The streets were busy. There were people that felt  we were still too close for comfort, and so had decided that they too would evacuate. The streets were full. Packed.

" I don't like this man," Jaebum muttered under his breath, " we're an easy target in crowds this large."

" I know," Yifan agreed. Then sighed and tightened the sheet that he'd used to tie Sehun onto his back  patting Sehuns bottom almost as though he was trying to make sure Sehun was still there,with one hand, while the other one grabbed mine and pulled me close.

" Maybe we could try the smaller back roads,go south and then double back the eastway" Luhan offered, " I mean everyone's trying to get out of town. No one's trying to get in." 

Yifan looked around at his friends, and they all shrugged or nodded.

" Dude, what have we got to lose?  Honestly I'd feel safer if I could see what was ahead of me. I'd rather have a monster come at me on a clear road than on a crowded one where I can't even make out friend from foe," Minseok answered honestly. The rest seemed to agree.

So we took back roads, weaving our way back into town, and then once we cleared the main city center we'd double back and turn east going the long way to get out of the city. Sure it would cut a significant chunk of time out the amount of time we had to get safe, but in the long run it was probably the safer route.

" though," Mark hissed as they walked.

" What?" Kyungsoo asked, holding tight to Deans hand as the group continued to weave as a whole.

" Not that I blame them, but nobody's listening to me about hunkering down in their basements," Mark said.

" Yeah, no one's listening to me either," Chanyeol admitted.

" Or me," Yifan sighed.

" You know what?" Jinyoung suddenly said, " there's a supermart, like ten blocks that way. We need salt, and they'll have the office department" 

" We also need food, dry food, and batteries and torches, and water." Yifan said, " I don't want to risk running out, I'd feel better if we had more than we have right now."

" The salt, the food, the batteries the water, all that stuff I get," Dean said," but why do we need the office department?" she asked.

" Because I'm going to make signs and post them along our trail, we can do our part even if no one's listening," Jinyoung said, " matter of fact," he pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly typed up a crude but effective note

- Danger. Bomb incoming. 1600hrs CST. Bunker down in Basement. Danger- 

He chose appropriate fonts, inserted clip art images of explosions and danger signs, then placed the order to pick up in an hour.

" What do you think? 500 copies?" he asked turning to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo pursed his lips and nodded his head, 

" yeah that sounds good. But dude, exactly how are you gonna pay for that? You know the orders don't print til you pay for them, and I don't think banks and cards are working today"

" Oh, I have like 500 print bonuses from all the papers I had to print last semester," Jinyoung said, " I was honestly getting annoyed of seeing the points pop up in my account. Like what the am I supposed to do with 500000 points?" he asked.

" How the hell did you get 500000 fricking points?" Luhan wanted to know, " like what did you print, a three volume saga?"

" Leave me alone," Jinyoung grumbled, " How was I supposed to know that taking three philosophy courses in one semester meant I was literally trying to sell my soul to the Lord of words?"

" Well my friend," Jaebum said, " your long nights agonising and wailing over all those papers has paid off. You just singlehandedly helped us get the message across to more people than I think we could have otherwise."

Jinyoung shrugged, then pocketed his phone. And we kept walking. Yifan was still holding my hand, his other hand behind him cradling Sehuns bottom. It was so #dadgoals  I wanted squeal. Not that Big brother Fanfan was Sehuns dad, but he was so good with Sehun you could totally see him being a dad, and a bloody good one at that.

" Alright so there's the supermart," Mark said as we came to stop about a block away, " how do we wanna do this?"

" I'm voting we stay together," Yifan said, " I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of splitting up,"

" Yeah, I second, third, fourth, and fifth that," Chanyeol added.

We all snorted. " Dude, you can't just speak for all of us," Luhan said.

" Oh not all of you, just Minseok and Kyungsoo and Jackson, us tall people need to look out for our shorter counterparts. I mean one of me is probably the height equivalent of the three of them,"

All three of them punched him. At exactly the same time. In the gut.

Chanyeol just grinned even as he doubled over in pain.

" See that Dean," Chanyeol sighed, " they're so mean to me."

" Ok but you besmirched their height, and like, i'm short so like, I feel honour bound to totally support their actions."

Chanyeol grinned and stood straight then smirked right down at Dean and said, " you're going to kill me with the cute you know that? Like you're so fricking pocket sized it's heart attack inducing,"

Dean made a squealy distressed noise and turned her back on Chanyeol, only to be met my Mark who was nodding his head slowly, " he's right you know. You are so adorably pocket sized it makes me want to just like put you in my pocket and pet you secretly,"

Dean made yet another squealy distressed sound and turned away from Mark, only to be met by Jackson grinning at her.

