/Jungkook listens to a song in this chapter, the song linked above is the one I'm referring to/
{found}
On the other side of the city, beyond the tall concrete structures, the sun was beginning its long descent towards the twilight. The winds were slowly bringing clouds over the sky, cast in pink as night further approached. The squad were back on the road again, traveling through the remains of the city to the place where it all began.
Jungkook's eyes were cast mindlessly out the window, body jolting with every pothole the van hit in the dried out road. The city stood like skeletons, bare wastelands, empty now that the disease had taken whatever the panic did not. Clogged drains left stagnant pools of water, waterfalls falling from buildings on their leans. Plant life had flourished, breaking through the footpaths and buildings as mother nature was slowly reverting back to its original state.
Letting out a sigh, Jungkook slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans, taking out his cassette player and headphones. He remembered the day he had met Hoseok, the day he had to escape camp Delta. The only thing he left his apartment with that morning was his cassette player, a gift from his mother when he had gone through his 'retro' teenage phase. He was glad he kept it, because for him, music was the only thing that kept him sane. Taking his headphones between his fingers, he slipped them on pressing a finger against the player as music flowed through him an old song from one of his favourite artists 'Aurora.'
Absorbing himself in the moment, Jungkook's eyes trailed back outside, body slouching over as he rested himself up against the side door of the van, breath fogging up the glass. Beside him, hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel was Namjoon, driving in place of Hoseok whilst the injured male was recovering. The team had been split up again; Namjoon, Taehyung, Jungkook and Hoseok were travelling in the leading van, the one that hadn't been busted up. Tessa recommended that everyone who had been injured should travel up front with Namjoon for safety purposes whilst everyone else traveled at the rear.
"Kook." Taehyung piped up from the back of the van.
Jungkook snapped himself back into reality, taking out a headphone as he turned his head over his shoulder, eyes falling over Taehyung. He was surprised by Taehyung's sudden change in personality. Ever since the accident, Taehyung was seemingly more relaxed around Jungkook, you could even say he was more accepting of the younger male. Jungkook didn't question why.
"Yeah?" Jungkook spoke, taking the second headphone from his ear.
Taehyung rose a hand, gesturing towards Jungkook's torso, "Mind if I check your injuries?" he asked, "I'm finished checking up on Hoseok, I patched myself up too." he explained, pointing towards his shoulder. Taehyung's lab coat was draped over a nearby box leaving Taehyung in a short sleeved black shirt, white bandages semi exposed from under the material. Jungkook found himself pausing for a short moment before giving a nod of his head, unbuckling his seatbelt and making his way into the back of the van, taking a seat beside Taehyung.
There was a moment of awkward silence, the males exchanging short eye contact before Taehyung cleared his throat, pointing towards Jungkook's torso, "Um..." Taehyung choked on his words, "Do you mind if I-"
"Oh!" Jungkook sounded, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, "Yeah, sorry."
Extending a hand, Taehyung's fingers intertwined themselves around the hem of Jungkook's white cotton shirt, slowly raising the material to further examine Jungkook's stomach. Eyes widening Taehyung found himself letting out a short and sharp gasp, and it wasn't at the male's defined muscles.
In the warm light that flowed through the windows of the van, the great purple smudge of a bruise that had sunk into Jungkook's skin was all the more visible. Taehyung knew it was bad, the colour would only deepen over the next few weeks.
"Does it hurt?" Taehyung spoke up, a hint of worry in his tone of voice as Jungkook faced him.
Biting down on his lip, Jungkook shook his head, "At first it hurt to breathe and I seriously began to worry if some of my ribs were cracked. But I think it was just the air being knocked out of me." Jungkook explained, reaching for the hem of his shirt to try and lower the material. But instead, Taehyung wrapped a warm hand around Jungkook's wrist, preventing him from lowering his shirt.
"I'm gonna double check okay?" Taehyung spoke, less of a question and more of a command as his eyes bore seriously into Jungkook's, "You were literally roundhouse kicked and punched in the torso."
