His head felt hot. No, his head felt empty. It felt like he had been dumped face first into a hot spring and was being held in place there. Namjoon's chest was heaving, up and down, but why did it feel like no oxygen was actually making its way to his brain?
In the path of three zombies who were fast closing in on him, all his exits were blocked off. If he tried to run, he would definitely get attacked from behind or the side. If he stayed still for too long, he would definitely be found by them. His hiding place crouched behind a cluster of loading boxes wouldn't be enough to hide him forever. He was a sitting duck.
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm so dead.
~Earlier~
"Are you feeling alright, Ms Ryu?" Namjoon quietly asked the older woman when he heard her sigh for the ninth time. He and Ms Ryu had partnered up with Jungkook and Jaehyun and were seated beside each other in the minibus that Seulgi was trundling down a narrow back road towards the supermarket district. The windows had all the curtains drawn, so they hadn't seen any zombies. Ms Ryu exhaled.
"I can't seem to get a grip on myself. We haven't even seen anything yet but I'm feeling so anxious." She murmured. Namjoon gave her a wobbly smile. He understood her completely. No zombies in sight, but his hand couldn't stop the subtle tremor it had begun when they had left the safety of the terminal's gates.
The scouts, for the most part, appeared rather relaxed, murmuring softly among themselves while the terminal's survivors sat in pairs, causing patches of silence in the vehicle. Jihyo and the boys that had come with her were staying in the terminal with the children.
They had established several hiding places around the terminal in case there was a break-in from any mutant zombies before everyone else had left for Ms Ryu's island. Since the five of them had spent so much time outside, Jimin and Baekhyun felt no need to make them come out again. In fact, both had very expressly refused to make them come out again.
Staring blankly at the back of the seat in front of him, Namjoon jumped when Ms Ryu's warm hand patted his own. Her lips were set in a thin line, her eyes shaking. Namjoon blinked at her before realising that the minibus had stopped.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
"Alright. We'll be going now. Please stay with your partner pair at all times. Help each other out. Stay calm, stay silent, get what you need and get back here, pronto. We don't need as much stuff this time, so one trip each should be enough with the number of people we have right now." Jimin announced as everyone got ready to depart.
There were hums and nods of confirmation from the scouts while the other survivors stood like stone. Namjoon followed Jungkook out of the vehicle, checking that Ms Ryu and Jaehyun were following behind before looking ahead.
When they had been planning this trip back at the terminal, Jungkook and Jaehyun had been tasked with collecting first aid kits and medicine from the pharmacy on the edge of the shopping district, as Eunho.
Ms Ryu was coming with them to gauge if there was anything more that would be useful to add and Namjoon was assigned with them because Ms Ryu said she felt far more secure with "three strapping young men to watch my back". Ha! He might have been strapping but Namjoon didn't feel very equipped to watch anyone's back.
So here they were, headed and tailed by Jungkook and Jaehyun as they made the short trek into the store through the staff exit Eunha had apparently propped open the last time they had been there. From here, they would make their way to the edge of the shopping district where the few health stores and pharmacies Eunha hadn't been able to collect from were located.
According to the scouts, twilight and dawn were usually the best times of day to come out - the zombies seemed confused by the change in light and would move a lot less before adjusting at nightfall or in daylight- but they were hesitant to go at twilight again because of what happened last time.
Understandable, Jimin had come close to dying, no matter how much he brushed it off. So now they had come out just after dawn, hoping that the time would grant them some relative peace to do their tasks as the zombies slowed from the change in light.
Lifting his head, Namjoon squinted at the grey, watery sunlight and silently huffed out a breath. Now at the beginning of November, the air carried a chill that kept his ears tuned for any small sound, catching the wind as it whistled and the evergreen trees as they rustled.
He hated it.
They made their way into the store, his eyes snapping about, taking in for the first time the emptiness left behind in the wake of the chaos that took place nearly two months prior. With the way the outbreak happened, he had anticipated encountering more zombified people straight out the door.
A shuffling noise made him startle out of his wonderings, his head swivelling around to see Ms Ryu just before she bumped into his back, gripping the back of his jacket with trembling hands as a very small grunt came from her mouth, silenced immediately by Jaehyun's large hand clamping down over her lips.
