"You good?" He yells down the hole in the ceiling she had dropped through. The girl puts her right thumb up in his direction, before gathering herself and venturing deeper into the abandoned building.

Once a bustling shopping mall, sunlight shone through its long broken windows, revealing a few stragglers dragging their bodies around aimlessly. But overall, not much danger. 

Checking the nearest deserted store, she comes face to face with one of the undead creatures. Swiftly, she pulls out her weapon of choice, a hatchet, and strikes in the centre of its skull. It collapses, seeping that black gooey mixture that's so reminiscent of human blood.

There was little hope of finding edible food, but that was not the reason for this expedition. Tools, maybe weapons, anything to fix the old pickup truck that was on its last legs.

She repeats this process patiently with every shop, stuffing items of use into the large black rucksack on her back, ignorant of the walking terrors slowly sauntering behind her.

 

"Yoongi," She calls, after returning to the spot she entered from. "I'm done." 

The man in question pokes his head through the entrance, a nod signalling that he's ready for their usual routine

She stands on a mouldy couch, getting used to the bounce of its springs, before properly propelling herself upwards. She jumps and grips onto the edge of the building's roofing, before Yoongi's strong hands grip on hers, fully pulling her out. 

"I found everything we need in the toolbox you told me about, how did you know where it was?" She inquires, pulling the rusty red box in question out of her bag.

"I used to work in the hardware store. People don't usually think about stuff like tools when looking for supplies, so I had a feeling it would still be there." He picks up the box. "Let's go." She follows his instruction, walking behind him.

 

Along the dry, dusty road, Yoongi tinkers with the engine of the forlorn, peeling blue pickup truck, while his companion leans on its side.

"Yup." He slams the hood shut. "She'll live another day, but we have to consider finding a new car."

"But we've had this one for ages." She sighs disappointedly.

"Nothing lasts forever, Jihae." A somber silence falls over the two. They both knew all too well how true that saying was.

"Come on." She hops in the back of the vehicle. "Chop chop." Banging the truck's side with each syllable.

 

They drive down the highway, until reaching their home as the sun sets. A block of empty high rise buildings in a equally hollow city.

"It's funny to think that people used to live here." Jihae revises her familiar surroundings. 

"You can think about it when we're inside, you know how it gets at night." Yoongi begins to their hideout

"But there's not been that many of them recently, even at night." She argues. 

"We're not staying down here." He ends the conversation by entering the building.

 

Their usual night time routine consists of boarding up all entrances on the ground floor to keep any unwanted guests out. For extra ease of mind, they sleep on the top of building, the height giving them an advantage above any possible danger.

Amongst the silence of the pre-post-apocalypse, Yoongi lay beside Jihae, staring contently at the constellations above.

 

"When we were little, Naye - your mum - would always say she wanted to be an astronaut. So after she'd been up in space, she'd bring me back a star." He chuckles at the memory. "I like to think that's what she is now, a star. It would have made her so happy."

"Yeah." Jihae agrees. "Like she's watching over us." She turns around in the softness of the blankets they shared, facing him.

"What was my mum like?" The time old question that, for Jihae, would never be fully answered.

"Well... she was kind and funny and stubborn, just like you." He sighs, restraining himself from being overwhelmed with memories. "You're so much like her, Jihae. Some days it feels like she never left."

 

Jihae crawls closer to Yoongi under the covers, wrapping her arms around his torso. She wasn't cold, but could tell he needed the contact.

Yoongi responds by smiling warmly, rubbing circles into her back with a free hand. "You're a good kid."

Under the stars, Jihae and Yoongi fall fast asleep, next to the only person in the world they care about.