You only felt lips on your own for a millisecond before coughing up water, the person above you moving away to give you room to clear your lungs. The coughing made your throat raw but breath had never felt better. You opened your eyes through involuntary tears to try and regain understanding of your surroundings. Mingyu had the stranger in a headlock in his knees while Wonwoo kept his rifle trained on the lanky guy. Wonwoo was shouting questions at him as Minghao spoke Mandarin in a jumble of noises and confusion.

     “Y/N.” you focused more, “Y/N.” it was Joshua, he was kneeling right in front of you, “Y/N, can you hear me? Are you okay?”

    Finally brought out of your stupor you responded.

    “I’m okay.” you croaked.

    “Oh thank God” you heard Jeonghan release a breath, standing behind Joshua.

    Joshua smiled at you, more than relieved, putting a gentle hand at your shoulder. You smiled back before wincing slightly, the commotion in the background giving you a headache.

    “Wonwoo stop yelling at the guy, he doesn’t know what you’re saying.” Jeonghan tried to quiet them down.

    Joshua sat beside you keeping a supportive hand on your upper back, rubbing lightly across your shoulder blades. You looked at him briefly out of the corner of your eye, his stare was concentrated on the hostage, and he looked less than friendly, not an expression you were used to seeing on him. You followed his line of vision to look at the stranger who had attacked you earlier. You didn’t blame him, not really. You would have done the same if you were in his position.

    The stranger was ignoring Joshua however and looking at you. You couldn’t tell if he looked relieved or distressed. He was probably happy you were alive enough to tell the rest of your group he wasn’t the one who tried to drown you. If you hadn’t been dragged out of the water it would have been assumed that the unknown guy had killed you and would ultimately suffer the consequences. You were his ticket to being kept alive. And so far you did not have a good report card for him. He chanced making eye contact with you, his expression turning more friendly almost hopeful. It reminded you of a kid trying to make friends on the first day of school. You narrowed your eyes in return. He had one thing going for him, his looks would definitely lead one to believe he was more innocent than he had proved so far. You weren’t planning on falling for it.

    “Minghao, what’s his name?” Jeonghan asked demandingly.

    Minghao directed the question to the stranger in a much harsher voice than you’d ever heard him speak in. It seemed this guy had your whole group a little wound up.

    “His name is Junhui Wen.” Minghao interrupted your thoughts.

    “What’s he doing here?” Jeonghan took charge of questioning again.

    This exchange between Minghao and the stranger, Junhui, was longer. Minghao’s shoulders relaxed a bit but his voice was still tense.

    “He was visiting his family when the outbreak happened. Same as me: stuck planes; stuck in America.”

    “Ask him why he tried to warn me.” You told Minghao.

    You received questioning looks all around.

    “What?” Joshua said quietly beside you while Minghao waited for clarification.

    You looked at Junhui.

    “Why did you try to warn me about the biter?”

    At news that the newcomer had not been entirely hostile, surprised looks were shared among the group. Mingyu even loosened his hold on your captive. At the direct address, Junhui grew anxious again and started talking in a panic, the change in demeanor was enough for Mingyu to tighten up his hold again, albeit with a rather confused look on his face.

    Minghao interrupted his anxious chatter sharply before apparently getting some kind of answer.

    “He’s not bad. He was scared, he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. Just that people started going crazy and kill each other. You scared him but he didn’t want you to die. He doesn’t want anyone to die.” Minghao relayed to you looking rather pitifully at the man in Mingyu’s hold.

    Instead of looking scared however, Junhui looked at you earnestly. You two didn’t speak the same language but the message was received loud and clear: ‘Please believe me’.

    Being questioned some more by Minghao, Junhui broke eye contact with you to respond with his full attention.

    “Guys, he’s got no one…” Minghao drifted off

    Oh no, you knew  where this was going, and you were much less than thrilled.

    “Minghao, we can’t take in every person we meet along the way.” Joshua reasoned.

    “You let me stay.” he argued defiantly

    “You didn’t knock me over and try to steal my gun.” you defended Joshua’s point.

    “Wait, he attacked you?” Joshua asked incredulously looking between you and Junhui.

