Annihilation

The City

A week later we'd worked things out enough that we felt ready for our run into the city. Hobi, Jungkook, Yoongi and I would take the thirty-two mile route on foot, making a stop by the stream for more water and the city with more supplies and a car with gas as our top priority. We weren't sure how long the trip would take and didn't care to jinx it by guessing.

We started out strong, though I'm sure Yoongi regretted coming along as he scolded Hobi for calling out military chants when our steps fell into sync and walking too fast at times. Their bickering kept the trek interesting and I giggled as Jungkook instigated their tiffs, rolling my eyes at the lot of them.

Just fifteen miles into the walk I felt the first drop, reaching up to touch my forehead. Almost as soon as I pulled back my finger, the tip coated with a bead of water, another fell, landing on the point of my nose. The rain started to fall consistently, pattering against the asphalt in a deliverance from the sky.

I closed my eyes, casting my face up and letting the pearls cover me until I was soaked head to toe. Hobi made quick work of dancing through where the rain pooled into a puddle by the edge of the road. Yoongi took the bottles of water he carried in his bag, placing them on the ground to refill while Jungkook stood next to me with his mouth spread into a smile and his tongue out, drenched and fulfilled.

The paradise of rain only lasted for fifteen minutes, Yoongi groaning as the moisture was taken over by heat that would swallow it with ease. By the first nightfall we made it over twenty miles, the difference in our energy and stamina starkly different from when Jungkook and I went out in search of water. We found the remnants of an old shack a couple of miles from the road, the dry platform the perfect place for us to sleep.

Yoongi built a small fire and we sat around devouring the meat from four squirrels Jungkook caught along the way. We were mostly quiet outside of the nearly inaudible humming in Hobi's throat between bites. "Jungkookie, sing us a song." He commented just as we finished eating.

Jungkook's lips formed into a scowl and Yoongi chuckled as if a secret had been let out. "You sing?" I smiled, glancing through the flames into his scarlet lit gaze.

"I don't." He answered quickly, darting a threatening glare toward Hobi before turning back to meet my expectant eye. He sighed, thinking for a moment before starting a song I didn't recognize but that made Hobi buzz with remembrance.

He kept his eyes closed and voice low, the soft melody burning right through the fire and giving life to everything blanketed by the dark of night.

We slept under the stars, taking turns keeping watch in pairs. He made me swear never to tell the others, but I made Jungkook spend the entirety of our lookout singing faintly next to me until the sun broke over the horizon.

The rest of the trek into the city was untroubled outside of a handful of the undead we met along the way. When the thick of the forest thinned as it transitioned into the city limits we moved so that we had enough cover to enter discreetly. The first place I recognized was the gas station where I usually filled up and grabbed a muffin for the ride to work. A few abandoned cars sat outside, the executed bodies of the undead piled together by the tanks.

We scavenged every small store and restaurant downtown, finding a little other than a few weapons kept behind the counters. The city seemed to be wiped clean in the beginning, until more of the undead appeared from around street corners, unexplored parts where it seemed that many met their first death.

"We should get to higher ground, figure out our next move." Hobi pointed down the short alley of an apartment building, his sights set on a fire escape that would take us to the roof.

The metal ladder clanged and creaked as we made our way up and around each balcony until Hobi assessed the clear roof, the rest of us crawling up behind him.

I was breathless at the top, inhaling deeply as we took in the view. Small packs of the undead were scattered around a few corners of the surrounding area and I spotted the building where I lived a few blocks away, tracing the route to us and finding just a few of the undead we'd have to get through.

"What are you looking at?" Yoongi raised his chin toward me.

"That's the building where I lived." I pointed, Hobi coming into view next to me a moment later, the map we'd put together stretched out in front of him.

He pointed to my apartment on the page, holding out two more fingers at points around it. "We can make it there, see what's left in the apartments if it's safe, and check out this restaurant, the pharmacy, and bar for more weapons. There's a couple of parking lots around there so we can try for a car."

He laid out the path and an alternate in case we got cut off, making sure we were all in agreement. We picked up a run to cover the few blocks as quickly as possible, a sinister feeling coming over me as we stepped up to the entrance to the place I once looked forward to calling home.

Hobi used his crowbar to break into the double doors, hopeful that since they were locked and the inside was so silent that the quiet seemed to echo, it had been abandoned without much scavenging.

It was only a twenty-six building unit and we sifted through floor by floor. You could tell that people left in a rush, the homes still put together, but with a small disarray that told the tale of a quick, frantic departure. My heart sank when I picked up a photo of the family with two children who I often saw playing on the sidewalk at the side of the building, my heart breaking for their loss or their fight to survive.

At the third floor I stopped in front of my door, tracing my fingers over the welcome sign I hung as a small decoration. Hobi stood next to me while Jungkook and Yoongi finished up in the apartment next door, the wooden door crackling as Hobi forced it open.

It was as if nothing happened, like I could have been coming home from work that day as I stepped inside. My crockpot was still plugged into the socket, apparently shut down before overheating, and the cabinets were filled with my favorite snacks and food. Hobi was having a field day, a bag of chips crinkling as he opened it and Jungkook's head popping around the corner with the sound. Yoongi leaned against the wall, observing me and waiting for my direction.

I tugged at the lone photo that stuck to the refrigerator, pointing toward the hallway. "There might be some medicine in the cabinet." I commented, Yoongi and Hobi disappearing to rifle through my belongings.

Jungkook stepped so that he stood beside me, pinching the picture between two fingers. There was a slight burn behind my eyes as I fought tears, looking down at her deeply amber eyes and purple-highlighted brown hair. We always appeared like a contrast with mine like honey and hers like coffee, though we were the same inside.

He held the picture up, his thumb running across two girls with all the hopes in the world and not a clue for what was to come, slipping the memory into my backpack with a simple acknowledgement and nod. "So that's Shelby."