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Hoseok felt a deep sort of sorrow in the pit of his stomach. He was walking side by side with his friends, his family, their wrists were bound and tied across all together with a long piece of rope, men on either side of them in front and behind, and then a slow moving truck was leading them all a few of the men lounging in the bed of the truck. They had been ambushed, most likely they had been watching the bookstore for days and waited until they thought they could take them. Jimin’s leg was badly injured, Namjoon had been beaten half to death, and Seokjin had taken a bullet to the shoulder. Taehyung had been in hestrics at the state his boyfriend was in and watching their home go up in flames. Hoseok was worried about all of it, everything that had happened and his injured family but all of it seemed to fall to the back of his mind as he imagined Yoongi and Jungkook finding the store. What will they think? Will they come after us? When will they get there? Do they think we abandoned them? Are they okay? He knew that they should be the least of his worries but he just couldn’t help himself. Hoseok was pulled from his thoughts as their chain was yanked downward and they all stumbled slightly as they came to a stop. Jimin had fallen to his knees and was panting slightly.
“He needs help, he can’t keep moving like this.” Hoseok spat viciously at the men in front of them, he crouched down to put his hand on Jimin’s forehead as he was closest to him. He was burning up, his skin was pale, and his eyes were watering. He looks like death . Hoseok thought to himself trying not to let those thoughts get to him too much, trying not to freak out for Jimin’s sake.
“Throw him in the truck.” One of the men says in a bored sort of voice. Hoseok and Taehyung, the only two who aren’t injured, try to fight the man away from Jimin but it’s no use with their hands tied. He cuts Jimin free from the rope and grabs him by the shoulder of his shirt forcing him to his feet, half dragging him over to the truck. Another man holds Hoseok back by a hand on his chest and all Hoseok is able to was watch as they abused his friend.
“Alright. Let’s keep going.” The one from before says and they begin walking once more, the barrel of many guns pressed into their backs.
The five of them are brought to a large compound of buildings, there are more people there than Hoseok as seen in months, since the start of the outbreak for sure. A whole community was living beyond the gates lined with barbed wire and tied up walkers as guards, but they clearly weren’t the peaceful type.
“Keep up.” One of the men growl, pushing Namjoon who had been slowing down do to his injuries. Hoseok watches Taehyung’s jaw tighten as he holds himself back from snapping at their captors.
“What the hell are we doing here?” Namjoon snaps as he looks back at the man.
“Shut up.” The man says kicking Namjoon in the back of the knee, he goes down hard and they’re all tugged towards the earth. “I should just finish you off now.” Taehyung stumbles on his knees until he’s shielding his boyfriend with his own body.
“Don’t you dare touch him.” Taehyung says in a deep growl made darker by his already deep voice. This doesn’t seem to phase them though, they all laugh as if it’s the funniest thing in the world.
“Get up, or I really will kill him.” The man says once more.
“Taehyung, just get up.” Seokjin whispers, eyes closed. He’s clearly in a lot of pain, it’s written all over his face. Jin’s hair was damp with sweat, his eyes are bloodshot, his skin is pale, and the wrap over his shoulder is soaked through in blood. Hoseok feels hopeless, he can’t help any of his friends and he’s lost his lovers. Things seem like they would never be good again.
Jungkook sat on the porch of cabin his chin in his hands, he and Yoongi had arrived at the cabin a day ago but there was no sign of their friends. Jungkook had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach, like he’d never see them again. He couldn’t, he didn’t want, to imagine never seeing Hoseok’s smile again, or listening to Jimin sing, or sit through one of Namjoon’s philosophical rants, feel one of Hoseok’s shoulder rubs, or sit by the fire and cook with Seokjin, or cause trouble Taehyung. Yoongi looked almost sickly, his skin was deathly pale and he had deep dark circles under his eyes, Jungkook could tell he had a killer headache from the way he react to every little sound.
“We should go out and look for them.” Yoongi says he walks out onto the porch, backpack slung over his shoulder.
“But hyung we don’t even know where to begin.” Jungkook says in a small voice.
