"We found a water orb not far from here during yesterday's scouting. Seonghwa suggested we take a detour to check it out. We can refill our bottles and wash off some of this grime," Mingi addressed the group in the morning while they packed their bags and stuffed their faces with lazy breakfast. Wooyoung was rattled from his nightmares, so he leaned against Yunho's shoulder with closed eyes. He groaned at the idea of also hauling a water orb from the sky, but thankfully, they had Yeosang and his muscles now.

"Sounds good," Yunho complied. He held Wooyoung with one arm, the other one fed him the occasional bite of food. It was just like him to sleep awfully when he was required to save energy, but San promised he could sleep in the car. They didn't expect many more fouls out here and if they showed up, Wooyoung would be wide awake to angle his rifle. 

"I could watch the car," Yunho offered and San smoothly accepted his suggestions now. 

"Then you stay here and the rest of us will go. The battery will be fine, right?" He asked towards Jongho and their mechanic threw him a thumbs up, something Seonghwa occasionally communicated when he agreed to something. They brought spare batteries along and some of them could be recharged with the tiny generator Jongho built under Seonghwa's guidance.

Wooyoung sluggishly pulled himself to his feet. Maybe he should have stayed and watched the car, but he probably would have fallen asleep. When Yunho patted his back to send him off, Wooyoung trudged along like a foul. He felt just as ghostly.

With Seonghwa in tow, they wandered between the dead trees. Mingi knew where to lead them and his coat swished behind him as he stepped across fallen logs. By his side, Jongho muttered to Seonghwa, so Wooyoung was stuck with a silent Yeosang. He didn't look as if he missed out on sleep, but he was tentative to bother the grumpy sharpshooter next to him. 

San had their ropes on his shoulder. They should be enough to bring down the orb.

This one hovered just above the trees and the surface was just as murky and grey as the others. It was smaller, probably a river that gathered up. As they set up Seonghwa in Jongho's lap and safe from the uneven ground, he affirmed the idea.

"Once it's down, most of the water will seep into the ground. It will make an odd sight if grass starts growing just in this area. But that is the first step in rejuvenating this planet. We all need water to strive."

"So once all of it is down..." Yeosang began, still foreign to what they were doing but working along when he was thrown a rope. He wrapped it around his fists, arms already bulging. Jealous, Wooyoung glanced between him and San. They didn't eat much better than Wooyoung, but he was the only scrawny one here.

"Life returns, yes. Everything will bloom and the animals will come back," Seonghwa shared the vision with him.

Awed, Yeosang nodded at Mingi. All ropes pulled taut, and they did exactly what they did back then in the shelter. Slowly at first, then faster, the orb rushed towards them. Again, Seonghwa proved his efficiency.

Their saviour had been right, and the water tried to escape as soon as it hit the cracked ground. Hastily, everyone dropped their ropes to dunk the bottles in. Their pants and shirts got wet and Wooyoung snickered when they screeched at the coldness like children, but they somehow made it. Soaked, they capped their bottles back shut and straightened their arching backs. San huffed.

"There you have your baths," Mingi commented dryly. He shook out his boots and returned to the edge. Fascinated, Wooyoung watched the water flee into the earth, sucked up so greedily.

Jongho handed Seonghwa to San once his hands were dry and hurried to slip out of his shoes to dip his toes in the disappearing puddles. He hummed as he washed off his hands and splashed some water on his nape, probably attracting insects, but it was refreshing. 

San was soaked, and his shirt clung even more to his skin than usual. Though Wooyoung had seen the same sight once, he was weak for it yet again. He was distracted staring at the swell of San's chest and the dips of his narrow waist, so he only noticed from his peripherals how Jongho waded back on dry land and tugged up the soaked legs of his pants to wring them out.

Nothing was wrong with it from Wooyoung's angle, but from Yeosang's, there was.

An alarmed noise had the rest of them grab for their weapons, but Yeosang was quickest. Yunho had equipped him with one of their spare guns and though he was no reliable shot, it sufficed for emergencies. Rifle in hand, Wooyoung whipped his head around. He gulped down a curse about being distracted by San's fucking body line and getting eaten in the progress.

Yeosang pointed his gun at something behind Jongho, so their mechanic froze. He was unarmed.

Wooyoung picked up his gun and aimed, but his scope detected no danger in the trees behind him. Confused, he glanced at Yeosang, but he was dead set on something the others couldn't perceive.

"Yeosang?" He asked. Mingi was just as bewildered, but their surgeon had paled. Whatever he saw terrified him.

Wooyoung opened his mouth to ask if he hadn't slept well and mistook the shadows for an enemy, when Yeosang gagged out his reply. His fingers trembled around the gun.

"Foul! You're a foul!" He pressed out, clicking down the security lock.

It wasn't San he was pointing the barrel at.

"Shit," Wooyoung gritted. His wide eyes met Jongho's comically round ones, very human and startled about what was going on.

Wooyoung hesitated with his gun pointed at him. If there was proof, he should shoot, no questions asked. It was safer for everyone involved. 

But he was looking at a friend. And somehow, sometime, it had become difficult to treat him as someone Wooyoung didn't care about.

Mingi was quicker in his resolution. His arm came for Yeosang just when he pulled the trigger and yanked his hands up in time that the shot sounded off into the air without hurting anyone. Quick hands wrung the gun from Yeosang's grip and he collapsed, trembling from shock. 

