|Jungkook|

The sound of distant growls filled Jungkook's ears and a soft breeze drifted in from the skylight above his head, brushing his hair out of his face and leaving behind a trail of cold kisses on his exposed skin. Kook pulled his black jacket closer to his body before bending down and grabbing the edge of a bed and pushing it towards the entrance of the store.

Feather like footsteps approached him from behind before Marley grabbed the same bed and helped him push. Jungkook winced as his cut palm stung and his bruised stomach ached from the strain. The duo pushed the bed against the entrance, in order to block it, before grabbing mattresses from the beds, in the store, and carrying them over to the door.

Jungkook and Marley had raided the store, filling up multiple bags with medicine, food and water, before changing their clothes to brand new ones. Jungkook now wore black skinny jeans, an oversized white shirt and a black jacket with a furry hood. While Marley wore a black hoodie and light grey jeans with flowers engraved into the sides. She had grabbed a pair of pink sunglasses and multiple bracelets that she wrapped around her small wrists.

After exploring the store and gathering up supplies, Jungkook and Marley decided to spend the night in the mattress store. Jungkook knew that it would be a safe and comfortable place, considering they could sleep on the beds and use them to block off the exits, except for the skylight, which worked as an emergency exit.

After the duo pushed three mattresses to block the entrance, Jungkook straightened out. He releasing a loud groan, raising his hands above his head as he stretched.

"Can we start now?" Marley perked up, beaming up at Jungkook, who blinked sluggishly and squinted his eyes, trying to look at Marley through the darkness. He perused his lips, placing his hands on his hips and tilting his head to the side innocently, not saying anything. Marley frowned and allowed her shoulders to slouch as she looked up at Jungkook with puppy eyes.

Jungkook's nose scrunched up before he groaned and rolled his eyes. He turned around and made his way over to a high shelf in the store, he reached his hand out and grabbed a bag of marshmallows, taking it down. The marshmallows seemed to be the only way to convince Marley to help him push the bed.

With the marshmallows in his hold, Jungkook made his way over to the middle of the room, extending them towards Marley as he walked past her. Marley grinned widely, snatching the marshmallows from his hold and eyeing them hungrily.

Jungkook grabbed a trashcan, emptying it in the corner of the room before placing it in the middle of the room. He plopped down on a mattress, that was placed on the ground, sighing, as his aching legs finally got some rest. He reached out, grabbing a few books, that they had collected from the bookstore on the second floor, and started to tear out the pages.

"Do you....do you have a family?"

Jungkook stopped ripping out the pages and glared down at the book in his hands. Marley bit her lip as she hesitantly sat down in front of Jungkook. He shook his head at himself and resumed to rip out the pages, chewing on his lower lip.

"Everyone used to have a family." He shrugged, shoving the crumbled paper into the trashcan.

"Oh." Marley murmured, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

Jungkook spared her a glance, noticing the distant look in her eyes. He shut his eyes for a second, groaning under his breath and dragging his hand over his face before sighing,"My parents are in Korea, while I'm stuck here. There's no point in going looking for them since they're probably dead."

Marley looked up at him, a look of sadness on her face,"I miss my sister."

Jungkook chewed on his bottom lip, not knowing what to say since he wasn't good at comforting sad people. While thinking, he pulled out a box of matches and lit one. The flame illuminated the dark room, causing a warm light to attach to Jungkook's face and glide across his sharp features.

"I miss my mom too." Jungkook murmured quietly, dropping the lit match into the paper filled garbage can.

His mind traveled back to the last day he had seen her. Jungkook wished he would've hugged her for a second longer and not wasted so much time to look at those meaningless comics. Jungkook didn't even notice as his hand traveled up to his neck as he tried to find the compass, that was supposed to hang around his neck, but was nowhere to be found.

"What about your dad?" Marley asked, staring at the fire as it slowly ate the crumbled pieces of paper.

Jungkook snapped out of his thoughts, his hand immediately falling limply by his side after he noticed what he was doing,"I don't think my father cared about me much. When he went to work, I was always asleep and when he came home, he went to sleep without even sparing me a glance. I never saw him, not even on my birthday or Christmas, and the only proof I had of his existence was the stuff he bought me."

