Chapter 12

( Not a Small Fire )

Hoseok’s Point Of View

“There are at least seventeen ways this could have gone better. Literally. Like, I’m counting them right now, you moron.” I hissed at Desi as we crouched behind a bush. It  was night, almost pitch black out, and we were in the middle of the woods. A horde of zombies was circling around us, drawing closer with every passing minute. I was pretty sure they could smell our fear-- or at least, my fear.

I wasn't sure Desi was even afriad. The little psycho had a smile on her face and an evil glint in her eyes. I recognized the look. I'd seen it over a thousand times in the space of the last two months or so, and usually she gave it right before she was about to do something really stupid, and almost get us all killed. Honestly, it's like she enjoys the thrill of almost dying.

I sighed heavily. I was surrounded by crazy people. First, it was just Taehyung and Desi. They were manageable, though. A containable kind of crazy. I could usually keep track of them. Taehyung had always been pretty weird, but I thought Desi was normal at first. I couldn't have been more wrong about that. It was like Taehyung brought the weirdness out of Desi. The two made each other crazier, in a way, but still, it was manageable. But now… God help me. She was never as bad as she was now. She was a whole new level of crazy, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to be within a twenty-foot radius for the fear that she might spontaneously combust, just to prove she could.

And it was all Jungkook’s fault.

Ever since he joined us, he and Desi had been trying to one-up the other in as many crazy ways as possible. They became fast friends, but any bystander could see the romantic tension sparking between them. They were like the male and female versions of each other. The two were so alike it was almost scary. The only thing that was really different was their level of crazy. Desi was definitely more like Taehyung in that department.

To be honest, I actually found them sort of cute. So did Taehyung. It was nice to see something so normal when our world was anything but. It was like a bit of hope, something to brighten our day, and it seemed to make the two of them a hell of a lot happier. Secretly, Taehyung and I placed bets on the two of them to see who would cave first and admit their feelings. My money was on Jungkook. He may have strong will power, but Desi knew how to wrap him around her little finger with a bat of her eyelashes.

But by now, I just wanted them to be done with it already. Jungkook joined us a month ago, and they still haven’t done anything. They were too stuck in their competition, both of them too stubborn to give up. However, over the course of the month, Jungkook’s resolve has been weakening. It was now to the point that even when Desi walked by, his eyes would flare up with desire and he practically had to hold himself back to keep from jumping her. It was kind of hilarious, but kind of exasperating.

Desi could see it too. Every time it happened, I saw her smirk to herself in victory. She knew she was winning. That woman must have a hella strong willpower to resist Jungkook, especially when he was practically going insane with want. I was pretty sure she felt even more victorious when Jungkook got jealous, too. I could see it in her eyes, the twisted little temptress.

During one of our nightly talks before we went to bed, Taehyung cuddled up to Desi and fell asleep. His head was on her shoulder, and his arms were wrapped tightly around her. It was a typical Taehyung thing to do, but Jungkook almost lost it. He glared at them for almost a whole five minutes before he got up. I wasn't sure if he was going to drag Desi away, or kick Tae’s , so I hopped up and grabbed him before he would do something he would regret. I had to physically drag him outside, where he paced and ranted for ten more minutes before he ran out of steam. When we went back inside, Desi was in her own sleeping bag, pretending to be asleep. I only know she was pretending because of that evil little grin I saw on her face when Jungkook weaseled himself into the small space between Taehyung and Desi.

I was glad she found it cute, because I found it really goddamn annoying.

It happened a lot, too. Jungkook was a jealous kid. He was even jealous of me, when Desi suggested we split up into pairs to scout another gas station. I asked her to go with me, and I swore Jungkook looked ready to shoot lasers out of his eyes, he was glaring so hard. It was too funny.

But Jungkook wasn't the only jealous one, as we quickly found out. Us guys got on the topic of girls, like guys do, and we started discussing the iest, most badass women we could think of from before the apocalypse. The women ranged mostly from actresses to athletes, and as soon as Desi heard Jungkook salivating over an actress from an old zombie movie, she snapped. She started going out of her way to be more badass, whether she realized it or not. She went so far as to take on a pack of zombies with only an air horn and a nail file before I had to step in and tell her to knock it off.

Considering the situation I was currently stuck in, I had to assume whatever I said to her had gone in one ear and out the other.

I was currently about to die in a Wisconsin forest, surrounded by zombies, with a psychotic girl that I was seriously considering strangling. We were so close to the Minnesota safe house. So. ing. Close. It was only one state over; hardly 8 hours away. If we had just kept driving, we could probably have been half way there by now. But no! We had to take the ing scenic route, thank you very much, Desi.

The low moans and snarls of approaching zombies jerked me from my bitter thoughts and I shook my head. Now that I was focused, I could hear them more clearly. Teeth snapped together hungrily, and I could hear the scrape of bone on bone. Broken limbs were dragged across the forest floor, zombies crashing through the underbrush as quickly as they could go. They weren't much for stealth, but they were still terrifying. All around us, the zombies were closing in. I looked over at Desi nervously, waiting for her to give the signal. My blood ran cold when I noticed her smile had disappeared, and she was looking around the forest with a confused expression. I gulped.

“Desi, I thought you said you had a plan,” I said, glancing back at the trees. She continued to look around, avoiding looking at me.

“Yeah, I have a plan,” she said, like it was obvious. My fingers twitched.

“Is it a good one?”

“...I have a plan.”

I groaned inwardly. I