CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Desert

Taeyeon felt nauseous and weak. Emotions and feelings were just out of reach, behind a thick haze that had engulfed her. They gave her three more doses of the white tablets. She would spasm in agony until she didn't, and every time the haze got cloudier. 

Her cell door opened, and Taeyeon jerked involuntarily. She looked up blankly at the guard who made her perform orally for him on the first dose. She followed him out as they walked to a higher floor. The light here was not as bright as her cell, and her sore eyes welcomed the dimness. She was brought to a room with a table and foldable chairs. Sooyoung and Yoona were sitting in them. They were dressed in olive military shirts and fatigue pants, like she was, except theirs looked clean and fresh. The guard told them that they had five minutes and closed the door.

Taeyeon had placed her hands on the table, but noticed that her fingers were twitching, and took them off. "Where's Jessica?"

"She's hiding out at one of my civilian friend's place," Yoona said. "My friend and I have known each other since we were babies, and I can trust her. We tried to get Jessica to take a ship from Incheon to China or Japan, but she wouldn't have any of that until we heard from you."

Taeyeon felt like hell and Jessica was safe. It wasn't fair, but it was a relief to know.

"What did they do to you?" Yoona asked.

"How long have I been here?"

"Four days," Sooyoung said. "We've been trying to visit you every day, but they finally allowed it only today. Major Lee says you have three more days in solitary. Hang in there, okay?"

"What have they been doing to you, Taeng? You look like ."

"They've been giving me some white pills. I don't know what the pills are for."

"Major Lee almost didn't tell us why he put you in solitary. So I think the pills have antiandrogens," Sooyoung said. "This is bad. He didn't tell us they were doing anything else to you."

"You may have healed, but there's bloodstains on your clothes," Yoona said. Her voice was shaking with anger. "Have they been beating you?"

Taeyeon shrugged. After the first round of pills, she hadn't been compliant about getting the weird injections. Emotionally, she wasn't feeling anything. "What are antiandrogens?"

"I think it's for hormonal therapy," Sooyoung said slowly. "Doctors prescribe antiandrogens to cure homouality."

"Being homo isn't a disease," Yoona said. "Wait, Project Chimera changes our hormones! Won't this that up?"

"... I don't know," Sooyoung said.

"Look at Taeng. It is ing her up," Yoona said. Taeyeon stared emptily at her, hands trembling under the table. "They can't do this. We gotta do something, Syoung. After solitary they're not going to stop with this ."

Sooyoung nodded. She leaned forward towards Taeyeon, and wrinkled her nose. On top of getting blood, puke and all over her, Taeyeon hadn't washed or changed in solitary. Sooyoung whispered into Taeyeon's ear. "Tonight, we'll get you out. We'll say that Jessica got you out. We'll get Jessica to drive the both of you to Incheon and take the first boat out of Korea."

"Don't do that. It's stupid," Taeyeon said.

Yoona helped Taeyeon to her feet, and they made their way out of the room.

Sooyoung crossed her arms and stared down the guard. "I know the rules around here. Let Corporal Kim take a shower and give her clean clothes."

Sooyoung and Yoona waited for Taeyeon as she did so, and escorted her back to her cell. 

Taeyeon didn't see Sooyoung and Yoona for another three days. It had been a stupid plan anyway, trying to break into a prison. Three more doses and three more showers. She agreed to take the pills voluntarily and they stopped with the injections. The haze clouding her brain lifted, and she was less weak. The twitching and tremors continued, however, because of the pills. 

A guard came to release her from the cell, and escorted her from the barracks. They were walking in the open, when the guard jerked and fell to the ground. Taeyeon turned around. Jessica was standing behind them, a taser in her hand. Wires streamed to twin pins stuck in the guard's twitching shoulder.

Jessica grabbed Taeyeon's hand and led her to a white medical van. There were American medics inside. 

"Where are you taking me?"

"We're leaving. These guys are going to provide medical assistance in Ilsan. They'll drop us off somewhere."

"What?" Taeyeon took her hand out of Jessica's. "I'm not leaving."

One of the American officer shouted at Jessica in English, and she hissed back at them. She turned back to Taeyeon. "Listen to me, okay? They're not going to stop with the medication. You've been dismissed from Firefly and they've transferred you to an all-male platoon. That's why Sooyoung and Yoona asked me to get you out of here. We have to hurry, please."

Taeyeon looked at her. She shook her head. 

