A Day In September - BTS Zombie au

14: Admitting Failure

Jimin was speechless.

He wordlessly turned to Mara, clearly in disbelief. He wiped his sweaty forehead, his breathing slow and steadier than it was minutes ago. The dingy lobby was dark, but the cracks between the boarded up windows allowed rays of a setting sun to poke through. The air was dense, suffocatingly so.

Outside, the brutes still clawed weakly, with disinterested grunts every now and then that filled in the temporary silence. When Jimin spoke, he began with a whisper.

"Mara," Jimin spoke, "We couldn't save him."

The girl beside him was stiff, eyes on the ground and burdened with betrayal. She was still holding her bindles, not as tightly but she refused to let go.

"We could have, but you wouldnt let me," she murmured, despondent and unable to hide the scorn in her voice.

"He was going to die, whether we helped or not. Try as you might, but that man was as good as dead!" Jimin exclaimed with incredulity. His efforts to erase Mara's qualms were thwarted by a feverish shake of her head. She didn't want to hear it, not from him especially. The brutes outside were mindless of the reason for their argument, but they began to pound on the doors at the raise of Jimin's voice.

"Do you not see the irony?" Mara was distraught. The shock of watching someone die, knowing she could have done something to help had left her in a stupor. She was high-strung and ready to put it all on the table, no matter how uncomfortably tense things got.

"I still had a chance, but he was far too gone! He could have gotten us killed!" Jimin snapped, warily glancing at the front doors. Mara had momentarily forgotten the threat outside.

"We could have at least tried," she strained, her eyes involuntarily glossing over with frustration. She questioned why things had to be a certain way, and why Jimin was denying responsibility. Or perhaps it was Mara who didn't understand, but she was too upset to even consider that.

"That's a luxury we can't all afford," Jimin muttered.

"Thats bullshit!" Mara scoffed, standing as quickly as she could with shaking legs and heavy loads on each arms that weighed her down. Upon doing so, she stumbled back, narrowly caught by Jimin's quick reflexes. She withdrew from his touch like burning embers, sending daggers with her eyes at a weary Jimin, who simply sighed.

Mara made her way towards the hallway, bee-lining it for the stairs. She was stopped in her tracks by Jimin's voice as it softly reverberated, sounding almost like a nagging thought at the back of her brain.

"You can't save everyone. The sooner you realize this, the easier it gets to-"

"To be selfish? To use others as bait?!" Mara called back.

"We didn't kill him," Jimin muttered, shaking his head slowly.

"We might as well have by leaving him to rot out there."

"You couldn't help him. There were far too many dead out there. He was stuck and we would've died trying to get him out. We would have ended up like they did!" Jimin aggressively pointed to the front doors, where brutes continued to claw away. His scowl was deep, sun rays casting dark shadows on his face, slightly intimidating Mara.

"Can't you put yourself in others' shoes for once? Think of how he felt," Mara said, voice dying into a bewildered whisper.

"I'm pretty sure it's too late for that," Jimin stated, matter-of-factly and almost in a mocking manner as he tilted his head. Mara searched for an ounce of guilt from him, but she could find nothing. She had a feeling that he was only speaking with the intent to piss her off—she could tell he was irritated.