person begging for help while sobbing.

"Please, open up, I know you're in there! Anyone, I don't want to die, please!"

They looked at each other as the sobbing voice went on before they all rushed to the iron sliding door and pulled it open with all their might giving the person just enough space to slip inside before it was pulled down again, as before, a few inches above the ground.

The crying person, long black hair unruly and wet and body soaked to the bone, thanked them amidst their sobs, before eventually looking up to take a good look at them properly.

"Nammie?" The person asked in a hopeful yet shocked voice.

Namjoon looked into the eyes of his sister and said one word. "Fei,"

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wow ! the writers block was heavy with this one lmao. this chapter is brought to you by Namjoon's fake laugh. x KJ.