After being stranded on that island for a month, we finally finished building the raft. All of us pushed the raft into the water and we hoped on.

“Eli and I carved some oars while we were at it.” I said. “Now we can paddle our way home.” We made 4 so that we can take turns once in a while and headed east. It took us about 10 days to find land. When we got there, Sunny asked,

“Where are we? This doesn’t look like Seoul.”

“That’s because we’re not in Seoul.” AJ said. “If my calculations are correct, we should be in Incheon.” Although we are in a different city, it’s just as hellish as it is back in Seongnam. We slowly walked down that rigid paths of this dead town.

“It’s so empty. Not a movement in sight.” Taeyeon mentioned in terror.

“All the citizens should be eaten and the Shadows have finished taking over. They should all be in Chungnam.” Soohyun answered. Everywhere we went, things were demolished, crashed aircrafts, buildings up in smoke, and bones everywhere. Then I looked to my left and saw an abandon aircraft.

“Hey guys! Look at this!” I shout pointing. “It’s an abandon aircraft!”

“Oh my gosh! That’s one of the newest aircraft invented by the US military! The Marine Aircraft Group 16!” AJ stated with his eyes lit up. “Unbelievable!” Seeing him like this, the first thing that came to mind was nerd. I was the first to go in and the first place I went was to the engine room. Seohyun, Taeyeon and Eli followed. The rest went around the ship to make sure that everything else was safe. I open the door to the engine room and a burst of smoke freed itself. Coughing, I went inside to check it everything was still intact.

“The engine works fine, the oil tanks are leaking, the motor  is fine but one of the turbines that make this thing fly has gone missing. If we dismantle some parts from planes at the nearest airport, we should be able to make this thing fly again.” I reported.

“Why do you know all this stuff?” Seohyun asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything that I know of. Anything I say, everything I do, I have no idea how, why, when and what I know. I just do. But the bigger question is, how are we going to get the pieces? We need to know which exact piece we need and where to fix them on.” I state.

“Can’t we just bring this thing there?” Taeyeon asked.

“That’s not possible.” says Eli. “First of all, the wheels are broken so there’s no way we can roll it there. Second of all, with so little people, we can’t get this thing very far. The airport is on the other side of the city and all the roads are either depleting or cracked. There’s no way that we can bring this giant thing there.” We all thought for a moment. And then, Kiseop came in to report.

“Everything is well, and ready to go. There’s also ration that can last us about 3 months. How are you guys doing over here?”

“I’m afraid we might not be able to get this thing going. There’s just too many things that aren’t working. We can’t get this thing to fly.” Then I thought of an idea.

“We might not be able to bring the pieces here.” I said.

“How are we going to move hunks of metal here?” Taeyeon asked.

“We’re not going to be bringing the hunks of metal. But rather, the whole plane. If we go to the airport, we can fly the thing over, dismantle it here and replace the parts.” Eli said reading my mind.

“But how would we know which ones to take?” Kiseop asked.

“We’re all going to have to go and we’ll all fly our own here.” I said. “It’s the only way.”

“How come we have to do all this and not just fly the planes at the airport?” Taeyeon asked.

“Because those are regular planes and this is a military aircraft. There’s more weapons installed in the aircraft and there should be more hand carry ones in the storage. We need all the defense we can get.” Soohyun said. “Yuri, gather up the rest of the crew, we’re going to make this baby fly.” And with that, everyone teamed up. We found a working car nearby and we drove to the airport. It was a really bumpy ride but we made it there in a couple of hours. When we got there I felt something eerie about this airport. Something didn’t seem right so I was always looking around.

“What is it?” Sunny asked, noticing that I felt uncomfortable.

“Something doesn’t feel right.” I told her.

“You feel it too don’t you.” Kiseop whispered. I nodded. I felt a chill go up and down my spine so I folded my arms trying to retain some heat. Then I heard laughter. But the laughter was really odd. I looked around but all of us stayed silent. I looked at Sunny .

“Did you hear that?” I asked her.

“Hear what?” She asked back.

“Laughter.” I answered.

“I think you’re just hearing things.” she said trying to comfort me.I looked up at Kiseop and  he nodded at me. It was clear that he heard it too, so I wasn’t alone. Then I looked at everyone else. But no one seemed to have heard it besides us. The laughter was getting weirder and weirder. It felt as if there’s something circling us as we walked. And the laughter, was more of a ghostly laughter. It would fade in, then fade out. Different pitches that made them sound un-normal. Some of the laughter sound like chipmunks or dying squirrels. Others sounded too low like they’ve been laughing underwater. Suddenly, we halted when Soohyun held up his fist with his backhand facing us, a universal signal to tell us to stop.

