Afternoon came and passed by slowly, and Daehyun had been poring over maps of the country, occasionally muttering to himself and tracing paths of roads with his index finger. At first, Youngjae watched Daehyun out of pure curiosity, but that soon grew boring. Eventually, Youngjae resumed working on dismantling the robot.
 
Three hours later, the clanking of gears and the whizzing of an engine filled the room. Youngjae leaned back to admire his work. It levitated upward, its spindling arms reaching out to Youngjae, the claws extending and opening and closing. Youngjae smiled at the glowing red center, a warm color now rather than angry; despite the gaping hole in the middle of it, Youngjae was amazed that he managed to get the thing to work.
 
"Is that thing really safe now?" Daehyun asked, sitting on the cot farthest away from Youngjae, away from the robot.
 
Nodding, Youngjae took the robot and switched it off, deftly catching it when it ceased levitating. "Perfectly safe. I found a microchip embedded deep in the circuitry." He held the chip up to Daehyun, then placed it back on the desk. "I think this is what connected it to the Republic. There's an enormous mainframe at Council—I went there and saw it during primary school—and it collects anything and everything regarding the country. Probably. I don't quite remember."
 
Daehyun's interest seemed piqued at the mention of the mainframe. "What was that thing at Council?"
 
Youngjae blinked. "A mainframe?"
 
"Do you remember how it works?" Daehyun asked.
 
Youngjae scratched his head, trying to recall the basics he'd learned. "Something...about information being recorded and archived inside it." He pointed to the robot resting in his hands. "This bot has the Republic logo on the back, meaning it's connected to the mainframe. It records everything it sees, and sends it all back to the mainframe at Council to be archived then looked over at a later time. There's gotta be hundreds of these things all over the place, but I'm not sure why I've never seen it in New Seoul before."
 
"They can easily keep tabs on people in the inner districts," Daehyun said. He walked closer to examine the robot. "They don't need this thing."
 
Youngjae stared at Daehyun. He'd taken on that pensive, faraway look in his eyes again. "What do you mean 'keep tabs'?"
 
"That transceiver watch," Daehyun replied. "People in the outer districts have abandoned their watches, so the Republic relies on these things to do what the watches can't anymore."

Youngjae stared at something beyond Daehyun, his mind working faster than ever before. Keeping tabs? The robots collected information that was sent to the mainframe at Council. These robots kept track of people in the outer districts. The Legion was currently tracking down Youngjae. Youngjae let the robot see his face the night before. That must mean...
 
"Daehyun," Youngjae began, suddenly beginning to shiver; he'd realized something horrible.
 
Daehyun looked up from the robot to Youngjae, and his eyebrows furrowed upon meeting eyes with Youngjae. "What happened?"
 
"You know how I said that this robot records everything and sends it back to the mainframe at Council? And you know how I turned to look at the robot last night?"
 
"Yeah... Why?" Daehyun asked, his voice taking on a cautious tone. Then, he cursed under his breath, seemingly coming to the same conclusion as Youngjae. "We need to get out of here. They probably know where we are now."
 
Youngjae buried his face in his hands, and groaned. "I'm so sorry, Daehyun. I've put our lives in danger."

Daehyun had already begun to stuff inside what had been taken out of his knapsack. "Youngjae, get up. We can still leave. We haven't been found. As far as we know, the Legion hasn't even found out where you are yet."
 
Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, Youngjae stood up, and grabbed his duffel bag. Daehyun had already begun to shove papers and maps on the desk into his knapsack, and Youngjae carefully placed the robot into his own duffel bag.
 
There was a knock on the door.
 
Daehyun and Youngjae froze. They looked at each other, the horror on Daehyun's face surely mirroring Youngjae's own. Youngjae felt as if his heart was going to jump out of his chest.

Daehyun inched toward the door, his knapsack overflowing with papers held up in front of him as a makeshift shield. "Get behind me," Daehyun said quietly to Youngjae.
 
"Guys? You alright in there?"
 
It was that man from the front; Youngjae never thought he'd be so relieved to hear a murderer's voice on the other side of a door. Daehyun walked up to the door and opened it.
 
The man stood in the doorway, a terrified look on his pale face. He leaned close to Daehyun, and said in a low voice, "You guys need to leave. Somebody reported seeing a Legion platoon on the move." He leaned back, and held up a single key with a cartoon charm.
 
Daehyun nodded. He turned to Youngjae, a grave look on his face, and grabbed Youngjae's arm, his hands tight around Youngjae's wrist. Daehyun patted the man on the back, and accepted the key. "Thanks, Shinjun."
 
The man, Shinjun, nodded his head as Daehyun pulled Youngjae past. "You owe me, tard."
 
"Whatever, ," Daehyun replied, but he was smiling back at Shinjun.
 
The pair walked in the opposite direction from the front door. Youngjae tried his best to ignore his beating heart in his throat, the way his hands and legs shook, how the sound of his blood rushed obnoxiously loud in his ears. He tried desperately to even out his breathing, to calm his racing heartbeat, to focus on Daehyun's back. He forced himself to focus on the one thing anchoring him to the world, the only thing keeping him from completely falling apart: Daehyun's hand around his arm.
 
"We'll be exiting through the back," Daehyun said, turning back slighly to glance at Youngjae. "Shinjun has a car there that we can use."
 
Youngjae nodded, a movement as mechanical as the robot in his duffel bag.
 
//
 
Youngjae wouldn't stop shaking. There were bound to be Legion soldiers outside searching for him already. They were going to have the entire building surrounded. They were going to storm the building and tear it apart brick by brick looking for him.
 
"Come on, Youngjae," Daehyun whispered reassuringly as he pushed the metal door open a crack. He stuck his head out, and looked around outside. He opened the door wider, his hand still firmly around Youngjae's arm.
 
Just like Daehyun had said, there was a black car sitting at the curb. Much to Youngjae's relief, there weren't any Legion soldiers around. Daehyun deftly unlocked the passenger side door and guided Youngjae inside.
 
Daehyun got into the driver's seat, and started the car, the engine a quiet purr in the peaceful afternoon. Youngjae sat in the seat, paralyzed, as Daehyun drove away down the road.
 
No matter what Youngjae tried, he just couldn't stop shaking.

"Hey, we're safe for now," Daehyun said in an attempt to console Youngjae.

Youngjae scrubbed his face and let out a sigh. Why was he so afraid of being caught? He was a university student. He had lived a modest life in New Seoul in a pleasant apartment. He had nothing to be afraid of. But...somehow, an inkling of fear had slithered into Youngjae, and that was what concerned him.

A/N: Gonna be the last update for at least a week. Sorry ; n ;

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