Jungkook had spun around on his feet at the commotion, guiding them all with practiced grace to squat behind an empty aisle rack of what used to be cold medicines. Pressing his finger to his lips, he brought out his phone and quickly typed out a message asking if they were okay. Namjoon and Ms Ryu nodded at him silently. Nodding back, Jungkook typed out another message, showing them before pocketing the device.
Please be mindful of yourself and your personal space. One small mistake can and probably *will* get us caught.
Namjoon felt a discomfort stirring in his gut and hoped it wouldn't make a sound. They hadn't even left the first store yet and things weren't looking too hot for the four of them. Jungkook peeked out from the rack and gestured that they were okay to get going.
Once stepped out, Namjoon realised that the other scouts and survivors must have already scattered across the shopping district. The store was empty, and so fast. Swallowing, he scolded himself internally for not being able to move forward with his own plan. You made a bunch of high schoolers do this over and over again. Even if it's only for this one time, Kim Namjoon, suck it up.
Following steadfastly behind Jungkook, Namjoon paid extra attention this time to where they were moving, to the soft sound of Jungkook, Jaehyun and Ms Ryu's footsteps and to the quiet shrill of the wind. They moved steadily, never running, but still not quite walking. He could hear Ms Ryu huffing a little even though the three young men were slowed to match her pace.
Using the comfortable rhythm to scan their surroundings some more, Namjoon was pleasantly surprised when Jungkook halted in front of a store front after only a few minutes of silent strides. Looking up, it was indeed a pharmacy. With the shutters pulled completely down.
Glancing at Jungkook's back curiously, Namjoon tilted his head to the side. This store surely was going to be impossible to get into? Nonetheless he followed dutifully behind the young man as he rounded a corner into a small alleyway and melted into the shadows.
Namjoon heard a click and the slight sound of creaking from further down and swallowed the saliva that had flooded his mouth. Exhaling gently through his nose, he shifted forward, bent low, walking blind for a short while before colliding with a solid surface with a dull thud. Before he could fully process the pain that was slowly spreading out across his forehead, he felt a firm tug on his arm and was dragged to the side before being laid down on the floor.
There was a short pause before the click sounded again but all Namjoon could do was stare, dazed, at the flecks of weak sunlight that were filtering through the gaps in the shutter. His vision of the ceiling was obstructed by concerned eyes that gazed into his own.
Blinking into focus, Namjoon locked eyes with a worried Jungkook, who held up his phone, hesitated, and then pressed Namjoon's palm against his own forehead. It was like a zap of pain bloomed across his head in that instant. Clutching his head, Namjoon shut his eyes and scrunched his face, trying had to quell his reaction to the pain.
A tender pressure on the centre of his chest caused him to open his eyes. Jungkook was applying and releasing pressure to the spot on his chest and Namjoon realised that he was trying to guide him to breathe. Following his pattern, Namjoon took a deep breath, and then released it.
For a few moments they remained in this position, Namjoon inhaling, exhaling deeply as the pain thudded on his crown, dulling and dulling until he deemed that it was enough and slowly rose to a seated position. Turning his head with miniscule movement, he noted that he could faintly hear movement from around an aisle.
Jaehyun and Ms Ryu must have been off to one corner of the pharmacy packing up while Jungkook had taken care of him. Chastising himself inwardly, Namjoon got up with a hard exhale. Jungkook rose from his squat too, and after giving him a quick glance over one more time, he gave Namjoon a large fabric tote bag and they begin picking every medication they could find; cold medicine, digestion medication, vitamins, cough syrups. Namjoon paid no heed to what each one was as he just focused on getting as much as possible into his bag.
The pharmacy was silent as they packed and packed, making sure that nothing in the bags clinked too loudly when they moved. Systematically, the shelves emptied until the bags were full to the point that nothing else could be added that wouldn't make a betraying amount of noise.
When Jungkook's hand on his shoulder indicated that they were done, Namjoon lowered his hands from the shelves and looked over. Jaehyun and Ms Ryu were stood at the end of the aisle, Jaehyun carrying two tote bags heavy laid with supplies while Ms Ryu clutched one that seemed a lot lighter but was still fairly filled. Nodding at one another, Jaehyun and Jungkook began leading the way to the exit when the sound of the door clicking suddenly sounded in the quiet.
Crap.