Marley stared at Jungkook with parted lips. She blinked and pouted, glancing at the fire cracking in the trashcan before looking at Jungkook's indifferent face,"Well...I...me and my sister were- are orphans." She shrugged, trying to break the awkwardness.

Jungkook's brows furrowed in distress as he snapped his eyes towards Marley, who ripped open the bag of marshmallows and grabbed them both metal forks. Jungkook watched her carefully, noticing that she didn't look sad at all,"That's...nice."

It was Marley's turn to furrow her brows before raising an eyebrow and looking at Jungkook with a blank stare. Jungkook's cheeks grew red before he straightened out and quickly continued,"I mean, it's not good. I don't know why I said that, it's so not good. I just...felt so awkward and now I feel like I'm making it worse. Am I making it worse? Anyway, I'm so sorry that you're an oprha- shit." Jungkook groaned squeezing his eyes shut and dropping his head in his hands.

His cheeks grew even redder as he heard Marley giggle before bursting out laughing. Jungkook slowly pulled his hands away from his face, rolling his eyes at Marley, who continued to laugh at him. She was laying on her mattress, rolling around as she clutched her stomach, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"I can't....brea...breathe." She wheezed, her face going red from the lack of oxygen,"That- oh my gosh." She wheezed again, squeezing her eyes shut as she continued to laugh.

Jungkook stared at her with no emotion before standing up and making his way over to her. Marley noticed him coming and released a screech, immediately jumping away. Jungkook rolled his eyes, bending down to grab the marshmallows before making his way back to his spot.

"Brat." He grumbled distastefully, shoving his hand into the bag before pulling it out and shoving a handful of marshmallows into his mouth. Jungkook tried to chew through them all, but his mouth didn't even fully close, causing some marshmallows to peak through his parted lips. Jungkook's cheeks were stretched out to the maximum, while his face remained forming a glare and his lips were tilted down into a pout.

Jungkook's glare jumped away from the fire and towards Marley as he heard her snort. Marley immediately wiped the smile off of her face, looking away as if she wasn't snickering at him a second ago.

A plan of revenge popped up in Jungkook's head, causing his stretched out cheeks to stretch out even more as he smirked deviously. Jungkook pulled the marshmallow bag up to his mouth and spit all of them inside of it.

Jungkook's eyes glistened with mischief as he snickered and giggled under his breath, closing the bag and throwing it at Marley. She looked at him, making him quickly stop smiling and glare at her instead.

Marley grinned widely, eagerly grabbing the bag and ripping it open. Jungkook pressed his palm against his mouth to silence the small snickers bubbling up in his throat. He watched with a wide smirk as Marley dug her hand into the bag before freezing.

For a few second, Marley was frozen in shock before her face scrunched up in disgust and she ripped her hand out of the bag,"EW!" She screeched, throwing the bag away and looking down at her spit covered hand in disgust.

Jungkook burst out laughing, his palm not being able to contain his laughter, causing it to echo throughout the room. Marley's face dropped into a look of determination as she got ready to gain some vengeance. While Jungkook allowed himself to laugh- his eyes squeezing shut and his lips parting to reveal his bunny smile- Marley jumped up on her feet and launched herself at him.

Jungkook yelped as Marley knocked him over, both of them falling onto the mattress. Jungkook continued to release trails of small chuckles as Marley cursed at him and shoved him into the mattress, trying to hurt him yet not hurt him.

"That's so disgusting! Ew! Why would you do that?" Marley cried out, her chubby face scrunching up.

Jungkook calmed himself, the only thing remaining being a wide smile. He decided to lay limply on the mattress and enjoy Marley's small fists slamming against his back. He even released a satisfied sigh as if he was receiving a massage. Marley huffed angrily, noticing the smug smile on Jungkook's face. She rolled her eyes and pressed the spit covered hand against Jungkook's cheek, wiping it off on his face.

Jungkook's eyes immediately snapped open and he pushed her away, cringing as he wiping away the spit,"That's disgusting."

"It's your spit, idiot." Marley scoffed, smacking him upside the head before plopping down next to him.