"Snap out of it. We have to leave, right now." Jessica grabbed Taeyeon by the elbow and pushed her up into the back of the van. Jessica closed the double doors behind them, and the van drove off.

Jessica introduced Taeyeon to the rest of the American medics, but she couldn't say anything when they smiled sympathetically at her. They probably thought they were helping some vendetta of freedom rights. Civil rights. Whatever. She didn't care about that Western . Nonetheless, as the van rolled past the security checkpoint, exiting Seongnam Base, Taeyeon just sat there.

The van dropped them off at Jamsil, right at Songpa bridge, one of the many Han River bridges. Jessica walked ahead. "We cross over to the other side and go to Gunja-dong. Yoona's friend stays there. That's where I was. We're going there, and then as soon as I can, I'm going to leave this ing country and go back to the States."

Taeyeon said nothing, walking after Jessica. She folded her arms. It was chilly, especially with the strong winds. Jessica strode quickly. They crossed the bridge in silence.

When they reached the middle of the bridge, a lone pickup truck drove onto it. Jessica faltered, falling in pace with Taeyeon.

"Keep your eyes ahead," Taeyeon said. She didn't know if the truck was friendly. Most likely, it was just being driven by some civilian who hadn't left Seoul yet. There were hundreds of thousands still living in the city. A handful compared to the millions there used to be, but still a substantial number.

But if they weren't civilians, Taeyeon didn't want to draw their attention. She was in an army t-shirt and fatigues. Jessica was in her Navy Corpsman uniform. They were both obviously military.

The truck soon reached them, and unfortunately, it slowed to a crawl. The windows were rolled down. Taeyeon picked up dialect from the truck's occupants. North Korean accents. The truck halted, and one man got off from the front passenger seat. They would recognize Taeyeon. She had a bounty that guaranteed that.

So she moved first. She jumped forward, ramming the base of her palm into his nose. The bone punctured the center of his brain, killing him instantly. She snatched his gun out of his hands. It was a crappy bullpup automatic rifle that she didn't recognize, but it had all the functional parts expected of an assualt rifle. She gunned down the driver before running to the back of the pickup, firing at the passengers.

They went down like flies, riddled with bullets. Two men managed to jump out and take cover on the other side of the truck. Taeyeon ran back to Jessica to cover her.

The two North Koreans split up and tried to attack Taeyeon simultaneously from two directions. She shoved Jessica to the ground and went left. The man to her left was nearer. She fired at his chest, sinking four bullets in quick succession, before turning on the man on her right.

He wasn't a man, but a tall teenager. He couldn't be more than fifteen.

They saw each other's face. Taeyeon saw the boy as a young teenager, and hesitated on the trigger. The boy saw his family's ticket to ten million won, and pulled the trigger. He was holding a similarly crappy submachine gun. It fired three bullets at one go.

If she had been wearing her combat vest, the bulletproof material would have caught the bullets. As it was, she had just escaped from seven days in solitary, so she wasn't wearing her vest. The bullets punched through her chest like a three-legged stool. She stumbled back at the impact, squeezing the trigger. Her aim had fallen from the boy's head and the bullet smashed into his gut instead. The boy dropped his submachine gun. With a loud bellow, he ran forward, barrelling into Taeyeon, and threw them both over the railing. 

Taeyeon's stomach lurched for full seconds, and then they smashed headfirst through the icy Han River. Air bubbles rose up around them, and then they bouyed to the surface. The boy released her, dying or dead. 

She heard someone splash into the water beside her. Jessica grabbed her and began kicking towards the bank, which was too far away. Jessica had her arm under Taeyeon's chin to keep her head afloat as she paddled backwards.

Taeyeon tried to kick as well, but she couldn't feel her legs. Her spine must have snapped from the fall. She was surprisingly calm about that, probably because she would heal from it. The holes in her chest weren't that painful because she was in shock and the water was freezing. Taeyeon tried paddling with her hands, and her chest burned from the strain. Jessica told her to stop it.

Jessica started tearing off Taeyeon's clothes, and Taeyeon realized that Jessica must have stripped off her own shirt and pants before diving in after her. Wet clothes were heavy. Getting the clothes off wasted minutes, but when Jessica swam again, they moved faster. 

To Taeyeon's surprise, the world started spinning and darkness crept into her vision. I don't pass out. 

And she passed out.

A/N: Thanks for the comments and upvotes and subs last chapter! I was worried since I've never written rated stuff... I'm sorry if anything was too offensive. Let me know what you thought of this one:)