"We interrupt our daily programming to bring breaking news," the newscaster's voice wavered. His outward appearance was as usual, grey blazer and maroon tie over a white dress shirt, ridiculously large microphone in front of his face, as he looked into the camera. 

Except his eyes shone with a shaky resolve, frequently darting around the studio as if watching for something. 

"All citizens are to evacuate immediately to the nearest safe house as listed. Repeat, evacuate now. If you see any injured or passive civilians..."   

Years of news casting has him trained in keeping husband voice steady, void of emotions. But his fear was evident. He seemed to gulp down his nerves, as if he couldn't believe the instructions he had to announce.

"Leave them there."

A typical apocolyptic situation, mass hysteria and frenzy, people dropping dead, turning. 

"He's infected, Jungkook. We have to go." 

Taehyung did the first thing that came to mind when he saw the news. Saw the fear. Heard the instruction.

He ran, he got to his car parked right outside his dorms and drove straight to the only person he could think of. 

Jeon Jungkook. Closer to him than a family who didn’t care.

"Help me oh help me oh help me please please..." 

A mantra, whimpers of fear as he hugged his legs, backing up closer and closer to the far wall of his room that his brother had shut him in before leaving, a simple instruction given.

"Stay here, don't trust dad." 

He hears a gunshot.

He sees Jungkook's brother, Jungkook's father, Jungkook's mother, but not Jungkook. Admittedly, what he saw made him a tad bit relieved.

Jungkook's mother was sprawled, twisted into a disfigured remain of the beauty she used to be. Her face clawed out, a leaking hole where her stomach should be.

Jungkook's father, a bullet shot through his brain, dead with his slumped body on top of a twitching, sniffling body which was Junghyun, Jungkook's brother. 

"Save him, please..." 

Jungkook launches himself towards Junghyun, crying out, reaching out, but held back by Taehyung's two arms. 

It pained him, to see Jungkook so distraught, but he couldn't let Jungkook get hurt. 

He gazes at the pistol passed to him by Junghyun, shakily raised and shakily grabbed. 

Junghyun gives a smile. Taehyung aims the gun. 

"I'm infected, Jungkook. You have to go."

'Click.'

'Click click click...'

Keeping his hands over his mouth, Taehyung tries to steady his breath. His back against a fallen bookshelf, down on the floor as he attempts to regain his strength; damn clickers were ing everywhere.

The clicking seems to fade, and he's trembling, peeking his head out to check if the clicker chasing him was gone. He needed to get back, fast. He's been gone for too long, Jungkook would have been up long ago. The last time Jungkook woke up without him right there, he nearly lost him completely...

He burst through the door, darting his eyes around, searching. He curses under his breath, the younger no where to be seen. Around the room, he notices the absence of Jungkook's weapons on the overturned dresser in the room they'd made their "home"; the pistol Taehyung had kept, a memento of Junghyun and an admittedly strange but practical birthday present for the newly turned adult, and the kitchen knife looted off a dead man's corpse. 

"," he curses again, running his fingers through his sweaty black hair, looking around again before bounding off and dashing in a random direction, listening carefully, searching thoroughly.

Where was he?

Jungkook was mentally unstable, and Taehyung has been the only one able to calm him. In a world like this that has already gone to hell, it really is no wonder.

Where did he go? Where was he?

"Where is he?" Taehyung heard a voice asking exactly the same things he asked himself. 

The owner of that sing-song, slow and slurred voice, where was he?

Taehyung whips his head to face the direction of the voice, furrowing his eyebrows slightly as he's met with a looming building ahead. Trails of bodies lay hanging from the windows, by their clothes, by their necks, by their remaining flesh that stayed intact. 

"Where oh where oh where oh where..." The hushed mumble echoed throughout the hallway as Taehyung listened, followed. "Hyung! H-hyung!" The voice suddenly morphed from threatening to fearful. 

"Wh-where... Don't.. D-don't go, where?" 

Taehyung picked up his pace, slamming every door open as he bolted in the direction of Jungkook's frightened whimpering. 

Metal clanging to the ground.

"I'm coming. I'm following. I'll go with you." 

Taehyung's climbing all the way up, up to the rooftop where Jungkook was approaching the ledge.

"Wait! Wait for me! H-hyung?" 

Eyes widen as he sees Jungkook shoot towards the edge, up and just moments before falling when Taehyung's arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him back against his chest, the two boys landing on the safe ground behind.

