Jungkook points his rocket launcher at the group of guards ahead, praying his glare masks his terror. "Don't make me ask again."
"Drop it or we drop your friends," one man says, turning his weapon towards Jin. The one next to him swivels his weapon at Louis, both of them unaffected by the threats.
"We just want our friends back. Y/n L/n, probably Park Jimin too. That man's a lap dog, he's wherever Y/n is."
"Fuck you!"
"Oh, found him. Hey Jimin!"
Jungkook locates Jimin and Y/n inside a cell not too far away, Jimin flipping him off while Y/n's too shocked to react. Fair enough. She'll have a hundred questions for him, starting with who gave Jeon Jungkook a rocket launcher. Well the answer is simple - he got it himself. Jungkook's no pussy; he got it from the weapon's room when he broke in and stole it only a minute ago. Anything for Y/n. Shit, maybe Jungkook's the lap dog.
"We're not letting anyone go. Turn around and leave before you regret it," the lead guard says.
"I have 8 more rockets and two machine gunners next to me. Do you really think now's the time for a dick measuring contest?" No answer. "Exactly. Let them go. Don't test me, I will blow your asses off." Jungkook lowers his tone, motioning his voice towards Louis. "Did Fiona get Ves and Sky out?"
"I think so," Louis replies, nodding.
Jungkook snorts and keeps the rocket launcher pointed at the group of guards. "If you don't agree to release my friends by the time I count to three, I blow off your dicks. Small targets, so it may take two shots, but I'll do it. So, what'll it be, fellas? Will you hand over Shark Boy and Lava Girl, or do I need to do this by force?"
"That was a terrible reference," Jin says, Jungkook kicking him and smiling when he hears the older man grunt.
"How about a counter proposal. Your file says you're a doctor," a new man says, approaching and standing in the front. Ah, that leader bitch he talked to upon arrival. "A good one, too. We could use that. How about you turn yourself in, and we'll let them go."
Jungkook blinks, then, he bursts out laughing. "Motherfucker, I'm Jeon Jungkook, not Captain America. I ain't sacrificing shit for Y/n no matter how nice her ass looks today."
"I can hear you, asshole!"
"Love you too, L/n." Jungkook blows the woman a kiss, and this time, both her and her kind-of boyfriend flip him off.
"You are being faced down by a dozen of my men, you're in a camp meant to be the new government of the apocalypse, and the leader is offering a solution, but you'd rather make jokes and be sarcastic?" the leader asks, lowering the clipboard in his hands.
Jungkook shrugs. "Yep." He pops the 'p', then, he fires the rocket launcher. Shrills ring out as gunfire does, Louis and Jin getting the jump on them thanks to Jungkook's launcher blast. The leader is on the ground, half of the guards dead from the explosion, the other half dead from Jin and Louis. Jungkook steps forward and grabs a fresh rocket from out of his bag as citizens of this area sprint around, screaming at the top of their lungs. He kneels, reloading right in front of the groaning leader.
Bruises and muck litter his face, blood dripping down his head. "Fuck... you..." he says in a cough, spitting on the ground in front of Jungkook's shoes.
He clicks his tongue while Jin and Louis cover him, Jungkook tilting his head. "My diagnosis is that I won, motherfucker. Now I'm gonna go save my friends and fuck on out of here. You touch my school again, and the next rocket gets blasted up your ass, got it?" When he doesn't reply, Jungkook hits him over the head with the launcher to knock him out, hopping to his feet and whistling while strolling to the cell containing Jimin and Y/n and... a hot guy standing outside?
"What the fuck kind of friends do you have, Park?" the man asks, Jimin chuckling.
"He's not my friend."
Jungkook scoffs, placing a hand on his hip while his other holds the launcher up. "Oh I'm not? Well I guess Y/n's the only one coming home with me then. Come on princess, let's get out of here."
"Only I can call her that," Jimin says, narrowing his eyes.
"Oh shit, you two are together?" No answer. "Ha, you guys are fucking losers."
"Fuck off," they say at the same time, Jungkook hoisting the launcher up and hitting the lock until it springs free.
Jungkook shifts his attention to the hot man as Louis and Jin cover their asses, firing their machine guns and taking out extra ammo from the bags on their backs. Regardless, Jungkook offers his hand to the new man. "Jeon Jungkook. Slightly gay and definitely underpaid. Pleasure to meet you."
The man takes his hand, shaking it with wide eyes. "K-Kim Taehyung. Very gay, gay, and did I mention gay?"
