Jooheon wanted to scream in frustration, but that would probably just lead to his death. Already the closest zombies were shambling towards him, and the rest would only follow. He hefted the metal rod the man had tossed him. It was light and would make for a terrible bat, but he could probably use it easily to stab through the zombies' heads.

He scanned the store. The undead near the front entrance didn't seem to have noticed him yet, but that was only a matter of time. If he went running through the aisles, he was bound to get cornered and eaten. He didn't know how the other man had done it. But as he looked at the rows of shelves lining the aisles, he got an idea.

Jooheon boosted himself onto the counter, and quickly jumped from there to the top of the nearest shelf. It was just like the roof jumping he'd done with Hoseok all the time.

~~~~~~~

"Come on, let's go!" Hoseok shouted at him.

Jooheon clambered up the fire escape ladder to where Hoseok stood on the roof. He grinned down at the zombies groaning and shuffling around at the bottom, unable to grasp the ladder rungs and hoist themselves up and climb.

Hoseok stood beside him, a few feet back from the edge. Jooheon didn't understand how he was still afraid of heights after the months of roof jumping they'd done together. Hoseok surged over the gap between buildings with little to no hesitation, and yet he couldn't look down into the street without getting queasy.

"Are we good?" Hoseok asked.

"Yep. They still can't come up."

The vast majority of the undead were roaming the streets below. It was intensely crowded at ground level, and anyone who got themselves surrounded by a herd would not survive. There was still the occasional lone zombie on the rooftop though, and Hoseok and Jooheon still had to be careful. They were easy enough to see in the day though, and they tried not to move overnight.

"Alright, let's move."

Without looking back, Hoseok took off in a run towards the edge of the roof. At the last second, he bent his knees and sprung forwards, clearing the gap. He landed on the next roof in a tight roll and then stood, waiting for Jooheon.

"What are you waiting for?" Hoseok called to Jooheon with a grin.

Roof jumping always got Hoseok in a good mood. Jooheon didn't know if it was the adrenaline, or the fact that he somehow wasn't afraid of heights when he jumped. Hoseok had tried to explain it to him once. He'd said something about being fully in control and knowing exactly where his next step would be. It was different, Hoseok explained, just looking over the edge and seeing mini versions of everything. The sheer distance between himself and the ground was terrifying, but when he jumped it was just him and the next roof. The ground could've been a few feet below or a few stories - it didn't matter. He was in control, and he had something to focus on besides the distance from himself to the ground.

Jooheon still didn't get it. And then Hoseok pointed out that he'd rather jump across rooftops than try to make his way through hordes of zombies on the street. That Jooheon could get.

Jooheon mimicked Hoseok's actions and landed in slightly more clumbsy roll beside him. Hoseok had been the one to teach him how to roof jump. Jooheon was a quick learner, but he still hadn't perfected it in the way Hoseok had. But seeing as how it was their main way of transportation, he was very capable.

They took off together for the next rooftop, clearing the gap with plenty of room to spare and rolling to spread the force of the impact. From there, they set a regular pace, running, jumping, rolling, running, jumping, rolling.

Jooheon kept his eyes straight ahead towards the next rooftop. He wasn't afraid of heights, but he didn't want to look down and see the slow wandering masses. Hearing the constant was bad enough.

Suddenly Hoseok stopped and held out an arm to prevent Jooheon from going over the edge. "Wait."

"What is it, hyung?" Jooheon asked.

"Look," Hoseok whispered, pointing at something on the roof they were about to jump to.

It was near sunset and the sky was a dark navy, but against the pink clouds, Jooheon could see multiple silhouettes on the rooftop. The jerky gait told him that these were members of the undead even before the low growling made its way across the gap to rooftop they were standing on.

Jooheon swore. "What do we do?"

Hoseok thought for a moment. "I don't want to risk jumping, there's too many of them. And we can't take the street, that's defintely too dangerous."

Jooheon agreed. "So... we double back?"

"No, that'll take too long. It's already almost dark, and it's getting way too hard to see."

Hoseok got down on his knees and crawled to the edge, flattening his body to the rooftop and peering down the side of the building, partly to stay hidden and partly for his fear of heights. Jooheon got down next to him and looked over the edge.

A traffic light hung in the middle of the street. Jooheon had to squint his eyes to see the cable that held it up. A cable that was attached to both buildings.

"Do you see what I'm seeing?" Hoseok asked Jooheon.

"No," Jooheon said. "It's too dangerous, hyung. We should just stay here for the night."

Hoseok shook his head. "We don't know who's in this building. I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary, and we should get back to the apartment." He handed his gun to Jooheon. "Hold on to this, just in case."

"Wait, hyung no-"

Hoseok climbed over the edge.

Jooheon watched nervously as Hoseok scaled down the building to where the cable was connected. He tried to swallow in his dry throat as the cable swung under Hoseok's weight. The traffic light bobbed in sync with Hoseok, who made his way gradually hand by hand across the cable. With each movement the cable creaked slightly, but it wasn't enough to draw the attention of any zombies.

But suddenly, before Hoseok was even halfway across, the cable broke free from the building Jooheon was still on. Jooheon immediately yelled out before he could stop himself as the traffic light crashed into the side of the opposite building. Hoseok landed with a painful thud and a soft grunt, a few zombies breaking his fall and instantly reaching for his flesh.

Hoseok didn't have much of a chance. The streets were always swarming with hordes of the undead, and once he caught their attention, there wasn't much he could do. He fought as long as he could, but without weapons or a way to escape, it was soon over.

Jooheon spent the rest of that night huddled in the corner of the rooftop with his knees drawn up to his chest, rubbing the surface of Hoseok's gun and replaying his last words.

"You'll make it, Jooheon!"

~~~~~~~

A zombie lunged towards him, arms outstretched. Jooheon instinctively his metal rod forwards and rammed it through the back of the zombie's head. It fell, and when it didn't get back up Jooheon looked at the rod with appreciation. Probably better than a gun, he thought.

He ran down the shelf to the end closer to the entrance, leaping over the outstretched arms reaching towards him. Then he jumped to the next shelf over, and the next, kicking a zombie in the head at the same time. When he was close enough, Jooheon carefully climbed down from the shelf, snatched the paper the other man had left off the floor, and dashed out of the convenience store, shoving a zombie harshly out of the way with his metal rod.

Once he was outside, Jooheon scaled the nearest building all the way up to the roof. He carefully peeked over the edge to make sure there weren't any of the undead stumbling around on the rooftop before pulling himself up and over. There, he unfolded the paper - a map - he'd picked up.

He recognized the map as one of the city he was in. Seven places were circled all over the map, two of them were crossed out. One of the circles was an apartment building with "7A" written next to it.

Jooheon decided to head there.