DAY 800

The rays of the rising sun don't really matter to you right now. Jimin is unconscious next to you, his head bandaged and on your lap. You're stroking the braid in his hair, careful not to apply pressure to the area they hit. He's been unconscious for a solid half an hour now, the two of you in a cage in a camp. So, Jimin's theory was right this whole time. The Ranglers. They're here. The government of the apocalypse. No wonder why they think they can do whatever they want.

Many survivors have come by asking for your basic information, but you ignored them each time to instead keep petting Jimin's hair. He's the only piece of sanity you have left at this point. Your hand tugs at the locks until he stirs, groaning as he finally wakes.

"Fuck I feel like shit," he mutters, his hands on your thighs. He peeks up, eyes blinking until he gets a clear view of you. "Morning beautiful." He pecks your lips and sits up, yawning as an excuse to wrap an arm around you.

"As smooth as that was, we have a situation."

Jimin's face falls, his arm falling with it. "Where the hell are we?"

"Remember that 'civilized group of people' I was telling you about?" He nods. "This is them. The Ranglers. We're at their camp and they hate us more than I hate Jungkook's humor."

"Damn, poor Jungkook." You give him a 'really?' look that has him backing down. "Right. Serious situation. I mean, you said the joke first, but like-"

"Jimin." He shuts up. "We joke to blow off steam, it's okay. But, we have to figure this out. What the hell do we do?"

The man sighs, scooting closer and taking your hand. He kisses the side of your head, you guiding his head to rest on your shoulder. "I don't know. Honestly, I don't think there's much we can do. All we can do is hope."

"For?"

"Not sure about that either. But we have each other. Can that be enough for now?"

You lean back, him tilting his head up when you do. You peck his lips like he did to yours, brushing your free hand through his hair. "Yeah. Yeah, that can be enough for now."

The two of you stay close, observing the way the Ranglers move around. Many pass, but none cast you a glance. Or if they do, neither you or Jimin notice. You're too busy staying close to one another, cuddling and enjoying the other's touch. After all, if you're going to be drafted into a camp you don't want to be in, the odds are they'll separate you. Kill your hope. Kill everything you are.

One of Jimin's hands falls to your thigh, massaging it. "I know it probably doesn't mean much, but we saw Ves and Sky go in this direction. Maybe they're here and we can find them. I heard from Fi that Louis and Jin got taken too. Maybe they're somewhere around here and we can find them."

You place your hand over his, the two of you locking eyes. "I hope that we can, but the odds are we can't Min," you say, him turning his hand so the two of you can lock fingers. "I'll have faith, but only a little."

Jimin is quick to embrace you, and there's something about the way he holds you that's terrifying. Not because it's wrong, rather because he's holding you so close. Like this could be the last time he sees you. Without even looking at his face you can see his closed eyes and pursed lips. Maybe there's even tears hiding there. Or, maybe there's more you can't see. You don't know much about him yet, but you'd like to. You'd really, really like to.

"I won't leave you," he murmurs, kissing the side of your head, "no matter what happens, we'll stay together. Forever."

"You don't have to make promises to me Min, I already know you're going to do everything you can to be with me, and me with you. We'll do this together." He brings you a bit closer, his tiny hands going to your face to hold your cheeks. "Together," you whisper.

"Together," he repeats, kissing your forehead. Right after, the gate to your fenced-in cell opens, a man much taller than you and Jimin waiting there.

"Follow me," he says. Although neither of you want to, you and Jimin approach with your hands entwined, the stranger leading you down the road. Why does this feel so damn wrong? It feels like there's something off (other than the obvious). What the fuck is going on?

The stranger guides you down many paths, other beaten up men and women passing by you as you go. They look... empty. Like they're not present in the moment. Like they're somewhere else. Jimin notices, scooting closer to you as a result. He kisses your hand. It's implied in his actions that he's saying goodbye. It breaks your heart, but there's nothing you can do about it now.

The camp is all outdoor, boxed in from shipping containers that are taller than you've ever seen any barricades reach. The barricade has a primary gate you were brought in by, but other than that, there appear to be no exits. Great, only one way out then. One way in and out, so how are you gonna do this? Pretend to be loyal and escape when they least expect it? Is that the card you have to play? That's embarrassing, but you'll do anything at this point. Embarrassment or not, survival is the top priority.

Honestly, Ves is the only thing on your mind right now. The fear in his eyes as he was pulled away. You try not to think about it, but it's impossible. That's your kid. Literally. Him and your dog. You wonder if they would be selfish enough to kidnap a dog. You hope not...