" I myself am pocket sized, so I can't say too much about that. You know what. I lie. On second thoughts, you're so adorably pocket sized I'd attempt to keep you in my pockets, even if that meant I wouldn't be able to walk, or like that I'd have to borrow Chanyeols pants just to fit you in the pocket. But I would give it a most valiant try,"

Chanyeol squealed and wrapped his arms around Jackson and said, " stop, just stop,  my heart can't. Like do you know how cute that is. Your 2 inch self trying to pocket another 2 inch being. I can't. Be still my heart."

Dean cracked a smile, and bit the inside of her cheek to keep the smile from becoming a full blown grin. These hot college boys were stupid. But their stupidity was helping her not be quite so scared.

" Come on," Yifan sighed, though there was a hint of a smile on his face as well, " lets get in and out of there. And we go as a group then."

So in we went. The supermart wasn't empty by any means. And it was more stocked than I expected it to be, what with the great exodus going on.There were even a few scattered employees in the store. So we went around from aisle to aisle getting what we needed. 

Sehun waking up just as we were getting to the office department, where Jinyoung picked his preordered and ready to go 500 copies of our public service announcement.

" Fanfan?" he mumbled.

" hey Hunnie," Big brother Fanfan smiled back, " you wanna get down?"

Sehun nodded.

" Ok, but you have to hold both my hand and Zo's hand all the time ok?" Yifan said, " you're not allowed to let go."

" Ok. I promise," Sehun said, " I'll help you keep Zo safe,"

Yifan managed, just barely to bite back the snort of amused fondness.

He set Sehun down between he and I, and Sehun immediately latched onto both of our hands. We grabbed the rest of our stuff, throwing it into a cart then headed for the register. 

" I've got cash," Dean said, " and there's a cashier up there."

So we took our stuff to the register.

" No cards or cheques," she said, " cash only."

" We've got cash," Dean said, but before we could pay, one of the other employees came over and said,

" boss says we're closing. No more sales. They've shut down the registers from corporate offices. Get out of here Lilee"

The cashier blinked then looked up at us and shrugged, " you heard the man. We're closed. No more sales."

" Uh..." Dean said, " so like.. can we still take our stuff?"

The girl sighed, because really she was a girl, no older than Dean or me, then shrugged and said, " yeah. I don't see why not." and then she bent down and said, "come on Nini, we're gonna go home. You ready?"

A little boy, maybe Sehuns age popped his head out from behind her counter and nodded, " yes mama."

We all did a double take, because in the next second he and Sehun were grinning at each other. Sehun yelling, " Nini!!!"

Nini yelling back " Hunnie!!"

" Hey Hunnie, is this your friend?" Yifan asked and Sehun nodded enthusiastically.

" Uh huh. He's my bestest friend at school."

Yifan barely had time to ask his next question before Jinyoung was sliding a flier in front of Lilee, mother of Nini.

Her eyes scanned it quickly and she looked up at him, " how do you know this? They didn't say anything about this on the news"

" My dad and his dad," Big Brother Fanfan said pointing to himself and Sehun, " is the District Police commisioner, our mother works for the NSA, their sister," he pointed to me and Dean, " works for the department of supernatural defense,"

Lilee blinked then closed her eyes and said a slew of bad words under her breath. Her hand came down instinctively to her pregnant belly. " , , ."

" Hey..." Chanyeol said softly, " do you have somewhere safe to go?"

She shook her head.

" Then come with us," Yifan said.

She looked up, surprised, clearly surprised," you don't even know me."

" Sehun knows Nini, and honestly that's good enough for me," Yifan said.

" No, I couldn't," she protested.

" Sure you could. If it helps we can always just kidnap Nini, and this way you can justify coming with us," Luhan said, grabbing Sehun and throwing him onto his shoulders, while Chanyeol did the same with Nini.

" Oh. Dear." Kyungsoo said deadpan. " we have stolen your child. You have no choice but to come with us. Wu.Ha.Ha.Ha."

Dean and I giggled. And Lilee blinked, then sighed and reached under her counter to grab her bag.

" I can't decide if I want to be amused or annoyed right now," she said.

" Be both," Mark offered, " now come on. Let's get out of here, I don't like being out in the open,"

Luhan and Chanyeol put Sehun and Nini- Jongin down, as soon as we were outside and Sehun immediately took my hand in one of his and Jongins in the other. Big brother Fanfan took Nini's other hand.

We resumed walking, and introduced ourselves to Lilee, who explained when Minseok politely asked, that there was no father of the children because he was a cheating bastard that had kicked her out of his apartment barely weeks before and she'd been living in a shared womens home while she tried to get back on her feet.

I saw Chanyeol, Jinyoung, Jaebum, Mark, Minseok, Yifan, Luhan, Jackson all visibly grit or clench their jaws at that, and i'm pretty sure that if the fool had been standing in front of us, he would have had no limbs attached to his body.

Dean and I visibly swooned.

I mean how could we not.

These hot college boys were so fricking... ugh! I can't even.

Seriously. I really just couldn't even.