Four Seasons: Winter

[chubummie]

AN: So I wrote this because I had a day dream about the apocalypse and started to think of how SHINee members might handle it. I actually started three different zombie stories two AU and one not, I ended up scrapping the other AU because this one felt better and was easier for me to write. I hope you like it.

Minho was cold. It was the beginning of winter, he didn’t have shelter. He didn’t have much food or water. He was low on ammo. He was low on hope. He panted harshly leaning against a tree. He could hear them and knew he had to keep moving.

“Shit,” He cursed trekking forward when he saw two in his line of sight.

Minho met him when he grabbed him. A hand went over his mouth and “shhh” was whispered in his ear as he was pulled into the bush. The hand moved from his mouth. Minho’s heart still hadn’t slowed down. As soon as he was grabbed he thought he was dead but instead he was with the first living human he’d seen in the last ten days.

“How many?” The low voice asked.

“Maybe five,” Minho answered.

“That should be fine then,” The voice replied. “Are you alone?” Minho nodded. “Ok I’m going to need you to trust me if you want to live. Cover me, no guns.”

The caped boy killed the first two without Minho leaving his spot. When two more arrived Minho took one but the boy was hacking up the other one. “Kill it. What are you doing?”

“Making sure I stay alive,” He answered. “Anyway cut that one open and cover yourself.”

“What?”

“Cut it open, put your hands in and rub it all over your clothes.” The boy said slowly as he tied the rope around the one he’d hacked up.

“Are you crazy?”

“Fine don’t,” The boy walked over to one of the other bodies and cut into them. Just like he instructed Minho he covered himself in blood and guts. He returned to the one tied up and helped the squirming armless mass to its legs holding the rope like a leash. “There’s a pretty big herd roaming near here. You’ll die if you run into them so good luck I guess.”

Minho panicked as the other began to walk, “Wait. How big is the herd?”

He shrugged, “At least three hundred last time I checked.”

“Three hundred? You’re sure?”

He rolled his eyes, “Well I didn’t count personally but it’s definitely around there.”

His legs felt weak. He cursed under his breath. He’d survived so much for this to be the end. He took a step back as another appeared. It was closer to the caped man but went straight for Minho even bumping into the man as if he weren’t there. The man started walking away again so Minho rushed bashing its skull in.

“Wait!” He called out again.

“I don’t have time to sit around and watch you die.”

“Do you have,” Minho started staring at the corpse before him, “Do you have a place to go? Like a camp?”

“Do you?”

Minho shook his head, “My group we got separated because of a herd. I was alone but I found a working car so I drove for maybe three hours before I had to abandon the car. I don’t really know where I am.”

“Then if you don’t listen to me you’ll die.”

He held back his tears, gulped his throat felt thick and hot. He nearly gagged when he cut the thing open but just as the other had he smeared the insides all over himself.

“Good,” He smiled, “Don’t worry I have clothes at my spot so you’ll be able to change once we get there.”

“Thanks,” He mumbled.

“Let’s get going,” He started walking, “It’s a long walk.”

They had walked for maybe an two hours when they exited the forests to a road. The road was quiet littered with bodies and there were two cars.

“Check the cars for supplies,” He said, “I’ll check the bodies.”
Minho nodded but was weary as the other tied his ‘pet’ to the car. “It’s for cover trust me. Take your time and be thorough.”

Minho climbed into a bloodied back seat to look through a bag left behind. They’d been searching for minutes when the noises came. Minho looked to the other but he only signaled for Minho to be quiet before cutting open a corpse and pulling it over himself. Every minute they waited felt like an eternity. Minho counted how many simply passed by them; thirty four. His sign that it was ok to continue was the sound of the other shoving the corpse off himself.

“There was nothing good left on those bodies but this knife.” He said walking over to the car. “Better than nothing I guess. What about you?”

“There’s some medical supplies in this bag,” He offered. “I didn’t check the front or the trunk yet.”

He grinned. “Aren’t you glad Yunho here was looking out for you? Finish searching the car I’ll check the other one.”

