Joonmyeon glanced up from his puzzle at the unexpected click of his door unlocking. Nothing happened, yet he could hear the door sliding open and closed. The sound of bare feet on the stone floor approached his bed, and the bed bounced a little, springs squeaking as something warm settled in his lap. Joonmyeon didn’t move through all of this, careful not to reveal his visitor’s presence to the guards watching through the security camera. Instead, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling the water vapor that hung in the air. His fingers twitched slightly as he worked, repositioning each droplet until they formed an invisible shield of sound-absorbing fog between the bed and camera.

He opened his eyes when the sound shield was finished surrounding them. “They can’t hear us,” he murmured, barely moving his lips. “Are you done with the veil?”

“As long as you stay on the bed,” a disembodied voice said from his lap, “the only thing the creepers will see is you losing a hopeless battle with a sheet of colored cardboard.”

Glowing motes of light misted into the air around him as Baekhyun shimmered into view, his head in his lap, wearing the most ridiculous pair of pajamas Joonmyeon had ever seen.

“Why are you dressed like a e?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “No-one can see me but you.”

Joonmyeon plucked at the glittery pink cartoon in the middle of Baekhyun’s shirt. “Who’s daughter is missing a birthday gift?”

“One of the number munchers on L1. The lazy fart is lucky I happened by before one of the patrols noticed his office was unlocked. He would’ve gotten fired.”

“Your altruism knows no bounds,” Joonmyeon said drily, picking up a puzzle piece from the pile on his bed.

Baekhyun stretched out his shirt, admiring the sparkles. “Phoenix blew up his prison.”

The puzzle piece clattered back to the pile. “What?!” Joonmyeon levered Baekhyun upright, holding his shoulders. “What happened?”

“The only people who know for sure aren’t talking because their faces were melted off!” Baekhyun pulled at his skin in a grotesque imitation.

“Be serious. Why would Phoenix do that? ”

“Because he’s awesome,” Baekhyun chuckled.

“Baek!” Joonmyeon said sharply, and Baekhyun sighed in exasperation.

“It was obviously another militia -up, but the old man is pretending not to know so he can keep his hands in their deep pockets.” He brushed Joonmyeon’s hands off of his shoulders. “They should’ve kept their end of the deal and left Phoenix alone.”

Joonmyeon fell silent. In the beginning, he’d been horrified when Baekhyun told him that the arsonist known across Asia as The Virus was one of them - a vivus outlier. He’d tried to understand the director’s draconian quarantine methods, rationalizing them as a necessary response to an extreme threat. He’d been courteous to his captors, never once resisting when they hauled him to ‘therapy sessions’ with Dr. Han. He’d never complained, even though the air exchangers in his room kept the air so dry that his skin cracked and bled and even breathing was a struggle. In the beginning, he’d hoped to show them they had nothing to fear from him. Now he hoped Phoenix would roast more of the cold-hearted bastards.

Baekhyun spotted a white plastic cup on the floor and rolled across the bed to pick it up, shaking it experimentally. The contents sloshed thickly, and he eagerly unscrewed the top to reveal the beige, chalk-like sludge inside. He drained half the cup in two thirsty gulps, before letting loose with a satisfied belch.

“That’s the stuff dreams are made of.” He sat up and held out the cup to Joonmyeon. “Want the rest?”

Joonmyeon waved it away, barely containing his disgust as Baekhyun polished off the rest of the sludge. “You make it seem so edible,” he noted.

Baekhyun scraped a finger around the inside of the cup, collecting the remnants. “It’s peanut butter flavored!” he exclaimed, his finger. “How can you dislike that?”

Joonmyeon’s heart broke a little, and he just patted Baekhyun on the head.He couldn’t bring himself to tell him that this gritty, sour excuse for a food substitute tasted nothing like peanut butter. Ignorance was bliss.

“You seem hungry,” he said instead, changing the subject. “Long day?”

Baekhyun lit up with excitement, putting the cup down. “The director hired a new rookie! Ask me what he did today. Ask me.”

“What did the rookie do, Baekhyun?”

“He snuck onto Level 4!”

Baekhyun was practically levitating with excitement, but Joonmyeon could only muster up a half-hearted, “Oh?” Baekhyun deflated instantly.

“Calm down, you’ll pull a muscle,” he said sarcastically.

Joonmyeon picked up another puzzle piece, twirling it in his fingers. “Should I be building a float for the ticker-tape parade?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “The old man hires a rookie for the first time in years, and the first thing he does is ninja his way onto L4!” He jumped to his feet. “He even filmed a demo on his phone! He wears khakis, but I can fix that.” Baekhyun twirled in a tiny circle, scattering puzzle pieces. “This is historic! How are you not pumped? Joonmyeon?” Baekhyun stilled, noticing that something was wrong. “Hyung?”

Joonmyeon hadn’t heard anything past the word ‘demo,’ his vision hazing as a fist squeezed the air out of his chest. Memories crowded into his head. Baekhyun shuffling toward him across the crowded reception hall, the strange witchlight in his empty eyes glowing brighter with every step. Chattering sparks as the taser dumped thousands of volts into his body. The look of shame in his fiancee’s eyes. Dr. Han’s smile.

“Hyung!” Joonmyeon struggled to focus on Baekhyun’s voice, but he could feel the water forcing its way up his nose, choking down his throat.

“You’re safe. Everything’s fine.” Baekhyun held his hand, anchoring him to reality. “You’re safe. Everything’s fine.” Baekhyun kept repeating the mantra until Joonmyeon squeezed back, their signal for the end of the panic attack. Baekhyun knelt beside him, searching his face anxiously.

“Are you okay?” he asked apologetically.