Jungkook was mumbling "Hyung, hyung?" over and over, eyes not focusing, not acknowledging Taehyung's presence.

Taehyung opens his mouth to say something, but wasn't sure what. His mind flashes back to when he found Jungkook cowering, back in his house, back when all this started. Back when he... 

He did what he had to.

"It's okay, it's alright, I'm still here, remember, Kookie?" Taeheyung whispers gently, encasing the boy in his tight embrace as he continues to whisper assurances and sweet nothings to the panicking boy.

"You're safe, I'm safe, and we protect each other. We can, I protect you. And you'll protect me, okay? Stay with me, Kookie... You promise?" 

And suddenly Jungkook's chanting a different set of words, repeating what Taehyung said like it was the only thing keeping his mind alive, keeping his mind sane, "I protect you. I protect you... and I stay with you... I promise I promise I promise..."

A matter of time really before one's sanity just snaps. Especially with their multiple close calls with infected and bandits alike. Taehyung likes to think himself stronger in mentality, but Jungkook was always eons stronger than him physically, more skilled and adept at combat and all related. 

But Jungkook's already weakened state of mind from seeing his own family, dead, mangled in front of him only made him succumb to insanity quicker, faster, and he's constantly at the borderline. Taehyung just barely managed to get Jungkook out of the house alive back then, they've been hiding out ever since in their own little base they've built up, surviving. Just the two of them, strangers couldn't be trusted.

He remembers, the last time they trusted someone, it was years ago. Three, maybe four years into the apocalypse, they had met a man travelling solo with nothing but a machete on his person, wounds littered all over his body.

A limping figure, far out in the white oblivion. Taehyung nocks his arrow, drawing back and aimed. He steadies his breathing, closes his eyes and tells himself it was for survival. He wasn't killing anyone, he was hunting deer for food. It was a deer.

It's part of nature, and a limping deer like that would be killed anyway if not by him.

He reopens his eyes and readies himself to shoot—

He doesn't.

"Oh god."

Taehyung glances back to the safe house where Jungkook was waiting for him, debating for a moment whether or not to tell Jungkook first, or help the heavily injured man hobbling in the snow first.

The cushioned thud from a distance made him choose the latter.

The cold air stung his face as he made a dash towards the injured figure, kneeling down beside him (against his better judgement, his knees were freezing up), and realised he didn't know what to do.

He settled for poking the guy's cheek, calling out to him, "Hey? Hello? Are you okay?"

Red slowly began to stain the snow, and he panics.

"W-wake up! Hey!"

Somehow or rather, Taehyung manages to get the wounded man back to his and Jungkook's safe house, the latter cheerily greeting him with two rabbits in hand, a knife struck in each one's eye.

"Oh, hyung! I caught some rabbits!"

His gaze then flitters towards the bloody mess on Taehyung's shoulder.

("I didn't think you'd go down that path."

"I didn't, now help me help him!")

Jimin, his name was, said he was caught up in a fight between rivalling bandits over a running water dam. Barely managed to scrape through and get out of the whole fest, escaping as fast as he could.

A grimy bowl of rabbit stew was passed around and the trio sat on cardboard boxes they'd found inside the safe house.

The warm bowl cleared Jimin's mind, making him grace the earth with a soft smile on his face.

"You do smile!" Taehyung points out, excitedly, "Smile more, it looks good on you." He tips the bowl to slurp up the broth, grinning at his boyfriend's magical cooking abilities.

Taehyung could never get tired of the way Jungkook makes rabbit and beans taste like a five star gourmet meal.

"So, red hair." Jungkook notes, mildly judging the crimson hair that the newcomer sported.

"I'm.. Uh. I... I'm a hair dye enthusiast. Had stacks in my old base."

Jungkook frowns, not believing him one bit, "Okay sure. Unevenly red, because you're still dying your hair in a world like this."

The red-haired gave a sheepish smile.

And Jungkook was right not to trust Jimin.

Taehyung couldn't see what was going on, but he hears it. Hears the soft cackling by his ear, the footsteps as his capturer paced in circles around him, like a vulture stalking its prey.

"Too trusting, how are you even still alive?"

A nick at his arm, Taehyung winces as his blood trickled slowly.

"I didn't think there'd still be people like you, four years into this unkind world."

Another cut, this time at his thigh.

