December 17th, 2025
2:27 PM
You peered over your shoulder as the truck came to a stop on the dirt, looking at a particular wood cabin, and you reached across the cargo bed to grab a duffel bag, hopping out with the bag clutched in your fist. The truck shut off, and you heard the driver's side door open and close as you walked around the back of the vehicle.
"Alright, so you remember what to grab?" Jaemin saw you coming and already had his head turned in your direction, an unlit cigarette in between his fingers.
"Uhhh, mostly apple preserves," You started rattling off a multitude of items. "Some cherry, blueberry, and...pear...?" Your eyebrows slowly scrunched as you looked up at Jaemin. "Kun said pear, right?"
"Yep, two jars." Jaemin nodded, holding up two fingers with his free hand. "Remember, it's for the Jungle Juice."
"Right..." You trailed off. "And water. Just a shit ton of water...I know Kun was real adamant on me grabbing a whole lot of water..."
"I meeean..." Jaemin giggled lowly. "If he's gonna cook up a Christmas feast like he said he was, he might just need 'a shit ton of water.'"
You laughed a little. "Got a point there. Alright, I think I'm gonna need an extra bag, is there one in there?" You asked, knocking on one of the back doors to the truck.
"Should be. Jisung handled the bags before we left..." Jaemin went to open one of the doors, peering across the seats before his eyes floated down to the floor. "Yeah, there's like four of them in here."
"Cool," You sighed as Jaemin handed you another empty duffel bag. "I'll be outta there soon then. Watch my back?"
"Of course," Jaemin smirked, pecking you on your lips. "You know I always got you."
"Thank you, baby." You grinned. "Now don't smoke up that whole pack while I'm in there; at least save me one."
Jaemin giggled again as he lit his cigarette. "I know, I know..."
You trotted up to the cabin, duffel bags in hand, but then you paused the more you stared at the log house. "Aye, this kinda looks like the same cabin Chenle picked me up at..." You yelled back to Jaemin.
"You sure?" You saw Jaemin tilt his head, smoke spilling from his mouth. "We have three other ones out this way that look the same..."
"I'm pretty positive, 'cause look," You walked up the steps to find a long-dead male walker sprawled out on the porch, its brains already browned, and its eyes blackened. You could spot a bullet hole in its temple that was poorly covered by its bangs.
You pointed to the walker. "I shot ole boy when I first came here. He almost snatched my ass up," You sort of chuckled.
"Thank God for weapons, right?" You chuckled again at Jaemin's response as you crept your way into the cabin.
While you twisted the doorknob, you could've sworn you heard a bit of scuffling coming from inside the house, but kind of chalked it up to rats.
The cabin's interior was pretty much the same as before...at least you thought it was, though, you didn't remember the mattress on the floor being dressed in sheets, a slightly thin comforter, and a stray pillow.
Maybe one of the guys brought it over one day...? It looked like the same sheets you'd see at the resort, but not quite – there were minimal designs that differed from the hotel sheets.
Fluttering your eyelids for a moment, you moved to the wardrobe closet by one of the windows, swinging the doors open with the duffel bags at your feet, and began unloading some contents from the shelves.
You started with the water bottles, clearing a little over two bottom shelves, and slowly worked your way up to the fruit preserves.
First, you spotted the apple jars, wasting no time to swipe another shelf-full into the second duffel bag. Then you did the same with the blueberry jars, followed by the pears.
But you got to looking at the cherry preserves, and you noticed that not only was there a jar or two missing, but another had already been opened and eaten about halfway.
"The hell...?" Your eyebrows furrowed the more you examined the half-eaten jar, and as you took it into your hand, you heard a blunt thud come from further into the cabin.
From where you were standing, you could see into a small hallway where a run-down bathroom sat, its door cracked open.
"Yo," You shouted a little at the bathroom. "Who's in there?"
Instead of getting any form of response, you just heard another quiet yet blunt thud from inside the bathroom. Instinctively, you grabbed the pistol strapped to your thigh, sneaking up to the door as you switched the safety off on your gun.
Your hand stilled on the barrier before pushing it open, your gun aimed at whatever was hiding inside.
"Wait...!" A young boy scrambling to stand up held his hands out, anxiety and fear washing over his face the moment he saw the gun pointed at his chest. "Wait, don't shoot me, please!"
Huh...Now that was something you weren't at all expecting to see.
The boy did look to be in a fucked-up state – his clothes tattered, hair a bit unruly, shoes nearly falling apart at the soles, and an ever-so-slowly leaking gauze bandage wrapped around his right leg.
His voice came out soft and a tad high-pitched; he had to be somewhere in his mid-to-late teens...
"Oh, now you can speak?" You spoke with a tinge of anger in your voice. "You ain't hear me calling for you?"
The boy meekly nodded his head. "You did?" You asked for more clarification, earning another nod. "Then why the fuck didn't you say nothing?! I could've been shot your ass, boy!"
"I'm sorry!" His voice quivered. "I-I...I was scared, okay? It's just that...it's been a while since I had any food, and I've...been walking for days. B-But honest to God, I didn't know any of that belonged to you! You have to believe me, Miss!"
You scoffed out a hefty sigh. "How old are you, man?"
"Uhh..." The boy froze, his eyebrows slowly knitting into a slight frown. "I...think I'm nineteen...Sorry, it's been a while since I had a calendar either – I'm not even sure what month it is..."
"Mm," You hummed, lowering your gun a little. "Got a crew?"
"A-Ah...Well, that's complicated..."
"What you mean 'complicated?'" You asked him with an air of confusion, and almost as if on cue, you heard the back door of the cabin opening, followed by an agitated voice.
"Goddamnit, Anton! How long does it take for you to loot an abandoned house, huh?!"
