█ Chapter 1: Flashback

"Do you remember?"

"Remember what?" Jongin asked, tossing more firewood into the dying flames. The wood they had saved were soaked in the morning shower, so now they had little fuel to sustain them through the harsh winter night. Jongin was barely managing with twigs and leaves to keep the fire they had from extinguishing for the fourth time that evening alone.

"When it all happened," Sehun replied slowly. He tugged his tattered school uniform around his shoulders, fingers then fanning out a foot or so away from the crackling fire.

", I remember that like my own birthday," Jongin chuckled. "I don't even remember my own birthday anymore, I don't even know what day it is today."

"It's been a year."

"Has it?"

"Yeah."

The two simmered in silence for a while, sitting side by side on some rotted log that they had salvaged before the flash flood. After leaving the deserted city a few weeks ago, Sehun and Jongin had been on the search for a permanent refuge; well, they had been on a permanent search for a place to call home for a year, now, miles away from the part of Seoul where everything had gone downhill.

Sehun thought about it a lot. Sometimes, he would wake up in a cold sweat having nightmares about the day it all happened, but other times he would sit and stare into the flames like tonight and be in awe, of how far he and Jongin had come since that day.

He couldn't even remember when he had started grouping Jongin with himself, considering the two hadn't been friends, or even acquaintances when hit the fan a year ago. Sehun had been a part of one group and Jongin another, but the two were in the same class, so they were like familiar faces in the hallways.

Sehun's group had avoided Jongin's for the longest time; actually, the whole school did because Jongin was one of those stereotypical delinquent boys that were so devilishly handsome, but carried a terrible reputation. Sehun was practically a saint compared to Jongin, so the two had always joked when they wound up together that maybe this was meant to be, even if it was very ironic. Sehun would never have thought he would be trekking a post-apocalyptic world with Jongin, of all people, at his side.

Now, he couldn't be more satisfied with his partner in crime, because he never would have thought the teachers that used to scold Jongin about being useless in the world would be so wrong. Apparently, no one had gotten the message that the world would turn to a death-infested, cryptic dystopia in t-minus seconds; otherwise, Sehun would have been a little bit more productive with his time.

Jongin knew how to fight, kill, and act quickly under pressure. Sehun knew how to forage and skin things, but, even so, Jongin was much better at playing survival of the fittest than he ever could be.

Sehun owed Jongin his life, really.

If Jongin hadn't come back for him when the school bus flipped over and all hell broke loose, he probably wouldn't have seen his first winter of survival. When Sehun closed his eyes and thought about it long and hard, he realized the nightmares were never really nightmares.

He had seen his friends being ripped apart, limb from limb, by the "biters" that Jongin now addressed them as. He had witnessed what any human shouldn't have seen while on earth in less than an hour, and Jongin had taken him away from all of that. If Jongin hadn't been quick and found an emergency exit in the back of the bus, Sehun wouldn't have been alive.

The two had been traveling on foot for months and now a year after that accident, searching for the police, then their family, then humans, then... hope. Everywhere they went, there were biters. Occasionally, they would come across other survivors, but Sehun and Jongin had learned through trial-and-error that human beings living off of fear were no different or any less dangerous than the biters. They decided to stick together, just the two of them, fending off everything that came their way from day one to day three hundred and sixty-five.

Sehun hadn't realized how much time had gone by since then.

"Walking down Memory Lane, huh?" Jongin chuckled softly, handing Sehun his uniform jacket and warming his hands by the fire. Compared to a year ago, Jongin's complexion had gotten darker and his hair had grown out past his neck and below his brows. Sehun often had to cut his hair to keep it maintained, but Jongin secretly liked the "wild" look that the grease and dirt gave him. It made him feel more competent against the scary wilderness. He swept his hair back and reached with a twig in his hand to draw a map in the dirt. "Tomorrow morning, we'll look for something better than bark and berries to eat, and see if there's anything in the West side of this place."

"Probably a bunch of biters," Sehun sighed.

"Since when have we seen anywhere that doesn't have them?" Jongin asked quietly, even quieter as he heard faint growling in the distance. One could always hear a biter before they were right in your face. "Anyway," he said. "I know if we're going the right way, we'll cross over to the next city that has food."