After a short walk, you're guided inside a small shipping crate that acts as a home, the bright colors of the metal giving you a false sense of security that everything will be alright. The only thing helping convince you of that is Jimin right beside you. He's staring at the scenery, probably thinking the same thing you are: how to escape. Where are the weak points? The areas you can slip out of? But it doesn't matter. After escaping this container, you'd have to escape the rest too. Without any information, that would be suicide.

You're brought to a single man sitting behind a makeshift desk. It has barrels pushed together, and the end result is actually quite nice. At the school, you're used to seeing desks, but you never thought about how people would make them outside of places like schools and offices. Nice to know they're creative. That was sarcasm. It's a bad thing, it means they're smart. Escaping from smart people is hard as fuck.

"Leave us," the man says, his voice bouncing around the walls. The stranger disappears as soon as the words leave the lead man's mouth, you and Jimin staying still. The man, without looking up from the map he's staring at, motions with his hand for you to sit down on the two barrels in front of the desk. You and Jimin do, eyeing the puffy orange jacket the man is wearing along with his lack of facial hair. You glance over his haircut, noticing the intricacies many wouldn't. So they have scissors and razors. Good razors, too. The leader doesn't appear to have even sparse hairs growing out of his chin. "Do you mind telling me your names?"

"Charlotte and Jayden," Jimin replies without a second's hesitation. "She's 19, I'm 21."

The man shoos him off. "I don't really care about your ages. Any health conditions?"

"I have asthma. I don't have my inhaler on me. Charlotte I believe is healthy, but she's allergic to pollen and peanuts."

His eyes meet yours, you staying completely still. Why Jimin is lying - and how he's lying so quickly - is of little concern to you. You trust him: he has a plan with these lies. For now, you stay quiet, merely nodding to everything being said. "Last names?"

"None of your business."

The stranger leans forward, placing his elbows on the metal of his 'desk'. "Last. Names."

"Her and I would like to get married, so Mr. and Mrs. Min."

"Min? Strange last name for an American."

Jimin points to his face. "Bitch do I look American?"

The leader chuckles, folding up his map and placing it on his left side. "Interesting. You managed to escape our carts and make it pretty far. Impressive. So impressive that I almost believed your lies."

"What lies, hm?"

"Your name is Jimin, and hers is Y/n. The ones who captured you told me so. You two just can't stop yelling each other's names in stressful situations, huh?" Jimin curses under his breath, you barely able to hear it. "Let me guess: lying about ages, last names, and health conditions too, right? Saying you have asthma to make me underestimate you. To make you appear weak? And making yourselves younger to make it seem like you're just kids, hm?" Jimin doesn't answer. "Smart play, I'll give you that, but we've been around long enough to know these moves. I will give credit where credit is due, Jimin. I would've believed you if I didn't already know your name, you're an amazing liar."

"Pretty easy to lie when I've spent the past couple years doing it."

"I'm sure. Y/n, care to tell me about the school we picked you up in?"

At the sound of your name, you perk up. "Depends, do we get to know your name, or do I have to call you asshole?"

He folds his hands together, raising a brow. He turns to Jimin. "Is she on her period or something?"

Jimin goes to punch him for that comment, but you hold his shoulder, making him sit back down. Regardless, he glares right at the man. "Don't you dare say shit like that about my girl. Got it?"

Well fuck, all thoughts of 'I'm an independent woman' go out the window. "I don't take orders from you. You are to address me as sir or Mr. Vasquez. Any other name will not be tolerated," he says.

"Okay asshole," you say, crossing one of your legs over the other.

Mr. Vasquez gives you a kind smile, standing. Jimin grips your hand, his free one balling up into a fist behind his back. Despite Jimin's fear, the leader doesn't actually hurt you. He comes closer, placing a hand on your shoulder. "I'll give you one last chance."

You stare at him, about to spit on him, then, you bite your tongue. No, you're in no position to fight back right now. The last thing you want to do is antagonize him more. So, you sigh. "Fine. Can I at least know your full name? I won't call you it, I just would like to know who kidnapped me. Only fair, yeah?"

To your surprise, he actually does back off, nodding to himself. "Lorenzo Vasquez. Leader of this fine establishment."

"The Ranglers, right?"

"The Ranglers. We've been in need of more people, your school happened to be full of them."

"How many have you kidnapped?" Jimin asks, his voice barely a whisper.