“I don’t care if we have to walk the whole earth, we’re finding them.” Yoongi snaps, rubbing at his tembles.
“You’re right hyung.” Jungkook says in a small voice, he climbs to his feet and gathers his things. They lock up the cabin and agree to leave a message for them. They don’t have any paper, pens, or paint so they wait for a walker to stumble upon them. They both hold their breath as they open him up and use his stale blood to paint a message on the side of the cabin.
HOSEOK (AND OTHERS, OBVIOUSLY), THIS IS OUR CABIN. WAIT FOR US INSIDE.
WERE OUT LOOKING FOR YOU. WE’LL COME BACK HERE IN A WEEK TO CHECK.
LOVE YOU, JUNGKOOK & YOONGI.
Hoseok stands at the edge of a large dug out pit filled with walkers clawing at the dirt walls. Heonwoo the leader of the community stands beside him, smirking smugly. Once they had gone inside one of the buildings Heonwoo had ‘invited’ them on the ‘welcoming tour’ explaining the community to them. They called themselves ‘The Firsts’ though he didn’t explain that much further, he did however explain that they kept slaves to keep their community running and that Hoseok and his friends were to be their slaves. Hoseok had snapped at Heonwoo that he would never be working for him and he could honestly just kiss his ass, hence the standing at the edge of a pit full of walkers one foot dangerous dangling over the flesh eating monsters. Heonwoo was holding him there by his shoulder, he was an asshole but he was also impressively strong.
“You see, if you don’t work for us we’ll just throw you into one of our walker pits. Or maybe one of your friends? It’s gonna take up a lot of our resources to heal them, I wouldn’t, mind throwing the pretty one with the bum leg in there.” Heonwoo whispers just loud enough for the others to hear. “So feel free to resist us, I truly don’t mind.” Hoseok clenches his jaw and stares down at the walkers, for a moment he considers just letting himself fall into the pit and just give up but Jungkook and Yoongi’s faces flash before his eyes.
“Alright.” Hoseok mutters.
“What was that?” Heonwoo asks, raising his eyebrows. Hoseok narrows his eyes at him and takes a deep breath to calm himself.
“Alright, I’ll work for you.” Heonwoo turns them around and pushes Hoseok back towards his friends, he stumbles and Taehyung catches him easily.
“Get them ready to work, take the injured ones to the hospital building.” He says to his men who had been following silently behind.
Hoseok feels like a piece of himself is ripped away as he and Taehyung are taken away from the others. They are taken to a smaller building in the back full of other ‘slaves’, their clothes are taken away and they are given one white shirt, too-big grey sweatpants, and black house slippers to wear.
“The other slaves will explain your duties.” Is all they say before they leave Taehyung and Hoseok there to figure it all out themselves.
Jungkook feels the tears welling up in his eyes as he stumbles down the road, his hands itch from the dried blood that cover them but he doesn’t care. They had stopped to write another message to Hoseok and the others, but they had been ambushed by three men. Two of them had attacked Yoongi, seeing him as a bigger threat, the other had attacked Jungkook, he was much bigger than Jungkook and by the time he had taken him down (Jungkook had slit his throat, a messy business hence the bloodied hand), the others had taken Yoongi away in their truck. Jungkook ran after them for at least an hour before his knees gave out and he laid on the ground sobbing. He couldn’t believe that he lost the last member of his family, his Yoongi hyung.
Meeting Yoongi a month ago had felt like a dream. He had found a family and was starting to make a new life, now all of that was being painfully ripped away from him. It felt like a piece of him was being cut off, like losing a limb, but all of the pain was located in his chest. He didn’t even care that he was sobbing so loudly and that anyone could find him. Which of course is exactly what happened.
Jungkook saw sneakers come into view even though his vision was blurred by tears. He rolls onto his back, panting from the effort of crying. Tears rolled down the side of his face as he looked up at the people surrounding him.
“Do your worst.” He chokes out.