“Uhh… Soohyun?” but then he hushed me. “B-but...” then he hushed me again. He took the pistol that he had armed in his pocket and signaled us to move silently. I had a really bad feeling of his actions. We shouldn’t be so quiet. At least, that’s what my gut is telling me. Then I start shivering. Kiseop then came over to me.

“Don’t be afraid. They can sense it.” he whispered.

“I know. But the quieter we are, the more unsafe it is.” I whispered back.

“I know that too. I can feel it. But since everyone else can’t, they’re not going to listen to us no matter what we say.” Then I give out a quiet sigh. And then, all the laughter stopped leaving only an evil laughter of one man.

“Everyone get down!” Soohyun yelled and everyone hid behind a circular help counter. Then I looked at Kiseop and told him telepathically,

“Why can they hear his laughter and not the other ones?” Then Kiseop shrugged, shaking his head. Then, I hear the cry of people running and screaming along with a lot of bullet sounds. I hid my head in my knees with my hands covering the top and squeezed my eyes shut. Make it stop. Make it stop! But it didn’t stop. There was more screaming of deaths, guns being shot, the sound of the military rushing in, almost as if my head is creating sounds as reenactment of how the people of the airport died. I can hear the Shadogs roaring now and the Black Griffs devouring people alive. Stop it! Stop it! I shake my head in terror and cover my ears with my hands. But the sounds seem to be inside my head instead of outside. Crashing of glass, falling of buildings, and the rush of people trying to get away. The sounds are getting louder now and more lethal and deadly. I start to cry and my heart races. I keep shaking my head but it won’t stop. Please! Stop it! Go away! I can’t do this anymore! By now, I’m fighting for air. Trying to breathe, trying to calm my nerves, but nothing is working. The sound of my heart beat is unsteady, getting louder by the minute. As my the heart beats harder, it beats faster. I feel as if it’s going to tear me apart. I’m too afraid to open my eyes. The beating is in my ears now, beating harder, beating as if my heart is going to flow out of my ears. Make it stop! I breathe harder and squeeze my eyes tighter and when I can’t take it anymore, I force my eyes open. Panting, I let my knees relax. The riot was over, the noise finally stopped. I look around and everyone was crowded around me, mouthing my name. At first, their voices were drowned out by white noise and slowly, my ears tuned in.

“Yuri! Yuri! Are you okay?” Sunny said, shaking me by the shoulders. I look and my hands and they were bleeding because my nails dug too deep when I clenched them. I was sweating and I was breathing as if I just finished crying. At first, I couldn’t say a word, I was too tired and exhausted to. I looked up and saw everyone’s worried expressions. I looked at them curiously.

“You suddenly curled up in a ball. And you stayed in that position for about two hours.” Soohyun said. I looked at Kiseop and he nodded.

“I heard it too. But I was able to stop it sooner by breathing and opening my eyes.” Kiseop told me.

“Hear what?” Taeyeon asked.

“A riot. Painful deaths. Screams. People being eaten.” Kiseop replied.

“Apparently, only the two of you heard something because none of us did.” Joo-hyun said. I fell on my back, relaxing against the counter.

“But we did hear laughter. Of a man.” Eli stated. “But other than that, we didn’t hear anything else. Once the man stopped laughing, Kiseop was pounding at his own head and Yuri curled up into a ball.” I closed my eyes for about a minute, relieved that it was over.

“Come on crew.” Soohyun finally said getting up. “We need to head over to the plane section of the airport and deliver them over to the aircraft.” I was helped up by Eli and Sunny and we all made our way over. As we made our way over, something was still odd. The aura of everything just didn’t feel right. It felt as if there was something following us. I’ve turned around numerous times but nothing was there. I started shivering again. Then Taeyeon came over.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Something still isn’t right-” I tell her. Suddenly, there was a black circle that formed around us and Casdows started to appear. Everyone grabbed their weapons and created a circle with all backs facing in. I stuck my hand out into the air to reveal my black scythe. Seeing my weapon, the Casdows backed away from me.

“What’s going on? They look as if they’re afraid of my scythe.” I stated.

“That’s because, I think they are.” Kiseop said. I swung my scythe at them, they would back up, then come forward again. Strange. I approached them with speed and sliced one of them in half by the middle. But their bodies, didn’t remain. It slowly slide apart and then half way through, completely vanish.

“Huh?” I shouted. “What?”

“I think that that scythe of yours hold more mysteries than I thought.” Kiseop told me.

“Can you guys figure out whatever it is later?” Joo-hyun asked. “We’re kind of in a middle of a fight here!” Then nodding in agreement, we charged. Until all of them were either dead on the ground or disappeared, the weird aura was gone and we kept moving. When we reached the plane sector of the airport, we all took charge of a plane and flew them back to the aircraft as planned. However, I just can’t shake the feeling of the scythe holding some mysteries. Does it have something to do with where I came from?