"Too many to count. Our prisons are full while we condition everyone. So full that we had to refurnish our other campsites to make room. Now we're conditioning more than before, and you'll be added to that list."

Jimin and you share a look, his eyes pleading. You wish you knew what he's pleading for. "Care to explain what you mean?" you ask, turning back to Lorenzo.

"Re-conditioning. The prisoners aren't too happy that they're away from their homes, but they'll see this is the best place for them. You'll see too. We have working showers, homes, families." He pauses to softly smile. A rehearsed smile, like he's been giving this speech for years. "Children. We have pregnant women and children, babies even."

"I have a kid too," you say, "I'd appreciate it if I could have him back. My family is right here." You motion to Jimin, the man fighting back a smile at your words.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, only claps his hands together. "As precious as that is, I don't really care. I have many more people I have to speak to after you, so the quicker I get this over with, the better. Your names are Y/n and Jimin. Give me last names."

Jimin grunts. "Park and L/n."

He nods, grabbing a folder and opening it. There's another piece of paper inside, him using a pen to write down what Jimin said. "Blood types."

"I don't know my blood type," you reply.

He notes it, Jimin shaking his head. "A."

"Thank you for your cooperation. Any health issues I should know about?" Neither of you answer. "Excellent. Jimin, please tell me Y/n's special skills."

"Me? Well... okay. She's a stylist, so she's good at hair. She did mine, in fact." Lorenzo eyes him but doesn't comment. "Back at the school that we were happily living in, she led the scavenging missions. She has a lot of experience with that sort of thing."

"Anything else?"

"Those are her two special skills, I'd say."

"Fair enough. Y/n, what are Jimin's special skills?"

You sit up straighter than you mean to. "He's a natural leader, very experienced with the outside world. He's been in more groups than I can count, so he's amazing with people and good at combat. Scarily good, actually. Very good with his words."

Lorenzo jots some more notes down, humming. "And he's pretty, right?"

Although you desperately want to roll your eyes, you don't. "He's gorgeous, yes. I don't see what that has to do with anything though."

"The two of you are in a relationship?" Neither of you answer. "I'm speaking English here, not that hard to understand. You're boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Yes," Jimin says, biting back a groan. "We're in a relationship and we have a surrogate son. Can we have him? His name is Ves."

"That's amazing. I don't care. I don't know where every single person in this place is, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. You'll get your assigned blocks just like everyone else, got it?"

The two of you nod albeit reluctantly. "Then what's your game plan, huh? What happens to us?" you ask.

"You get re-conditioned to be loyal to us, you'll fight for our cause, and we'll survive together. Our community needs more people, we have many supplies to give."

"Then why does it feel like there's more than that? Is there a war happening between you and a rival, is that it?" Jimin asks, narrowing his eyes.

"As fantastic of a guess as that is... no. We have no issues with other people. Howlers, however... they're a different story. We need as many able bodies as we can to fight back. There's more in the area than usual. We've lost good people to those things, I'd like to not deal with them for much longer. There's been an increase, more infected are evolving to Howlers than normal. I have my scientists experimenting with the bodies to find out why."

"I assume if I ask if you've had any luck, you won't tell me," Jimin says, Lorenzo shrugging.

"If you prove yourself loyal to our cause? Maybe one day you'll be the first one to know about it, even before me. Maybe you'll be my right hand, Mr. Park."

"Maybe," Jimin replies, an edge on his tone that has you gulping. Not because of the situation you should be terrified of, rather because of how hot he is. Holy fuck your boyfriend is hot. Wait. Boyfriend. Everything is happening so fast, you haven't even had a chance to process that you're dating Jimin. That you had sex with him. That you're in pain right now because of that, but not the type of pain you want to think about right now. Whatever, you have to worry about escaping.

"Go. I know all I need to. There will be a man waiting outside to take you to your assigned bunks and give you your new clothes."

"New clothes?" you mumble, not expecting an answer. And just as you expected, you don't get one. He motions for you to leave, you and Jimin entwining hands again and departing the container. As Lorenzo said, there's a man waiting not far for you. The same one who transported you here.

Wordlessly, he makes you follow him down the paths, your eyes wandering to the other fences trapping people inside. They all have the same thing: men and women inside, bags under their eyes, dried blood littering their clothes and exposed skin. They're sitting in the corners of their cages, knees tucked to their chests and their hands wrapped around their legs. It's pitiful, really. Is that how you're going to end up?