Yoongi’s head aches painfully as he comes to, the first thing he sees is a clear blue sky and the first thing he feels is wind brushing his face. He takes in a gulp of air and turns his head looking around. He’s lying in the bed of a truck, behind him are two men arguing with the driver or whoever else was in the truck. Yoongi holds his breath and moves as quietly as he can, he rolls over and peeks out of the truck bed. They’re not going particularly fast but they aren’t going slow either. He looks back at the men, still arguing, not paying him any attention. Yoongi takes the opportunity, moving as fast as he can he stands up and jumps out of the truck. He lands first on his feet with the momentum he drops to his knees and then falls to his side rolling, he doesn’t let himself stop and feel the pain, he rolls to his feet and takes off into the forest. He can hear them behind him now, swearing as they stop the truck and turn back to get him. Yoongi can also feel the pain now, it’s burning in his knees and in his shoulder. He knows his feet are leaving a trail and making so much noise but all he can do is focus on getting away. But he must come to a stop as his lungs contract from the cold mix with the running he was doing, he stumbles to a stop, resting his hands on his knees as he pulls in breaths.
He can’t slow down though. Yoongi takes a look around and finds the biggest tree closest to him, he moves over to it finally keeping his foot falls light, once he reaches it he begins climbing. For once his smaller height and skinner body are an advantage, if he can’t keep himself hidden in the tree they probably won’t be able to climb it, with their bigger more toned bodies. Yoongi climbs as high as he can and then finds the biggest and sturdiest looking branch and sits quietly listening for the men. It doesn’t take long before he hears their loud foot falls as they run through the woods, they’re getting close now. Yoongi counts to three and then sucks in a deep breath holding it for as long as he can, as not to give himself away with his loud panting.
“I can’t find him.” One of them says as he stops just below the tree, two more joining him a moment later.
“He couldn’t’ve just disappeared!” One of them says.
“His foot prints just…stop here.” One of them a says, a little further away. “I mean, as far as I can tell anyway.” Yoongi thanked his lucky stars that the guy was a terrible tracker because he was sure he left some tracks behind. He sits there for a long time until he’s sure the men are gone, then he climbs down and starts his search for Jungkook.
The people who find Jungkook end up being nice. They pick him up off the road and take him back to the school that they’re camped out in, they clean him and let him keep his things. Of course, there’s thirty of them to his one so it wasn’t like he had the ability to hurt them in any way. Once he is clean and back in his close they sit him down in an empty room of just three chairs and a table, and so he waits. He doesn’t have to wait long before two people enter the room a man and a woman, they look him over and then sit across from him at the table.
“What’s your name?” The woman asks.
“Jungkook.” He says with little to no emotion.
“Minji.” The woman says with a nod, her mouth pulled into a hard line.
“Hyunki.” The man says. “Where are you from, Jungkook?”
“North of here.” Jungkook shrugs. “Not sure the name of the area to be honest.”
“Do you have a group?” Minji asks, leaning forward slightly, her arms resting on the table.
“I did.” Jungkook chokes out looking down at the table.
“Tell us everything.” Hyunki says. “We may be able to help.”
The normally suspicious and cautious side of Jungkook melts away as well as his sound mind and careful planning. He doesn’t care about being careful and trying to figure out who to trust, he just tells them the whole story. From the book store down to the moment they found him lying on the road. In turn Hyunki and Minji let down their own guards they tell him about their community, small and growing smaller each day.
“These men.” Hyunki says, his voice tight with anger. “They call themselves ‘The Firsts’, the first community the first men of the new world. Hardly.” He takes a deep breath to calm himself. “They are huge, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a community nearly as large as theirs, they want slaves. People to do the dirty work so they don’t have to. That’s why they’ve taken your friends.”
“Can you take me to this place?” Jungkook asks, leaning forward, some color coming back to his face, intrigued at the thought of knowing where his family might be. Minji and Hyunki share a nervous look.
“We can take you halfway and then direct you the rest of the way there.” Hyunki says. “We have to travel deep through the woods in hopes of them not seeing us. You understand we’ll be risking a lot, we won’t give you anymore supplies than what you were already carrying on your back and a map.”
“That’s all I can ask for.” Jungkook says, grinning hugely. “Thank you so much.”
