(Warnings: some gore, and cannibalism.)

/3\

Earth had changed. Sehun stared out the large glass windows in front of him at his broken planet. It didn’t even look like the Earth he had known only a short time ago. The closer Sehun got the worse he finds that the damages truly are. Some buildings are on fire, others have already burnt to the ground and are now nothing but ash. Dead bodies littered the streets, along with living people. Sehun didn’t really want to call them people for they were acting more like animals. They were walking between the collapsed and burnt buildings searching for living people to feed off of, or just torture, Sehun didn’t watch them all that closely to find out.

Sehun hated the people who have done this. Hates all of them, every single person who had a hand in destroying something so wonderfully beautiful. It wasn’t theirs to destroy. They didn’t own the Earth, they don’t own the plants, the animals, the humans. They had no right to decimate and kill so many beautiful things.

Sehun was disgusted at the sight before him, what his home had become thanks to the cruel leaders of the world. Not wanting to see anymore, he navigated the ship away from the smoking city and landed a little ways away in a vacant car park. Sehun wasn’t sure it was safe but it would have to do for a little while.

Sehun stood. He turned the ships engines completely off and turned toward the door. It’s the only way out but he has to face what would most certainly would be a very angry Yixing, and probably an angry Tao also.

After Sehun had punched Yixing it had only taken an hour for him to come to and start pounding on the door. That was, of course, after Sehun had dragged him into the hall. He told Sehun to stop hundreds of times before finally giving up and going somewhere else. Sehun was sure that Yixing was going to get Tao so they could crack the door open together but it never happened. Yixing let Sehun have control of the ship and take them back to their home planet.

Now Sehun wished he had convinced Yixing in a more civil manner. Punching him in the face and the side of the head was the worst thing he could have possibbly done. Yixing was his friend, or maybe not his friend anymore. Sehun may have damaged their friendship beyond repair with his harsh words and violence. He wouldn’t blame Yixing if he didn’t forgive him.

Sehun took a deep breath before he finally walked toward the door. He typed the new code into the keypad and waited for the door to slide open.

The door, fully open now, showed no one beyond it. The hall was dimly lit like it had been when Sehun dragged Yixing’s body out, the ship was silent, almost eerily so.

Sehun wanted to believe that Yixing and Tao would both forgive him for acting so rash but as he walked down the halls toward the exit he realised that was probably not going to happen for a very long time. Sehun ed up big time all because he couldn’t control his temper.

Sehun exited the ship without seeing or hearing Yixing and Tao. They had apparently left him to his own devices. To find Luhan, go on his suicide mission alone. Sehun didn’t blame them, not completely at least.

Sehun started to walk before he even had a destination in mind. The city was huge, Luhan could be anywhere. He had told Sehun that he was safe, maybe in his apartment? That’s exactly where Sehun’s feet were taking him anyway. To the familiar apartment where Luhan had lived since freshman year of college. The place they had so made so many memories together. The place Sehun considered his home.

Sehun didn’t come across anyone as he walked the desolate city streets. The whole walk to Luhan’s apartment complex was eerily devoid of life, not even a bird chirped overhead. He could hear shooting and yelling far off in the distance but nothing was close to him, nothing at all.

Sehun decided that pushing his luck any further was a bad idea. So he took off in a sprint the rest of the way to Luhan’s building. It took him less than five minutes to reach the front doors. Sehun didn’t want to go in, he was a little panicked at what could be waiting in the building for him. But then Sehun took a deep breath and entered the building.

The elevator, of course, was not working so Sehun took the stairs. He took them two at a time until he reached the very top floor. He was thankful Luhan lived in a four story building and not something larger than that for he was out of breath after only the short amount of stairs he climbed.

Sehun flew down the hall towards Luhan’s home. When he reached the last apartment at the end of the hallway, Luhan’s place, his blood turned icy cold at what he saw.

The door was wide open but Luhan wasn’t inside. No. Instead there was a group of bloody, dirty people sitting in a loose circle. Upon closer inspection Sehun saw that they were eating something. Sehun gagged reflexively as his eyes finally were able to make out the details of what they were ripping into with their teeth.

Limbs, human limbs. One of the men was gnawing on an arm, ripping sinewy flesh straight from the bone. A woman was eating a leg, a thigh to be more exact. There was blood on everything around them, their clothes, the floor, their faces. Sehun almost threw up right there. He had never in all his life, even counting movies, seen such a grisly sight.

