Chapter 7

"What are you talking about?!" Kate's voice was raised and she grabbed onto Soomin. "That can't be true."

"Kate stop!" Ava said as she pulled her off Soomin.

"How do you know that?" Hoseok asked.

"The glass...it hit her on the ear, and the buzzing she kept hearing was a symptom of hearing loss, but I don't know if it's temporary, I'll have to see when we get her to a hospital," Soomin spoke.

"So how long will she not hear?" Hoseok asked. Soomin shook her head. "Can't tell, could take a week or even months." Jin sighed and turned away from the group, everyone knew he was stressed.

Once Soomin calmed Emily down, everyone sat scattered around the room. Minji got up and walked out of the room. She came back with packets of chips and handed to everyone. Without a word, everyone took it, including Emily who was sobbing on the bed.

~~~~~

"We'll go try to find the papers so we can leave quickly," Jin said getting up and the boys immediately followed.

"Where could it be?" Jungkook wondered as they walked out.

"Can we leave without it?" Hoseok asked after their failed attempt of finding the papers. "We have weapons."

Jungkook didn't look satisfied but agreed. He also wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

So that night they decided to stay inside and they'd leave at the first hint of dawn.

𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗶'𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩

"How're mom and dad?" Jungkook asked. Hani looked back to see Jungkook standing by the doorway to the kitchen and sighed.

'𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘮?' Hani thought. '𝘕𝘰, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵.'

"They're good."

"You know when I found out you were lost, I thought they had found you after that, but I didn't see you at the f-"

She stopped. "At Aunt's house so I assumed you went overseas so you couldn't make it, I didn't know you were stuck out here," she continued. "I was kinda excited to meet you, I was hoping you'd forget that nickname." She groaned.

"Duckling!" Jungkook started laughing.

"It's not funny, it's a weird name!"

"No, it's not! So do you know how to swim now?" He said holding a laugh. Hani looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"That's a no," Jungkook giggled. After Jungkook went quiet, he spoke again.

"I can't wait to meet mom and dad, you think they missed me?"

"Of course they did!" Hani spoke. "They always talked about you."

'𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭...𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵.'

"What were you saying about being at mom's house or something, what were you all doing?"

Hani didn't say anything.

"Was it a party?" he asked.

"Well...you can't call it a party but just a gather up," Hani said softly.

"What did you all do?"

Hani stayed quiet. "What do you usually do when families meet up after a really long time? Talk!"

Both of them laughed.

"Guy's let go to sleep, we need the energy for tomorrow!" Jin called and Hani used it as an opportunity to escape the topic.

'𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥.'

***

~~~

𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗸𝗼𝗼𝗸'𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩

Once they were up and about, they took their required equipment and left the house. When it was night, they were all up on trees.

"We keep sitting up on trees like this every night, it's gonna take a long time till we leave this place," Jungkook said, but no one said anything, they had no choice unless they wanted to survive.

"Look down," Minji spoke after a while.

Everyone looked down to see a Hollowen lumbering around. Its tongue continuously came out and it moved it's head around looking for its prey.

"It knows we're here," Jungkook whispered, even though he knew no one heard.

It turned its head towards the tree Hani was on. Hani froze in her spot as the Hollowen dug its claws in and started to climb so very easily.

'𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘥𝘰?'

Jungkook grabbed his weapon and started loading it. Ignoring all the pain building up in his arm he continued. He needed to continue because he wasn't going to let his cousin die.

Once it was loaded, he shot at the Hollowen, the impact had left him falling off, he heard yelps but he grabbed onto the next branch and pulled himself up. Although to his utter disappointment, he missed but it grabbed the Hollowens attention. The Hollowen dropped to the ground and started sniffing again until it shuffled away.

They all sat quietly making no sound until Hani was waving vigorously and Hoseok was whisper calling him. He turned around to them and saw what they were warning him about. A Hollowen was climbing up the tree he was on.

Jungkook's eyes widened and he held the weapon up again and tried to load it.

'𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦.'

But this time it seemed impossible, the pain was too much to bare, he did it once but he couldn't do it again.

"Jungkook just move from there!" he heard Hani call to him.

