Rivka was walking down the hallway of the hospital. Just walking. No destination in mind. The place was cramped, especially with so many people. If they were in a group, they didnât look very big, but crammed into one room, there were more of them than expected. As Rivka walked, a hand on her holstered handgun, she heard footsteps behind her. She slowed down to see if theyâd pass her, but they didnât. As soon as the hand went for her shoulder, she spun around breaking their grip on her. âWhat the hell are you doing?â She furrowed her eyebrows. âDo not try that again.â
Tonightâs dessert was hot chocolate. Or warm chocolate. Alright, it was already cold now that Taeil brought the remaining cups on the tray as he looked for people who might do the bittersweet beverage a better justice in their desperate craving for consolation. It was a time of need for everyone, a mourning moment â and the South Korean strongly believed at least one or two people here could use some company of the comfort drink.
It was when he caught a glimpse of chestnut strands, walking through the whispering crowd as if their recent loss had not affected her by the slightest. Who knew, though â it was usually the ones with the strongest facade that hid the most irreparable broken hearts. Taeil didnât mean to sneak his way to the lady; it was his normal style of walking, or maybe he was simply a person with such thin shadow that he could go practically invisible at times. He wanted to call her name, and yet he didnât even remember ever talking to the brunette. So he thought it was only natural that he greeted her with a light touch on the shoulder â which apparently, turned out to be an overly tight grab.
âCareful!â he tried to warn her as she spun around abruptly, but it was too late. Every single piece of paper glass he had in hand was already tossed all over the place, leaving trails of dark mess on his shirt and the dusty hospital floor. What was even worse, the woman didnât stop before yelling at him, making sure that he regretted his pure intention.
âRest in peace, Little Sweety,â Taeil tried to ignore the complaints and wiped the wet tiles with the tip of his already-dirty pajamaâs sleeve, instead. He was grateful enough the liquid was no longer burning that it didnât hurt either of them. With the passing of their member being very fresh in their mind, it was understandable for some to be jumpier than the rest of the community and the boy knew he had to respect that.
The deafening blast of the gunshot seemed to be the highlight of everybodyâs day at this point. Even Taeil, the one person in their community who always tried his best not to get entangled in othersâ hair, was unexpectedly attracted to the dreadful noise. Words and whispers were quickly spreading like an infection that it didnât take him long to figure the name of the deceased. It was Charlotte, a female scientist in her late twenties, whose brown hair turned out to be her most distinctive feature. From his lengthy stay within the group, Taeil got to know quite a few brunettes. Which one of them fell victim to the silver bullet, however, he was still about to find out.
When the South Korean finally stepped out of the cafeteria, a line of crowd was already swarming the corridor. Some were seen to be gossiping at their doors, some were busy comforting their friends, while the rest appeared to be slithering toward a certain direction leading to their main infirmary in the abandoned medical center. Being the curious cat that he was, Taeil simply tailed behind the mob that gathered before the entrance to the room where the bang had been firstly heard. Trapped in his relatively small body, it wasnât very difficult for the boy to squeeze himself among those with bigger built to reach the window that displayed the clearest view of what was currently going on in the crime scene.
Crouching a bit to get a better vision of the live broadcast, Taeil saw a glimpse of familiar golden locks. It was the blonde whose name he could never remember, the one he had once worked with at the hall just before the disastrous bombing. Her hysterical cry was loud enough for everyone to notice, the shock in her voice she couldnât hide. He could sense a few people backed away from the glass and further away to completely different areas â nurse station, the wards, the pharmacy, you name it. The action was completely understandable, though â the sight of the shaken woman going frantic in there was, indeed, quite too painful to endure.
But Taeil was still curious. He was yet to see who this Charlotte was. What if he happened to owe her his life without knowing it? What if he still owed her a gratitude or even an apology and now he was too late? He, too, deserved his own closure.
Little did he know just how much he was going to regret his persistence.
