█ Chapter 2: The Stranger

It was borderline insane how, in the most devastating conditions, the human mind can leap to the worst conclusions and think of the stupidest alternatives to a problem.

As the biters drew nearer, all Jongin saw was the knife in one hand and his leg stuck in the animal trap. The thoughts racing through his mind were crazy, but surely amputating one leg was much better than being torn apart by a pack of blood-thirsty zombies. Jongin had seen what those abominations could do to people and he didn't want to suffer that same fate and turn into one of them.

He had to. There was no time.

Jongin inhaled deeply and pressed the blade of his knife right above the snare's jaws, where it had dug into his marred flesh. He was sweating bullets when he made the first cut, gasping and groaning in pain. He stopped. There was no way in hell he could go through with it. Amputating certainly looked a hell of a lot easier to do on television, when those actors always mutilated themselves to escape a sticky situation.

Definitely easier on television.

He clenched the blade between his teeth and dragged himself further away, trying to sustain his weight at the same time while the trap tore painfully through his leg. The biters were so close that he could smell the rotting flesh and see their decaying skin peeling off their bones. He was going to die. ing hell, what a ty way to go.

"Jongin!"

The sudden rush of relief that washed over Jongin when he heard Sehun's voice was incomparable to anything in the world. A dehydrated man stumbling upon an oasis in the arid desert had nothing on the absolute joy Jongin felt in that pivotal moment. It was a shame, though, that Sehun was not your typical hero in shining armor with a great arsenal of weapons to take on a bunch of biters.

Sehun came charging at the slew of biters with a branch, and even then, he was whacking them, not exactly stabbing their heads like Jongin had instructed him to do so many times. Sehun managed to grab the biter closest to Jongin by the back of its shirt, but the boy's poor combat skills were no match for the ten biters that were closing in now.

"Sehun, stab their ing heads!" Jongin yelled, dodging a biter's assault by rolling to the side and twisting his leg painfully in the process.

"I'm trying!" Sehun screamed right back, even though he really wasn't trying. There was hesitance in his actions, because he would purposely miss their heads and shove them away, not really giving the two of them any advantage against the zombies.

", Sehun!"

When Sehun fell on his bottom trying to back away, Jongin managed to kick off a biter trying to take a chunk out of his friend and reached for the stick Sehun held in his hand to impale the zombie's head. Coagulated blood seeped through the zombie's orifices and splattered on Jongin's front, and some of it would have gone down his throat if he hadn't closed his mouth in the nick of time. The stake speared through another biter's head and Jongin instinctively threw his body over Sehun's as the attack became too large to control.

Then, he heard a series of sounds. Odd sounds. Twang. Thud. Twang. Thud. Twang. Thud. Thud. When Jongin opened his eyes, he saw the zombies fallen around them and a hooded stranger drawing an arrow into his bow. It went straight through a biter's eye socket and knocked it back forcefully.

"Coco!" the stranger whistled, and it wasn't long before Jongin also heard a dog's bark. He looked up just in time to see some large brown dog leap into the scene and herd the biters away like they were lost sheep. That was all Jongin saw before he lost consciousness on the forest floor.

When Jongin woke up, there was a canopy above his head and Sehun's face below that, staring into his eyes.

"Jongin? Oh god, Jongin, you're okay!" Sehun chirped happily.

Jongin was subconsciously relieved that Sehun was there, wherever they were, but he hadn't the slightest idea where they were until he sat up and saw that he was sitting at eye level with the top of the forest. There were some buildings, too, mostly covered by overgrown foliage that had grown too thick. The important part was that he was not on the ground.

The small enclosure they were in was... small, for lack of a better word. It was barely big enough for three people and contained no furniture at all except a shabby coffee table and a sleeping bag in the corner. There also seemed to be a balcony of some sort where the dog from his hallucinations was resting, occasionally twitching its floppy ears as the sunlight kissed them.

"Where the hell are we?" Jongin groaned.

"You've been knocked out for two days," Sehun frowned. "It's Kyungsoo's treehouse. He said he'll be back soon with some food."

"Who the hell..." Jongin trailed off, slouching against one of the four wooden walls and rubbing his flushed face. "Who the hell is Kyungsoo?" He vaguely remembered what had happened, but when he did, he glanced down immediately to see if his leg was still attached to his body. To his surprise, it was. It hurt to move, but his limbs were still attached and it looked like somebody had already gone and sutured it up.

This "Kyungsoo" he was asking for also showed up in a faded green Adidas sweater and dusty jeans, carrying a bow in one hand and two dead pigeons in the other. Strapped across the small male's back was a basket woven out of leaves and a quiver loaded with arrows, the basket filled with herbs and wild berries collected from the forest.

"You're awake," Kyungsoo said, immediately claiming a spot on the balcony to pluck the pigeon feathers from the body after dunking the birds in hot, scalding water.