"Jungkook won't be back for... Two hours, you said?"

Taehyung gasps as his kidnapper tugged harshly at his hair.

"Plenty of time then, Jungkook won't even know what happened."

He feels the sharp of Jimin's blade, running against his cheek, slowly, as he was screaming for fear and for help.

Until he hears an arrow, nocked and released, barely slitting off his blindfold, the sound of metal clanging onto the ground.

His eyes are wide as the cloth that obscured his vision fluttered down, he feels the weight of Jimin's slumped figure  on his shoulder, sees the shock, the arrow between his eyes.

And a crazed giggle, "Who.. whoever wants to take my Taetae away from me, dies... Yeah?"

Jungkook had sang, strangely cheerful at having killed Jimin (saved Taehyung, in his opinion). He walked over, swooped down to grab the machete that fell to the ground, and lifted the imposing weight off of Taehyung, cleanly slicing off the dead, blood red-haired's head for good measure.

From the crazed look in his dilated eyes then, Taehyung had realised Jungkook's sanity was already dwindling. The grin Jungkook sent his way, eerie, he was hugging him tight as he cut off his binds.

Now, after 10 years of surviving, Taehyung knew to never trust a stranger. So when he heard gunshots from the distance, and the cries of the infected as they dropped dead on the floor, he made a break for it.

"H-hey! A survivor!"

He heard voices, then footsteps following after him. , he thought. He picked up his pace, deciding to take a little detour so he doesn't lead the group of potentially dangerous people back to Jungkook.

For Jungkook's safety, as well as his pursuers'.

"Graahhhghhh!"

Taehyung gasped loudly as a stalker leapt out and grabbed at him, pinning him on the ground.

"F-!", he cursed, both hands trying to push it back. Stupid stupid! How could he be so careless!

He knew the stalker was there, noticed the stalker the moment he entered the building but was never able to catch it off guard, until now, it has caught him. 

He grunted, using all his strength to fight back against the stalker, but he'd wasted too much energy on running. This is the end, he thought, the screeching infected biting at nothing, aiming for his face. He was going to die, he was going to leave Jungkook behind all by himself. He lets his eyes close in acceptance. At best, he hopes he dies to whoever was chasing after him, that way he wouldn't be "alive" to harm Jungkook.

So much for staying together forever...

In the midst of his wallowing, he didn't notice that the stalker had been killed, is currently being kicked off him. A hand was offered to him, as well as a warm smile.

"You okay?"

The man(Taehyung decided to dub thee Smiley) spoke, and Taehyung panicked, jumping up to his feet with his pistol pointed at the man.

"You shoot, so do I ." Growled another, and Taehyung now had 3 guns aimed at himself.

"Guys stop, lower your guns." Smiley warned, then raised both his hands in the air, "We're not dangerous, alright? We're just trying to survive, like you. There's only us four left, so we'd appreciate if you don't go killing us now."

Taehyung kept his gun raised, so did the other three.

"I don't trust you."

Smiley looked at the other three, gesturing for them to watch the sides for infected instead, which they reluctantly did.

"If we were trying to kill you, why would we have saved you? I'm Seokjin, these are Yoongi, Namjoon and Hoseok. What's your name?"

Taehyung stared at Smiley (Seokjin), still wary. He opened his mouth, ready to give a fake name.

"Ch–"

"Bloater," Hoseok whisper-shouted, nudging Seokjin, "and his entourage!"

", to the truck guys, hurry! You come along too." Seokjin commanded, lighting and throwing a molotov at the hoard before dragging Taehyung along, right behind the other three, down the street.

"Come on, get in quickly!" Hoseok yelled, jumping onto the back of the truck and assisting with his rifle.

Yoongi climbed into the driver's seat, immediately starting up the engine as Namjoon got in the shotgun seat (fitting, as he carried a shotgun). He stepped on the gas right when the door closed behind the last two, who clambered into the back seats.

", barely made it... Yoongi, back to camp." Seokjin panted heavily, leaning back against the seat.

It took Taehyung a while to process the situation, catching his breath before he yelled out, "Wait, stop!" Seokjin seemed to look amused.

"K-Kookie," Taehyung started, "he's still at our base, hopefully. It's right at the edge of this town, please.. We have food, supplies there so it's worth it I promise, we have to go back for him!"