In the front seat was a corpse the splatter on the window made it obvious, suicide. He’d lucked into a gun and twelve bullets. The trunk was a success also with bottles of water and a blanket.

“Score?”

“Eight bottles of water, blanket, gun with twelve bullets, and the medical stuff,” Minho answered.

“Aren’t I lucky?” He smiled, “I’ll take that as a part of your rent.”

“My rent?”

“You have somewhere else to stay?” He said untying ‘Yunho’, “I didn’t think so. Let’s keep going.”

“What’s your name?”

“Key.”

“Ki?” Minho frowned, “Are you really only going to give me a syllable of your name?”

“K-e-y, Key, it’s English.” He replied.

“Oh, are you half?”

“Do I look half to you?” He asked.

Minho shrugged, “I didn’t know halves had a look.”

“They don’t I guess but more of them look like you than me.” Key retorted, “With your huge frog eyes, you totally look half. Me, I’m
swimming in Korean looks.”

“I’m full, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard that.” He responded, “I’m Choi Minho.” He frowned again when the other didn’t respond.
“Did you find anything good in the other car?”

“Two cans of fruit, blanket, and another map,” Key answered. “The people in that car probably escaped to the woods. They won’t survive long though if they aren’t dead already.”

“Why do you think that?”

“They had car trouble,” Key stated, “The car you checked had leaked a ton of oil. Two cars so they probably had a group of seven to ten people. They probably ran into a group about the size of the one that passed us. That’s not too bad for a group their size normally but there were three fresh bodies on the ground and one in the car. That leaves the people who took supplies and abandoned ship to be the escapees. Guess what direction they probably went in?”

“The herd,” He sighed.

“Bingo.” Key went on, “They probably would’ve stood a chance if people didn’t run off on them. The guy in your car clearly made it to the end. I know because the three fresh ones never turned. So he took care of them before he gave up. That’s what happens in groups though people leave, people screw people over. Even after the end of the world, people are still the most dangerous things on the planet.”

“Were you in a group?”

“Everyone was in a group Minho,” Key remarked. “Come on I wanna get there before dark.”
The sun is setting when they make it to Key’s place. Minho knows they’ve made it because he sees two more pets.

“Meet your friends Yunho,” Key says tying him to a tree just outside a house, “This is Taewon and Joon be good to each other.”
Minho follows him inside. The house is dusty and cold. It looks ransacked and run through. “Come on Minho, getting to the spot is a little tricky.”

He follows him upstairs jumping over a wide gap in them. They walk over a skinny plank where the floor is gone. “This is the bathroom,” Key begins opening the door, “The water still works here, but there’s no hot water and even though it’s clear don’t drink it.”
He opens the door opposite the bathroom. “Take off your clothes. We’re going to wash up first.” He says opening the closet.
Minho is both happy and sad to take off the filthy clothes. He hasn’t bathed in at least three weeks and he’s happy at the prospect of water and not smelling terrible but it is freezing and the warmth of the filthy clothes is better than the cold air directly on him.

Key is down to his boxers shivering, his bag and ax in his arms, “Put the clothes in the closet. Get your stuff. Hurry up I’m freezing.”
Minho moves fast and follows Key to the bathroom. “Shut the door. Always shut doors.” Minho shuts the room door behind them and watches Key climb up a built in towel shelf at the top barely noticeable is a door. Key opens it and shimmies up, “Come on Minho hand me your bags.”
Minho follows awkwardly. Key takes the bags as he climbs up. He hands him two towels and a pair of underwear before he even gets his head inside. “Down, hurry up I’m cold enough.”

Then they’re back in the bathroom. Key sighs, and fills a large basin he brought down with water. “Ok we wash up here. Rinse off in the shower. We want to do this quick because it’s only going to get colder.”

Minho is too busy looking at the all in one shampoo conditioner to really pay attention. “Minho!”

“Yeah?” He looks over to see Kibum already washing up.

“Hurry up.”
In a normal situation, washing up like this would be hellish, for Minho it was a god send. They both shivered teeth chattering as they dried off. Minho could see his breath as he tried to dry his hair as much as possible. He followed Key up the shelves to the attic. He could barely see in the darkness but Key moved quickly lighting lanterns before closing the shutters and curtains over the back window in the attic.

