In The End [4/?]
Pairings: HoMin
Rating: R
Warnings: boyxboy, some gore, might have adult themes in the future.
Summary: It's a normal day when life pushes them together. Who would have known a few hours later they would only have one another?
A/N: Hi! Long time no post! I'm going to post a separate entry in which I explain everything about my absence, and the future of my stories here.
=September 6, 2011=
They spent the whole day pouring over maps and trying to come up with a plan. It was really hard to pick a destination when the whole world had gone to shit, but they figured their best option was to head south.
“Jeju is our best bet,” Yunho concluded making Changmin roll his eyes.
“What?”
“You play too many videogames.”
Yunho snorts. “And you have to play the same games to make that assumption.”
Changmin did not grace him with an answer, deciding to return his attention to the map. He marked a big ‘x’ over the southern island though, before taking out a highway route map and tracing the shortest route towards the coast.
“I approve of your master plan until here,” Changmin pointed at the stretch of ocean separating mainland Korea from their destination. “How are we going to get there once we reach the shore?”
There was a moment of silence while the two men stared at each other, but eventually Yunho hid his face behind his hand, letting out a sound of exasperation.
“We’ll improvise.”
“But-“
“Changmin,” Yunho called him sharply. “Any place is better than here. We might not even make it out of the city as it is.”
Just as he said that he walked towards the window, and pulled the blinds apart. The sun was just starting to set, creating dark shadows between the buildings, but Yunho could still see a couple of those things crawling around.
They did not argue any more that night. Instead they poured their energy into packing. It was particularly hard for Yunho, who was still living in his own home and had just a moment’s notice to come to terms with the fact that he might never be coming back to it. It was not the home he grew up in, but it was the first apartment he was able to afford after becoming financially independent from his parents, and it had so many memories attached to it. Having to leave things behind to make space for more useful stuff like food and medical supplies was his first blow with reality. So far it had all felt like a horrible dream but their situation was becoming more of a reality as the days went by. It was time he realized he could not stay in the safety of his apartment anymore.
They had to keep moving.
He barely slept that night, though from the way Changmin was turning and moving around in the bed, he was not the only one.
=September 7, 2011=
Yunho checked all the knots, making sure they were tight enough. Most of their bags were tied to the other end of the long strip of cloth made from spare sheets and towels. It was supposed to be long enough to reach the first floor or at least make the fall shorter so that their cans of food would not just burst open all over their t-shirts. He went to check that all the zippers and buckles were closed, and asked Changmin if he had his backpack with him.
“Come on hyung, now you’re just stalling,” Changmin called gently if a bit exasperated.
Yunho could tell Changmin was just as nervous but his mood translated into annoyance and impatience while Yunho felt himself shake with sheer panic. Anything could go wrong, and they still did not know what was waiting for them down there. They both had guns tucked into their belts (Yunho had purchased his own a couple of years ago and kept it in a hidden compartment in his closet) and Changmin had the bat while Yunho opted for a piece of metal pipe for protection, but it still felt like it was not enough.
“Ready?” asked Yunho, and though he was looking at Changmin, the question seemed to be directed at himself.
Changmin nodded. “Let’s go.”
They moved the cabinet out of the way and Yunho stepped forward to undo the locks. He motioned for Changmin to stand back while he opened the door, pipe raised and ready. Darkness greeted him, though there was still the sound of faint groaning coming from below. Yunho swallowed but gave a thumbs-up to Changmin, who started hauling the bags towards the entrance.
Neither spoke as they moved the heavy bags down to the edge of the stairs. A quick scan with the flashlight revealed no moaning, walking corpses in their vicinity so they began lowering the bags over the railing one at a time. Yunho held the makeshift rope while Changmin dropped the bags, and when the last of the bags was over the railing Changmin went to help Yunho lower them slowly.
It was a nerve-wrecking process. They had to go slow to avoid the packages from swinging around and potentially hitting a metal railing. That would make too much noise, and noise never meant anything good with those creatures, they had found out.
“Wait, stop. Stop!” whispered Changmin harshly. Yunho held the rope tightly between his fists while Changmin doubled himself over the railing, tugging at the rope.
“What happened?” Yunho whispered back.
“It’s getting twisted, let me just….”
Yunho waited while Changmin tugged the rope straight, ears strained to catch any weird sounds. He only heard Changmin’s frustrated breathing and his own blood pumping hard against his eardrums.