Yoongi opened his mouth, from the looks of it was about to let out a string of profanities along with a lecture of why they should definitely not stop with a hoard of infected running after them, when Seokjin in, "Of course. We'll get him. Just tell us where."

Namjoon was looking at him like he'd gone mad, Hoseok was groaning as he reloaded his rifle and Yoongi bit his lip. Once Seokjin decides on something, no one can disobey.

 
"He's not ing here you !" Yoongi growled, slamming Taehyung against the wall. They'd scoured the entire base up and down, collected all the supplies, and saw no 'Kookie' around.

Hissing, Taehyung pushed Yoongi back, throwing a punch at him, "I said hopefully! He was here when I ing left, he's probably gone off somewhere like last time.. , we have to find him..."

Taehyung looked around, trying to find any clue of Jungkook.

"Uhm, we? Excuse me? Might I do kindly remind you, that there is a ing bloater out there ready to kill us all?!"

Yoongi's nose flared and his glare was piercing, but one look from Seokjin stopped him in his tracks, with nothing more than a grumble as he backed down.

"There's a fresh blood trail leading outside... Is that any help?" Hoseok commented, looking at Taehyung.

Thinking back, Taehyung remembers some bandit had thrown a knife at Jungkook's leg the other day. Crap... Did his wound reopen? 

"Yes, it does. I'm going to look for him, you guys don't have to come, you've helped a lot already," Taehyung says as he followed the trail, which ultimately led to the sewers, dark and seemingly endless tunnels that criss-crossed like a large labyrinth.

The splashing sounds of more footsteps against the wet floor alerted to him the presence of two people who tagged along.

"We're coming with, Namjoon and Hoseok'll guard our exit."

Thus, the search began with the friendly greeting of runners. Well, dead runners with holes in their chests and their heads cleanly sliced off.

"Nice.." Yoongi muttered, stepping past the corpses, "That your Kookie's doing?" Staring at the bodies, Taehyung nodded, "That's Kookie alright..." He bit his lip, a feeling of dread slowly clawing at him from within. "Keep following them."

As they followed the trail of dead, rotting bodies, a melody of groaning infected, with the accompaniment of an echoing giggle rang louder in their ears, along with chants of the same word over and over, 'Die'.

"I'm not so sure if I want to meet this Kookie fellow now..." Yoongi muttered, just as they turned a corner—

'Bang!'

"Ah, !" Yoongi yelled, gripping his leg as Seokjin raised his gun.

"Don't shoot!" Taehyung yelled, jumping in front of the gun. He looked at the new face, worrying at his lip.

There stood Jungkook, with a twisted grin on his face. His face was splattered with blood, machete in one hand and a gun in the other. He was twitching, slipping again into the depths of insanity.

"Kookie.. Look at me, yeah?" Taehyung spoke softly, slowly approaching the crazed man, "I'm here, it's me.. You won't hurt me, right?"

Jungkook was looking at Taehyung, eyebrows furrowed as if trying to recall the warm, brown eyes that met his own.

"Do you remember? We said we would always be together, we would survive through this hell together.. I protect you, you protect me."

There was something about that deep, familiar voice that stirred something in Jungkook, flicking the switch and making him lose his grip on his weapons, as well as all strength in his knees.

"Woah.. I got you, it's okay baby, I'm here now.." Taehyung cooed softly and he held onto Jungkook, who's started sobbing into the elder's shoulder.

"We'll be alright..."

 
"About ing time!", yelled Namjoon as he blasted two more infected away with his shotgun, the trio finally coming back out the sewer with Jungkook asleep in Taehyung's arms.

The pair were on the back of the truck, knocking back infected the best they could. They were looking worse for wear, but at least the bulk of the previous hoard hadn't caught up yet.

", that's a lot of infected," Taehyung mumbled, climbing into the backseat with Jungkook rested on the seat, head on his lap. "Yeah, no . Yoongi hurry the up and drive will you?!" Hoseok yelled, blasting another infected's head off.

"I got it, I got it, no need to ing yell! My leg's killing me as much as it is already ."

Once the infected were out of sight, Namjoon and Hoseok finally exhaled in relief, allowing themselves the luxury of sitting with their backs against the sides and facing each other. "Wooo! Live to see another day!" They yelled joyfully.

Amidst the cheering, Taehyung was looking at his Kookie, gently brushing hair out of his face.