Relaxing in his position, Jungkook allowed Taehyung to proceed. The younger male watched as Taehyung's hand rose to his stomach, lengthy tanned fingers placing pressure against his ribcage as the brunette checked for any signs of broken bones. Jungkook could see how serious Taehyung was when it came to health, medicine and science. It was admirable.
As Taehyung's fingers trailed further down Jungkook's ribcage, his touch traveled closer to the purple mark flourishing against Jungkook's tanned skin. Sucking in a sharp breath of air, Jungkook found himself flinching, letting out a small yelp as Taehyung pressed a finger against the mark.
"Shit! Sorry..." Taehyung apologised biting the inside of his mouth as he retracted his hand from Jungkook's exposed skin, "I don't think you've broken anything." Taehyung spoke, watching as Jungkook lowered his shirt.
"That's a relief." Jungkook sighed. The thought of breaking his ribs during a zombie freaking apocalypse didn't sit nicely with the younger male.
"It's definitely a relief." a new voice sounded, causing both Taehyung and Jungkook to turn their heads towards the back doors of the van. Leant up against the wall, arms stretched over his head was the bright and fluffy haired male, Hoseok.
Jungkook swore he broke out into the biggest grin once Hoseok had come to. "Oh my god... you're okay!" the brunette beamed, watching as Hoseok let out a yawn, moving a hand to ruffle his tousled orange hair.
"Surprisingly... yeah." Hoseok chuckled, landing his tired eyes on both Taehyung and Jungkook, "thanks to you guys anyway." he smiled unconsciously placing a hand beside his collar bone, and resting it over the sight of infection. "That was honestly the most unexpected thing that's ever happened to me."
"almost the most unexpected thing." Namjoon chuckled, eyes still cast out front as he drove, "The most unexpected thing was a zombie apocalypse breaking out mid coffee date." he spoke, recalling the outbreak on day zero and how he had been in utter disbelief for months afterwards.
Hoseok rolled his eyes, "I guess you got that right." Hoseok paused and turned back to Taehyung before he continued, "speaking of which... what were you doing on day zero, Taehyung?" he asked, realising that he was yet to hear how Taehyung had made it through. Hoseok knew that Jungkook, Jimin and Taehyung were in the same class... so what had Taehyung's escape plan been?
"Nothing special..." Taehyung began, shrugging as he leant back on his palms, "I got a message from my cousin who caught wind of the government science facility explosion. I ditched class as soon as I got word, almost died because stupid Officer Min- I mean... Yoongi, who held me up, but I managed." he explained almost too calmly to the squad.
Jungkook rose a brow, "You mean to tell me that you knew of the outbreak, but didn't even warn the class?"
Taehyung turned blankly towards Jungkook, "You would've done the same thing." he began to speak, rolling his eyes, "if I had told you that their was zombies heading towards the school, would you have believed me?"
Jungkook lowered his gaze, "no... no I wouldn't have."
There was a moment of brief silence before Namjoon spoke up once again, "Your father must've been extremely involved with the studies of the infection... it's crazy how something like that was being studied just kilometres down the road from the high school!" Namjoon exclaimed, clenching his hands tighter around the wheel, "I wonder how long the infection was even around."
"20 years..."
The squad went tense, breathing catching in their throats at Taehyung's rather blunt response. Jungkook found his brain freezing up as he failed to compute, "20 years?" the brunette spoke, asking again to be sure.
Taehyung simply nod, "20 years. My father began studying the Cordyceps infection after a breakout in the area 20 years ago."
"Hang on..." Hoseok cut in, brows furrowed as his eyes rested on Taehyung in disbelief, "There was a breakout before?" It seemed so unreasonable for this to have all happened before.
"Yeah, there was a small breakout in the area 20 years ago... only five to ten people were actually infected." Taehyung began to explain, "A bug had been carrying the infection and landed itself on some crops. Seeing as a few people in our home town rely on their own crops to survive, anyone who ate their own produce fell ill to the disease and was immediately quarantined. It was a week until they turned, signs show that the Cordyceps spreads much slower if ingested rather then being bitten or scratched."