“Okay,” Changmin whispered again tugging at the rope to let Yunho know that he could start lowering their packs again.
It seemed like an eternity had gone by. The rope twisted a couple more times but each time Changmin caught it on time and untangled it. It was harder the lower they went because the longer the rope got, the least control they had over the bags swinging at the end of it. There was a moment when a zipper grazed the side of a railing with a small ‘clink’ when Yunho felt his heart jump to his throat. They waited then, ears strained to catch any sign of growling or moaning but after a couple of minutes of silence they decided to keep going. Sometime later Yunho realized he was on the last meter of rope.
“Uh, Changmin,” he started quietly.
“What?” Changmin replied, tugging for more rope though Yunho would not let go of it. Realizing this he turned around to look at the older man, and repeated his question.
“There isn’t any more rope,” Yunho explained, gesturing to the sad little piece hanging from his hands. “How much farther do we need to lower the bags?”
Changmin looked at the remaining rope for a second before going to grab one of the flashlights. He looked uncertain at Yunho, who nodded, before he pointed the stick down and turned it on.
“The bags are hanging around the third floor, so three more to go,” he said and then hurried to turn the light off.
There was the sound of faint moaning and what sounded like scratching coming from many floors down and both men shuddered. Neither made to move or do anything, but then Changmin turned to the stairs, eyeing them decidedly. Yunho caught his line of sight, and then the determined look in Changmin’s eyes.
“No,” he said, perhaps a bit too loud.
“It’s only three stories,” argued Changmin more quietly. “You can catch up to me quickly.”
“What if I’m not quick enough?” whispered Yunho back. If his hands had not been full of rope he would have shaken Changmin. What he was suggesting was dangerous bordering on suicidal.
Changmin did not answer, going to grab his discarded metal bat instead. Finally he looked straight into Yunho’s eyes.
“I trust you, hyung,” he said, before heading towards the stairs. “I’ll tug at the rope thrice when I’m ready for you to drop it.”
Yunho swallowed audibly, but let him go, saying a quick prayer in his head. He watched as Changmin’s silhouette disappeared from his line of sight, straining his ears to catch the sound of the younger man’s quiet footsteps, but after a while he could not even hear that. After a while the darkness and the silence (interrupted only every once in a while by a low groan or moan coming from the ground floor) made him panic. He was about to call out to Changmin, silence be damned, when he felt the faint tug of the cloth between his fists. Then another, and then a third one.
He let out a shuddering breath of relief, and began lowering the rope again, until he was left with the very end tightly clutched in one hand. He tugged it once, hoping Changmin would understand he was letting go, before he actually did.
The first thing that registered in his mind was the sound of a bag hitting the side of the building rather loudly. Then came the loud moans, and a barely there curse three stories down.
Yunho muttered a curse of his own and hurried to grab his things: his backpack, the pipe and the flashlight and sprinted down the stairs. Because he was going in the dark he almost missed Changmin, stopping only because of the “Hyung!” he heard when he almost went down an extra set of stairs.
“Hyung,” Changmin called again, urgency in his voice. “Hurry, we need to lower this quick!”
Yunho grabbed the extra rope hanging down over the railing and pulled it behind him, so that he could feed Changmin more rope as he tugged, while still helping him distribute the weight. They went quickly, quicker than before, not minding the noise anymore. The moans were getting louder and more desperate, and the scratching was turning really violent.
After what felt like hours the tension in the rope disappeared, with them holding only a couple handfuls of rope still. Neither dared to breathe a sigh of relief just yet though. They still had to get themselves out of there.
The noises downstairs were deafening in their ears as they made their way down, careful to keep noise to the bare minimum. Thankfully all of the doors to the rest of the floors were closed, though they both visibly tensed when going past them. Yunho held tighter on to his piece of pipe, his palms sweating against the metal, clutching it tighter at any change in the cacophony coming from below.
Eventually they made it to the bottom. They could see their bags crumpled in a heap in the middle of the floor, and a couple paces away the door was rattling with the sound of something pushing from the other side. Yunho pushed Changmin behind him while he moved forward, flashlight pointing a thin streak of light onto the door.
The door was chained shut from their side, though the pushing had moved it slightly ajar. Peeking through the chains Yunho could make out the darkened shapes of thin, pale fingers with broken fingernails trying to find purchase on the edge of the door. Whatever was on the other side could most definitely also see him because the noises became louder and the rattling on the door more violent.