Jungkook rolled his eyes with a scowl, eyeing the way Marley crossed her arms over her chest and slouched with a pout,"Why are you pouting?" He scoffed, dragging himself closer to the trash fire.

"You ruined the marshmallows." Marley glared at him as if he had committed the worst crime imaginable.

Jungkook gave her a look of disbelief before mocking the way she spoke and leaning over to grab his backpack, that was a laying further away from him. He ripped the bag open, digging inside until he found another bag of marshmallows. Jungkook pulled them out of his backpack and shoved them in Marley's chest.

"Yes! Thanks!" Marley chirped, ripping the bag open with a wide smile. Jungkook grabbed the forks, that they had retrieved from the store, and offered her one of them,"You know, I know you have a group."

"What?" Jungkook's face dropped into a blank stare and his hold on the forks tightened. He carefully eyed Marley, who just shrugged and munched on raw marshmallows.

"I saw you in the woods days ago, but you went away and two other men looked like they were following your tracks." Marley explained, her eyes going hazy as she tried to remember exactly what happened,"I thought they were random men, but they were talking about finding you and taking you back, and blah blah blah."

Jungkook gulped nervously, quickly looking at the fire before looking around to see if there were any windows,"What'd they look like?" Jungkook asked, his face hardening when he noticed a small window in the corner of the room.

"One had a bow thingy or something, he looked like he hadn't showered in a while and he had long hair. The other one had curly hair and he looked like he was the leader, but I'm not sure because the bow guy didn't follow his orders." Marley rambled, her confusion filled eyes following Jungkook as he abruptly stood up.

Jungkook marched towards their bags, pulling them open and digging through them. He sighed and pulled out a few blankets before standing up and walking towards Marley,"Use this, it's gonna get cold at night." Jungkook muttered, throwing the blankets on top of Marley, who huffed and shoved them off.

"What's wrong? Are they bad people?" She asked, the marshmallows long forgotten as a sense of panic slowly set in.

"No, no, of course not." Jungkook breathed out, momentarily stopping himself from screwing open the water bottle, that he had grabbed. He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his forehead,"Im just...I'm not ready to go back. Not yet."

"But you will?" Marley asked worriedly, her heart clenching at the thought of Jungkook suddenly going away and leaving her alone again. The nights she had spent alone, sleeping in the cold and darkness, were horrible enough. And now that she finally had someone, that could keep the monsters away, she was afraid to loose him.

Jungkook nodded before sparing a look at her frown and the tears in the corners of her eyes,"If I'm gonna go back, you're gonna come with me. There's actually a kid your age and a girl two or three years older than you. I think you'll fit in nicely." Jungkook muttered, subconsciously smiling at the thought as he imagined Marley meeting the group and interacting with Daryl. Jungkook was certain that Daryl would like Marley.

"Why are you smiling like an idiot?"

Jungkook snapped his eyes towards Marley and sent her a playful glare, making her smile. He turned his attention back to the task at hand and poured the water all over the fire in the trashcan, extinguishing it.

"Hey! Why did you do that?" Marley whisper shouted, quickly grabbing a blanket and pulling it around her shoulders as she tried to see through the sudden darkness.

"We're being followed and the fire will attract someone's attention. Take the blanket and go to sleep." Jungkook whispered into the darkness, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around himself. He laid down on the soft mattress, shifting until he was comfortable.

Just as Jungkook was about to close his eyes and try to fall asleep, he heard Marley shift around before her voice filled the silence in the air,"Jungkook?"

"Hmm?"

"If they're good people and if you're gonna go back, why did you even run away?"

Jungkook scowled as he stared off into the darkness, his fingers kneading the blanket wrapped around him. Jungkook himself wasn't sure why he left, he only knew that he couldn't stay there. All of them- Rick, Daryl, Hershel, they all had went through something and experienced things that made them into the people they are today.

All of them knew what they wanted, what they needed and who they were, Jungkook didn't know anything and maybe, just maybe, he hoped that going off alone could help him realise who he was. Maybe he thought that by spending time alone and not having people to depend on, would make him gain something that he lacked comparing to the rest of the group. Or maybe he just wanted to gain some independence and learn to take care of himself.

