fic: when we reach the end
when we reach the end, au.
2pm: ot7
prompt: brothers
pg-13
535 words
when we reach the end
It’s been seven weeks and they’re still on the road, the sun on their backs, broken glass and cracked cement underfoot.
Jaebum’s assigned them all shifts through the night but most of the time it’s the seven of them hunched together in whatever looted house Wooyoung or Junho has managed to find that hasn’t been inhabited yet, staring out the living room windows with all the doors locked tight around them and waiting for the sun to rise.
Chansung finds a walk-in freezer full of ice cream one day and they all gorge themselves on green tea and mochi and vanilla-flavour until Junsu gets a brain freeze and even Wooyoung swears off chocolate chip and cookie for the rest of his life.
On other days they’re short on supplies and they break into houses and supermarkets by smashing windows and picking locks and refill their bags with bottled water on shelves and in cupboards because they know it’s too dangerous to drink from taps or natural rivers, ever since Jinwoon-
But they don’t talk about that anymore. The things learned through mistakes of others, never eat unpackaged food, never travel at night, never let your guard down or you’ll wake up dead or infected. Nichkhun is reluctant to turn to theft but everyone’s exhausted and on the edge of losing their minds so not even Jaebum, the self-appointed leader, says anything when Taekyeon snaps and tells Nichkhun to grow up and take a fucking look at the world.
Sometimes they’ll find a radio or broadcasting station and Junsu will flip through channels and channels of static and dead sound until Junho has to pull him away because he’s already looped through all the stations. And Junho knows that Junsu can’t stand to be alone so he’ll do all he can to keep him company while they’re all suffering insecurities of their own.
It’s moments when Taekyeon refuses to talk to anyone and walks a distance away from the group because they’ve killed another person who’s been infected (and Nichkhun feels like using Taekyeon’s own argument against him but he’s not that cruel) or when they pass through the silent, ghostly streets of another deserted city with half-eaten bodies and broken cell phones and watches littering the ground that the future is bleak and empty and filled with days of silence and hostility and sleepless nights of paranoia.
But every now and then they’ll find signs of other humans - rational people, normal people - passing through an area, things like messages scratched into walls and tree trunks and Jaebum will gather everyone into a circle and say encouraging, half-assed speeches with his broken Korean and random bits of English but they get the gist.
For now, they’ll keep walking along the road north and then turn into mainland China or cross the strait into Japan because Korea’s been in permanent lockdown since last month and there’s no news from outside or of whether the infection has crossed borders or not and there’s no telling if any other country will welcome a chain of bedraggled, contagious survivors from a country that disintegrated upon itself in a span of a few weeks.
For now, they’ll just try to survive.
a/n: ugh, I just used every single post-apocalyptic cliche out there. DD: I'm not completely happy about how this turned out, but thanks for viewing, and concrit is treasured ♥