"Okay, less flirting, more running," Y/n says, grabbing Jimin's hand and pulling him out of the cell. Jungkook chortles and agrees, the group running together while Jungkook's posse covers them. He keeps the rocket launcher close to him as they rush to the entrance, the guards there not even bothering to try and stop them, presumably because they understand why Jungkook's doing this. What are the odds everyone's here loyal? What are the odds some may escape in this fiasco?
They slip through the open gates as alarms sound off, Louis and Jin firing at the few guards suicidal enough to chase after them. "Wait, what about the kid?!" Jimin shouts, panting. "I'm not leaving without him."
"No need, Fiona got him and Sky out while we were doing that whole... demonstration," Jungkook says, them going down the road. "And be quiet, we don't want to attract any zombies. Come on Korean Bear Grylls, get a hold of yourself."
"Your references are awful," Jin says as he keeps his pace with the others. Even that hot man, Kim Taehyung, rolls his eyes to Jungkook's terrible sense of humor.
"So does anyone want to explain why they thought it was a good idea to give Jeon Jungkook a rocket launcher?" Y/n asks as they go, but it's not that easy. More guards come after them for revenge, Jin and Louis reloading before firing back. They go faster, panting and seeing horses up ahead in the fences outside the main camp.
"After that leader asshole interrogated us four, I asked if they wanted to do something stupid!" Jungkook shouts over the commotion.
"We said no, by the way!" Jin shouts back, keeping up his fire on the others behind them.
"So I pretended to faint, and one guard left to get a medic, leaving only one with me," Jungkook says. "I'm a genius, I know. But anyway, I tackled that guard, took his knife and stabbed him, then gave the assault rifle to Jin, and we broke into the weapon's room. Took a rocket launcher and raided the place. We killed a lot of people. Took them by surprise. Sent Fiona after the kids, we got separated right as we went in. There's so many people at that camp, no one recognized us as prisoners."
"For a doctor, your best friend has an obsession with taking lives," Jimin says, Jungkook shaking his head.
"I'm normally not like this, I just didn't want anything to happen to Y/n." The real answer is Jungkook's scared. Terrified beyond belief, and he doesn't want the others to know that. So, he masks it by acting like an absolute maniac. Y/n glances at him, and in that one glance, he knows she can read his mind. She always has been able to. He decides against speaking anymore, only running to the horses and hopping the fences to the makeshift stables.
There's a few attendants there, brushing and feeding the horses. As soon as they see the weapons - or more specifically, the rocket launcher - they back away and throw their hands up. This is what happens when you recruit forcefully. No one wants to fight for their 'home'.
Jungkook and the others grab horses, removing them from their sections and hopping on them. He straps the launcher around his shoulder, rubbing the horse's head. Funny, this one seems calmer around Jungkook than the other workers. His friends are smart enough to choose the calm horses like he did, Jimin and Y/n sharing one because they're in love. Jungkook takes the reins and tugs, the horse neighing and springing into action.
"Follow me!" Jungkook shouts, the others agreeing and letting their horses follow after him. Jungkook huffs, narrowing his eyes as they dart down the road. He isn't 100% sure where to go, him peeping around for landmarks he may recognize. To his surprise, Louis scoots to the front, panting. "What's wrong?"
He's holding his hip, grunting as blood drips down his skin. "Got shot by one of those assholes while we were escaping. But that's not important, we have to get back to the school, and I know where it is."
Jungkook's horse speeds up, as do the rest of the animals behind him. "Dude, you're bleeding bad. Is there an exit wound?" Jungkook tries to see, but the road is too bumpy for him to do so.
"I don't know, I didn't check."
"We might have to perform surgery to get the bullet out, the hip is complicated."
"Then let's get back to the school fast, yeah?"
He agrees, the group trotting together. When they're far enough from the camp, they ease their worries. Despite that, they keep the same speed, Jimin even zooming up to the front with his woman holding him. "Do you know the way back?" he asks.
"I'm following him," Jungkook says, pointing to Louis.
"I recognize this area from a scavenge run I did a while back. It's hazy, but do any of you have a better plan?" No one opens their mouth to protest, so, they continue to follow Louis. And ten minutes later, they find themselves at the broken gates of the school.
The group slows their horses, their jaws on the ground while their hands cover their mouths. Right away, the group silently sobs at the stench of smoke smothering their senses. Not knowing what else to do, they trek inside, noticing the yard is scorched. Much of the grass is burnt, any decorations they had outside shattered. Jungkook pants as he peeks around, seeing many bricks lying around, same with the tables they had set up.