Yoongi isn’t sure how long he’s been walking, he’s been trying to stay deeper in the woods, more out of sight. He didn’t know how long he had been in the car with those men, so he didn’t know how far he was from Jungkook. He had to set up camp the night before when it had gotten too dark to see. He had no idea where he was, he had no supplies on him, and he had no idea if he was getting closer or further away from Jungkook. He was trying not to spiral out of control but keeping hope alive was not an easy thing to do in a time like this.
It also seemed that Yoongi was quite jarred from not being as prepared as he usually was because he had been surprised by several sounds that day as well as leaving tracks here and there as he went along. He could hear someone up ahead, far closer then he would have normally let someone get. They were so close he could make them out through the green of the trees. He gasps slightly at his own stupidity, ducking behind a tree and trying to think of a clever way out of the shitty situation he had gotten himself in.
Hoseok and Taehyung are living in a new kind of hell. Hoseok works in housekeeping, meaning he cleans up the nasty rooms of their many captors, throwing away their shit, changing their sheets, and emptying their goddamn piss buckets. They hadn’t seen Namjoon, Seokjin, or Jimin since they had gotten there, over a week ago now and it was starting to get worrying. Taehyung’s mental state seemed to be getting worse and worse each and every day, Hoseok couldn’t blame him and wasn’t feeling amazing either but was trying to keep it together for the other boy. He had to convince himself there was hope of getting out, of seeing Jungkook and Yoongi again, that everything would be okay.
“I can’t keep doing this, hyung.” Taehyung tells him one day at lunch, his voice is shaking as tears fall into his bowl of scraps. Everyday after the people of the community have eaten the slaves are allowed in the canteen to eat whatever food is left behind. Taehyung usually doesn’t eat, no matter what Hoseok places in front of him. “They burned down our home, they beat Namjoon half to death, they shot Jin, and who knows if Jimin can ever walk right again.” He sobs, his voice deep and throaty but hushed. “I can’t keep working for them.”
“I know Taehyung.” Hoseok whispers, setting his hand on the back of Tae’s neck. “We just have to wait for the others, once they’re healed we’ll get out od her-“ Hoseok’s words are cut off by the sound of the large doors at the front of the room scraping open. Everyone in the canteen turns and looks towards the doors, two men stand on either side of Namjoon they push him into the canteen and then pull the doors closed once again. Everyone goes back to eating except for Taehyung who leaps to his feet and stumbles around the table their sitting at so he run over and fling himself into the other boys arms. His sobs from before get louder as he tucks his face into Namjoon’s shoulder. Hoseok and everyone else in the canteen slumps down over their bowls trying to give the two as much privacy as they can.
After hushed words of comfort and a lot of tears from the both of them the two break (mostly) apart, keeping their arms around each other’s waist and shoulders. They come over to the table and sit across from Hoseok who finally looks up, Taehyung grabs his bowl from across the table and sits it in front of Namjoon, but the older boy only pushes it away.
“So, what’s the plan?” He asks instead. “How are we getting out of here?”
“Whoa, slow your roll there lover boy.” Hoseok said holding up his hands up. “You just got healed up I can still see the scabs and bruises. Jin and Jimin are still in there, something we need to talk about. Taehyung has been a mess, we haven’t exactly had any time to think about escaping.” At this Namjoon deflates slightly.
“You’re right, sorry. We’ll talk about Jin and Jimin and then we’ll start thinking up a way to escape.” Hoseok nods in agreement and the three of them hunch over the table even closer.
Jin can still remember the feeling of them digging the bullet and the broken off fragments out of him, the pain had been so unbearable without any form of anesthetic he’d passed out after the first few pieces were taken out. The doctor was nice a shy sort of man who kept apologizing about enslaving them, as if that made up for it. For the first week Namjoon was there, healing and taking care of Jimin and Jin but then he was gone, and it was just the two of them. They didn’t talk much at first, Jin’s speech was slightly slurred from the mixed of drugs and pain so he didn’t feel like talking much. But once the doctor weaned Jin off the medication and he had gotten use to the pain all they really did was talk. Jimin’s upper thigh had been cut and apparently infection had started to set in, it wasn’t too bad just needed to have the bandage changed every day as well as have the wound washed out.
