Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
according to jeon, they'd be in the city in two hours. that meant the younger would be carrying taehyung for two hours on his back. they'd been hiking east for the past thirty minutes, taehyung has been trying to keep his face as far away as possible from jeon's side. "you can put me down now, you're tired," he murmurs, but jeon ignores him again.
"if you walk we'll arrive in four hours, and i'm not tired. you weigh as much as my backpack, have you been eating?" that was a boundary that had been drawn the second jeon decided to not be friends with him two years ago. it was true taehyung had suffered from eating disorders, but he doesn't enjoy talking about such things. especially to someone who betrayed him.
"you don't get to ask me that," taehyung responds, the tension between them growing awkward.
jeon doesn't say anything after that. so they continue their way towards the city in silence. taehyung bounces up and down with each step jeon takes, the motion sends waves of pain down to his ankle. he's been silent about it but now he really can't stand the pain any longer. "c-can we rest?" taehyung pokes at jeon's blood stained cheek, trying to wipe away the crust.
"no."
"pretty please?"
"i said no kim."
taehyung, knowing the pain he'd put himself through, jumps off of jeon and tries to land on his good ankle, but somehow manages to land on the wrong one. he goes directly to the floor, a loud gasp leaving his mouth as he feels the tears gather up in his eyes. jeon turns around like a hungry animal, "what the hell kim?"
"you were making it worse," taehyung pouts, ghosting his fingers over the swollen joints of his ankle.
the raven runs a hand through his long hair, letting out a sigh. "ok, ten minute break."
taehyung unzips his backpack and pulls out his mini medical kit, looking around for gauze. luckily, he finds some. taking off his shoe turns out to be more difficult than he thought. the slightest tug sent his pain sensors into a frenzy. he wouldn't dare ask jeon for help, he was already irritating enough.
"let me," the latter squats down in front of taehyung and carefully takes off his shoe, grabbing the gauze and beginning to strategically wrap it around the swollen ankle. taehyung looks at anything but him. why am i getting flustered? i'm supposed to hate him. once jeon has bandaged him up, he stands up and hands him a water bottle. "c'mon, we gotta get going before nightfall," with a helping hand to get up, taehyung applies pressure onto his ankle to test it out. it's not as painful as before, so he opts with walking behind jeon.
"do you think the city knows? i mean, there weren't any alerts or something. they'll get it under control right?" taehyung begins, taking out a cotton pad and soaking it with antiseptic solution, coming close to jeon, "let me clean up your cut."
he half expects jeon to snatch away the cotton pad and do it himself, but he's proven wrong when the younger doesn't budge as taehyung gets close to his face. "this might sting," he warns, pressing the cotton pad onto the cut on his cheek, dabbing quickly but making sure to get rid of the blood and whatever germs were on there. jeon flinches, but a clenched jaw is enough for him to put up with the sting.
"i'm sure they'll get it under control. we just have to—" the raven grows silent as his eyes travel behind taehyung.
out of instinct, he pushes taehyung behind him and readies his bat. the ravenous monster begins walking towards them, taehyung's hand grabs jeon's arm and pulls him back, "let's try to outrun it." jeon seems to debate the suggestion, but he nods and turns around, "can you jog at least?"
he knows he can't, but taehyung nods anyways. both of them start to jog straight ahead, taehyung trying his best to keep his grunts of pain in. the monster is still trailing behind, sounds of hunger leaving its purple lips. the brunette can hardly keep up, but he can't be a burden. now is good time to be selfless. . . taehyung stops jogging.
"i'll distract it."
upon hearing his words, jeon stops his jogging too, looking back at taehyung with a frown. he doesn't act until he sees taehyung start to walk backwards towards the zombie. his heels dig into the dirt as he starts running towards taehyung, hand stretching out to latch onto the strap of the boy's backpack. "stop being stupid," jeon growls, pushing him back.
"i can't keep up with you," the zombie is getting closer, his groans are getting louder. "i'll only slow you down, just go ok?"
"no, i'm not leaving you again," he doesn't know why he says that, but he doesn't give taehyung the pleasure of knowing he cares. "i'll use you as bait some other time."
and with that, he swings the bat as hard as he can, a crunching WHACK bouncing off of the zombies head. it creates a dent but the creature quickly lunges forward, only to be hit again, this time sending it to the floor. immediately, jeon starts beating the (whatever remained of) living shit out of it. he doesn't stop until there's pieces of brain and flesh splattered about. taehyung wants to throw up. so he does.
after a couple of hurls, he wipes his mouth and takes long intakes of air through his nose and lets them out with his mouth. he's seen countless of zombie movies, but actually witnessing the brutal act of rekilling the dead was sickening. "no more stopping you hear me?"
taehyung nods.
after hours of traveling, the two boys finally reach the end of the forest. they pause at the end of the road that overlooks the city. into the badlands.