"Gonna be a long ride, you might wanna get some sleep." Seokjin mumbled, looking out at the darkening sky. Taehyung glanced out too, smiling softly at the sight of the bright sunset. Even in a world like this, there is still beauty...

"Nah, I'm good. Wanna be awake when Kookie wakes up.. Otherwise all hell might break loose again, since he doesn't know you guys..." Taehyung replies, caressing the younger's hair gently.

"Alright. Oh yeah, never managed to catch your name.. What was it again?"

Taehyung looked at Seokjin, then at the others. In the back, Namjoon and Hoseok were playing some sort of game, cheerfully laughing at and with each other. Seokjin was looking at him with a warm smile, and Yoongi too appeared to glance at him through the mirror.

Thinking back of the day's events, he smiled and came to a conclusion.

He could trust these people.

As much as Seokjin with his love for smiling deserves the name Smiley.

"Taehyung. Kim Taehyung, and this little bunny here is Jeon Jungkook."

The mention of their names managed to grab all of their attention, even for a split second. Yoongi, especially, seemed pretty shaken up for a moment. Seokjin glanced at the rest, the look in his eyes unreadable as he gave a sorrowful smile.

"Taehyung and Jungkook huh. Seems like a very common name, Jungkook... One of our own was," He paused, as if trying to find the words before cautiously continuing, "Was also called Jungkook... He was our Yoongi's best friend, who was killed by a.. a pair of maniacs. They're still out there, too."

Taehyung frowned, sympathising with the feeling of sorrow, regret that they must be feeling, "I'm very sorry for your loss.."

Seokjin just smiled, "Been 6 years, man, think we're too far past the sympathy phase."

When Jungkook awoke, they'd already made it to Seokjin's camp. The sun was up, it's rays almost blinding the man even through the tattered curtains. He looked around, noticing that his clothes had been changed out, felt fresher too.

He was in an unfamiliar room, laying on a bed with Taehyung asleep on a chair right beside, head rested on his tummy. Their hands were closed together, warm and a perfect fit.

Slowly, he tried to climb off the bed without waking the elder, failing the very moment he knocked into drawers with his knee, groaning silently in agony.

"Mmh..? Oh.. Mornin' Kookie..." Taehyung mumbled, rubbing his eyes slightly with a slight smile on his face. "You okay? Slept well?"

Jungkook nodded slowly and bit his lip, looking around again, "Where.. are we?" He asked cautiously, waiting for an answer.

The answer didn't come, as they were interrupted by someone walking into the room. Alarmed, Jungkook reached for his pocket where... Where his gun was supposed to be, tucked snugly and in easy reaching distance for any danger.

It wasn't. He started to panic, where the hell did Taehyung put his gun?!

He settles for second best, pulling out his pocket knife and pointed it at the intruding figure.

"Woah, easy there Jungkook, I'm a friend... My name is Seokjin. We brought you two here, since your old home is probably now flooded with infected." Said Seokjin, as he raised his hands in surrender for the second time in these two days.

Jungkook's eyes widened, and he glared at Taehyung, eyes conveying all he wanted, "You told him my name, you're trusting someone again?!".

He couldn't believe it. Taehyung still didn't have the heart to leave others behind, even after Jimin. Leave it to Taehyung to go swimming with the sharks right after barely surviving a dive head first into a pool of piranhas.

Looking apologetic, Taehyung glanced down sheepishly, "They saved us both, you know?" At that, Jungkook groaned. He can't believe how overly kindhearted and gullible the older was. What's next? Hugging an infected because it seemed sad?

Jungkook coldly glared at Seokjin, then tugged Taehyung closer to him protectively. If looks could kill, Jungkook would've shot so many holes into the guy it'll trigger even those who don't believe in trypophobia.

Understanding his clear signal, Seokjin smiled, "I'll just go check on the food. Come down when you're ready."

It wasn't long before Taehyung managed to talk Jungkook into joining Seokjin and the rest on their travels.

("Hey, more people, better chance of survival. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, see how well that logic worked with Jimin?"

But Taehyung's adorably sad puppy eyes made Jungkook's resolve waver.)

While they had their own camp, they still ventured out to gather supplies when they were running low. He still didn't trust them, however, but Taehyung just shook that minor detail off. Jungkook was never one to trust anyone easily.

