It had been just over two years since the beginning of the end of the human race, and almost three weeks since Byun Baekhyun had seen any survivor or military personnel. He didn’t know the state he was even in, let alone the town name. Any signs that could have given him a hint had been ruined or removed. It was the same as every place his weak body had stumbled through since he mustered up the bravery to leave his home. Ever since it got out that the government was behind the outbreak, the military had been doing their best to get rid of anything that Baekhyun, or any survivor, could find familiar. It was easier to control people when they were confused and desperate. Staying in one place wasn’t safe anymore. Between the military raids of neighborhoods and survivors looting encampments at gunpoint, constant migration was the best chance at survival.

Baekhyun wasn’t even confident in how it all started. Television signals were blocked only a couple of days after they first started reporting, and the power grid went to soon afterward. To the general public, nothing was known about why the experiment existed or how the government even planned to utilize it. Similar to all the classic zombie movies he had seen growing up, you wanted to avoid being bitten by any means necessary. If they sunk their teeth into you it was only going to be hours before you became like them. Unlike the movies, the government did not have sanctuaries for those who survived, no place where they could live together and make a new community. The reality for him was if he was spotted, he was dead. He’d seen it with his own eyes and the first time made him sick, now it was just as much a part of life as the mouth-foaming creatures that he also hid from. Scariest of all, the infected were smart, they could see and smell and hear and run. They were designed to be hunters and people like Baekhyun were the prey.

He had very much enjoyed being a city boy, spoiled by the luxuries of an air-conditioned condo and hot water. Going out to drink with his friends on the weekend and worrying only about trivial things like which movie to see at the theater that weekend. He was not a survivalist by any means and he would have never imagined himself as one of those adrenaline junkies on a reality television show, dropped off in the middle of nowhere and forced to survive. But now, that’s the only choice as to who he could be, minus the camera crew, immediate medical help in an emergency, and the promise of life. No, his life could end at any second and nobody would be there to remember it.

He finds himself twisting the ring around his finger on his left hand. The band was simple yet lined with small diamonds and there was a flip in his stomach when his eyes landed on it. He bit down on the inside of his lip and picked up his pace a little, shoving his hands in his pockets to get the subject out of his brain. His life before didn’t matter anymore, this was his life now and he couldn’t let himself feel emotions that would get in the way of his survival. He couldn’t let himself be naive… not anymore. He had accepted a long time ago that it was his destiny to be alone.

His possessions were left behind, all he had was his fiance’s pistol strapped to his hip and a backpack slung over his shoulder. The pack was currently on the lighter side, only holding some spare fabric in case he needed makeshift bandages and a couple of food items he could find as he traveled. Scavenging was not his forte, he would admit. He was scared to go into homes and stores, scared to find one of those… things, waiting for him inside. It was by pure luck he had made it as long as he had, and he knew it.

The small town was quiet and the sunset was coming. He knew he was going to have to find shelter soon before it was too dark to see properly. The creatures weren’t loud, they didn’t gargle and groan and rarely bumped into things. They could sneak and stalk their prey. He had become pretty sure that they could also see rather easily at night. The reminder sent a chill straight down Baekhyun’s spine and he wondered if there would ever be a moment he didn’t feel like he had eyes on him, like something was lurking just around the next curve in the road.

A small gas station store could be spotted across the street and so far it was the most promising thing Baekhyun had stumbled across in the rather desolate area. If he was really lucky there might be something edible left in there. He could perhaps even block himself off behind the cashier’s counter to get some sleep. It had been a learning curve to sleep and feel rested while being overwhelmed with fear and lacking physical comfort. At this point, however, Baekhyun could probably sleep upside down if he needed to. If you didn’t adapt, you didn’t survive.

There were a couple of beat-down-looking cars parked by the gas tanks but he knew there was no point in checking them for fuel, it seemed to have all been long gone for months now. He stepped up to the small store and pushed the door to peer in, flinching at the way it squeaked on its hinges. He was just about to deem it clear when he heard a small groan. He froze in his tracks, eyes scanning the small place frantically. It looked scavenged, shelves left empty with some knocked over, and random objects scattered messily along the floor. He couldn’t just stand there like a deer in the headlights so he slowly closed the door behind him. It was quiet now, so quiet that he started to wonder if maybe he had imagined the noise from before.

He’s brought back to reality when he hears it again, a male’s voice whimpering out the words ‘help me’ from somewhere near the back of the store. Baekhyun stepped deeper into the building to search between each set of aisles. When the infected did make noise they did not speak coherently, but his hand slowly slid down to his pistol anyway. Not only was the violent reality of mankind as scary as the creatures, but he also didn’t know if the owner of the voice had been bitten recently. He didn’t want to take the chance of being unprepared.

The last row of shelving had been completely knocked over and he gasped at the sight of a man, his leg pinned under the heavy metal. He looked clean, and rather sane given the situation. He appeared so well off in fact that Baekhyun feared he might be part of the military. His combed hair and shaved face made Baekhyun’s matted hair and scruffy chin look worse by comparison. The man’s eyes met his and Baekhyun took a small step back in fear, raising his pistol with shaking hands.