"Mingi," Wooyoung warned and his gun was poised, but it wouldn't fire until he heard something from Jongho. He was coherent enough to explain.

"Give us a second," San uttered to Seonghwa and stuffed him into his bag, battery still attached. The laptop's complaints about not seeing died down when he realized the severity of the situation. 

Wooyoung hoped they wouldn't have to shoot Jongho before Seonghwa could assess the situation. Fuck, he hoped they wouldn't have to shoot Jongho at all.

"He's dangerous!" Yeosang warned, scrambling to his feet when Mingi pocketed his gun and made straight for Jongho. His expression was scarily dark, making his partner recoil. Whatever was going on, Jongho was just as clueless.

"Let them do this," San intervened. He hovered a hand over Yeosang's heaving chest, keeping him at a safe distance while Mingi halted before Jongho. Wooyoung watched nervously, rifle ready in his hands to shoot away if Jongho suddenly turned on them and tried to rip out Mingi's jugular with his teeth.

It wouldn't be the first time the fungus turned a friend into a raging beast.

"Sit," Mingi roared under his hat and Jongho just stared.

"W-what?" Overwhelmed and terrified, he was stuck in his position as if they might overlook him that way. But Mingi was ruthless as he pressed his hand on Jongho's shoulder, forcing him down. 

"Sit," he repeated with the threat audible in his low drawl. Jongho's knees weakened, and he sunk onto the ground. He didn't try to defend himself, just locked up again as Mingi knelt by his bare feet. His gloved hands shoved up the pant of Jongho's leg as if he knew what to search for and it dawned on Wooyoung.

It was the same leg that got bitten by that coyote all those weeks ago.

The leg that was supposed to be fine now.

"Shit. I knew it," Mingi uttered as he turned Jongho's knee to access his calf. The scar healed over, but the splotches of colour that formed around it weren't supposed to be there. They were unmistakable. 

San made a step forward, his eye filled with dread.

"It takes a while to show on the skin after entering the bloodstream," Mingi uttered. A moment later, he yanked his hat off and threw it on the ground. His fiery hair was wild when he packed Jongho by his shoulders to shake him.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" He hollered. Like a rag doll, Jongho was jostled about. He lost all sense at the revelation, as shocked as the rest of them. 

Wooyoung let the gun sink. He felt as if shot in the chest and it hurt almost as bad as when he lost Yunho. Their leader was pale as a wipe.

Mingi let go of Jongho's quivering frame and panted off to the side. His features were contorted with anger.

With a tentative step away from Yeosang, San beckoned at the rotting leg.

"We have time. It took weeks to show on his skin and it might take another month to reach his nerve center. You are reasonable for wanting to shoot him, but..." 

"Not yet," Wooyoung uttered. He slung the rifle on his back.

No one was dying today. Even though it felt as if he already did. Agony wrenched through Wooyoung's heart. 

No one was safe. No one.

Mingi tried to contain his anger while Jongho tentatively reached for the pant of his leg. He pulled it further up and his lip wobbled when he looked at the green and yellow splotches of the growing fungus.

"W-will I die?" He whispered, so quiet Wooyoung could barely hear him.

Mingi sat in silence, defeated, since there was nothing he could do. Only his jaw flexed as he held back his scream of anguish.

"I- I didn't check it since I was walking fine, but-" Jongho continued, voice breaking when his tears quelled over. The pain in Wooyoung's chest brought him closer. As long as they didn't touch Jongho's blood, the spores were sealed inside of him. 

"I'm so sorry, Jongho," Wooyoung whispered, crouching without touching him. These spots were so tame compared to San's. They crawled up the back of his leg, unassuming and easily mistaken as healing bruises by anyone else. They had no aggressive colours, didn't reach to his chest or face.

But they brought an awful, creeping death.

"Cut it off," Jongho cried, clawing at his skin until his nails left red marks. "I don't want to die; cut it off!"

Mingi's throat bobbed. He didn't say anything and didn't move when San also came to their side. Confident, since the fungus no longer accepted him as a living body to cling to, he released Jongho's hands before he would draw out the infection while near them.

"You need to calm down. Let's check how far it already spread and ask Seonghwa if we can slow down the process. We won't cut anything off until we know if that still helps."

Wooyoung looked at the ground. Enough time had passed and the fungus definitely wasn't just in Jongho's leg anymore. Amputation was no longer an option, but it could have saved him if he and Mingi hadn't decided Jongho would be fine back in the shelter. San knew it was too late, but Jongho needed to hear anything that didn't make the past weeks of his life void.

This guilt would haunt them forever.

Yeosang stood in shock, so Wooyoung jerked his chin at him.

"Go tell Yunho what happened. He will wonder about the shots."

"I'm so sorry," Yeosang choked out, but San shook his head.

"You tried to protect us. Go."

Yeosang scurried off with glistening eyes, and the rest of them remained. Seonghwa stayed quiet while they comforted Jongho with the few words of solace they had. He scoured all his databases, but there was no imminent cure even if he fixed the skies. They needed the very antidote San had received, but there was no second of it.

Defeated, Wooyoung ran his hand through his hair. He so desperately wished they could figure this out like anything else, but Jongho's every sob yanked at his heart.

They all knew. They could draw the end out and could assure him, but they all knew.

And Wooyoung felt even worse.

If Jongho died, it was his fault. If he hadn't been so stubborn about not joining the team, Jongho wouldn't have followed him through the desert and got bit by that infested coyote. 

They were fools to believe he would have gotten away without an infection.