"Yeah... Were you the one that saved us?" Jongin asked.

"I guess."

Sehun exchanged wary glances with Jongin as the stranger moved about trying to prepare the pigeons to eat, also setting some herbs in boiling water to have tea. Sehun shrugged. He was just as clueless about Kyungsoo as Jongin was because the other male hadn't talked much for two days, other than to respond to important questions. Something about Kyungsoo sent shivers down Sehun's back, but he wasn't sure why, because Kyungsoo had saved them from a painful death.

"I, uh, thank you," was all Jongin could say as he rubbed the nape of his neck. "Nice treehouse you got here."

Kyungsoo glanced at Jongin and turned to toss his dog a whole pigeon, leaving just one more for three males to consume.

Jongin's eyes wandered to his bandaged leg again. "Did you do this yourself?" he asked.

"It's just like sewing up a doll," Kyungsoo mumbled, handing Jongin and Sehun cups of freshly brewed herbal tea. The doe-eyed boy stared at Jongin for an uncomfortable length of time before he finally spoke again. "You walked into my trap."

"That was your trap?" Jongin choked.

"You walked into it."

"What the hell? What if some other person gets caught in that and dies?" Jongin huffed, the anger suddenly rising to his throat.

"I was hoping for a deer, not you," Kyungsoo replied calmly. "I can't even eat you."

Jongin felt like lunging at the smaller male because it was so obvious he could topple him over anyday and anytime, but Sehun reminded him what position they were in and placed a hand over Jongin's knee. What pissed Jongin off even more was that Kyungsoo looked so unfazed by everything that had happened and was happening. He exhaled slowly through his nose and glanced at Sehun who only nodded as if to answer the 'Do I seriously need your permission to beat this punk black and blue?' question in his head.

"Your dog?" Sehun changed the subject and pointed at the full grown dog chomping away on the day's hunt.

"Yeah. Coco. Family dog," Kyungsoo said. "Used to be a house dog, but now it's probably the only eater herding dog in existence." Kyungsoo seemed a little more talkative when discussing his dog; Sehun noticed the twinkle in his eyes akin to a parent talking about his own flesh and blood. There was yet another uncomfortable pause in the conversation before Kyungsoo mumbled. "Only family I have left."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sehun said, obviously being the more compassionate out of the two, while Jongin was alleviating his frustrations by drinking the rest of his tea.

"Yours?" Kyungsoo glanced at Sehun, then Jongin.

Sehun chewed on his lower lip. "We don't know. We've been looking for them ever since we were on that field trip, but things got worse when we came back to the city." He sniffed when he thought of his family and the possibility of never seeing them again or even knowing what happened to them. He wanted to think that they had escaped to somewhere safe where they would never have to deal with the horrors he and Jongin had endured for the past year. It was hopeful thinking, but Sehun believed it was better to hope than to mourn.

"You might find them," Kyungsoo said after a while. "They say the army's gathering people in Namsan. I haven't heard much. Just rumors."

Jongin scoffed, not believing Kyungsoo for one second that there were actually people around to pass rumors about this and that by word of mouth. "From who? The biters?" he jested. "Yeah, I'm sure they're a talkative bunch of ing bastards."

"Jongin," Sehun sighed.

"From people. I was in the city before it went bad," Kyungsoo explained calmly. "I didn't have the time or resources to get to Namsan alone."

"Well, then, we should go there," Sehun said. "It's better than sitting around waiting for something good to happen. What if it's actually there? What if there really is a refuge and we're just sitting on the sidelines like this? The government has to be doing something, right?"

"You saw what happened in the city," Jongin hissed, lowering his head a bit. "The government's ."

Kyungsoo glanced at both Jongin and Sehun before distributing the prepared pigeon, wordlessly sharing what little could be offered on the tiny bird. It was enough to keep them going, though, and meat was definitely a better alternative than barks, earthworms, and bitter leaves.

"We could go together. You, me, and Kyungsoo. Maybe we'll find other people along the way who can help us," Sehun suggested. In his head, he had already formulated a perfect plan of gathering a group of able-bodied survivors to tear through the biter threat and reach Namsan, where a rescue team would surely be awaiting them. He thought it was a better plan than living like a damned animal and being constantly chased by carnivorous beasts.

Jongin shook his head. "Sehun..." he trailed off. "You know the biters aren't the only threats."

"They might be nice, like Kyungsoo."

Kyungsoo raised his brows slightly, his beady gaze falling to the navy blue uniforms both Jongin and Sehun wore. It had been on his mind for a while, especially since he thought he recognized the design. "You said you guys were on a field trip?" Kyungsoo asked. "I saw two other guys a week ago, they were wearing the same uniforms."

Jongin narrowed his eyes. "I... I thought we were the only ones... that survived."