By the time Taeil got a fair peek of the brunetteâs look, he couldnât even begin to fathom the sudden crazy churning sensation in his stomach.
           The poor girlâs skull was...
                                ...c r a c k e d  o p e n.
Unfortunately for the teenager, it was such a familiar view â an all too familiar view that hit too close to home. The image managed to push all the wrong buttons in the back of his mind, resurfacing a nightmare so deep he thought he was going to faint from the abrupt revival. His legs turned into noodles he could barely stand up anymore, the sinking feeling in his gut was as if his digestive track had been chopped up and mixed in a blender. Before he even knew it, Taeil already found himself kneeling at a dirty toilet, coughing and gagging his throat up to no avail. Nothing came out â obviously because nothing much had ever come in anyway.
He barely knew her and the sight of her mushy brain splattered all over the place had already driven him insane.
He barely spoke to her apart from a brief exchange of courtesy and the sight of her entrance wound already invigorated a dream he desperately wished to forget.
A trail of warm liquid flew down his cheeks as he started breathing in jagged gasps. He didnât want to remember, he didnât have to remember.
It was too late.
He remembered.
Was it how they all would die in the end? A bullet to the head? A death so crude you wouldnât even get to go in one piece?
He didnât know. Those questions werenât his to answer.
Gentle fingers ran across soft rosy cheeks, blue hues lost in the small creature that rested in the bed. Never she would have thought of herself as a mother. But the amount of care and protection sheâd given the child made it clear she loved her unconditionally. Adaâs knowledge on children was fairly limited, though she always tried her best to tend the child.Â
This wasnât the life she envisioned herself to have, but fate had been hard on her, though the outcome of her unwanted pregnancy hadnât been that bad. But there was still the uncertainty, the quality of life sheâd given her own child. The world they lived in was a grenade waiting to explode. Where sheâd given birth was just a glimpse of it, an exposed barn while their previous home burned down.Â
Ada could dream that the place they found would be their last home, but she knew better than to think safety was still a thing. It wasnât, not anymore. They would be safe, yes, but the clocked ticked with each passing day. What if they were bombed again? What if they would perish right there?
It was the reason Ada refused to call this place home. The reason little to no things were unpacked. The room sheâd claimed reeked of disinfectant, white walls and cold tile only adorned by the already existing beds and a small crib taken from the childrenâs ward. A few supplies spread across the nearest table, that would at least last them a for few months. For now, they were in paradise but Ada knew better than to rest on it.Â
Wails woke her up from her thoughts. It was then that Ada took the child in her arms and tried to shush the fussy newborn. It only took a few seconds for her to go quiet under her touch. âDid you had a bad dream?â she gently asked, as if the newborn was capable of understanding her. âI know, I have them too. Itâs okay, theyâre not real.â A moment of peace was welcomed in, as pristine blue eyes stared out of the window, taking in what used to be their world. Only the skies seemed to remain intact, if only everything was as pure. But the peace, it didnât last long. The moment she heard a slight movement behind her, Ada turned around to face the intruder.Â
It was in the middle of the daunting night that Taeil could start to identify everyoneâs sleeping habit. The stoic looking citizens with their alcohol and cigarettes were the usual last people standing when it came to bedtime. Back in Fall City, it wasnât very rare for the South Korean to stumble across fellow insomniacs whenever he decided to leave the safety of his house for a stroll. Judging from the shadows clustering around the nurse station or standing on guard by their doors, it seemed to him that the routine wouldnât change just yet anytime soon.
Compared to the familiarity of their previous haven, however, this hospital was way creepier for Taeil to gather the courage he needed if he wanted to walk around in the darkness unarmed. His last experience with Diana in the basement had proven to be far from pleasant and he was sure as hell not going to reenact the nightmarish memory by himself now. It wasnât the pitch black that he found exactly unnerving, to be honest â it was the endless possibility of what might jump at him on every corner. Unlike the wide pavement of the suburb, the corridors in this medical center provided only little to zero space for escape if it came down to worst case scenario â and Taeil just couldnât help feeling quite uncomfortable with such inconvenience.