Their lives went by pretty well too, always had sufficient food, water. Run ins with infected were more swiftly and easily dealt with, bandit encounters even dropped significantly. Taehyung assumed it was due to the fact that they now had more people, hence appear more formidable as a whole. Nevertheless, he was pleased with his own decision to have trusted them, given them a chance.

He's out by the creek, with Yoongi by his side. Jungkook was still asleep, and a glance at the sky tells him it was no later than 7am at that moment. 

Target practice. That was their agenda, since Taehyung has always been a bad shot. Winters were survived because Jungkook could hunt rabbits with his eyes closed, the rest of the year had them getting lucky with canned food supplies and swiping from raiders they came accross; Taehyung was good at swiping.

He has his usual bow and arrow, it was his primary weapon since he gave the gun to Jungkook. Because let's face it, they had one gun and Jungkook could use it way way better than Taehyung could ever hope.

The duo had been hunting rabbits for a solid hour now, and Taehyung's still got no game. He'd let three rabbits slip free, and a quick look at Yoongi's pile makes him strongly believe that fate was teasing him.

Three, fully grown rabbits.

"Look kid. You're being too tense," Yoongi explained when the younger complained about not being able to hit a shot, "Affects your aim. Here," 

The elder spends the rest of the morning helping Taehyung find the right pace of breathing, the right positioning of his hands.

By the time they were done, Taeyung's shot down three more rabbits.

His life seemed perfect. The life he's always wanted to have, the life he couldn't have even before the apocalypse. The calm, happy life that would be a miracle for any survivor in the wastelands.

Excited cheering as Seokjin got selected for the ol' spin-the-bottle party game they played by the campfire, night approaching but them too hyper to get to bed yet.

People starting screaming, "Dare dare dare!" as if the louder they screamed, the more likely Seokjin'll choose dare.

It worked though, so Taehyung wasn't really complaining, only Jungkook was bothered by it and took furtive glances around, making sure no stray infected or bandit troupe came to check out the very obvious beacon they were being.

Hoseok immediately raised his hand as if telling everyone to shut up and let him speak, and speak he did.

"I dare you to make out with anyone of your choice," he says, before coughing out the last word deliberately, "-Namjoon-"

Fun and games, really, Hoseok being the little matchmaker for the, as he calls it, Nam-Jin couple while Yoongi merely watched on. 

( "Can you believe that they've been pining each other for 7 years now?" )

The whole dynamic seemed perfect, they balanced each other well, and Taehyung would've felt like an outsider with Jungkook if it weren't for Seokjin's constant effort to include Taehyung as well. 

( "So when did you two become a thing?/Who confessed first?/Who tops?/Do y'all still in this kind of world?" )

Really, life was perfect.

But, the moral still entails.

You can't trust anyone.

Taehyung'd woken up one fine midnight, in one of the cabins they'd taken shelter in to rest, to the screams of agony, fear. Right outside the cabin. He'd turned to alert the others, but they weren't inside. He feels a sinking feeling of dread, and he clambered to his feet, clumsily crashing through the cabin door, onto the damp grass outside.

The red of the grass stained his person.

He stared at his hands that were smeared with the liquid, beginning to panic. Was it.. Blood? Then, he noticed right in front of him, the mangled body of a fresh corpse, blood still bright and flowing.

The body was separated from its head, by a clean slice, shot multiple times and even appeared to have been crushed. Gazing further, he found the head. An eye ripped out of its sockets, knife stuck into its open, blood-filled mouth.

A second body by the crackling fire that still glowed brightly, charred and marked with red, hot marks over half its surface.
A third, stuck to the tree with knives holding him there. All of them had their heads cut off, chests ridden with holes.

The worst part was...That all this, was horrifyingly familiar.

He then noticed the choking sounds coming from a few feet in front of him, a voice coughing out his name.

"T..a—hy..u..n...g...!"

Slowly, he dared himself to look up, only to have his worst fears confirmed.

It was Jungkook, at the tree right by the campfire.

Jungkook, with his blood soaked machete and pistol.

Jungkook, with a sickly grin and crazed giggle. Arm pinning against the tree Seokjin, by the throat. His muscles throbbed, as if over exerted, and he held the gun pointed at Seokjin's chest.

Taehyung couldn't believe it.

Seokjin was gasping for air, clawing at Jungkook's arm with one hand, the other weakly reaching toward Taehyung.

He was slowly scooting back, in panic and disbelief. His gaze landed on the knife buried within one of the heads.