    “He was scared,wouldn’t you have done the same thing?” Minghao argued.

    “I’m with Minghao on this one. Let him in.” Wonwoo sided with Minghao nonchalantly.

    “Since when were you the advocate for newcomers?” you asked accusingly.

    “I’m with Won, he’s got nobody, Y/N.” Mingyu added from his position slightly behind Junhui.

    “He won’t survive on his own,” Jeonghan pointed out, “He’s practically as helpless as Minghao when we found him--”

    “Minghao was a special case.” you interrupted.

    “And Minghao didn’t attack anyone when we found him--” Joshua added

    We leave him he’s dead.” Jeonghan cut you both off.

    “I’m not saying we have to let him join,” Jeonghan paused, “but if we don’t, we’re pretty much signing his death certificate.”

    “Yes, because we need to think about ethics during the zombie apocalypse, thank you, Jeonghan.” you grumbled.

    “Well it looks like you’re in luck, Junhui. It seems our empathetic asses are here to save you.” you said as much to Junhui as you did to announce to everyone the finality of their decision.

    The look of absolute non-understanding you got made you turn to Minghao.

    “Tell him he’s safe. But this is a test period. He’s not part of the team yet. For now you and Joshua have to babysit him until we can trust him.”

    Minghao saluted you with a somewhat proud smile before quickly translating for Junhui, who nodded rapidly in what was probably acceptance.

    After this exchange Wonwoo finally lowered his gun, though he was still watchful of Junhui.

    “Gyu.”

    Mingyu looked at Wonwoo curiously.

    “You wanna let the poor guy breathe now?” he teased slightly.

    Mingyu quickly released him and added a small chuckle of an apology that Junhui seemed to understand because he chuckled and shook his head.

    “Minghao, do you think you could help him learn English too while he’s with us? If he’s gonna stick around it would be helpful to all be on the same page.” you suggested.

    “You got it boss.” Minghao mock saluted.

    The best thing that came out of this decision was the current happy disposition of your foreign friend. For now, you guessed it was worth it.

    “We should get back to camp,” Joshua suggested getting up from his seat next to you, “I think that’s enough scouting for one day.” He offered his hands to pull yourself up off the ground.

    With that you all started a leisurely walk back in the direction of your camp, loosely bundled pack. Wonwoo and Mingyu were debating more hunting details ahead of you, Jeonghan and Joshua were slightly behind you talking about the new tent situation. Every once in a while you would catch Joshua’s eyes glancing at you unsurely. You didn’t know what he was worried about really but you supposed he would tell you when he had the chance to at camp. Your main concern now was on the other side of Minghao who was walking next to you though at just a slightly slower pace, listening to Junhui chatter in Mandarin.

    “Y/N,” Minghao quietly got your attention, moving closer to keep  his voice down.

    “Hm?” you looked over at him to see Junhui leaning around to watch your face as well. You weren’t sure how much you liked him listening in. But he was safe, for now. Besides, he couldn’t even speak English, nothing to worry about.

    “Jun says he’s sorry for attacking you… and not warning you more soon. He really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

    Jun gauged your expression intently from the other side of Minghao.

    “What do you mean? He didn’t hurt me.” you shrug off the apology.

    “Bruises” Minghao gestured towards your body, and sure enough when you took the time to look at yourself, you looked pretty banged up.

    “No, the water did this. I hit a rock.”

    “What?” Minghao seemed confused.

    “When I fell I hit a rock in the water. I was stuck in a current. Uhm, like the water pushed me against a rock again and again… it’s called an eddy tide. They’re a bit dangerous.” you explained.

    “Oh.” Minghao said shortly still looking a bit lost.

    “Yeah, I’m surprised Joshua could pull me out. If you get too close the tide will pull you in. We’re lucky Joshua didn’t get caught in it like me.”

    “Joshua didn’t pull you out.” Minghao said abruptly.

    “Oh well, Mingyu or Jeonghan or whoever, that’s not really the point--”

    “Jun did it.”

    “What?” you blanched.

    Minghao however was not paying attention to you but instead talking again to Junhui.

    “He didn’t wa