When the cry of the baby began to echo throughout his side of the ward, the not-so-sleepy boy practically jumped out of his seat, the forensic guideline book he had been reading despite the low visibility to help him tire himself out was tossed across his room. He could feel a few chuckle over his shoulder at his overreaction, but managed to quickly brush off the mockery. The wailing sounded near and heâd be damned if he decided to do nothing about it, not even trying to locate the source of his mini heart attack.
So with all the bravery he could muster, Taeil stood up and tried to approach the chamber where the voice came from. It barely took him five minutes to figure it out as a recognizable face of a certain brunette greeted him in an almost unreadable expression. âAh, Iâm sorry, I didnât mean to bother you. Iâ I was just wondering whoâ Never mind, I shouldâve known it was you,â Taeil anxiously scratched the nape of his neck as he kept on stuttering. âIs sheâ is she okay, though? Is there anything I can do to help you put her back to sleep?â
But of course, playing some lullaby was out of question â he had no guitar in his possession at the moment, let alone a well-tuned violin. His voice was far too broken to make him an emergency singer and it wasnât like everyone would appreciate the additional noises that could potentially wake them up for good.
Bite back. Ivyâs mouth was open as she fired the gun, trying not to be deafened by the sounds of the corridors. Even though her gun was loud, they were louder. Their stupid clicking sounds, the crying of the baby; the bombs. Ivy was blind at reality for this long, living in Fall City. This world outside, it wasnât made for her. But sheâd try her hardest, thatâs what she wanted to do. She couldnât see what a good survivor she was. She followed Loganâs orders and kept Ada safe. The dogs guided her, Becca and Ada and then â- for a second she lost her way just to be found by Taeil.
   Taeil was talking. What did he just say? Her heart was like a drum.
   3, 2, 1. Ivy aimed at one of them before the adults that helped Taeil closed one door and asked for silence. The teen looked at the guy who used to go to school with her and hesitated. Was it him? Was he â-?
   Old Ivy would have hugged him but she didnât.
  â I cut my leg with some glass. â
With the help from several adults who were kind enough to hold their fire and leave their posts to ensure the longevity of their young generation, the two teenagers were now residing inside a small room that looked like a former examination chamber. There were loud bangs created by the mixture of the countless gunshots beyond their walls and the adultsâ attempt on barricading the entrance by dropping empty cupboards and dragging tables, when suddenly, Ivyâs soft voice broke the white noise for the South Korean.
She cut her leg with some glass.
The statement got him panicked â in the middle of this pressing urgency, every little thing got him panicked. Taeil had no problem with blood, no problem at all â it was purely the timing that made it so hard to focus on the task at hand. Without even checking the wound, the young boy reached into his backpack to grab a small plastic container where he kept all his emergency first aid supplies.
âHere, can this fix that?â Taeil handed her a heart-patterned patch to cover what he thought was supposed to be a scratch. âUh... Please donât mind the design. These were the only ones I could salvage before Fall City was officially wiped off the map,â he unintenionally bit his bottom lip in nervousness as he tore the paper encasing the band.
When the bowl was pressed into her hands, it was impossible to refuse. It was why when she was skipping meals she was away from the hall itself, making herself busy elsewhere. Her guilt reigned supreme most of the time, guilt for this world, guilt for dwindling supplies, guilt for the runners putting themselves in harmâs way. The soup warmed her hands, and she nodded following him to where he sat. Her hands were shaking, she realized and carefully made herself steady them. In the city, skipping meals had never been an issue. She had deluded herself into thinking that she was safe.
