█ Chapter 5: Devil Beside Me

"I'm not choosing them over you and Minseok," Jongin explained calmly. "I just don't see the point in leaving two innocent people behind. They can help us." He was trying everything he could to convince Zitao to see Sehun and Kyungsoo as assets to the team rather than burdens, but it obviously wasn't working.

Jongin had known Zitao to be a stubborn prick even before the world went to hell, but something had undeniably changed his Chinese friend. Something. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was Zitao was missing, but the feral look in the male's eyes convinced him that Zitao had a few screws loose. Maybe Minseok already knew this, because there was deliberation in the small male's steps as he came between Jongin and Zitao.

"Help us?" Zitao hissed. "One of them has a broken arm, both of them are knocked out cold. You saw what happened back there, we barely made it out alive."

"Tao," Minseok mumbled, pushing Zitao a safe distance away from Jongin.

Jongin narrowed his eyes, holding his position despite the way Zitao swung his machete around. He could plainly see that Zitao had turned into a ruthless killer all thanks to this cryptic world, and he wondered how long it would take for Zitao to finally blur the fine line between the biters and people. Knowing this, he had already made his decision. "I'm not leaving Sehun."

He didn't even flinch when Zitao lunged at him, nor when Minseok had to drag him away like some rabid animal being leashed right before his eyes. "I told you!" Zitao hissed. "We shouldn't have wasted our time coming back for a mothering traitor like him!"

Jongin merely listened as Zitao started swearing in Chinese. He wasn't a fluent speaker, thankfully, but he had picked up a few curse words from Zitao along the way and recognized the inflections in tone right off the bat. Zitao rarely slipped into old habits, but it seemed like that part of Huang Zitao hadn't changed at all.

"Y-You should think about this again," Minseok encouraged Jongin. "We know a safe place. It's far, but we might make it. All three of us." He was slightly out of breath, trying to restrain Zitao and talk some sense into Jongin at the same time, but that was what he deserved for being a peacemaker in such times, not an instigator like Zitao. The smaller male managed to shove his taller Chinese friend away. "It can be like it used to."

The frustration finally stacked up to his throat and Jongin, albeit a little hesitantly, fisted both hands into Minseok's collar. "Nothing's going to be the same," he growled. "Nothing." It literally tore at his heart to think of and accept that their friendship would never be the way it was. Things had changed. Jongin had changed. Zitao had changed. They could never go back to the reckless days when Minseok would play the injured pedestrian to distract the clerk while Zitao and Jongin would ransack the convenience store for snacks. They could never hop the school fence or smoke a joint behind the old lady's apartment anymore.

Minseok held a hand out, to keep Zitao from lunging in, and tried prying Jongin's fingers free from his collar. "It can," he smiled nervously. "Just you, me, and Zitao again."

Jongin and Zitao finally settled down. As the sun rose over the arch of charred trees, Jongin returned to the broken pier where the stream met with a small lake. The scenery was tragically beautiful, the lake not quite big enough to be spotted on a map, but it looked like a suitable fishing spot since there was a pier built on top of it and everything. Jongin figured that the perfect cookie-cut examples of model fathers would take their sons on these fishing trips, sitting side by side on this very pier Jongin stood on.

Some other kid could have had a wonderful childhood, while Jongin's had been far from golden. His father had "taught" him how to scam unsuspecting people while other kids might have learned how to hold a fishing rod when they were about the same age.

Maybe he had a few things to thank his father for, because he had certainly put those skills to "good" use as soon as Jongin had been hurled into this hellish pit of survival against those biters and other not-so-friendly people. The environment Kim Jongin had grown up in had prepared him for this, not all of it, but most of it. His friends were also contributing factors; after all, a bully had better chances of surviving this tough dog-eat-dog world because their minds had already been conditioned to think themselves better than the weak. He, Minseok, and Zitao were already so perfectly prepared for a zombie apocalypse. Kyungsoo and Sehun? Not so much.

He hadn't known Kyungsoo for very long, but Jongin knew a good kid when he saw one. Kyungsoo was sort of introverted and withdrawn; he wasn't an , though. Sehun, on the other hand, was an angel. Jongin knew Sehun wouldn't last a day without him, because a year had passed and Sehun still had no blood on his hands, not even a biter's. Sehun was the epitome of a good kid, the poster child of every idealistic image Jongin could never be.

Maybe, he thought, if Jongin hadn't met Sehun, he would have turned out just like Zitao, if not worse. All he knew was that he still possessed the ability to judge, to decide what was right instead of what they had to do.

Jongin simmered in these thoughts until he heard footsteps behind him, and turned around to see Minseok with the tattered snapback in his hands. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Minseok said right back, pushing his greasy hair out of his face. "I guess it's worth another shot trying to convince you to come back with us, huh?"

"Nope," Jongin leaned his hip against one of the thick wooden posts that jutted out of the water.

A look of disappointment quickly flitted across Minseok's face before Jongin could see that he was trying so hard to mask it with an uneasy smile. "It's always been us against the world, Jongin," Minseok sighed, pressing the snapback low over his forehead again. "Zitao and I need you, we've been searching all over."

"I can't leave Sehun."

"What about the other guy?"

"He saved my life. I owe it to him."

Minseok chuckled at Jongin's response. "Since when were you the hero type, huh? What happened to the Kim Jongin who used to steal lunch money from junior high kids and beat people black and blue?"