"This fucking dude..." Another voice groaned. "I told you that leg's been slowing his ass down, but you didn't wanna fucking listen to me..."
"Like his injury was his fault..." Yet another male voice scoffed in annoyance. "Both of you, just fucking be quiet..."
The voices got closer to the bathroom, and you peered out into the hallway, greeted by the presence of three boys, all looking around the same age as the one you were talking to.
"Who the hell are you?" The boy in the middle asked, slightly looking up at you.
"Could ask you the same shit, rugrat..." You sneered, facing Anton. "This your crew?"
"Yeah, we're his-..." The same boy in the middle tried to speak for Anton, but you shushed him by holding up your hand in a closing motion.
"Speak when spoken to, boy."
"Somewhat..." Anton finally answered you. "We were all in the same camping group in San Fran until our base got overrun. They made it out, and so did I. It's not like I had a choice..."
"Everybody's got choices, man," You affirmed.
"Anton, don't lie to this woman." The boy on the left smacked his teeth. "You know good damn well you had the choice to bounce by yourself-"
"Did I not say speak when spoken to, motherfucker?" You shot a glare at the boy. "Or am I losing it?"
"Eunseok, Sohee, please..." The boy on the far right steadily grew more exasperated the more the other two kept talking. "She's got a gun on her, man – just shut the hell up!"
"At least one of y'all got some fucking sense..." You muttered before sighing. "You know what? Come on, Anton." You gestured for the boy in the bathroom to follow behind you.
That left the rest of the boys perplexed, each of them bearing the most confused expression you could possibly see on someone's face. "Wait, where are you going with him?" Eunseok inquired.
"I'm taking him back to my camp." You stated to the boys bluntly. "Clearly, he's in worse shape than the three of you; he needs proper care. Something that for some reason, none of you could give him. You'll be alright..."
"What the fuck – no, we won't!" Sohee cursed, slightly scowling. "We've been eating nothing but berries and rabbit meat for the past month and a half!"
"I'm struggling to see how the fuck that's my problem." You quipped, grabbing Anton gently by his shoulder as you prepared to escort him to the truck.
Jaemin saw the boy hobbling down the steps with you and came to the boy's side. "Woah, what happened in there?"
"Found him creeping around the cabin looking for food," You explained to Jaemin. "I wanna take him to see Ten so he can look at his leg, is that fine?"
"Yeah, of course." Jaemin almost immediately nodded, helping Anton climb into the backseat of the truck. "Careful with your leg, man..."
"Y-Yeah, thanks..."
You turned back into the cabin to grab a few more cherry jars before zipping the second duffel bag closed. That was when you soon felt a soft tap on your shoulder.
It was the same boy you thought was trying to play peacemaker between the other two, who sheepishly stood in a nearby corner like they were waiting for something.
"Yeah?" You raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"Umm..." He hummed lowly. "Look, please don't pay those two any mind. It's true what Sohee said; we haven't had any decent food in a while, and tensions were already high when we left our original camp. They both tend to say things they don't really mean when they're frustrated...I'm sorry if we caused you any trouble, ma'am..."
You sighed. "Listen, dude, I get that you're trying to play peacemaker and all that, but you weren't the one talking shit about Anton and his leg, were you?"
The boy shook his head no. "Exactly, so I don't need an apology from you, alright? Go get in the truck." You motioned with your head for the boy to leave before focusing your attention on Sohee and Eunseok.
"H-Hey, so uhhh..." Eunseok started a little shakily. "About what we were saying earlier-..."
"Save it, rugrat." You cut the boy off. "Y'all want me to believe you're sorry? Carry these shits to the back of the truck. And since you seem like you got a fucking mouth on you," You pointed at Sohee while picking up the bag containing the fruit jars – the heaviest out of the two bags.
"You got the heavier one."
While Sohee seemed like he wanted to whine about the weight, he simply kept his mouth shut, hanging his head low as he lugged the duffel bag out the door. Eunseok trailed behind him with the water bag, but he was struggling less than the boy ahead of him.
"Jesus Christ, there's more of them?" You heard Jaemin cackle. "What, did you find the Kids Next Door in there?"
"More like Ed, Edd, Eddy, and Edward." You joked, earning another laugh from Jaemin. "The one with the messed-up leg doesn't seem to really rock with the other three..."
"How could you tell?"
"Eh, just the vibe I got from them." You shrugged. "All of this feels way too familiar to me, man, I swear...Finding them tryna steal food, how I found them-..."
"Mhm, sounds to me like shit's coming full circle for you, bae." Jaemin draped an arm over your shoulder. "Only, it isn't a misunderstanding this time; these cats were actually caught stealing."
You giggled. "That's true, but I'm kinda gonna take it easy on them. Not tryna have a repeat of what happened with me..."
"I get that..." Jaemin nodded as he ushered you to the passenger seat of the truck. "You big softie..."
"Aha-ha-ha, funny..." You flashed a playful grin at your boyfriend, looking through the rear-view mirror and at the peacemaker and Anton in the backseats. "Y'all might as well get comfortable; our camp's about thirty minutes out."
"Oh...okay..." You saw Anton hesitate to nod his head.
"Thank you, ma'am..." The peacemaker tried to express gratitude, but the look you held on your face was indecipherable to him.
"What's your name, kid?" You made direct eye contact with the peacemaker.
"It's...Wonbin..."
"Okay, my name is Y/N." You properly introduced yourself. "Now you can stop calling me 'ma'am.' That shit makes me feel old..."
"Ah..." Wonbin stifled a little laugh. "I understand."
You heard a snicker come from the driver's seat and playfully nudged Jaemin in his shoulder for laughing, though, you couldn't contain your own fit of chuckles along the dirt road.
~End~