Outside the city, it had taken a toll on her already frail body. Precious calories were used running and burned from adrenaline and staying awake. Here, in the hospital, graced with a cold sponge bath she was able to survey the damage that was left on her body. Underweight, the skin stretch over the bones. Spring was upon them, and all too soon the truth would be brought to the surface that she was underweight and not in a healthy way. Allowing a few spoonfuls to be swallowed, she was never one to really not talk business. Not with something this important.
âI was rooting around the hospital, as one does, and I found some electrical stuff. Back up generator that seems to be powered by the fans on the roof. I know just enough about that to be dangerous, but you know a lot. Do you think you could take a look at it?â Power, even for a few minutes, would raise the morale by so much. It would give them access to the medical equipment she neededâmicroscopes and scanners, computers. It could improve their life by so much. Right now, the boiler was being worked and transformed into an old fashioned one that heated water through fire and then pumped it to the showers in the locker rooms.
The blonde finally allowing herself a few spoonfuls of her share of lunch was actually a better scene to watch than her pretending not to be tempted by the smell of the food a moment ago. The soup was far from ideal despite the richness of the ingredients they had going in the pot, but it was surely tastier than their usual diluted instant food. Taeil himself had already finished his cup when Aiden stated her request, he just hoped the woman wouldnât stop halfway now out of hesitancy.
âReally? Boy, if we can get that shit up and running, this antibiotic-smelling foxhole wonât seem like a bad idea anymore,â his eyes, his tone, the warm smile on his face â all gleamed with excitement from the brand new information. Last time heâd had to fix a generator, Taeil needed othersâ hands to help with the process â but that had been mainly due to the rain and the gravity of their action that eventually had required him and his friends to work faster in team. Now that they were safe and sound â and dry, most importantly â under the protection of the hospital walls, the South Korean was pretty confident he could man the reparation by himself just fine.
âLucky for you, I managed to escape the fall of our city with all of my basic equipment,â Taeil reached out to the one backpack he always kept close wherever he went and proudly showed off his full toolbox to the former council member. âLetâs pray we wonât need anything complicated, though â generators can be quite tricky sometimes. You can take me straight to this beauty once youâre done eating.â
âYou can call it whatever you like, man, all I know is, you should probably shut up before I hurt you.â His words were angry, and the frightening thing was that he meant every syllable, every word he uttered was dripping with honesty. âIf you want a tampon you can shove it right up your ass, Taeil.â He added, rolling his eyes at the comment on taking his own advice.
Of all the brief moment the two men had ever shared together, this was the first time Taeil had ever witnessed Andyâs eyes gleaming with rage. It was like a wake up call that his attempt on joke had already gone too far that he seemed to push the blonde over the edge.
âOkay, okay. Youâre right, I should stop. Iâm sorry,â Taeil raised both hands, gesturing a white flag. âIn all seriousness, though, please relax. Us brawling right now isnât going to help your wound â if anything, some of these people will certainly not appreciate the ruckus created the moment you lay your hand on me â and probably even make the injury worse in the end. That meat, though, the protein â itâs the real deal. You need that, to boost your tissue repair. Iâll step off your way once you finish it, promise.â
Everyone she cared about was safe and the relief had flown off her shoulders into another dimension or some shite. She didnât have a preference for where the feeling went as long as it didnât return and she could combat it with something else: an adventure. Axel would have probably joined her on this excursion, though she saw how busy he was with checking out the hospital. So she had chosen her newest comrade, tapping him on the shoulder and telling him to meet her near the basement within ten minutes and to bring a flashlight from the supply closet. She enjoyed a good scare and every horror movie began with visiting the lowest floor of a building. She doubted she would find anything terrifying for the hospital was swept to and fro, but she would find out shortly enough.
Diana was tired of feeling weak, of having to lie down because of her fall from the lookout tower. She knew she would have to be careful for the next couple of weeks, though the worst was over. She didnât have a seizure. She didnât forget any important information. What did plague her were sharp headaches or achy muscles. Taeil had done a good job keeping her from harm, always guiding her around, taking it slow if she needed to rest. She owed him a lot.