“The t-towels and st-stuff over there,” He stuttered from cold.
Minho did and looked over what he could see of the attic. The space was pretty big expanding over the rooms in the house they hadn’t gone to. Key seemed to have a lot of supplies. He turned to see Key had two lanterns and a lamp lit.

“Here,” He tossed a green thing to him.

Minho opened it up to reveal it, “A frog?” But his body was already moving to get it on.

“Or you can stay in your underwear, hungry?” He was pulling on a fox one-set. “It’s cold so we can eat ramyun to get warm too.”

Minho was zipping up when Key rolls a pair of thick socks to him. Minho throws the hood over his head still shivering as he sits to pull on the socks. He looks around more. “You have a lot of stuff.”

“Well I spent Three months stock piling for winter.” Key responded setting up a burner. “By the way you’re near Daegu. I don’t know where
you were before but we’re outside of Daegu now. Get me that pot.”

Minho followed directions readily and tried not to drool. How long had it been since he’d had hot ramyun? They ate from the pot together. The meal warmed him up right away. He sniffed feeling his nose run when Key chuckled and handed him tissues. At that moment it didn’t feel like the end of the world.

“Ah I’m all done.”

Minho looked down, they’d eaten maybe half of the pot but it was only two packages of ramyun, “You sure?”

“When’s the last time you ate Minho?”

“Sometime yesterday,” he answered before slurping up more noodles.

“Well I had breakfast and two snack breaks today.” Key remarked, “And I wasn’t worried about what I’d have for dinner when I ate this morning either. Just eat it ok, you were practically drooling over it when it was cooking. There’s hot tea in the kettle.” He stood stretching, “I’m going to look through all of your stuff.”

Minho shrugged, his focus on the food before him. Key was sipping tea and looking at his things when he finished off the last of the broth. He set the pot out of the way and poured himself a cup of tea before moving to Key.

“You’re the meticulous type huh?”

Key shrugged, “Details are important but I’m not really a neat person.”

Minho nodded, “I just figured you must be because of how prepared you have this place and how you figured out what happened at the cars.”

“Well I had to had free time while we were waiting for the stragglers to past.” Key commented, “You don’t have a lot of stuff.”

“I didn’t have the time,” He started, “It was more important to just get out of there. Are you taking it as a part of my rent.”

“Nah,” Key grinned, “I was just joking about that earlier. I know you’ll share even though you don’t have much. You can give me these though.” He held up two packs of batteries. “It’s like looking at gold.”

“They were in the med bag, I thought if you had flash lights or if we found some we could use it.”

He scoffed, “Yeah if we have to I guess. I was thinking more of being able to use lamps or the rice cooker at night.” He smirked going to the wall were his supplies were, “Or this.”

“Is that a-” Minho blinked amazed, “Space heater?”

He grinned, “Yup battery and AC compatible. It’s small and it needs three batteries but it’s still pretty great right. I was going to save it for when it gets even colder but do you want to use it tonight?”

Minho nods happily. He could cry with how happy he is right now. Key put up everything and sets up the space heater near the bed. “You don’t mind do you?”

Minho shakes his head walking over. “I haven’t slept on a bed in a long time. How did you get this up here?”

Key smiled, “It was already up here. There was furniture and linen being stored up here mostly. When I found it, it didn’t look like anyone had been up here for years. ” He turns off the lamp and one of the lanterns he brings the other to the bed, “I was happy to find a place that looked like no one had got to. The rest of the house was picked clean. Even the room where the floor is mostly gone, I think that might’ve been grenade damage.”

“How did you even find it?” Minho asked lying down the warm blankets making him relax in a way he hadn’t been able to for months. “I didn’t even notice it.”

“Take your time and be thorough.” Key said yawning as he turned the heater on. “That’s the only way to find the best stuff sometimes.”
Minho watched as Key settled into bed and his eyes slipped close. “Tired?”

“Yeah.” He opened his eyes just a bit, “Do you mind me turning off the light?”
Minho nodded, “We should both get to sleep anyway.”
Minho woke up to Key shaking him.

