They were forced to abandon Mato village and head northeast, towards the village of Akug. Most reports given through between blubbering sobs, said that the raiders rode away to the west. The surviving group prayed for the people of Oli, hoping they wouldn’t be met with the same terror.

The island of Piapi, the south-most land of the Hanmi continent, was mostly a desert shrubland with sandy soil and short, dry plants.

Yongguk led the orphaned children onward, knowing that though they could eat the plants with purple tips, they couldn’t survive on them. He had made a plan for the water they stored and most of all, he had accepted that returning home would not be possible for a long, long time.

He didn’t know why the raiders had grazed down Mato, slaughtering the adults, but leaving the children alive, but he did know that it’d be foolish to stick around and see if they’d return to finish the job.

The children had salvaged what they could of food, water, weapons, and other materials that would aid them in their possibly endless journey, but Yongguk feared that it wouldn’t be enough.

A good ways south of Akug village raised a forest, not very lush or thick, but it would provide them with firewood and meat, so he urged the exhausted orphans onward.

At 14, he and Himchan were amongst the oldest of the group, taking it upon themselves to lead the others.

They marched on trying not to think of the atrocities they left behind. The beheaded pets who had tried to protect them. The mutilated bodies of their parents who had given them life. The whines of infant brothers and sisters who they knew they could not provide for.

Thinking of the baby brothers she had abandoned, Hyuna dashed back towards Mato, shouting, “Hyunho! Hyunsuk!” but was stopped by four girls who begged her to keep moving forward. This outburst made others cry, but Yongguk and Himchan didn’t even look back.

During their march to the forest, Youngjae held religiously onto Daehyun’s hand and during the dangerously cold nights, Youngjae curled up the closest to Daehyun. They shared warmth and this new life as though it lessened the burden and the pain.

Death became a daily goodbye. Suicide, starvation, disease, freezing, dehydration – they were picked off slowly, dwindling the mass of children that had been about 42 down to 29. The four girls pat their grieving hearts and wiped their wet faces when they found the regretful Hyuna with a bloody knife and a slit throat. Everyone got buried. Everyone got the funeral their parents weren’t granted.

Zelo, very young but tall for his age, was the first to see it. He jumped and laughed silently when he saw it. With no explanation he rushed ahead, dashing towards the green trees only he had caught sight of. One by one, others noticed the dull forest before them and picked up speed, salvation was just a sprint away.

Survival shot up. They could make fires now and fashion spears to catch the birds and rodents that inhabited the forest. On their fourth day in the woods, while Jongup hunted by a moss-covered rock, he accidentally discovered a tiny, filthy spring. Those who had been weak found new strength and those who had lost hope, regained bright, innocent eyes.

The ghosts lingering behind them still loomed over the group like an imposing curse, but they attempted to return their worries to simple matters such as what games should they play and what songs should they sing.

Himchan and Yongguk tried their best to keep everything organized. They rotated the duties of hunting, cooking, retrieving firewood, fetching water, and so on. They made sure everyone knew the rules: Don’t go out alone. Put out fires that will no longer be attended to. They distributed supplies and broke up fights.

Friendships were clear. The girls had broken off into cliques, mainly keeping to their own groups.

Daehyun and Youngjae mostly talked to each other except for when Youngjae practiced the below average healing his mother had taught him on injured hunters. He knew what herbs made good salves and created makeshift bandages from old shirts.

Jongup and Zelo often went off together though Zelo sometimes was caught playing out on his own. They were both relatively quiet boys, but usually laughed when they were with each other.

No one was sure if Yongguk and Himchan were actually friends. They did know that their trust ran deeper than any of the other bonds recently formed.

Jongup wasn’t the cleverest kid of the group, but what he lacked in brain he made up for in brawn. But he lacked quite a bit in brain, so Yongguk wasn’t too surprised when he had to grab Jongup’s wrist before a berry went into the boy’s mouth.

“What are you eating?” Yongguk growled.

Jongup shrugged, fear clear in his eyes.

“Where did it come from?” Yongguk asked.

“Ground,” Jongup whimpered, dropping the berry back from whence it came.

Yongguk sighed and shouted, “Attention please!”

The entire troupe returned with a loud, “Yes, sir!”

“If we do not know where it came from, do we eat it?”

“No, sir!”

“If we do not plan on returning to it, do we leave a fire burning?”

“No, sir!”

“If we see a stranger, do we make contact on our own?”

“No, sir!”

The list of rules and replies went on and on. It was a collective punishment for when a single child did something out of line, usually earning glares from the all the kids such as Jongup promptly received. A pink tint colored his cheeks.

One especially chilly night, Youngjae found himself suddenly rousing from his sleep. He sat up and glanced around the encampment, seeing only by the thin streams of moonlight cutting through the spacey canopy and the dim fire crackling quietly. The fire was for Himchan who suffered through guard duty while Yongguk slept. Youngjae groggily thought of how Yongguk deserved that rest, he was sure the older boy hadn’t slept in days.

Youngjae squinted, still uneasy. Himchan bobbed his head, each time it lowered he was asleep and he awakened by the time his head snapped back up. Youngjae’s eyes searched the blackness of the forest to see a small, glowing blue light not too far off from camp. Alarm tickled his heart, but drowsiness kept his mouth shut.

“Youngjae?” Daehyun whispered, reaching out empty hands in his sleep. Looking to Daehyun, then to the complete darkness of the forest, Youngjae laid down and fit himself into the other boy’s searching arms.