I slowly blink my eyes open. I hear the chopping of an engine that sounds like it’s cutting through air. The ground beneath me shakes in a rhythmic fashion but is also unsteady. I carefully lift my head off the bed, then the rest of my body. I feel light headed but am determined to see what’s going on. I try to focus my eyes around the small metal room. I slowly get up and approach the cold steel door. I twist the wheel to open the door just to find a long metal hallway that leads into all sorts of rooms and corridors. I navigate myself around but I’ve just been walking in circles and strangely enough, no matter where I go, I can’t seem to find any windows. I can’t find out where I am or why I’m here. Just then, someone behind me startles me,

“What are you doing walking around like this place?” I turn around to see a tall man wearing a black tank top and army pants, along with a strap of bullet refills around his waist and an AK47 strapped on his back. But one thing caught my eye, he has red eyes. I thought he was wearing coloured contact lenses so I didn’t bother to ask. Then he says, “It’s not safe to be walking around in a helicopter like this, go back to your room!” Then I did as told, saying nothing as I shuffle my way back to where I started. As I close my door and sit on my bed, I feel that it’s really strange. I’ve never met him before, but he looks so familiar. I lie on my bed, wondering about all the possible reasons as to why I’ve seen him before and I ended up with only two logically reasons. One, I’ve seen him on the streets before but I never cared to pay attention, or two, he’s appeared in a dream of mine or something similar. Moments later, I hear knocking on the metal door. And soon after that, a voice,

“Yuri? Are you in there?” I didn’t say anything but I sat up facing the door on my bed and buried half of my face in my blanket so that I can still see the door. “Yuri?” the voice asked again. “Are you there?” But I still didn’t reply. Soon, the door creaked open and Eli was standing there. “You little . Why didn’t you answer the door?”

“Eli! Man am I glad to see you. What’s going on?” I shout excitedly.

“You never answered my question. Why didn’t you answer the door?”

“Well, I was afraid that someone who abducted me or some random person that I didn’t know was behind that door, so I didn’t answer.” Then he sighs.

“Can’t blame you. Too much has happened. By the way, my stomach still hurts no thanks to you.”

“Wait, you abducted me?”

“Well yeah. No one else thought that they could do it so I stepped up.”

“Why couldn’t you just approach me and ask me to get in the helicopter?”

“It’s not that easy. First of all, knowing you, you would’ve screamed with joy if you saw me which would’ve drawn too much attention so we wouldn’t have made it safely to the helicopter. Second of all, you’re a clumsy mess so even if you didn’t scream, you would’ve lagged behind. Third of all…” and then he cut himself off with hesitation. “Yeah. That’s it.” I stare at him curiously, knowing that he’s hiding something from me, but I didn’t bothered to ask because he’s probably keeping me safe this way. After all, he’s the only one that I can trust right now. “Anyways,” he continued, “that’s not the reason why I’m here. Captain wants to see you.”

“Who’s Captain?” I asked.

“You’re about to find out. Follow me.” I get up, out of my bed and follow him down the corridor. We enter a room that reads Main Control and the first thing I see is a room that has walls covered with windows. Although the view was blurred by a vast fog, I can clearly see the bloody town of Seoul. I slowly approach the closest window on my left and place my hands on the icy window. I look down to see miniature figures of the dogs that attacked me earlier.

“Wow. Seoul is being overrun by…” I started, and then someone finishes me,

“Shadogs. Not only them, but a lot of others too like, Casdows and Black Griffs.” I turn around to face a person in a white trench coat over his shoulders wearing a black long sleeved shirt, jeans and black running shoes. Now that I can see his face, I can clearly tell that he was the same guy who saved me back at home.

“Shadogs? Casdows? Black Griffs? What?”

“Shadogs are short for the Shadow Dogs. They’re the giant black dogs that you’ve encountered earlier. As for Casdows, they’re shape-shifting shadows casted by the sorrows that get left behind of the dead people that get killed and devoured by the Shadogs and Black Griffs. And Black Griffs are essentially Griffins that you see in mystical fairytales but have beady red eyes and are black from nose to tail.” Then he extends his hand out to me. “Hello, my name is Shin Soohyun. I’m the Captain.”

“Eli, what’s going on?” I ask turning around to face my brother. But he doesn’t say anything.

“This isn’t important right now.” Soohyun says as I turn back around to face him. “The others should be here any minute now.” Just as he says that, the door clunks open. There, stands other people. Two of them, I actually know.

“Sunny!” I shout happily. I run up to her and hug her as tightly as I can. I look behind her and feel my face flush red. “K-Kevin!” then I look to my right. Beside him was the guy with red eyes that I met in the hallway.

“Ah. So I see that I don’t need to introduce you to those two.” Soohyun says. “But if you don’t mind standing back a bit, I’ll introduce you to the rest of my crew.” then he suddenly orders, “LINE UP!” And without a word, I let go of Sunny and everyone stands in a line. Then he starts from the beginning. “From here, this is Yoona, Taeyeon, AJ, Hoon, Tiffany, Seohyun, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung,” and he points to the guy with red eyes that I met in the hallway, “Kiseop, and as you already know, Sunny, Kevin and Eli.” Then, pointing to Kiseop, I state,

“Hey, aren’t you that guy that I bumped into in the hallway?” Then he glares at me,

“Hey, aren’t you that annoying girl that was wandering in the hallways?” My mouth dropped open; I was about to protest and then Soohyun goes,

“Okay, now. My apologies, Kiseop is like that. But he’s a really good guy once you get to know him.” Kiseop kept glaring at me and then he snaps his head away,

“Like I’ll ever get along with her.”

“Hey! What was that supposed to mean?!” I protested. Soohyun sighed. Then he looked out the window, and then back at us.

“You know what? You too look tired. Actually, we all are. Dinner is ready in about an hour. Why don’t you go back into your rooms and we’ll call you down when dinner is ready?” I nodded in agreement. Kiseop gave me another glare but snapped away and stood straight up when Soohyun ordered:

“Crew dismissed.” and then everyone filed out silently. I walked out of the Control room and walked together Kiseop. As much as I didn’t want to walk with him, I didn’t really have a choice because our rooms just happen to be right across from each other. As I swung open the door to my room, Kiseop said,

“Hey Yuri.” Then I turned around, glaring at him.

“What?” I said in an annoyed tone.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” He said giving me one last glare. He then shut the door behind him and I stuck out my tongue at his door. I turned around to face my room and shut the door behind me.