Joonmyeon laid down stiffly on his side, covering his head with the pillow as he curled into a little ball. Baekhyun rubbed his back silently, waiting.

When he felt like he could talk without crying, Joonmyeon said, “Han didn’t come for me.”

“We found another outlier this morning. They used him for the... the thing.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

Baekhyun grimaced. “The old man plays things close to the vest. I thought it was a regular quarantine mission, right up until my watch skipped forward eight hours and I was back in Utah.”

Eight hours. Joonmyeon vividly remembered what his first eight hours had been like, and every excruciating hour after that. “We have to do something.”

Baekhyun lifted the pillow so he could see Joonmyeon’s face. “Do what? Escape?”

Joonmyeon sat up slowly, leaning against the wall as he collected his thoughts. “Phoenix is on the loose. The director must have sent quarantine teams after him.”

“All but two,” Baekhyun confirmed. “But the militia stationed twice as many gunhuggers upstairs to make up for the loss in manpower.” He tapped the thin silver loop around Joonmyeon’s ankle. “You’ll set off the alarm as soon as you leave this room. All they have to do is block the only exit and wait.”

“We can at least try.” Joonmyeon’s jaw tightened in determination. “I can’t sit here while someone else lives my nightmares.”

“Even if you had a gate key, you wouldn’t be fast enough to make it to the exit before the guards block it off,” Baekhyun insisted. “Yeti is injured.”

Joonmyeon aimed a kick at Baekhyun’s head, and he sprawled backwards in surprise. “Never call him that again,” he ordered. “What’s his real name?”

“Minseok,” Baekhyun said, sitting up sheepishly.

“What do you mean injured?”

Baekhyun toyed with the hem of his shirt. “His ability has something to do with heat, like Phoenix. So, Psycho and the witch were using a blowtorch.”

“Bloody hell, Baekhyun.”

“What?!” Baekhyun asked, affronted. “I wasn’t the one with the power tools.”

Joonmyeon massaged his temples, letting his irritation ebb away. Baekhyun wasn’t the one he was angry with, he was just stating the facts. If Minseok couldn’t walk on his own, they needed a change of plans. “The rookie saw everything?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun eyed him warily. “He followed the witch and filmed the whole thing. Why?”

“Do you think he’d help us escape?”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows lifted, and Joonmyeon could tell he hadn’t even considered the possibility. Sometimes it scared him how thoughtless Baekhyun could be. It made him wonder if he actually cared, or if he was just helping him because he was bored.

“The old man only recruits people that lost a family member to vivus. Rookie wouldn’t help a bunch of infected people just walk out,” Baekhyun mused, then smirked. “But I gave him a Level 4 master key earlier, so he owes me a favor.”

Joonmyeon reached for the pillow, and yanked some of the stuffing out of a nearly invisible gap in the seam. Feeling around with two fingers, he carefully eased a blue-striped keycard out of its hiding spot and held it up.

Baekhyun plucked it from his fingers, raising it reverently. “A gate key? How did you get this?”

“Magic,” Joonmyeon responded smugly, taking the card back. Dr. Han had been inattentive during his last visit, forgetting to adjust the humidity settings after a particularly rainy few days. The sticky air had been perfect for snatching the gate key from his ID holder. It had been so easy, he wondered why Baekyun hadn’t been able to steal one sooner. “It’s been a few days, but there’s a chance it still works right?”

Baekhyun nodded enthusiastically. “There’s still two more days before they change the code on the tunnel gate.” He frowned. “But this doesn’t solve your bling problem. You’ll still set off the alarms and you won’t be fast enough to beat the guards to the exit. You’re back to square one.”

Joonmyeon shook his head. “You can make it all the way out,” he corrected. “Minseok probably doesn’t have an anklet yet, so he won’t set off any alarms. You can leave tonight. Use the rookie if you need to.”

Baekhyun’s mouth dropped open. “Me?”

Joonmyeon took Baekhyun’s hand and folded it around the card. “You’ve got a gate key now. You can veil yourself and Minseok so the guards don’t see you. It’ll be hours before anyone even notices you’re gone. But you have to go before they put an anklet on him.”

Baekhyun looked down at the card. “I-I-” his mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. He cupped the card in both hands and handed it back to Joonmyeon. “You stole it,” he refused. “You should be the one to use it.”

“This isn’t about me,” Joonmyeon argued, pushing the card away firmly. “You have to take Minseok out of this place before they break him or kill him.” Baekhyun moved to give the card back again, and Joonmyeon slapped it away, kicking out one leg to reveal the coil around his ankle.

“If I go, they’ll catch all of us.” He grasped Baekhyun’s hands pleadingly. “If you miss this chance, it might be months before we get another one. Go now. Get Minseok out of this hellhole. ”

Baekhyun looked him in the eye. “If you stay, we all stay,” he said quietly.

Joonmyeon felt the card sliding into his fingers, and his hands dropped numbly to his side.

“I’ll find another way,” Baekhyun promised, climbing off the bed, and Joonmyeon stared blankly at the place where Baekhyun had been. “It might take some time, but we’ll figure it out.” Baekhyun walked slowly to the door, his hands outstretched, the air around him beginning to glow.

“Baek,” Joonmyeon called out, still holding his sound shield in place. The shining motes floating in the air paused in their journey back to Baekhyun, and the other boy looked back, eyebrows raised.

You don’t want me to leave, do you? Joonmyeon wanted to say it out loud just so Baekhyun could scoff in his face and tell him he was being paranoid.

“Come back soon,” he said instead.

Baekhyun smiled, and the glow in the room intensified, growing brighter until Joonmyeon had to cover his eyes. When he opened them again, he was alone.