Jongho's addition to their traveling group posed little difference from before. Essentially, their peculiar stranger now walked along with San's and Wooyoung's pace instead of creeping behind them at a distance. He was persistent, Wooyoung had to give him that. No matter the glares and scoffs he received from Wooyoung, he was firmly locked in his new position, eyes sparkling at Wooyoung.

While San scouted out the path to the cliffs, Wooyoung tried his luck at digging more information from the madman.

"How did you say you know about me?" He dismissed it last time, barely listened. Now, he was just as disinterested in a deal, but he spent enough time with Jongho to ponder his motives. And to find a method to avoid a similar situation next time.

Jongho lit up at the question. Though his shoulders were burly under the tight stretch of his dark shirt and his vest hung open to further accentuate his broadness, Wooyoung could tell his eyes were younger than his. More hopeful. More naïve. Eyes that hadn't seen the worst of survival yet.

Compared to him, Wooyoung felt ancient, marred from loss and pain.

"Your name crossed the desert at lightning speed! The water gatherers and traders witnessed your aim and they know to avoid the one with the raven hair. I came to confirm their words myself and I saw how you and your other companion worked. It was a marvel. I'd find no mercenaries like you two. Well, perhaps three. He seems to know what he does. But isn't he sick?" Jongho ended with a glance at San.

Wooyoung shrugged. It wasn't his place to tell.

"You seem like a maniac, approaching someone others warned you about."

The smile that dashed over Jongho's lips was fleeting, but it reminded Wooyoung painfully of Yunho. So youthful and full of warmth. Whenever Yunho smiled, he became a goofy idiot whom Wooyoung needed to protect at all cost. Until he didn't smile anymore and his skill with his knife became as lethal as Wooyoung's aim.

"I'm in no position to make demands. Any day without action is wasted and I don't know how much longer I can upkeep the secret. The sooner I act, the better, so I sought you out. Had I known my presence might save your companion, I would have contacted you sooner..."

Though it was creepy how long he silently spied on Wooyoung and Yunho, Wooyoung took the compliment. He, too, would have done things differently if he could turn back time. He would make sure he would be the one dying, never his precious Yunho.

"The secret?" San asked as he slowed down to match their pace. Intrigue glinted in his eye and from this angle, the one hidden behind his hair seemed to glow almost yellow in its shadow.

"Yes. My cure. The cure. To everything."

"To becoming a foul?" San followed up, suddenly invested. Perhaps he was the better match for Jongho's project. Jongho got protection and San the cure he sought for his community.

Wincing, Jongho swayed his head left and right.

"By extent. The fouls are a byproduct of our climate crisis. If we resolve it, the fungus also dies, since it finds no more hosts."

"The fuck," Wooyoung muttered. "You found a book? You sound like a book." Just as pretentious, just as utopian. Useless glimmering lies to spark enough hope to keep humanity living, even when their time on this planet was long since over.

Instead of being insulted, Jongho stretched his shoulders.

"Something much better. Few of us know why the world is how it is since all the records got destroyed in the holocaust but I can answer all of your questions."

"Sounds like you found some good pills," Wooyoung scoffed, but San mulled Jongho's claim.

"Or an ancient artefact from a time before the world succumbed to human frenzy."

"That's more like it," Jongho beamed and Wooyoung didn't believe him a single word, but he didn't have to. If those two cozied up, he'd be rid of both of them. Then he could spend time to mourn Yunho and find a new purpose. Should he return to their village? Not much of it was left, but it carried memories. He could build a grave.

"I could show you if you are interested," Jongho eagerly continued before they lost interest. "If we steer west from here, my shelter isn't far. You could drop in for a while and then-"

"No," Wooyoung interrupted him. He adjusted his duffle and glanced down to check if his guns were in place.

"We are busy surviving. At least I am. I can only be jealous of your ability to fool around, but as you know, I lost my partner despite my abilities. This is no playground."

Jongho's head drooped. The snide words cut where it hurt and Wooyoung huffed as he stalked ahead. He hoped this time, Jongho would back down.

San didn't take a side. He was as much a raider as Wooyoung, although he seemed curious about the promise of a safe place. In that regard, Jongho seemed harmless. Perhaps even an easy pawn to make use of, but Wooyoung had no interest in that. He only wanted Yunho back. The days overshadowed by the clouds overhead seemed to have become even more dreary.

They made it through the day in relative harmony. Jongho tried a couple of times to rouse their intrigue and steer them in the direction he desired, but Wooyoung stubbornly marched ahead. After a few breaks, Jongho gave it up. He risked his stance as a welcomed group member if he kept getting on Wooyoung's nerves.

They lingered behind some rocks to watch a nearby group of water gatherers pass by when a much more aggressive predator took notice of them. While they made sure no one spotted them and regarded them as a threat, the loitering coyotes between the rocks had become mad with hunger. Their eyes were crazed and reddened, drool slobbering over their maws as they pranced closer with the ribs protruding from their skins. A whole pack of them, almost a dozen. Wooyoung rarely encountered this many of them at once and their number made them confident.

