Chapter Text
Yunho feels the gun rattle against his hold as another shot is fired off. Through his scope, he watches as the zombie falls to the ground and remains lifeless. He moves away to take in a breath and looks out above the scope, seeing the body as a dark patch amongst their brown and dead grass just outside their base.
"We can pick it up when we do our run tomorrow," Jongho sits next to him, his own weapon secured by his side but he isn't looking out like Yunho is. "It's getting late anyway."
"Set the alarms and let's head back." Yunho declares. They had on a mix of military clothing and clothing they had scavenged from the outside world. Jongho in military patterned pants and a faded shirt that looks to have some kind of cartoon on the front. Yunho was no better, though the pair had on the standard issue military boots that only come in black.
The boots are loud against the stone flooring. They could be heard walking through the compound in order to head to the kitchens where they know a meal would be prepared for them. Their weapons are always close by, even as they come upon Wooyoung and Yeosang setting up for the meal.
"You know, chili with beans didn't sound all that bad until I opened the package." Wooyoung is in a tank top with his hands in oven mitts setting a metal pot on the countertop in order to serve everyone. The younger has long been the designated cook.
"It was a weird gray color." Yeosang chimes in as Wooyoung serves up the chili with a metal ladel into their metal bowls, all of it within military standards. The chili is a red color but a bit dull, almost lifeless.
"I added some stuff to it but if it tastes like absolute shit, it is not my fault." Wooyoung shakes his head as Yunho takes his bowl.
"I'm sure it's fine, Wooyoung." Yeosang tries to comfort. Yunho scrapes the metal spoon against the bowl and brings the chili to his lips. Its a bit plain, and the beans don't add anything to the texture.
"Not bad." He shrugs, thinking it is probably an upgrade from whatever gray mess they had opened earlier. When they do venture beyond the safety of the compound, they often pick up cooking ingredients for Wooyoung, like flour or oil, sometimes spices if they're lucky.
"Edible." Jongho shrugs.
"Thanks, that's what every person who cooked dinner wants to hear." Wooyoung rolls his eyes as he serves himself.
"Five stars, would absolutely eat again." Yunho laughs at himself a little to loudly.
"Next time I'm opening the one with m&m's." Wooyoung sighs. The pre planned meals had small print that detailed what is inside of them but he never had the patience to read through them, all he would do is pick the ones with the same name and combine the individual meals to serve everyone.
They eat their dinner and Jongho always volunteers to wash their dishes and therefore Yeosang always helps him. It doesn't bother Yunho or Wooyoung, the two have always had a little something since they've met.
Everyone sleeps in the same barracks room that has bunk beds and trunks for their stuff, but the four of them sleep on lower bunks and the top bunk is for their clothes or any collectibles they find on runs. There is the bedroom meant for someone of a higher rank, Yunho can't remember how high after Wooyoung stuck a motivational sticker over where it was etched into the door, with a big bed and a personal kitchen but none of them have brought themselves to separate from the others.
Showers are a luxury in this time, he is well aware, but their water is recycled, power comes from the solar panels, and there is enough soap to last the more than hundred soldiers the compound was meant to house. They were only lucky that the compound wasn't raided before they had gotten there. Warm water, however, is one luxury they will have to go without.
Yunho returns to the room to find Wooyoung writing in one of his notebooks, no doubt trying to come up with a recipe or documenting what they've done. He isn't to sure, it doesn't really matter, they all have ways to pass the time.
Yunho walks around the base and walks across to another section where the others rarely go. It would be easier to walk outside than through the hallways but since he's already showered and has time to kill, he takes the long way. The door once required some sort of ID scan to be let into the room but it has long been broken and pulled off the wall. The room is small, but there's a large desk with buttons and switches that belong to a radio system. A base of this size would have something like this to communicate with others, but that isn't what Yunho uses it for.
He sits in the squeaky and old leather seat that has wheels and flicks on a switch that turns a light on the console green. He turns a nob to switch the channel up to ten, where he lets go of it. He reaches forward and grabs onto the small headset but doesn't put it on, only holds the mic up to his face. He sinks down a bit in the chair.
"Hey, Mingi," He says plainly and holds his breath as if waiting for a reply. The static can be heard through the earpiece as the room is dead quiet. There is hardly ever any noise this time of night. "I'm starting to think Wooyoung opens up the bad pre prepped food just to mess with us. Yeosang says it was gray—which is not an ideal food color."
He finds himself chuckling at the thought of gray chili. Wooyoung is probably a good cook given the access to good ingredients, but all they have is preplanned, prepackaged, stale and dull food that the military has stored so it never expires. He sighs into the mic.
"I killed another zombie today, nothing special," He looks up at the dashboard of lights, buttons, and switches. There is hope someone is listening to his nonsense, preferably his smiley friend from high school, but in the back of his mind he knows he's talking to himself. "We're going on a run tomorrow. Wooyoung needs more cream for his skin. The pharmacy is inside a mall, if you remember, which isn't great. We've been working on clearing it out but that takes a lot of time."
The mall is rather far as well. It would take a full day complete the run, leaving the compound open to be taken since Jongho will be the one to stay behind. There is safety in numbers, so leaving a member behind to watch the compound is to be sure to keep it in their grasp but even with the alarms, weapons, and defense mechanisms Jongho will still be alone.
"I guess the base only has essentials," Yunho says solemnly into the mic and then shakes his head, not wanting to burden Mingi with his own worries. "I'll um...talk to you tomorrow."
Yunho reaches forward and flicks the switch so the light goes red and everything on the panel dies down, leaving him with the mic in hand, even that doesn't last long as he hangs it up and goes to leave the room.
The beds are hard, there's no doubt about that. Wooyoung has stuffed about three blankets between himself and the mattress in an attempt to make it softer, but they were meant for soldiers. Yunho has come to adjust to it even if his body aches in the morning. Jongho and Yeosang doesn't seem to complain, granted most of the time Yeosang ends up crawling into Jongho's bed in the middle of the night so he's unsure how much of his soreness is from sleeping on Jongho or the mattress itself.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Wooyoung's voice cuts through the darkness. Yunho turns his head and though they can't see each other's face, he can make out the lump in the bed.
"I'm okay," He whispers as he turns to lie on his back, looking up at the bottom of the bunk above him. Some days, he can picture Mingi's face a little more clearly, but this is not one of those days. His face is a mystery, a blur of traits he can piece together. Acne, shy around others but not him, a smile so pretty and crooked, but his face is the one thing Yunho can't picture. "I've made my peace with it."
It's been years since he's seen the younger. They had went to high school together and were inseparable, now Yunho can't even remember what he sounded like.
"I don't think that's true, but I trust you." Wooyoung whispers as though his soft tone will soften the blow to Yunho's feelings. He isn't quite sure he has made his peace with not remembering his best friend and boyfriend, but he's also not sure he has a choice. As much as Yunho has hope Mingi survived, the last time they saw each other he had left him for dead.
Yunho isn't sure he can ever make peace with that.