What better way to offer a thank you than by flashing her portable lamp on and off in his face while a giggle escaped her lips. Taeil didnât find it as funny and Diana groaned as she flicked it on completely. âNo fun, Taeil. No fun at all. Weâre on a journey and we need to set the mood.â She wasnât offended by his words; instead a smile lingered and Taeil seemed to react to her playfulness. Her eyes shifted to the stairway seeing only a wave of shadows. It was a film set in the most stereotypical form and her heart beat with eagerness.
Making friends had never been Taeilâs strong suit, and now that he somehow got the ball rolling, it was with a person whose idea of fun and humor turned out to be an enigma to the introvert. Not that he was complaining, though. He never said he hated surprises, after all â he was just not 100% okay being in the receiving side when it came to the ordeal. The South Korean enjoyed having full control over the things he was supposed to handle, so when he finally figured this unpredictable side of his newfound brunette buddy, Taeil had to admit it wasnât exactly the kind of situation that he deemed convenient.
âWhat do you expect to find here anyway? Why are you so excited about this...expedition?â he asked without even bothering to meet her gaze over his shoulder. Hell, he was leading their way down the unfamiliar stairs â in pitch darkness, no less. It was practically impossible to not trip and roll into black â maybe even literally break a leg in the process â unless he paid complete attention to every step he was about to take.
When the pair eventually reached the bottom, Taeil couldnât believe how long the trip alone had already cost them. It was a case of âbetter safe than sorryâ, however, so Diana would better not start an unnecessary argument over it now â otherwise, he might as well abort the mission and bail in one piece before he hurt himself even further, physically and mentally. From what his slanted eyes had observed this far, the basement in front of them consisted of one main corridor with several smaller branches. âWhere should we go next, Mâlady? Pick carefully, because our destiny from here on out is going to be tailored by your choices,â he bowed slightly in a lousy attempt to make an impression of a gentleman butler and began flashing his light between the halls to show her the available options.
âAnd if my answer is yes, what can I really do about it?â the question got him raising his tone â although he was still far from angry, the teenager couldnât hide the fact that he was slightly provoked. The thought of him eventually being a dead weight to everyone was not exactly pleasant he found it hard to appreciate any trigger leading back to the idea â even if the words were only meant to be an icebreaker; a catalyst toward some more profound conversation.
âI genuinely donât think thatâs the case with these people. I can sense the sincerity in the way they act, the way they speak⊠Thereâs a lot of it, I tell you. And when people treat you with such compassion, you listen, you have faith in what they have to say to you, what they have to say about you. By far, no one has ever mentioned anything about looking down at me, at least not straight to my face or anywhere near my line of sight. So thatâs what I choose to believe â that they see me as an equal.â
To be completely honest, the concept of joy was something Taeil had long forgotten under his circumstances. All he could ever focus on now was his survival â everything else only seemed to fade into the background when viability had taken over the big picture.
âWell, happy is a strong word, and itâs not exactly the term Iâd use to describe how I generally feel these days. I mean, does it even matter anymore?â the boy chuckled, bitterly â the emotion that was supposed to support the expression just couldnât reach his distant gaze. âCompared to some others, though, guess you can say Iâm doing relatively fine in the holding-up department. And I have to admit... Iâm quite grateful about it.â
âThatâs because youâre a teenager and most of what comes out of your mouth is whining, so I tend to block that out, I dealt with that enough when I was a teenager, I donât care for your whining. And while barbecue sounds great, you make an awful Effie.â
âOh, so youâre saying because youâre the adult, what youâre doing right now doesnât count as âwhiningâ? What shall we name it, then? âBitchingâ? Maybe you should even try to trade your bandage for a tampon, because Man, do you sound like a girl on their period,â Taeil flashed a coy smile before handing a skewer full of chopped rabbit meat to the other male. âThereâs enough tension in the air as it is, so relax. Jeez, you really need to learn to take your own advice at some point.â
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2087
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