{x marks the spot}

"I would prefer not wasting any batteries on the walkie talkies, so seeing as Hoseok is parked right in front of us, I'll go meet up with him inside his van." Namjoon explained, turning to Tessa who was almost dozing off beside him, "I'm gonna stay with Hoseok for the night. Anyone can join if they want, if not, rest up." Namjoon spoke, sending a small smile in the direction of Taehyung and Jungkook as he rose to his feet, swiping a spare gun from the dashboard before heading towards the side door of the van. 

"Hang on!" Tessa called from the front, rubbing her hands against her tired eyes as she too rose to her feet, "I'm coming too." she said, pulling her loose blonde hair into a messy ponytail before making her way beside Namjoon. Gripping a hand against the door, Namjoon slid open the side of the van, eyes squinting through the darkness as a rush of cool autumn air flooded inside the van. Taehyung had to shield the candle lights with his hands to prevent the wind from snuffing them out. 

Confirming that there was no infected between Hoseok's van and his own, Namjoon waved them off, jumping out of the van with Tessa to quickly scurry over to the vehicle in front. Jungkook quickly stood from his place, shuffling over to the side door and swinging it shut, locking it for good measure. Walking over to the front passenger seat, he let out a sigh of pure relief as he sat himself down, sinking into the chair's comfy material as he gazed out the front windshield. 

Through the deathly silence of the night came haunting sounds. At first it was drowned out by the small chatter in the van, but now that Namjoon and Tessa had left, the sounds became seemingly amplified. The distant scrapping on concrete and ghostly shrieks made Jungkook realise how deep in enemy territory they already were. As he listened, all he could hope for was for the sounds to fade and die off. But they didn't. So he looked for a distraction instead. 

His eyes trailed up to the starry night sky, the only thing that had remained the same in this ever-changing world. Stars... they looked like fireflies only they burned brighter against the glowing black satin of the night sky. The night was so especially dark that the stars lit up with so much brilliance, they mirrored themselves from Jungkook's dilated orbs. It was so surreal, Jungkook would do anything to reach up for one, keep it in his hands for warmth and pocket them to bring them home in a jar.  

Loosing track of time, Jungkook felt a slight shiver run throughout his body. The temperature was beginning to drop to the point where Jungkook needed to find a blanket to keep his body temperature stable. Letting out a tired sigh, Jungkook swung his legs around to the side of the seat, standing to his feet as he turned towards the back of the van. And when he did, something surprising caught his attention. Kim Taehyung's form had fallen over the cardboard box, head resting peacefully against his scattered notes as his chest slowly rose and fell, drool threatening to fall onto his papers. 

Jungkook stifled back a laugh as he placed a hand on his hip, shaking his head in disbelief, "This guy." he chuckled, walking towards the sleeping male. Jungkook found himself reaching into a nearby box, snatching out a blue cotton blanket as he made his way back towards Taehyung's sleeping form. Slowly and carefully, Jungkook spread the blanket over the brunette, careful not to wake him before shuffling back to the front of the van, sitting himself down as he curled himself up in the front passenger seat, falling asleep under the watchful eye of the stars. 

----------------

The sound of rhythmic knocking came from the back door of the van. Usually Hoseok would raise the alarm at an unwelcoming sound, but due to his instincts, he could easily tell that this was the knocking of his best friend, one with tune, not one of the undead. Turning his head towards Jimin, Hoseok gestured towards the back doors, "Open them, it's Joon." he spoke, earning a nod from Jimin as he slipped his knife away, placing his hands against the metal door handles as he swung open the doors. 

A gush of cold mid-night air circled it's way into the van as Tessa and Namjoon stepped up inside, ruffling his wind tousled hair before quickly shutting and locking the door securely behind himself, "Few," he spoke, letting out a sigh of relief, "I wasn't too sure if there was gonna be any walkers or not." he chuckled sheepishly, earning a slap on the shoulder from Tessa, arms crossed tightly over her form. 