Did he have the resolve..? Could he, would he..?

Seokjin was quickly losing consciousness, and Jungkook's grip on the trigger was getting tight. If he's to do something, he has to make a decision fast.

...

He lunged.

 
Gazing upon the setting sun, beautifully orange with a tinge of purple, Taehyung couldn't help but recall the tragic ends to the latest chapter in his life, when he'd finally trusted strangers again.

He remembers vividly, every detail, of the fresh, mangled corpses of whom he considered to be his friends.

Kim Namjoon.

Jung Hoseok.

Min Yoongi.

Smiley, Kim Seokjin.

He regrets.

He'd not woken up early enough to save Namjoon, Hoseok, or Yoongi.

He was not strong enough to fight Jungkook. Not strong enough, mentally, to hurt the man he's been through years with. The man he's fallen deeply in love with, even before the entire apocalypse.

He just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Taehyung still remembers the distinct sound of a gunshot, moments before he'd tackled Jungkook to the ground using just enough strength only to restrain him. To calm him.

Seokjin had taken a bullet to the heart, and died moments after.

However, his inability to save them was not his regret. No, it definitely was not, because his trust in Jungkook supersedes all.

Especially when he's met with a sniffling, terrified Kookie sobbing out all his worries and concerns, blurting out what he heard, what he saw, before he lost control.
 

Jungkook had stayed awake, Taehyung long asleep, the younger's lap as his pillow. His fingers the sleeping male's dirty, but still ever soft, hair, a gentle smile as he watches his boyfriend's peaceful expression.

The cabin was empty, Taehyung had retreated to bed early with Jungkook trailing after him, like a lovesick puppy that couldn't stay away for more than a minute.

Seokjin and the rest stayed outside, by the campfire, continuing their dinner and keeping watch meanwhile.

Jungkook rests his head against the cabin wall, closing his eyes and willing himself to rest.

If the four outside wanted to kill them, they had plenty of opportunities already, he figured.

He allowed himself to relax, calmed himself down and let himself sleep.

But a soft click from outside seemed to flip a switch in the young male. Jungkook's eyes flew open, and he realises the chattering from outside, the white noise that was loud and boisterous just moments ago had all but dissipated into hushed whispers, nearly silent clicking.

It didn't sound like clickers.

Carefully, he let Taehyung's head down floor, and slowly got up to his feet.

Something in his mind turged on, another flicked off. Jungkook picks up his knife belt and his gun.

He counts them, one, two, three. Plus one machete. Perfectly enough.

He puts his ear to the door, just enough to make out the words vaguely.

"...can finally avenge Jimin. Jungkook first, he's the biggest threat, then kill Taehyung."

Then Kill Taehyung. 
Kill Taehyung.
Taehyung.

The door slams open, and Jungkook couldn't help his widening smile as he lunged at the closest person, knocking him into the fire.

 
The four were the remaining members of a bandit troupe. A cannibalistic bandit troupe.

The same group they had massacred years ago.

Precisely, 4 years into the apocalypse, the very day they'd killed Jimin.

Indeed, the four who died by Jungkook's hands a full year ago, were in cahoots with Jimin. They'd found out about Jimin's death soon after the event, along with his entourage's brutal genocide, and traced it back to the men responsible.

Taehyung has an arrow nocked, aimed at a hobbling deer, injured from a small scuffle with another woodland creature that Taehyung only managed to glimpse the ending of. This time, he didn't hesitate as he let the arrow fly, the bite of winter slowly closing in.

They needed the food, and the rare deer would last them quite a while.

But he still felt the guilt of taking the life of an innocent deer.

He lugs the deer back home to Jungkook, a new safe house further out, infected count low, bandits making themselves scarce.

He sees Jungkook staring at two masks that hung on the wall.

Kid-edition gas masks with a cute, smiley face print.

"That chapter may have been long closed," Jungkook started, picking both masks up and handing one to Taehyung.

A smiley with the widest grin, twisted in a sinister cackle that made it look almost insane. 

"But I know you haven't forgotten them."

Jungkook puts on his own, a more calm, sincere smile, softly beaming at Taehyung.

Taehyung looks between his mask, and Jungkook.

Fitting, he thought. A fitting juxtaposition.

He pulls his mask on too.

They were known as the Smiley-faced bandits.

Aliases; Mercy and Cryme.  

The two maniacs who still roam the wastelands, even till today.