“Are you with the government?” It was the first thing Baekhyun had said in quite some time. He was glad the hoarseness from his dry throat made him sound a little more intimidating than he usually would have. When he had seen nonviolent survivors they normally just nodded towards each other and kept on their way, only sometimes exchanging advice or items. For the most part, people either stuck to themselves or their established groups. With how crazy the situation had driven so many people, friendship wasn’t a top priority for many and the risk of approaching a stranger was rarely worth it.

“No, I swear! Please help me.” The man begged, pushing at the shelving that lay crushing his leg. Baekhyun snapped out of his thoughts and holstered the pistol, rushing over to try and help push the metal up and out of the way. The man looked stronger than him, but the extra strength Baekhyun was able to supply was enough for the other to pull his leg out. There was blood soaking through his jeans around his calf from where a corner of the shelf had stabbed into his flesh. Baekhyun ped his pack and quickly removed as much fabric as he could. He pressed them into the male’s wound and looked around for anything that might help them.

“Hold that there I’m going to look for alcohol.” Baekhyun jumped up, adrenaline pumping as he gave the male another quick look. He was so shockingly put together. He even looked like he had been eating decently, his face more filled out than Baekhyun’s gaunt one. He hurried towards the coolers lining the wall, searching for any alcohol that might work. A lot of it had been scavenged or broken on the floor but there were still a few bottles left abandoned near the back. One was a clear glass bottle of vodka and Baekhyun snatched it, carrying it back to where the other male lay on the floor, holding the fabric to the torn skin.

“I’m Jongin.” The man says as Baekhyun kneels beside him, pulling the fabric away to get a better look. The wound wasn’t too deep but it was going to still take a while to heal, longer if bacteria began to spread. Medicine was scarce.

“Baekhyun.” He mutters back, focused hard on trying to get a good look at the wound. He let his fingers grip along Jongin’s calf, feeling for his bone. It didn’t feel like there was any serious break in the bone and that was a relief, he wasn’t sure he would have the proper knowledge to try and fix it. “This is gonna burn a ton Jongin so I suggest you try your best not to yell, I would like to get out of here alive.”

Baekhyun doused some of the extra fabric with the clear alcohol and took a deep breath. Rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide would have been an safer solution at the moment but a wound like this was going to get infected if it was left to itself. The man’s body went rigid when the wet fabric came into contact with his skin but he did a good job at remaining mostly quiet, biting down on some of the leftover fabric as the wound was delicately cleaned. Baekhyun sat back with a big sigh and picked the bottle of vodka up, taking a swig from it straight into his mouth. Vodka was not his choice of alcohol, but he was willing to drink anything now that his adrenaline was crashing and reality was beginning to set back in.

“Thank you.” Jongin finally managed to say, though he still couldn't properly move his leg. “I tripped over something and tried to grab the shelf to save myself from falling but it just came tumbling down with me.”

“How long have you been under there?” Baekhyun passed the bottle to the other who didn’t hesitate to take a large drink of his own.

“An hour maybe, thank God not days. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t come here.” A thought seemed to suddenly cross Jongin’s mind and he looked around as if examining the building. “Are you alone?”

Baekhyun nodded, his fingers subconsciously fiddling with the ring again. “What about you?”

“Technically yeah. I mean just right now. I live with others and we almost always scavenge in groups but I came out to look for some candy. My boyfriend has been talking about how much he misses it, so I wanted to surprise him. He’s probably worried sick about me by now.” 

The word boyfriend makes Baekhyun’s stomach churn with a mixture of nausea and hope. It was nice to hear that there were people still in love despite the world around them, but it made him feel more alone than he had been when he was by himself. “Do you guys have a base or do you travel? Are there many of you?”

Jongin hesitated to answer but Baekhyun wasn’t surprised. Sticking to yourself was the easiest way to stay safe, everyone knew that. “We live in a small community hospital. Just certain wings of it but we have our areas quarantined. There's like less than 15 of us there. You can come back with me if you’d like. We don’t take people in often but since you’re all alone, I don’t know if I would feel comfortable leaving you here.”

Just half an hour ago he had been reminding himself how alone he would be forever and now he had an offer to possibly change that. A place to stay where he didn’t have to fear where he would be sleeping the next night. He was slightly wary, not every survivor was friendly, and he had to remind himself not to be gullible but between how exhausted he was and how well off Jongin looked, he didn’t know how he could turn him down. “I’d love to. I’ll help with anything you guys need I just… I would appreciate some damn human contact.”

“The way you felt my leg… are you a doctor or something? We have one girl who was in med school when this started, but we could still really use a doctor.” Jongin sounded hopeful but the question sends another jolt of nausea into Baekhyun’s stomach.