Sehun's stomach grumbled at the mere word, like his body had been conditioned to crave it so desperately that even saying it was like a treat. "Food," Sehun parroted with a weak sigh. "A pizza sounds great right now."

"Hell, yeah," Jongin touched Sehun's forehead with the back of his hand and felt the skin get hotter to the touch. His friend had been burning up with a deadly cold since last week and they had just run out of their emergency supply of Tylenol two days ago. Jongin knew Sehun wasn't saying anything because he didn't want to concern him, but the more Sehun simmered in silence, the more worried Jongin became.

If he lost Sehun too, he was alone.

Alone.

Now, that was a word scarier than any repulsive biter.

"Hey," Jongin said quickly to snap out of his own cryptic thoughts. "Get some rest. I'll stay up, got something to do, anyways." He grabbed some sticks he had set aside and a carving knife he had obtained during their roundabout trip, whittling one branch to form a weapon in order to look like he actually had something to do. The more weapons, the better, since the two hadn't found themselves a firearm yet, so they had to rely on primitive equipment that were only half as effective, if not less, than an actual gun.

"I could help you with them," Sehun insisted.

"No, you need your rest."

"So do you."

"I'm not the one who's sick," Jongin smiled, feeling triumphant as Sehun finally settled on the bed of leaves at Jongin's feet and looked like he was slowly falling asleep. It put Jongin's mind at rest knowing Sehun's mind was at rest, which was funny because he had never been the type to care about someone else more so than himself.

The only person he had ever cared about was his mother, but now he wasn't sure if she was even alive or if she was... if she was looking for him, too. All he had now was a friend named Sehun. A good friend named Sehun. Hell, if they had survived a zombie apocalypse for a year now, Sehun was damn ready to be called his best friend. Perhaps that was why Jongin felt relieved when his best friend laid his head to sleep without having to keep one eye open for biters. Even if his life was on the line for the sake of another, Jongin felt like caring for someone reminded him that home wasn't very far.

Jongin stayed up the entire night despite how heavy his eyelids felt, listening for biters in the dead of night and hoping they weren't hungry, even if Jongin knew they were always hungry.

Morning greeted them and the night had gone by without a sound, much to his relief. He knew the area was safe since he hadn't heard many biter sounds that previous night but the gurgling of some brook or something nearby. They both needed water if they couldn't catch something to eat, so Jongin decided to tuck Sehun beneath some jackets and away from view before he left to go check the perimeters.

The forest path was fairly easy to cut through, but months of no human visitations had made some of the vegetation overgrown in some areas and nearly inaccessible. The good news was that there were no biters in the area, yet.

Far away, Jongin saw a bush dotted with bright red berries. They looked like raspberries from his point of view, but he ended up rushing towards it too fast and failed to see the trap hinge hidden beneath a pile of leaves. When the toe of his right foot touched the snare, the jaws clamped shut around his ankle and he screamed in pain. "!" he swore, only to clasp a hand over his mouth in belated realization that any loud noises could attract biters.

The pain surging from his right ankle was red, deep red. Blood soaked into the leaves as he fell onto his bottom, the heavy snare still clamped tight around his leg.

Jongin had to bite on his tongue to keep from screaming in pain as he tried opening the jaws of the trap, trying not to wiggle too much for fear of the teeth digging into his muscles even further.

"Sehun!" he yelled, just once, hoping that one time would be enough to wake his friend.

No response.

", , ," Jongin swore, grabbing the pocket knife he had in his possession to try and pry the trap's hinges apart, to no avail. There was so much blood. Red, red, red. Jongin's heartbeat drummed in his ears until a new sound overlapped them: growling. He heard them. He heard the biters closing in, possibly drawn by his shouting or the musky scent of fresh blood. "Sehun!" he screamed in panic, dragging his upper body on the ground to try and pull the weight of the trap that was heavier than he was. There was no way he was going to make it out alive with both legs, or even just alive at all.

The biters were nearing, limping, their blood lust piqued as Jongin thrashed even harder. There were three of them, now four, now five, and their slow gait was even faster than Jongin's pathetic attempt at crawling to safety.

"Sehun!"