Jimin keeps you behind the man, still in earshot, but far enough that a whisper would evade his peeking eyes. "You okay?" he whispers to you, raising a brow.

"I'm okay," you whisper back, giving his hand a squeeze. "Are you?"

"Not really, but I'm trying to hold it together. Trying is the key word. Practicing for when we see the kid again. I... I don't want him to see me scared."

You bring his hand to your lips, kissing the skin gently. "You're so strong, Jimin. You're doing amazing, I promise."

He sighs, nodding. "Thank you honey, that means a lot."

You give him a small nudge, smiling. "Look on the bright side, we got stuck together."

"Uh oh, you're being the optimist, not me? I'm starting to get a little worried L/n..." You stay close, him slipping his hand out of yours to instead wrap his arm around you. He kisses the top of your head, "I'm glad we're able to stay positive."

"It's all fake positivity for me."

"Yeah, it's fake for me too, but better to fake it until we make it, yeah?"

You agree, him rubbing your arm as the stranger brings you to the other side of the camp. There's several groups in the vicinity, many gathered around fires and holding their bare hands over the flames. Others have hunting rifles strapped over their shoulders, patrolling the walls of the camp. It's massive, so there must be several patrols going around. Like a constant circle. You ponder how they distribute those schedules.

You're brought to a small prison, fences that are taller than you appearing. There's barbed wire at the top, a gate with a lock on it. The guard unlocks it, hurrying you and Jimin inside. Jimin and you follow his command, stopping when you're fully in. There's folded up clothes on the single bench. Yeah - there's only a single bench. No bed, no mattresses; nothing other than the bench, the ground, and the gate.

The door is shut, it being locked seconds after. Great. Looks like you really don't have much choice, huh? You grip the rings of the fence, still observing the land. Jimin hugs you from behind right as the man leaves you alone, you leaning into his touch. "We're going to find a way out of this," he murmurs, kissing your shoulder.

"Jimin, what if Ves is here? What if my child is somewhere out there, alone and waiting for me to come and find him? He's not waiting for guards, or for a stranger, or a prison riot, or even someone like Fiona. He's waiting for me. I can't fail him I just... I can't. I've failed enough already, not this time. Not again."

He shushes you, kissing your cheek. "Hon... listen to me." You do. "He's going to be okay. You won't let anything bad happen to him, you never would. He's okay now, and he will be when we find him. I promise."

You let out a small breath, agreeing to his words. "I'm lucky to have you. I just wish we knew a way out of this." Jimin glances around, noting the other cages with varying people. His hooded eyes fall on the cage across from him, you turning to meet his gaze. "What? What is it?" Jimin goes stiff, his arms tightening their grip on you. "Min?"

"I have a plan... and it involves an old friend..."

"An old friend? You recognize someone here?"

Jimin points, you following his finger. There's a single man sitting in the cage, the prison not far from you, but unfortunately far enough to be out of earshot. "Him," Jimin says, "I recognize him."

You eye the man, unable to make out many facial features from this far, but you can see the fluffy dark hair, the tall form of him too. You know Jimin's been around, but the odds of him knowing someone here and being caged close to him? That's a little... much. Truthfully, you don't believe it. "Who is that?"

"An old friend." The way he said it makes you grimace. That was sarcasm. He's not an old friend, he's an old foe. "He said he was going to join up with the Ranglers last I talked to him, and the conversation ended with him slapping me and telling me to burn in Hell. I'm sure this will go well."

You grunt, pulling away from the fence. "I can't believe you recognize someone here."

"I'm sure I'll recognize plenty, I've been in more groups than I can count. I only hope that they're on good terms with me, unlike... him."

You bring your eyes back to the man, and this time, he peeks up. Even from here you can see his eyes lock with yours. After, he moves to Jimin, and you can feel his body freeze. "Oh yeah, he knows you alright. Care to tell me who that is?" Jimin snorts, shaking his head.

"Well..."

"Jimin?" He bites his lower lip, backing away a bit. "What's going on? Who is that? Is he really that bad?" Jimin runs a hand through his hair, nibbling on the tips of his fingers.

"His name is Kim Taehyung."

You blink. "Okay, that name doesn't really mean anything to me," you say, patting the air as if that will calm him. "I don't see why-"

"No, that's not it."

Alright, now what? You cross your arms over your chest, but not necessarily in an antagonistic manner. "Then what is?" you ask, furrowing your brows. Jimin takes a deep breath.

"He's my ex-boyfriend..."