"You really are an idiot sometimes." she spoke, shaking her head in disbelief as she made her way towards the front of the van. Seeing Tessa heading his way, Hoseok rose to his feet, allowing Tessa to sit upfront alongside Daisy leaving the four males to discuss their action plan in the back. 

Seating himself cross legged on one of the boxes, Hoseok pointed a tired finger towards the back wall of the van, maps scattered across its surface outlining the cities main route, "Lets quickly discuss the next route." he spoke sternly, contrasting against his usual sunny tone of voice, "I'd like for us to all be on our way by sunrise, we can't afford to stay here any longer then needed." he explained. 

Yoongi placed his gun by his side, crossing his arms over his chest as he leant back against the wall behind him, "You're right. We need to avoid conflict at all costs." 

With a new plan to be discussed, Jimin took ahold of a candle, swiping a match against the side of the box and erupting a flame against the candlewick. Shaking out the match, Jimin shuffled his way carefully over to the city maps, raising the newly formed light in front of the papers for Hoseok to see. With a clear vision of the map, Hoseok stood to his feet, walking towards the back of the van and placing a stern finger against a line of thick red ink, "We're currently here." he stated, finger placed against a small building on the outskirts of the city, "We're barely in the city and our route's already been blocked off." he sighed, withdrawing his finger as he ran his hand stressfully through his faded orange hair. 

"What does that mean for us?" Yoongi piped up, curious about the new plan of action that needed to be taken. 

Raising a hand back to the map, Hoseok let his fingers glide slowly along the crumpled surface, skin tracing along every coloured line and every divot he had created as he pondered the best possible solution to his problem. Trailing his hand off to the side, Hoseok's finger stopped slightly east of their current position, "Pen." Hoseok spoke bluntly, opposite hand outstretched as he waited for Namjoon to grab a pen from the front of the van. Placing the blue marker in his hand, Hoseok thanked the silver haired male. Bringing it to his mouth, Hoseok pulled off the lid of the marker with his teeth, revealing the tip of the pen as he marked a bold 'X' on the map. "We need to make it here." Hoseok explained, words muffled by the marker lid still fixated between his teeth, "there's another route through the city we can take if we first make it to this destination." 

Yoongi's eyes trailed across Hoseok's arm, fixating themselves on the 'X' marked against the map. He could instantly tell it was going to be a tricky place to navigate around. It was full of skyscrapers, an old populated section of the city. They were going to run into clickers for sure, he had no doubt about that. It seemed Namjoon had also noticed the multitude of buildings in the marked area of the city, because he was first to speak up about the newly marked location. 

"And you're sure there's no other route?" Namjoon spoke, a glint of hope laced through his voice. 

Hoseok spun around to meet his best friend's eyes, lowering his gaze as he shook his head, "Sorry Joon, the city is crumbling more and more every year. This is the last unblocked route." Hoseok explained, earning a sound of agreement from everyone else present in the van. 

Yoongi couldn't help but wonder something, "Hoseok..." he sounded, gaining the navigators attention, "Not saying it'll ever happen," Yoongi paused before he continued, "but if we do somehow get blocked off, what would be the next course of action, you know... for safety purposes?" the blue haired male asked. 

The next words that escaped Hoseok's lips shocked him, 

"We would have to travel by foot."

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{Author Note}

Woahhhh, it's been forever! I haven't updated yet this week because I ended up getting a really bad cold. It's winter here in Australia so I wasn't too surprised when I ended up getting a fever lol. I have plans to update this book again tomorrow so look forwards to another chapter soon!

And can we talk about BTS' 6 year anniversary! I was so excited, I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to dye my hair my dream colour of pastel purple and this seemed like the best opportunity! So the morning of their anniversary I walked into the nearest salon and got my hair dyed purple! Talk about ARMY pride, am I right? My hair feels dead now though, I used to have brown curly hair but now its so dead and straight. but it was so worth it. xox

(unedited)