Namjoon gulped, "So the crops were contaminated." It was hard to believe that he'd never once heard of this before, seeing as so many people in the area had grown food from their own crops. It seemed Hoseok was also dumbfounded, wondering how this was never brought up once before in their small and tight knit rural community. To Taehyung's surprise, Jungkook was almost non-responsive, brows furrowed, almost as if he were thinking deeply about the information handed to him.
Taehyung felt no need to hide too much of the truth- after all, the infection was out, and his father was dead. He needed all the help he could get to return to his father's lab and hopefully create a vaccine. But if his theory on Jungkook's immunity was in-fact correct, he feared that maybe it might be too late to save humanity.
"Uh... guys?" Namjoon sounded from upfront, easing off the gas as the van slowed to a stop. Hoseok was quick to raise to his feet, flinching a little as he pushed off his arm to stand. Shuffling towards the front windscreen, Hoseok leant over Namjoon's shoulder.
His eyes narrowed at the tall and slim figure standing a few metres in front of the van, arms outstretched in a motion for them to stop. Hoseok raised a brow, "It's a guy."
Without even thinking, Namjoon slid down the side window, leaning his head out the side of the van. A cool gust of autumn wind entangled itself in Namjoon's overly bleached hair as he turned his attention towards the man on the road, "If you think you can hitch a ride, you're wrong!" Namjoon called, voice raised as he communicated to the other male, "We've been through way too much for one day, I don't want any more drama!" he finished. Hoseok found himself slap a hand over his mouth as he held back a laugh. It was true they had been through way too much for one day, Namjoon was at his final straw and Hoseok could tell he was ready to flip a switch.
"I'm not a rebel, or infected!" The unknown male called, flailing his arms around like a madman as his eyes continuously scanned side to side, presumably out of habit of checking for infected, "I promise I won't bring you guys any harm!"
As the sun dipped below the city buildings a shadow of pink cast itself over the male's face, showing his absolute desperation. Namjoon rolled his eyes, "How do we know you're a good guy then!?" He called out once again, not caring if a horde came running at his ruckus.
The male in the middle of the road choked on his own saliva, mind going completely blank at Namjoon's request. "I uh-" he couldn't think, so the first thing that came to his clouded mind was, "aren't all good guys handsome?" he spluttered, pausing before he continued, "Because I'm too fucking handsome to be a bad guy!"
Hoseok couldn't take it anymore, bursting out into a fit of forensic laughter, bending over as he slapped his hand against his knee, tears forming in his eyes. "We've got a crazy guy out front, mad scientist by the looks of it!" he laughed, loosing his breath to the point where he had to sit down.
But Taehyung wasn't focusing on Hoseok's laughing fit, no... he was focused on something else entirely, "Wait- that voice..." he mumbled under his breath, tapping a finger against his jaw as he remained seated in the back of the van, "can you describe him?"
Namjoon was a little surprised at Taehyung's strange request but proceeded none the less, "Around my height..."
"Yeah?" Taehyung sounded, gesturing for him to continue,
"Brunette, science coat, and yeah- I mean he's quite good looking? Feminine almost." Namjoon commented, leaning further forwards in his seat as he tried to get a more detailed picture, "I think he has weirdly angled fingers..."
Before Namjoon could continue describing the male, Taehyung launched himself up from the back of the van, "Hang on one fucking second..." he sounded with a look of both anger and surprise as he stomped his way towards the front. Taking a tight hold of the front seat, the brunette leant over Namjoon's shoulder, jaw falling slack at the sight on the road before him,
"Jin!?"
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{Author Note}
FINALYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Jin's introduction waited thirty chapters, I wanted him in the story so bad and you guys did too!
I hope the chapter was okay! I hope you liked the song too! Aurora is my favourite female artist and I saw her live a few months ago! Like BTS she has an amazing message behind all her songs.
(unedited)