"There are already enough monsters in the world now, aren't there?"

The two talked for a while about this and that, mostly sharing stories about their past year and what they had done to survive. There was a stark contrast in their methods of survival: Jongin and Sehun had resorted to living like animals when supplies ran low, while Minseok and Zitao had preyed on other survivors when food became scarce. Minseok also told Jongin how Zitao had almost killed a woman in cold blood and suggested that they put Sehun and Kyungsoo out of their misery before Jongin came to.

"He's not like himself," Minseok whispered. "He's gone mad."

When Jongin and Minseok parted ways, Jongin walked up to Zitao who was keeping watch over the open side of the campsite. He decided not to beat around the bush. "Don't touch Sehun," he warned, swallowing thickly as Zitao turned his head to stare Jongin down with a serial killer's gaze. If looks could kill, Jongin certainly would have died on the spot.

Zitao circled Jongin slowly like a predator sizing up its prey mere seconds before it would swoop in for the quick kill. "Since when were you his Prince Charming, Jongin?"

"Just don't touch him."

"You've changed," Zitao muttered. "You've forgotten who your real friends are. I knew you changed the moment I saw you running off with that guy. Left Minseok and I to fend against everyone else that turned." He stopped circling Jongin when he remembered a particular event from that catastrophic day. "That girl you liked, Jinri? She turned and I had to put her down."

Jongin's hands balled into fists at his sides. Of course he remembered Jinri; she had been the only girl he thought was worth liking in his class, yet he hadn't been able to confess because she was literally too good for him. Innocent. A lawyer's perfect daughter was certainly out of his league. "So?" he said. "She's not my girlfriend, I don't owe her anything."

"Just saying," Zitao shrugged. "Looks like Sehun's her replacement."

"Shut up!" Jongin roared and flung a fist across Zitao's face, nearly knocking him into the water. The urge to dunk Zitao's face several feet below the water and have him drown was nearly impossible to ignore, but he suppressed it. He fell back as soon as Zitao retaliated with a punch square to his jaw, his injured leg causing him to wobble off balance.

Zitao spat the wad of blood-mixed saliva into the water and held Jongin up by the collar of his blazer. "I'm giving you one more ing chance, to leave this hellhole with me and Minseok. We're your ing friends." Zitao's voice wavered, as if he was now pleading with Jongin. "We always have been."

Jongin shoved Zitao off of him.

Zitao's words haunted Jongin the rest of the day, even as Kyungsoo and Sehun slowly regained consciousness and the five males were now having their last meal of tinned anchovies and old shrimp left behind in a cooler before they would have to leave. It was ultimately up to Jongin to decide whether to go to Namsan with Kyungsoo and Sehun or head to this "safe place" Minseok and Zitao were going to.

Kyungsoo and Sehun obviously had no idea what was happening, but they guessed something was out of place when they noticed Jongin barely speaking to his reunited friends. They held their words until everyone was packed up and ready to go. Where? They had no idea.

Sehun was under the impression that they were all leaving together. Kyungsoo couldn't care less where they were heading since his treehouse had burned down, but, as long as Coco was there, he didn't mind.

"You're not going to Namsan, are you?" Jongin asked.

Minseok shook his head. "We heard the place is overrun by zombies. The Namsan Tower might be a safe bet, but... we're heading somewhere else." He glanced at Sehun, then Kyungsoo. "Jongin, we want you to come with us."

"I told you, one last chance," Zitao said, and Jongin couldn't help but glance down at the machete in Zitao's hand.

"What's this about, Jongin?" Sehun asked.

"I'll go," Jongin nodded towards Minseok and Zitao. "I'll go with you guys." The smile on Minseok and Zitao's face dissipated, however, when Jongin grabbed Zitao by his shoulder and used it as leverage to twist his pocket knife into his friend's stomach. The jab was quick albeit painful, and Jongin dragged it up and down, then twisted the blade a bit as Zitao dropped his machete and vomited blood over his shoulder.

When Zitao tumbled to the ground with his stomach bleeding profusely and throat hacking up blood, Jongin took a few steps back. "Let's go," was all he said to Sehun, Kyungsoo, and even Minseok, who stood there looking terrified as he saw Zitao gasping for air.

The biters, sensing the strong stench of fresh blood in the air, turned their heads and started dragging themselves in their direction.

"Come on!" Jongin rushed the other three as he ran past the stream, seeing Zitao writhe in pain on the ground.

Zitao had one bloody hand still locked tightly around Minseok's ankle, keeping him from escaping. "Don't... Don't leave me," he gasped for air, then groaned in pain as Minseok stepped on his hand with the other foot to free himself from Zitao's vice grip.

"I'm sorry!" Minseok wailed as he ran towards Jongin, the sound of Zitao's screams drowning in the cacophony of biter noises. ", I'm so sorry!"

Jongin ran straight ahead, not looking back once.

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Author's Note: Hope you guys are enjoying this story! Thanks for all the upvotes and comments! It's always a pleasure reading them~ Speaking of comments, I wonder what you would have done if you were in Jongin's shoes! Leave a comment below telling me what you thought and what you would have done? Who's your favorite character so far? I'd love to read your comments! Thank you so much, and now, have some TaoKai. These gifs are like so relevant to WWM (Walk with Me)'s TaoKai, you have no ideaaaaaaaa. 。：゜(；´∩｀；)゜：。