"They were taking care of me to the point of where they were starting to endanger themselves." Jungkook whispered into the darkness, his eyes glazing over as he finally realised how much he was actually missing his group. For a second, Jungkook wanted to gather up his stuff and run straight back to the prison. The thought of getting yelled at from Rick, getting hugs from Maggie and a smack to the head from Daryl, didn't sound so bad after all.

Jungkook smiled at the thought, releasing a small chuckle before his smile disappeared and he remembered where he was,"I wanted to learn to take care of myself so that one day, I can take care of them too." Jungkook smiled at the thought.

Marley, who was on the brink of sleep as she listened to Jungkook speak, frowned before breathing out,"A horde was running after me and my sister and we couldn't outrun them. My sister told me to climb a tree, while she would lead them away." Marley's voice cracked as she spoke,"She never came back." Jungkook sighed and shut his eyes as he heard her sniffle,"Maybe when you learn to take care of yourself, you can teach me to do the same?"

Jungkook smiled before nodding,"That sounds good."

|Taehyung|

Branches snapped under Taehyung's boots as he crept through the silent forest. His hands were itching to grab his throwing knives and defend himself against any potential danger. His mind was plagued with memories and his heart was heavy with paranoia. After last night, Taehyung seemed to be more on edge and he didn't have the strength to put on his friendly facade for anyone.

Taehyung raised his arm and dragged the tips of his fingers over the tree trunk next to him, his fingertips catching onto the blunt edges of the trunk. He inhaled a lungful of the fresh forest air, smiling lightly at the scent of dirt and trees. The sound of a branch snapping directly behind him, caused Taehyung to swiftly turn around, as he was turning, he pulled out his knife and flung it into the direction of the crack.

Taehyung's other hand settled on the handle of another knife. His hold on the knife loosened after he noticed the familiar face of Katelyn smirking back at him. She slowly turned her head to the left, eyeing the knife that was inches away from her skull.

"You're good with that." Kate grinned, grabbing the handle of the knife and pulling it out. Taehyung's face remained blank as he walked towards her without breaking eye contact, while she continued to speak,"Maybe you could teach me sometime? I'm not really good at doing things from the distance, I like to be clos-" Taehyung stopped in front of her, ignoring her words as he ripped his knife out of her hands and shoved it back into its place.

Katelyn playfully pouted, opening her mouth to say something else but Taehyung cut her off with a deep, threatening voice,"The next time you follow me, the knife will go straight into your throat. I'll spit on your body and leave you here, so that you could slowly rot as you roam the earth as nothing but a mere corpse." Taehyung spat, their faces inches apart, before he pulled away and walked past her.

Katelyn gulped, licking her lips as she eyed Taehyung's broad back. She squinted her eyes before smirking and running after him,"I think we started off on the wrong foot. Maybe we can star-"

"What the fuck do you want?" Taehyung interrupted her, not in the mood for her bullshit. He had witnessed her offending an elderly woman this morning, because the woman had accidentally dropped a basket of apples. After being a witness to that, Kate's fake kindness seemed nothing but repulsive.

Katelyn rolled her eyes, stepping in front of Taehyung and pressing her hand against his chest to stop him from walking any further. Taehyung immediately pushed her hand away and took a step away from her, not liking when someone touched him without his permission.

Katelyn ignored the gesture and crossed her arms over her chest, popping her hip out as she leaned her weight on her right leg,"You're hot, I'm hot, let's fuck."

Taehyung stared at the smug grin on her face with no emotion before turning around and walking away. He could hear Katelyn behind him groan before she ran after him, trying to keep up with his long strides.

"You were more fun yesterday, now you're just boring." Katelyn scoffed, talking about how he had locked Merle in the prison hut, threatened the governor with a gun and casually mentioned that he killed someone,"Whats so wrong about having sex? It's the apocalypse and I'm horny."

Taehyung rolled his eyes at her statement, not saying anything as she grumbled under her breath about him not 'fucking her senseless'. Taehyung's face was scrunched up in disgust as he listened to her rant and rant until he finally snapped.