Sehun couldn't stand to watch anymore. He turned away and ran down the hall as fast as his shaking legs would carry him. At the top of the stairs he had to stop due to the intense nausea in the pit of his stomach. He vomited all over the metal of the top few stairs.

Sehun wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took a deep breath filling his lungs to the brim with air.

“Where are you going you handsome little devil?”

Sehun didn’t have time to register anything more than those creepy words before something came down hard against the back of his skull. He fell forward down the stairs into his own vomit. He tumbled down the rest of the small stairset to the next landing in between floors. He groaned in pain and rubbed the back of his head.

“It’s a shame really,” A woman said from the fourth floor landing where Sehun had just fallen from. “I don’t want to kill such a good looking young man.”

Sehun tried to get to his feet but it wasn’t going to happening. Every time he moved his head or his neck a wave of dizziness washed over him. It was too intense for him to even move at all.

“We can’t let him go after what he just saw,” A man’s voice said. “We have to kill him and stick him in the freezer with the others. We’ll eat him later.”

Sehun whimpered as he watched two of the cannibals he had watched eat only moments before start down the stairs toward him. They were covered in more blood than Sehun had first thought they were. Sehun cringed as they reached the landing where he sat motionless.

The woman looked at Sehun with pity in her eyes. If Sehun could’ve, he would have smashed her face in right then, but he was too weak to even move his arm.

“Can’t we keep ‘im?” The woman asked staring lovingly down at Sehun. “He’s so young it would be shame to just kill him.”

The man shook his head. “I told you we can’t take any of them, they have to die all the same.”

The woman bowed her head. That’s when Sehun saw a glint of something reflective. The woman slowly drew a long machete from the back of her pants. An evil smile formed on her face as she closed the last of the distance between herself and Sehun. She seemed almost wistful as she raised her blade. “I’ll make it quick handsome.” She said trying to sound soothing and kind. Then she swung her blade a second after the words left .

Sehun closed his eyes waiting for his end to come. Thinking about how he failed Luhan so badly. Sehun waited for the killing blow.

But it never came.

“Get the away from him!”

Sehun turned his head toward the voice as much as he could before the pain became to intense. He was till able to make out Yixing standing on the top set of the next flight of stairs. He was holding a gun, some sort of machine gun, and was pointing it right at the woman with the machete.

The woman whistled. “Well I’ll be damned,” She said with a look of amazement painted across her face. “There’re two handsome men that came to see me today.”

Sehun snorted. “ you lady.” he choked out.

“Get away from him or I’ll shoot you.” Yixing warned.

The lady put the machete back into the holster behind her hip. She put her hands up in the air, palms forward, in surrender. Sehun didn’t trust her.

“Go back up the stairs and leave us alone,” Yixing demanded. “Or I will kill you.” His voice was steel. He really meant what he said.

The lady went back up the stairs walking backward. The man she was with did the same. Yixing kept his gun trained on the two of them. Even when they were gone Yixing was still pointing his gun up the stairs in case them changed their minds and came back.

“Tao,” Yixing said over his shoulder. “Come help Sehun!”

Footsteps echoed up to meet Sehun’s ears. Tao appeared at the top of the stairs only a short few seconds later.

“What happened?” Tao asked looking at Yixing and then at Sehun.

“Cannibals,” Sehun managed to say. “They hit me in the head.”

Yixing turned toward Tao. “Help him up, we have to get back to the ship.”

Tao nodded and immediately went to help Sehun to his feet. Tao bent down in front of Sehun, he placed one hand under each of Sehun’s armpits and lifted Sehun easily off the hard floor. Then once Sehun was mostly up Tao leaned Sehun’s weight on him.

Sehun was capable enough of making it down the stairs with Tao just supporting him. He wasn’t so badly injured that he needed to be carried, though it might have been quicker that way.

They made it back to the ship right as the sun began to set in the sky. Sehun didn’t even complain when Tao brought him back to the sick bay and laid him down on the cot.

Sehun couldn’t think of anything besides the fact that he failed Luhan. Again. Sehun could feel the fight being leached from him slowly as the ship began to lift off the ground. Sehun wanted to cry but he couldn’t conjure up even a shred of energy to do so.

As the ship shifted into overdrive and headed away from the Earth Sehun thought about Luhan’s smile. He also thought about how he would never see it again.

Luhan was unreachable. Sehun would never find him, never save him. Sehun had to finally admit it to himself. His grand scheme to save Luhan failed. It was over. Luhan was gone, Sehun was leaving Earth for the final time.

It was over.