"Shit," Wooyoung hissed as his hand found his knife. He lifted it before his body, backing away. The coyotes surrounded them and San's shoulder pressed against Wooyoung's when he matched their formation. Jongho had lifted his knife as well, but he looked less secure in its use. Mechanics weren't the best fighters.

Wooyoung crouched in attack position to get the head start. With some luck, a fearless retaliation would scare the rest of the pack away.

San flicked his knife around so it pointed to the ground. He levered his knees as well.

The coyotes charged, sharp teeth flashing like their own blades. Their paws whirled through the sand as they mobilized every might left in their starving bodies.

Wooyoung met the first one with a block of his arms, shoving the maw off before the teeth could catch onto his jacket. He booted the animal aside and sunk the knife into its flank as soon as it flung away. With no second to ponder his mark, he was back up to charge the next one.

By his side, San fought like the devil. His kicks made bones crunch with a force that seemed not entirely human, but Wooyoung had no time to ask. His unexpected ally could take care of himself.

Jongho wasn't as skilled. The sand slowed him and tumbled him from his balance. Though he successfully kept the coyotes at bay, it was only a matter of time until they dashed past his clumsy defenses.

Wooyoung tried to be fast enough to kill them all before that happened. There was no point in lugging him along to have him die now.

The coyotes were too greedy for a meal to back off. As soon as their first fell, the others leaped in to overwhelm their prey at once. Wooyoung lost sight of his companions as he fought off the teeth grazing his skin and ripping a hole into his pants. Blood made his knife sticky as he burrowed it in yet another warm body. These coyotes were barely skin and bone but at least they would have something to gnaw on in the evening.

Sweat pearled on the back of Wooyoung's neck. The air was hot and dry from the storm and his clothes seemed stifling on his skin. He breathed a sigh of relief when the last coyote in his sight made for San instead of him.

His joy was short-lived. Just as San wrought down his last opponent and granted it a merciful death, a howl echoed through the desert. Too human to be another pack coming for reinforcements.

Wooyoung whirled around, wiping his knife on his pants in the movement. Jongho had gone down and protected his face with his arms as a coyote had buried its teeth in his calf, trying to haul him along. He was too weighty for the trembling animal, but he flailed in pain when the bite dug deeper.

"Kick it off!" Wooyoung yelled as he came after them. He didn't think as he dawned on the animal. Jongho was too overwhelmed and scared to kick at it, but Wooyoung hauled it along without hesitation. A yelp drowned behind him as Jongho clutched his bleeding leg. For another strained second, Wooyoung wrestled down the snapping teeth, then his knife silenced the scuffle in the desert. The coyotes lay strewn around them, peaceful in death.

Wooyoung got up and wiped his knife yet again. San already kneeled by Jongho's side when he came jogging over.

"Th-thank-" Jongho's stutter of gratitude was drowned in another wail when San shoved up his pants, laying the wound bare. It didn't seem to have ripped any relevant tendons, but it was deep and an easy breeding ground for infection.

Wooyoung crouched and dug his disinfecting gel from his bag while San sacrificed a wipe to clean up the blood. Tears brimmed in Jongho's eyes as he held on to his thigh with cramped fingers. His nose and cheeks were pale.

"Fucking mutts," Wooyoung uttered as they cleaned the wound. They used the ruined leftovers of Jongho's pant leg as a bandage.

"It might get infected," San stated, matter of fact where Jongho was too busy gritting his jaw to think. The corpses and his wails attracted enough attention already.

Jongho got even whiter.

"He can't come along in this state," Wooyoung argued when Jongho tried to stand and balanced pitifully on one leg. His hand clutched to San's arm, supporting himself.

San glanced around the desert. Greedy eyes gathered on their spot.

"Neither can he stay here."

Jongho whimpered, terrified about losing the leg if it wasn't tended to properly. Wooyoung wouldn't trust him with doing it himself.

"If..." He began, voice brittle. "If you could bring me to my shelter, I could rest there. Please, you don't need to stay. I have someone to take care of me, and I'd be safe."

San and Wooyoung exchanged a gaze. Wooyoung hated how his heart stuttered at its intensity, how he for the first time developed a curiosity for checking San for injuries.

Wooyoung nodded slowly. All of them could use a moment of safety and he felt responsible for Jongho now that they invited him in. He couldn't ditch him here to be found by other animals.

"Fine. Lead us to your shelter. We'll bring you there and be gone. Take this as your lesson not to come after raiders. You aren't fit for this life."

Though he hung his head, Jongho nodded. His pain had him lenient as he slung an arm around Wooyoung's and San's shoulders each. He hopped along when they shuffled in the direction he nodded them at.

"Thank you," he whispered through his agony. Wooyoung brushed it off. Though he was bothered by Jongho's presence more often than not, he wouldn't let a good life go to waste. Not that Jongho was any fit for this world with his illusions and dreams, but that was his part to figure out. Wooyoung was only involved as far as dragging him towards the cliffs went. As soon as Jongho proclaimed to be safe, Wooyoung could leave him behind and be gone. With that leg, Jongho wouldn't bother him again for long enough until Wooyoung dipped.