“Hyung,” Changmin called immediately behind him, making him jump.
Yunho let out a shaky breath. “We have to go back.”
Changmin shook his head. “There is no other way out,” he said.
They stood there for a while just looking at each other and evaluating their options. They could most definitely not stay, the noise would attract more of those things, and anyway they would eventually run out of supplies. Finding another escape route seemed almost impossible as well. Their best alternative option would be using the elevator shaft, but they would be vulnerable once they got to the first floor, with little room to move if they were to be attacked while coming out of it. At least when attempting to get through the stairs they still had the option of running back up and starting again.
Changmin explained this to Yunho, who groaned and rubbed at his eyes tiredly.
“I hate it when you make so much sense,” he joked, trying to lighten the situation up a little.
There was the ghost of a smile on Changmin’s face before it turned serious again.
“One of us needs to open the door while the other swings,” he said, “it doesn’t seem to be more than one. For now, at least.”
Yunho turned to look at the door, assessing the situation. The keys to the lock holding the chain closed were lying on the floor a few feet from the door. As soon as the lock was off the chain would fall apart, with how violent the pushing from the other side was.
He went to pick the keys up and handed them to Changmin.
“Give me your bat,” he said, holding the pipe out. “I was pretty decent at baseball in middle school.”
“You better swing at its head, and do it hard. Else I’m bolting for the stairs,” Changmin warned with no real heat behind it, grabbing the pipe in his key-free hand and making his way towards the door.
Yunho waved him away dismissively. He hoped Changmin would really run if things went bad. Then he would not need to worry about him, and maybe even manage to run after him.
Changmin slotted the key into the lock and went to stand behind the door. He looked at Yunho nervously, but Yunho squared his jaw and nodded.
“On three,” Changmin said, hand steady on the lock. “One…”
“Two…”
“THREE!”
The lock clicked open and with a twist of Changmin’s hand it fell to the ground. Two pushes from the other side was all that it took for the chain to fall down and the door to burst open, letting through the building’s janitor, snarling with arms outstretched towards Yunho.
His eyes were the same lifeless, milky-yellow color of the things at the hospital, and upon noticing this, Yunho swung hard, letting the heavy weight of the bat smack against the side of the janitor’s head, its skull crunching underneath with an audible crack.
The janitor collapsed after the hit, and Yunho slammed the bat once more upon its head for good measure. The man’s skull was starting to resemble a deflated ball by now, with a dent on the side of its head matted with blackish blood, and bone fragments sticking out from its hair like gravestones on a grassy meadow. Yunho was still breathing hard, adrenaline cursing through his veins, when he turned him over with his foot, holding back nausea as he spotted a chunk of flesh missing from the janitor’s rotting neck.
“It’s all clear,” he heard behind him and he turned around to see Changmin standing in front of the open door looking into the lobby.
Changmin took one look at the crumpled body on the ground before going around it to untie the bags. Yunho followed without a word, but not before wiping the bat on the janitor’s shirt. It was not safe to leave it dirty if it was a viral thing, and he figured the janitor would not mind, at least not anymore.
They moved the bags into the lobby quickly, and then down the flight of stairs to the underground parking lot. Yunho insisted on going before Changmin, in case they encountered more of those things, but everything was silent, eerie and dark. The thin beams of light from their flashlights revealed that the enclosure was pretty empty, with only a few cars still standing in their underground spaces, signaling that some of their neighbors had taken the sensible path of leaving earlier.
Yunho led the way to his car. He fumbled around his pants for his keys, taking them out and opening the trunk. Changmin was already behind him depositing some of the bags in there while Yunho went to grab more of them.
It must have taken them about five minutes to get all the bags in the car and yet to Changmin it felt like it had been too fast and at the same time too slow. He looked around; his flashlight pointing to his mom’s designated parking spot. Naturally her car was not there, it must have been among those abandoned around the hospital. He remembered driving it on occasion when his mom would cave after a few seconds of big eyes and pouting. Not that he would ever admit to doing that. He would never get to drive it again, and the thought brought a chest-slamming feeling of loss with it that he had not allowed himself to feel in weeks. He knew it was foolish to hope, and even more foolish to hold onto that hope, so he blinked the tears back and hid a sniffle behind the pretence of a cough. He climbed onto the passenger’s seat, feeling proud when they drove away and he did not turn around to look even once.