The return to base was uneventful: Eunji had asked Ken if he could tap into the movements of the other squads and track them so that she coudl avoid running into any aliens, and it seemed that he could. His eyes took on a strange blue glow when he was connected to the main interface, but after the initial surprise, Eunji didn't mind the abnormality as it kept them out of trouble.

The ERF base was tucked into the basement floor of what was once a retail inventory warehouse; rows and rows of toys and movies and other inconsequential things were stacked in their boxes on the shelves that adorned the ground floor. All clothing and other usable things had long since been taken. The basement had been raided, too, but once the ERF moved in, they had removed most of the metal shelves and put them in the ground floor, where they simply joined the maze of shadows and cobwebs.

The door to the stairwell was hidden at the back, through the maze, so as to confuse anyone who was not meant to be there. Eunji wound her way through, Ken following silently at the heels; only when they reached the door did she look at him and realize that he was still connected, his glowing eyes looking back at her from the gloom around them.

". Disconnect," she ordered, and immediately his eyes stopped their glow and returned to their dark color. "Don't connect unless I tell you to, alright?"

"Under- yeah." He caught himself mid-word and she nodded in satisfaction. 

Opening the door, she made her way down one small flight of stairs to a large landing, where two sentries sat on camp chairs and played a hand of cards. "Hi Eunji," the thinner of the two greeted, smiling up at her with a toothy smile that gave away his young age. 

"Hey Hyuk," she responded, reaching out to ruffle his hair and drawing a grunt of consternation from him as he tried to put the unruly locks back into place.

The other sentry, a dusky-skinned man named Hakyeon, looked over Eunji's shoulder with a guarded expression on his small face. "Who's this?" he asked quietly, one hand dropping from his cards as if to reach toward his weapon.

It wasn't easy to trust anyone, Eunji knew that, but she shrugged off his concern and waved a hand at Ken. "This is Ken, he was a childhood friend," she lied, unwilling to share her find with just anyone. Ken's eyes looked at her when she said it, but luckily he hadn't yet mastered human emotion and he didn't show any outward sign of his confusion as she continued. "I found him during my shift."

Hakyeon's round eyes narrowed, as if he could tell that she wasn't being forthcoming, but as he opened his mouth to ask more questions, Hyuk interrupted. "Where are the others? Wonshik and Bomi?"

Eunji's face dropped - she didn't have to act in that. "They didn't make it," she said softly, and both sentires nodded sharply in understanding. It was part of the risk of being a rebel, they all kknew that, but it didn't stop the loss from stinging. "I need to report," she added, and before Hakyeon could question her more, she moved past them with Ken in tow.

He caught up to her when they reached the door at the bottom of the second flight of stairs, catching her wrist to stop her. "I am your friend?" he asked, and since she had been expecting him to ask about her loss, the qustion took her by surprise.

"Um