Taehyung turned to face her and before she could react, he grabbed her by her throat and slammed her against a tree. Katelyn gasped and grabbed his wrist, looking up at him with shock and fear. The look in her eyes quickly disappeared as she smirked and released a lewd moan.

Taehyung stared at her with complete disgust before he shoved her away from him, letting her fall to the ground and snicker to herself. Taehyung scoffed and turned around, leaving her laying on the ground to smile to herself.

"You'll cave in! They all eventually cave in because you're men! And men are horny!" Katelyn shouted after him, her voice taunting.

A deep growl rumbled in Tae's throat, his hands folding into fists as he tried not to slut-shame her. Taehyung didn't stand slut-shaming, he believed that sex was natural and people could have as much of it as they wanted. He believed that its not anyone's business what others do with their bodies and how much sex they have. The problem started when a person didn't understand a simple 'no' and kept trying to peruse someone into sex, until they were forced to sleep with them in order to lea-

Taehyung was ripped out of his thoughts by the sound of gunshots. His eyes widened before he quickly dashed through the forest back to the rest of the group. Of course the group didn't consist of anyone, who he cared about, but he still wouldn't want anyone to die.

That's why Taehyung was running as fast as he could until a thin layer of sweat coated his skin and his chest heaved as he panted. The sound of the gunshots seemed to grow louder until they suddenly stopped.

Taehyung furrowed his brows and slowly stopped running, his pants filling the silence in the air. Licking his lips, Taehyung carefully pulled out his throwing knives and stepped closer to the source of the gunshots.

Taehyung walked past a few more trees before pushing through a few more branches and finally entering a clearing. The sight in front of him, caused his knife to slip out of his palm and land on the dry grass.

The governor's group was surrounding military trucks that held weapons and supplies. But what made Taehyung freeze was the sight of the dead military men. They laid on the floor lifeless, blood dripping out of their gun wounds and lifeless eyes staring off into space.

"Hey, Taehyung!" A voice called out, stopping Taehyung from gaping at the scene and making him put up his emotionless facade. He bent down to grab his fallen knife before looking towards the governor, who was waving him over.

With a clenched jaw and an unnerving stare, Taehyung shoved his weapons into their place and walked over to the governor. He passed by his men as they grabbed the guns and supplies and loaded them into their own trucks.

Taehyung reached the governor, stopping in front of him and raising a brow,"What happened here?"

Governor smiled and patted him on the shoulder. Noticing the stare Tae shot him, he removed his hand before sighing sadly,"Came here to talk to these guys. We have been seeing them around this place for months and we wanted to offer them a place to stay. They didn't take it well and began to fire at us, leaving us no choice but to retaliate." The governor explained, placing his hands on his hips. His stare seemed to be almost sad as he eyed the dead bodies littering the ground.

Taehyung's his lips twitched up before he shook his head and released a breathy chuckle,"Its funny, you know, the fact that they fired first, yet they're the ones dead on the ground."

The governor looked at him before raising a brow,"What are you trying to say? That I'm lying?" He huffed out a laugh, staring at Taehyung with disbelief.

Taehyung glared into his eyes, the tension between the two rising as the silence continued. Tae smiled almost tauntingly, running his tongue over his lips,"I think you've shifted the truth. Maybe they did fire, but certainly not first. And considering the fact that their trucks have bullet holes, while yours do not," Tae nodded towards the holes in the trucks without breaking eye contact with the governor,"Means that that's not the truth either."

The governor's smile crumbled for a second before he released a chuckle and shook his head,"I'm not lying, Taehyung. But feel free to believe whatever you want." The governor grinned, purposefully patting Taehyung's shoulder before walking away.

Taehyung scoffed, brushing his hand against the place where he was touched. He turned to look at the dead bodies on the ground before looking at all of the governor's uninjured men. Taehyung didn't know what happened, but he knew that if they had fired first, someone on the governor's side would've died.

In the end, Taehyung didn't trust the conceited asshole and he knew they had to leave.

⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

I honestly don't think this chapter is good and it may have a lot of grammar mistakes. I'm sorry for that. Anyway, how do you think Jungkook and Taehyung will meet?

~Benikru