After Namjoon left the doctor began to mostly ignore them, they were getting better and he had other people to attend to who were actually apart of the community so Jin and Jimin got use to take taking care of each other. Jin’s shoulder was getting better and he was use to the dull ache he seemed to always feel but Jin didn’t let on that he was feeling better, he stayed to take care of Jimin washout his wound each day and make sure the infection was going away and not getting any worse.
“Do you think we’ll ever get out of here?” Jimin whispers one day while they were left alone. Jin was cleaning out the wound on his thigh with the bucket of clean water they were given and a bit of extra gaze, having stole some when the doctor wasn’t looking.
“The hospital building or this community?” Jin asked as he rebandaged the wound, lightly patting the side of his other thigh to signal that he was done. Jimin hopped down from his cot and pulled his sweatpants gingerly back on. Jin was glad to see how nice and pale the wound was looking, he remembers when he first saw it. It was red and angry, still bleeding and weeping some kind of fluid it had terrified Jin at the time he was so worried that the infection would only get worse and that he might lose Jimin. It had kept him up at night, it was killing him inside for weeks until he had seen real improvement.
“Either.” Jimin shrugs.
“Yes.” Seokjin answered without hesitation.
“Really?” Jimin looks over at him in surprise. “You’re that sure Jin hyung?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “I believe in us, all of us. If we stick together than we’ll get through this.” Jin’s surprised to see Jimin turn to him with tears in his eyes.
“I love you hyung.” He chokes out, Jin quickly stands up and moves forward to hug the younger boy.
“I love you too, Jimin.” He whispers, an edge of worry in voice. “I love you too.”
“Hyung!” Jungkook yelled as he ran (or stumbled hurriedly) through the forest when he saw Yoongi duck behind a tree. He was oddly glad the other man was clearly off his game otherwise he probably would have never seen him. “Hyung!” He choked out once more, tears already falling down his cheeks. “Yoongi.” Yoongi steps out from behind the tree shock written all over his face.
“Jungkookie?” He said his mouth falling open, the younger boy reaches Yoongi and throws himself at the other older man. Jungkook wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s neck and cries into his neck.
The two of them sit down and eat some of the food Jungkook has. Yoongi explains what happened to him and how he got away and vice versa Jungkook explains who found and how he got here. “I have a map.” He says, pulling out the map the Hyunki had given him. “I know where Hoseok, Jimin, Jin, Namjoon, and Taehyung are.” Jungkook says as he sets down the map in front of Yoongi using his finger to draw out the path. Yoongi looks up at Jungkook with shining eyes and a gummy smile.
“Let’s camp tonight and then let’s go get them back.” Yoongi says before leaning forward to plant one of the most passionate kisses Jungkook as ever experienced. Their tongues slid together and their hands grips at each other’s waists, all that can be heard is the rustle of leaves and the soft sounds of their labored breathing as their lips connect and unconnect as they continue kissing caught up in each other and the excitement of knowing where their family possibly is.
Jin and Jimin join them half a week after Namjoon they feel a little bit better knowing their all together even though their still stuck in a hell hole, even though Jin winces after moving his arm certain ways (sometimes tears collect in his eyes at the end of day from all the pain), and even though Jimin can’t walk for longer than an hour without starting to limp. But at least they were all together, working towards an escape and, Hoseok hoped, towards getting back to Jungkook and Yoongi.
One day they stood in the farming area of the community, only a few peaches and strawberries were left growing as it turned colder each day. Some of the other slaves were getting eggs from the chicken coops nearby so they were luckily left alone.
“We should watch the guards night rounds.” Namjoon is saying in a lower voice as he throws a few strawberries in the bucket under his arm. “Learn their patterns, we’ll jump the fence and head into the forest.”
“While we're cleaning their rooms, we can slowly collect weapons for the walkers and clothes to use as protection from the barbed wire.” Hoseok suggested happily placing a moldy peach in his own bucket.