He glanced down at the ring on his hand and slowly felt over each little diamond with his fingertips. “No.. my fiance was a doctor, he used to teach me different emergency-type skills.” Baekhyun hadn’t talked about Jinho since the outbreak began and the incident happened. All he could muster was a soft, “He didn’t make it.”

Jongin didn’t dare push for more information and just apologized. Baekhyun leaned back against the tile floor, his pack under his head for some kind of comfort. “Is the hospital far? We really shouldn’t travel this late, especially with your leg. We wouldn’t see them coming up to us or be able to get away fast enough.”

“It’s only a mile and a half maybe, we can rest for the night and leave at sunrise,” Jongin replied as he took his place near the shelf, his leg elevated on top of it now to keep the bleeding from coming back. “We have to figure out how exactly I’m going to get there, but I think I could limp if we have all day.”

Baekhyun nodded, not sure if the other man could even see it. They talk for a while, mostly about themselves. Jongin is younger than Baekhyun and was working as an engineer until the ‘apocalypse’, as he rightfully called it. Baekhyun was enjoying the conversation but the more his adrenaline faded and the alcohol settled in his empty stomach, sleep could not be ignored. He drifted off with hope on his mind for the first time in a long time.

Baekhyun woke up to a pained voice cursing out into the early morning silence. He sat up so fast the room seemed to spin and found Jongin limping around the store, shoving whatever he could into his pack. He could tell by watching him that the man couldn’t put much weight on his leg and Baekhyun wondered how long it was going to take them to make it to the hospital with Jongin in this condition.

“There’s no ing candy bars or anything. All this trouble and I can’t even bring anything good back for Soo.” The younger slumped back down to the floor and leaned into the drink coolers. Baekhyun grabbed his pack, ping it and digging around a little bit before pulling out a single kit-kat bar. It was broken and probably stuck to the wrapper from melting and rehardening. He had been saving it for a special occasion, but other candy would come eventually. He tossed it into Jongin’s lap and for the first time saw him break into a smile. “Oh my God, Baekhyun. You have no idea what this stupid chocolate means to me.”

“Take it as my thank you for sheltering me.” He zipped his bag back up and took in a deep breath. He could see from the way Jongin looked at the small candy that this ‘Soo’ was special to him and seeing such raw positive emotion made things almost feel normal, just for a moment. “The fact that you went scavenging just to get him something he loves… I’m just glad I found you. You deserve to be able to give that to him.”

They set off as soon as they were sure there wasn’t anything else left behind to take with them, the extra alcohol stuffed in Jongin’s pack. It was going to be a long slow walk and they had to be extra aware of their surroundings. Jongin had his weapon, a shotgun he used currently as a cane, pressing it to the ground carefully as they walked.

“Do you guys have supplies there?” Baekhyun asked suddenly, breaking the silence between them. “Like food and stuff? How do you guys have supplies for so many people?”

“We have some. Ammo and food. Plenty of medical supplies as the building was probably functional when the outbreak happened. We have limited power too.” Jongin explains, watching as Baekhyun’s eyes widen. “The roof is lined with solar panels that power generators, it keeps the kitchen running. We try to keep the lighting on the main floors to a minimum though. We stick to sunlight and try not to turn it on at night unless necessary. No internet or cable though, the signal for those types of things has been long lost.”

Baekhyun didn’t care about the internet, just the idea of having lights and a proper heater during the upcoming winter was good enough for him. “What about water?”

“Wave water from the hospital’s tank and filtration system. We’ve been planning how we can refill it in the future but for now, we’ve been able to portion what the hospital already had backed away. It’s easier when you’re only supplying water for a dozen or so people instead of an entire hospital.” It explained why he looked so clean. Baekhyun suddenly felt more aware of his physical state around Jongin.

His head had stopped itching three or four months after everything went to , but he still felt disgusted when he hadn’t been able to find a body of water to wash himself up in for a while. He used to shave but he had traded the razor with another survivor a month ago for a couple of bottles of water. Even though he didn’t grow facial hair easily, scruff was starting to cover his face. It made him think back to the luxuries he used to have that he didn’t even realize could be gone in the blink of an eye. His daily showers, his specialty body wash for sensitive skin. His clothes hung on his small frame, his once toned stomach now caved in around his ribs, his thin thighs rubbing against the rough denim of his jeans.

They walked mostly in silence, pausing occasionally when they thought they heard a noise, scanning their surroundings with their guns drawn. Baekhyun wasn’t even sure he could pull the trigger, but he was sure Jongin could. If he was brave enough to leave his base alone for candy, he probably wasn’t carrying his gun around as a false sense of protection. Finally, they came around a street corner and Baekhyun could see the hospital sign, large on the side of the road. Behind it was a multi-story building, surrounded by makeshift fencing of wood and chain link. A wooden sign was resting against the fence, no trespassing. A gun was drawn underneath it, a warning to those who dare try to raid the sanctuary.

Jongin’s pace quickened as much as his leg allowed, checking to make sure Baekhyun was still following with a sincere smile. “Welcome home.”