The air was cold that morning.Y/N woke up to the sound of wind rattling through the broken glass of an abandoned bus, her breath fogging in the air. She rubbed her arms, eyes darting around for any sign of movement. Nothing. Just silence — the kind that made her heart ache.
It had been five days since she'd been separated from the others. Five days she was bitten by the infected.
She'd survived… somehow.
Her clothes had dried stiff with mud, and her cuts still burned, but the infection hadn't taken her.She didn't know why.She just thought she was lucky.
Y/N moved cautiously through the streets, clutching the knife Jin had given her. It was dull now, but it was better than nothing. Every alley, every creak of wind made her pulse race. The infected were faster these days — twitchy, hungry things with cloudy eyes and broken bones that moved like they'd forgotten pain.
She'd learned their sounds.The clicks. The snarls. The wet dragging of feet.She could tell when they were close… and when they were hunting.
That afternoon, Y/N reached the old Seongnam Medical Facility.The glass doors were shattered, and the faint scent of disinfectant still lingered beneath the decay. She crept inside, scavenging through overturned tables and dusty cabinets.
Her hand brushed against a small crate of medical syringes and blood kits — probably used before everything went to hell.She hesitated, remembering how Taehyung had joked, "You're too brave for your own good, Y/N."
Maybe he was right.
She rolled up her sleeve and stared at the half-healed bite mark on her forearm — the one she'd gotten Five nights ago. The infected had broken her skin, teeth sinking deep before she killed it. She'd wrapped it, waiting for the fever… waiting to lose her mind.
But it never came.
Just… nothing.
Y/N swallowed hard. Maybe she was in shock. Maybe she just hadn't hit the point of no return yet.Still, curiosity burned in her chest.
She took one of the syringes and pricked her finger, watching the dark red bead of blood form. It looked normal. Warm. Alive.She stared at it for a long time, whispering to herself,
"Maybe I'm just… lucky."
That night, she built a fire in the corner of an empty convenience store.Her stomach ached from hunger, but she forced herself to eat a few stale crackers.As the flames flickered, her thoughts drifted to the others — the boys who had become her family.
Yoongi's quiet plans.Jungkook's stubborn loyalty.Jimin's jokes that kept her from falling apart.Namjoon's voice, steady even in chaos.
And then, TXT — the younger ones who had refused to leave her behind.She couldn't bear the thought that they might be gone.
She took a battered map from her bag, spread it out, and circled the old broadcasting tower near Seoul.If any of them survived, that was where they'd go. It was their backup plan. Their meeting point.
She whispered into the fire,
"Just hold on… I'm coming back."
When dawn came, Y/N packed her things and tightened the strap of her backpack. Her reflection flashed briefly in a broken mirror — dirt-streaked face, tired eyes, a scar on her neck that hadn't healed right.
But she wasn't the same girl anymore.Not the one who used to wait for the boys to lead the way.
She was a survivor now. Alone. Stronger.And without realizing it, immune — a secret even she didn't yet understand.
She stepped out into the cold morning light, blade in hand, and whispered,
"Let's finish this."
Then she began walking toward them.
Toward the unknown.Toward them.
The forest was quieter than usual.Only the crunch of Y/N's boots against the dry leaves and the soft hum of the wind weaving through the trees filled the air. The morning sun barely broke through the gray clouds, leaving everything washed in cold light.
She had been walking for hours — following the faint outline of an old dirt road that twisted through the forest. The path wasn't on her map, but it led north — toward Seoul — and that was all that mattered.
Still, something felt… different.Too still. Too quiet.
Y/N slowed her steps, hand tightening around the handle of her knife. She crouched low, scanning the tree line. That's when she saw it — a flash of color against the green brush.
Her breath caught.Something metallic glinted faintly in the bushes.
Carefully, she pushed aside a tangle of branches — and froze.
It was a water bottle.Scuffed, dirt-streaked, but still intact.
And not just any bottle.She knew it instantly — the faded sticker of a cartoon bear, the small crack on the lid, the name written in permanent marker near the base:
"Y/H/N."
Her little brother's name.
Her knees nearly gave out. She lifted the bottle with shaking hands, brushing off the mud.
"No way…" she whispered. "You were here…"
Tears pricked her eyes. For the first time in weeks, something inside her burned with hope. If her brother had dropped this, then he couldn't be far — and if the others were with him, that meant… they were all alive.
She glanced around the forest again, heart racing. There were tracks in the mud — faint boot prints, too organized to be from the infected.And beside them… smaller prints.
A child's.
Y/N's pulse thundered.She crouched closer, tracing one with her fingertips. "You were here," she whispered. "You all were."
The prints led deeper into the woods, toward the river that cut through the forest. She tightened her backpack and started following the trail, her body aching but her steps light with determination.
For the first time since she'd been alone, she smiled.
As the sun began to set, she found signs of a temporary camp — a ring of stones from a fire pit, the ashes still faintly warm. A few wrappers, one torn piece of cloth that looked like it belonged to one of BTS's jackets.
Her throat tightened.They were close — maybe hours ahead.
But then… she heard something.A low growl.
Her head snapped up.From the shadows between the trees, two infected staggered into view, their movements jerky, eyes white with decay.
Y/N didn't hesitate.She lunged forward, blade slicing across the first one's throat before it could even react. The second came faster, snarling — she ducked, drove her knife upward into its jaw, and twisted.
The forest fell silent again, except for her harsh breathing.She wiped her knife clean, adrenaline still pulsing through her veins.
"You're not stopping me," she muttered, staring down at the corpses. "Not now."
She looked at the bottle again, holding it close to her chest.It wasn't just a clue.It was a promise.
She'd find her brother.She'd find BTS and TXT.Whatever it took.
And for the first time, she felt something powerful stirring in her blood — something she didn't understand yet. The cuts she'd taken in the fight were already clotting. The ache in her arm from the bite felt… distant.
She didn't notice.She just kept walking — deeper into the forest, toward the faint hope that her family was still out there.