“We should try and look for a map of the area too.” Jin whispers, lower than the rest of them, rolling his shoulder in irritation. “The guards on the roof will notice us leaving so as we go into the forest it would be best if we knew of a place to go, we can all split up in different directions but go to the same place.”
“That’s a great idea Jinnie.” Jimin whispered, his face oddly pale still.
“Alright it’s a plan then, we start today.” Taehyung said, standing up and walking back towards the canteen to put away his filled bucket.
Jungkook and Yoongi hide in the tree line just beyond the compound, watching and waiting. “Maybe we should try getting inside?” Jungkook asks, his voice low even though they were far enough away that no one would be able to hear them. “We could sneak in and try and find them.”
“We could risk getting taken ourselves.” Yoongi says shaking his head. “Let’s keep watching, I have a weird feeling.” He said waving his hands. Jungkook just nods and turns his head back towards the compound. They sit and watch for a while before a door at the back of the building nearest to them opens up and people dressed in in sweats and t-shirts come spilling out of it. Jungkook and Yoongi’s eyes scan the crowd of people.
It’s Jungkook who sees him first, he loses his breath in that moment. Hoseok stands between Jin and Namjoon he looks more upset and dimmer than Jungkook has ever seen him before. There’s a frown on his face and his eyes are cast down to the ground their usual shine is missing. Everything about the way he looks breaks Jungkook’s heart a little bit.
“Let’s go.” Yoongi mutters. “No one but them are around we can go talk to them.” He says, picking up his backpack and standing up from his crouch.
“There are other people.” Jungkook says, confused.
“Yeah who are also clearly prisoners, or whatever.” He says, holding out a hand to help Jungkook up. Jungkook takes the offered hand grabbing his own backpack and walking out into the open. He feels strangely naked standing out in the open where any of the boy’s kidnappers might see. Seokjin notices them first, his eyes light up and he reaches across Namjoon to touch Hoseok’s shoulder and gesture to them. Jimin and Taehyung take notice of the exchange and soon everyone is looking towards them. Hoseok runs over to the fence and clutches at it as tears fall down his face. Yoongi and Jungkook both run towards him, they reach out for their boyfriend but with the many walkers chained to the fence they are unable to get close enough to touch him.
“How did you find us.” Hoseok chokes out through his sobs.
“It’s kind of a long story.” Jungkook says through his own tears.
“We’re here to get you out.” Yoongi butts in, even his voice is broken.
They talk for as long as they can, and it’s long enough to get together a plan. Jungkook and Yoongi will focus on the night guards rounds and will give the boys a time when they should sneak out. The boys will focus on getting the map and protective or thicker clothing. When there is a gap in the guards watch time Jungkook and Yoongi will take out the walkers while the other climb the fence, hopefully everything will go as planned.
At first everything is going to plan, Jungkook and Yoongi watch as the guards leave the post going to hand off their guns, they get down and army crawl over to the fence in an attempt to hide from the guards on the roof. At the same time the boys all quickly and quietly rush over to the fence and begin climbing, Namjoon is set to help Jimin with his leg and Hoseok is set to help Jin with his arm. Taehyung stays down and spots all of them until they get to the top and then begins to climb on his own. Jungkook and Yoongi take out the creepers closest to them as Seokjin, Hoseok, and Jimin hop down. Namjoon stays at the top of the fence, barbed wire painfully digging into his palms as he holds himself up waiting for Taehyung.
At that moment lights go out and they can hear people shouting, Namjoon lunges forward his stomach digging into the wire now as he grabs onto Taehyung’s arm but the boy splits anyway and lands on the ground on the other side of the fence. Terror is clear on Taehyung’s face as he makes eye contact with Yoongi. In that moment Yoongi knows what he has to do. He lunges forward and grabs Namjoon by the legs dragging him down to the ground.
“We’ll come back for you.” Yoongi promises the younger boy.
“Run!” Taehyung yells to them. Yoongi and Hoseok take a kicking a screaming Namjoon away in the direction they had agreed to go in the rest of them breaking apart. Jungkook goes with Jimin and Seokjin, it isn’t the original plan but there was nothing they can do now.