"The gates aren't too bad, we can probably repair them manually," Jimin says, scoping the area out. "A couple of the tables are broken, but not all of them. Do we have any extra inside?"
"Maybe in the cafeteria, but we haven't gone in there in ages. No point, we just eat outside," Louis says, gripping his wound.
"We need to get you to the nurse's office, that's our priority," Jungkook replies, which Louis doesn't disagree to. Jungkook lets Y/n, her simp boyfriend, the new guy Taehyung, and Jin handle the exterior roundup. Meanwhile, Jungkook brings him and Louis to the corner, dismounting his horse and tying it to the wall. He has to help Louis down, the man swinging his arm over Jungkook's shoulder as they go.
They limp into the building, Jungkook's rocket launcher clanging against his back. "Do you think they'll come back?" Louis asks, grunting and attempting to hold back his pain.
"I don't know, they may just figure it's not worth it. Or maybe they'll come for us in ten minutes and fuck us up. I don't know, all I know is that- Katherine?!"
The woman exits the entrance to the nurse's office, her eyes widening as she darts over and takes Louis from him. "Jungkook, thank God," she says, motioning for him to hug her side, and he gladly does. When they part, she keeps Louis on her other side and nods to Jungkook. "Tell me what's going on while we walk, yeah?"
He agrees, telling her the details of the camp and how he managed to do something really stupid to break out. She isn't surprised by anything he describes, them creeping into the office and setting Louis down on one of the three beds inside. Funny how the office is such a bright color palette, yet in the apocalypse, none of the injuries they sustain are ever pretty and light.
Katherine is quick to grab the scissors, cutting the shirt and eyeing the wound. "Do we have any twilight?" Jungkook asks.
"Not much, but enough to knock him," Katherine replies, rifling through the drawers to find it. "Shit, we really have nothing left. Pills and lots of medicine, but not much surgical supplies." She stops herself, grabbing what's left of the twilight. "We have no anesthetic other than this last dose of twilight. No heavy stuff, just this."
"We'll worry about that later, put him in a twilight sleep."
She obeys, Louis listening to her instructions while Jungkook gathers the tools they'll need. She was right: they have borderline nothing left for surgeries. Some morphine is left, but no fentanyl or any other heavy-duty painkillers. They haven't needed those supplies, but with the way things are going, they're going to. It's better to have and not need than need and not have. Especially in the fucking apocalypse. He shakes off his thoughts and takes all the items they'll need, coming back over and placing it on the table next to Louis's bed.
"Who all survived?" he asks as she puts on gloves, him doing the same.
"Julia and Omar are fine, Hoseok is scarred but alive, and Namjoon's okay too."
"Anyone else?"
"Everyone else either got taken or died. Gerald died in the attack, same with Yusan."
"We lost that many?"
Katherine shrugs and hands the forceps to him, Jungkook taking it as soon as his gloves are secured. "They didn't touch the greenhouse, so we still have food. They didn't care about robbing us, they only cared about kidnapping us. They left when they took most of us, I led the others to hide, and they gave up faster than I thought."
She keeps speaking, but Jungkook zones out while staring at the wound. The blood drips down Louis's skin, the wound calling for him to open it and take the bullet out. He needs to get the fragments, to stop the bleeding and save this man's life. Get in and see what the fuck is broken in his hip, because there's no way he didn't at least fracture something. But... he can't.
Jungkook's frozen in place. Instead of seeing Louis, he sees another person. Jungkook's hands are covered in carmine, the scalpel diving in. But instead of doing a proper, precision cut, he accidentally cuts an artery. He remembers the panic, the screams, his tears while he desperately tried to close it. But that didn't work, and the woman who trusted Jungkook to do the surgery died in his arms.
Jungkook drops the scalpel, backing away and trembling. Katherine picks the tool up, sanitizing it before coming over and eyeing Jungkook. "Kook..."
"I'm sorry I... I-I can't." The memories keep gnawing at his mind, tingling his skin with goosebumps, his throat tightening until he can't breathe. He doesn't see Louis on that bed. He sees the woman who he got killed. Jungkook may act like he's fine with this apocalypse, like he's fine with the horror and destruction he caused earlier, but the truth is each action is a result of his trauma lashing out. This one included. Jungkook's tongue is too swollen to move, Katherine attempting to step closer, but he backs up.
And without another word, he runs away.