“Come on get up you’ve slept long enough, we’ve got stuff to do.”
He sat up drowsy but feeling well rested. Key tossed clothes into his lap. “Thanks.”

“You better hurry up, we need to patrol and I need to walk you through how stuff works. Then we’re off to scavenge.”

Minho dressed in the jeans and long sleeve shirt that remarkably fit him well. Key gave him boots and a scarf. Then they put on raincoats which confused him.

“We’re going to wear the jackets we had yesterday. This protects our clean clothes from the grime.” Key said shoving a backpack at him,

“Let’s go.”

Minho went down first He stood waiting as Key handed him an ax, two crowbars and then machete before climbing down. They left the bathroom to the other room and finished preparing.

“We’re going to patrol and scavenge a bit today.” Key said once they were outside. “The areas the herd passed are bound to have something. We won’t be out long. We’re just checking now before we have to hibernate. There’s soup in the thermos if you’re a little hungry. It’s hot I packed it before I woke you up.”

“Thanks .” Minho said following him.

Being outside felt easier when you had a place to go back to. Minho felt safe with Key. The week passed by that way. They didn’t run into any living people and rarely bumped into the dead either it was the nicest thing Minho had had in a long time.
Today they had set traps before "hibernation" and for the first time since Minho had met Key he felt useful.

“I’m so glad you’re good at running and lifting heavy things.” Key said resting against a tree, “I totally hate that stuff.”

“For someone who hates running you’ve survived a really long time don’t you think?”
Key shrugged, “Well just because I hate running doesn’t mean I won’t do it. Besides you need other skills to survive than just running and I’m good at those things.”

“Well we’ve set up everything but don’t you think this will attract people?”

“Maybe,” Key stood dusting off his pants, “But it is winter and these aren’t just for people.”
Once back in the attic they talked over dinner, “Ok this is how winter is going to work. Patrols are every five days if the weather allows otherwise we’ll have a two day delay. We might hear things downstairs. We’re quiet even if we hear living people we stay quiet.”

“What if they need help?”

“We stay quiet Minho.” Key said seriously, “People are still the most dangerous thing in this world. I took a risk helping you but you took a risk trusting me too. Even people like you and me are dangerous, but at least we know that we won’t hurt each other. You don’t know what kind of people could come here. You don’t know what they’ll be capable of. Living people are our biggest threat in this world.”

Minho nodded, “What if there’s a herd?”

“We stay quiet until they pass. They’re stupid so it’s not like they’ll be able to find us. If we don’t do anything to attract them they’ll keep moving and it’ll be fine.” He continued, “But if we get in a bind I have backups and escape plans if there are no other options.”

“Backups?”

“I have a few distractions placed around in case we need them for an escape or to divert the wrong attention,” Key smirked. “I don’t like to run remember.”

Minho was restless by day twelve. They’d only been out of the attic once thanks to three days of rain. They were due to patrol tomorrow but the sky was dark and it looked like more rain.

Key came to lie beside him, “What’s with the face?”

“I’m just worried about patrol,” Minho answered.

“I know because it’s quiet so that’s scary,” Key smiled, “But it’s winter, this is the safest I’ll be all year. Thanks to the rain, mud, and snow slowing down corpses and people. I can feel a little at ease. So try not to worry too much because winter will be over faster than you’ll like and then we’ll be back out there again.”

Minho tries to hold back the anxiety but the next morning it’s raining and he needs to do something before he explodes.

“What do you miss most about before the end of the world?” Key asks him drawing in a notebook.

Minho shrugs, “Meat, fresh meat, fresh food, soccer, taking naps.” He set down the book he couldn’t concentrate on, “My friends, my family, everything,” He chuckled feeling bitter, “I even miss school. I even miss my hyung annoying me.”
Key spoke, “I miss my grandmother the most. I gave her so much shit but if I could go back I’d be good to her, really good to her.”

Minho waited before asking, “Do you miss anything else?”

Key sighs, “I miss porn.”

“What?”