He held the weapon up high and heaved it into the air. It flew into the trees, rustling as it made its way down and hit the ground with a loud thud and the Hollowen's head jerked towards the noise. It stuck is tongue out tasting the air but continued to climb the tree.

Jungkook slowly tried to move off the branch. He stepped on to a branch next to him and stared at the closest tree.

'𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵!'

"Jump Jungkook!" Hani called and he did.

He flew off the branch, immediately grabbing the Hollowen's attention.

"Fudging fudge cakes!" he cursed as he quickly jumped onto another tree. He made his way down, ignoring the throbbing pain in his arm and started running and made an immediate turn hiding behind a tree. He felt as the Hollowen bolted past him. Once he was up on a tree he examined his wound that was spurting out blood, from all the pressure of jumping and loading.

"I'm freaking Tarzan now," he groaned as he took off his backpack and rested his head on the tree.

******

~~~~~

"What if he's dead?" Kate asked.

"No, he knows all the tricks, he can't," Hani spoke, though she said it confidentially, she wasn't sure about it.

Minji watched Jin struggling to load up his weapon. Finally, it clicked in.

"I'm gonna go after him," he stated.

"No! it's too dangerous," Minji recalled.

"Yeah," Hani whispered, but no one heard and she knew it but she didn't stop him either because she kind of wanted someone to go after him.

"I'll come," Hoseok said as he grabbed his weapon and started loading.

Once the duo were ready they got to the ground and disappeared into the darkness, but everyone could see their flashlight flickering through the leaves.

𝗛𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗼𝗸'𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩

They walked through the forest. Calling for Jungkook a few times, but they got no reply.

Jin shushed Hoseok and they both listened. They could hear a faint growl but couldn't make out where it came from.

Jin turned off the torch and guided Hoseok behind a tree, they both held their guns ready for any attack. They waited for a while until they saw the Hollowen lumbering past them.

Hoseok was left agape at the sight of it so close to him. Its skin looked so dry and its eyes had skin layered over it, it had no nose and it's sharp teeth popped out of his mouth. Its skin tightened over the neck revealing every single muscle and vein. Hoseok quivered. Once it was gone, the duo moved forward.

"Jungkook!" Hoseok called out.

"Up here!" A weak voice called back. They looked up to see a faint figure waving at them, they both climbed the tree too.

~~~~~

"There's not much left, but I think this should do it," Jin said applying medicine to Jungkook's wound again.

"Maybe we should just leave it, it's gonna start bleeding when I start to use that weapon again," Jungkook spoke.

"Then you shouldn't, you know people die from blood loss, and I think your parents will want to see your face again."

Hoseok looked around while the two talked and his eyes caught a flash of a Hollowen speeding past.

"Guys stop!" He warned. They both looked at him and then down.

"Did you see one?" Jungkook asked and Hoseok nodded.

"It probably smelt the blood while you were treating it, I'm gonna go down, or else you both will be in trouble too," Jungkook suggested.

"No! You're not getting separated again, we either do it together or we don't, so sit down and just be quiet," Jin ordered.

Hoseok froze in his spot trying to listen until he turned to look at Jungkook and then he saw it.

It was perched upon a branch, just like them while tasting the air and looking around.

"Guys, don't move," Hoseok whispered, still staring at it with wide eyes.

"Jin, is your weapon loaded?" Hoseok asked.

"Yup," he replied.

'𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯.'

Jin held the weapon, ready for attack.

'𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘦, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦.'

Hoseok shook off the thought, they needed positive energy right now and he wished he was curled up in his bed right now, somewhere safe, away from all this, but reality hit when Jin spoke.

"I'm going to shoot," he said.

Jungkook nodded and everyone watched as Jin aimed and shot. It was as if the whole branch exploded from the impact. It hit the Hollowen and it screamed in agony as it fell to the ground in ashes.

"Hoseok! Help me!" Jungkook spoke. Hoseok turned to see Jin hanging off the branch and Jungkook holding his arm.

Hoseok released his grasp from the branch and grabbed onto Jin. They both pulled him up.

"I thought I was gonna die," Jin spoke as he held onto the tree breathing heavily.

"I wanna go home," Hoseok whispered.

Jungkook looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We will."