“Porn,” He sighs again, “I miss masturbating too.”

“What the hell Key?”

“What? Right now it looks like I’m going to die without ever doing it with someone I like,” He groaned, “On top of that I have no porn, and I can tell I was going to love sex. Like you know some people are asexual, I can tell I was going to be all sexual. I would have had tons of great sex if the world hadn’t ended. I never even got to properly kiss someone.”

“You never kissed?”

Key shook his head, “Nope, I thought I would have time for those things before all this happened.”

“I guess that’s true. I never got a chance either. I thought there would be time,” Minho frowned, “but we didn’t have time for anything. Even now we don’t have time for it.”

Key comes to where Minho is sitting down, “Hey, close your eyes.”

“What for? Are you going to do something weird?”

“Just do it.”

Minho did sighing over dramatically, “Fine.”

For a long moment nothing happened and just when Minho was about to ask if he could open his eyes, Key kissed him. It was light and short but warm and pleasant.

“Sorry.” Key whispered looking away when Minho opened his eyes. “It’s just if I don’t have time I want to die knowing what it’s like to kiss someone.”

“It’s fine.” Minho replied quietly, glancing at the other, “I kinda wanted to be the one making the first move on my first kiss though.”

“Really?” Key’s head snaps up, “That’s all you’re going to say when I just-”

Cutting someone off with a kiss is just as satisfying as the movies and dramas make it but it is a little awkward too. They’re both unpracticed with kissing so when Minho pulls away he’s as satisfied as he is embarrassed.

“I’ve always thought I’d do it the way they do in those romantic comedy movies.” He commented thinking it would make the atmosphere less awkward, “You know they’re talking and you just cut them off with a sudden kiss before confessing that you always loved them.”

Key is blushing and again avoiding looking directly at Minho, “That’s surprisingly girly.”

“You’re no better,” Minho countered, “Telling someone to close their eyes so you can kiss them is like something kids do in elementary. It’s really childish.”

“I’m surviving the apocalypse so I can be as childish as I want.”

“I’m surviving too.”

Key rolled his eyes laying down, “Yeah ‘cause I’m always saving you.”

“Thanks,” Minho said lying beside him, “Really thank you for everything. I would’ve died without you.”

Key didn’t respond only mumbled, “Ugh I hate the cold.”

Minho sat up to pull the blankets over them. “Yeah but at least we’re inside and safe. We’re probably warmer than a lot of people this winter.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Key cuddled closer.

They laid quietly just keeping warm when the noises down stairs started. Minho and Key’s eyes locked immediately but Key only held a finger over his mouth. However minutes passed and the noises didn’t stop.

“It’s probably corpses. I’ll check the windows.” He whispered, “Don’t move.”

Key moved quick and quiet first to the furthest window looking to the front and then the back closest to the bed before lying down carefully. “Corpses, there’s eighteen in the back and seven in the front so it’s probably a group between thirty and fifty. We should be fine but dinner will be delayed and no bathroom breaks for a while.”

So they laid quietly again, with only the sounds of the light rain and the corpses. There was a boom of thunder that startled him. He looked to Key, who was nearly napping.

“Key?” He began after a moment of silence.

“Mm.”

“I meant what I said before,” Minho moved closer, thunder roared outside, “I would have died without you.”

“I hadn’t seen another good person for a long time I’d be a corpse without you Minho,” Key sighed, his voice shaky, “A living breathing corpse.” He moved closer his hand fisting in Minho’s shirt, “Can you kiss me again?”

Minho answered with his lips. So he and Key kissed and held each other for a long time, until the corpses were gone and the storm stopped, until they were both too tired to properly kiss anymore.

To Be Continued

AN: ; A ; I don't know why I wrote this but it kind of got stuck on me until I wrote it out. I like to think in a zombie apocalypse Key would be the type to use his creativity to overcome things like not being very strong to fight or fast to run. Well if you read it thanks. If you enjoyed it thanks even more. I already wrote the second part of the continuation where the rest of SHINee make an appearance. I'll post it soon too...maybe. Anyway thanks also if anyone knows of some zombie SHINee fics I can read please link me~