The hideout was nowhere special. It was located in the middle of sea, at the lighthouse in Black Pearl harbor.

You did not need a map to find out where it was, nor were the Rebels planning to live in secrecy. If someone were to stumble upon their hideout, then so be it. They were ready for combat, and had no intentions of running away. One can only run away from their problems for so long before the devil of sin comes haunting their path and catches up to them. The only way to stay alive was to stop running and face their obstacles head on.

Which was exactly what the Rebels did.

The group of seven young men was created six years ago, a little before the plague swept in and corrupted the world with its malignant disease. Although they were young in appearance, they were skilled in the field of hacking, martial arts and had strong opinions towards political matters. All seven were under the legal age to vote at the time, but their strong views on politics were what caused them to raise a coup against their Government.

The rumors that spread about them were only half true. They did infiltrate the Government walls, but only to confront them about their wrong doings.

One of the youngest, by the name of Yugyeom had hacked into their system. Many people had seen Yugyeom as non-threatening because of his doe eyes and young age, but as the ancient saying goes, “never judge a book based on its cover”, because Yugyeom was nothing like how he made himself to be. He was self-proclaimed to be one of the best hackers on EXODUS and that proved to be true when he discovered all the files that the Government had tried to stow away to prevent prying eyes from seeing. The files were stored in more than one locked folder, indicating that the Government had more to hide than they admitted.

Yugyeom had spent all night unlocking the files until he reached a dead end. But it was alright because he had read enough information to validate to him and his group that the Government was not all that they made themselves to be. The Government was known to be a political body that takes care of their community and control the world around them by exercising certain actions to prevent the world from going into utter chaos. However, what Yugyeom found out was the opposite.

The Government was taking the tax money that the society paid and using it on unnecessary things such as spending the money lavishly on plane decors, dinner parties at the Black Peal house of fame, boat rides around the harbor, and an illegal trade of mushrooms from the Land Of Beast.

After showing evidence of what he found on the files to the leader, Jaebum, all seven of them began to plot how they were planning to raise the coup and how they were going to infiltrate the walls. It was an easy job to get into walls; they just needed evidence to prove their suspicions true. Now, they had not only the information but photos to confront these money grabbers. Why the Government chose to keep these photos on their computers was something that Jaebum had no answer to, but he was thankful that they did because now their reigning days were over.

Jaebum had spent two nights looking over the database and staring at the photos in his office before making a decision. He was the second oldest in the group, but was chosen to be the leader of the Rebels. He didn’t believe in having more authority than the rest of the members, but most of them did believe that someone should lead the group. You can’t have seven young men in a group without a leader, arguments were bound to happen. One person would want to go one way, and another would go another way. Some were still living in their teenage years, so with young minds like theirs, ideas will be flowing all over the place.

If they were to fight together, they needed someone to bind together.

Contrary to his young age, Jaebum was exactly the leader that the Rebels needed.

It wasn’t a difficult decision considering that the seven of them had been friends since womb days, so nonetheless Jaebum had been given the title as leader because of his determination in working hard for the group. He never pushed them to fight off the government but he always did urge the boys to make sure they can tell between the right and wrong. This time, however, knowing that the Government had failed to do its provided job was what set their plans in motion. They had plotted for about two months, while being trained by Mark and Jackson.

Mark was the oldest, with Jackson just a year younger than him. The two best friends had been training since they were infants with Jackson’s father, who was EXODUS’s greatest fighting legend. His father was known to be a legendary martial artist and fencing teacher and EXODUS’s most influential philosopher of their time. Jackson was proud of his father, but he didn’t like the martial arts as much as Mark did. Even though it was obvious that he had the same skill in fighting as his father did.

When Jackson’s father passed away due to liver cancer when he was fifteen, he decided to drop fencing and the martial arts and pursued the lifestyle of hacker. Jaebum and Yugyeom had been in the hacking field for a while, but Jackson eventually joined them and so did Mark.

The other members, Bambam, Youngjae and Jinyoung came later on. One day Jaebum was just talking about what he read in the newspaper and expressed his concern towards the crumbling Government. He must’ve been very charismatic about it because it had caught the fascination of all three men. Eventually everyone began following with the Government, and it wasn’t long until they grew tired of the Government’s pathetic antics and embarrassing and hypocritical acts against society. The more they read and saw what was on TV, the more of a reality check it was for them.

The Government claimed that what they did was to help better society, but what the rebels saw on TV was acts of unlawful conduct towards society, yet people still worshiped them as if they were really what Angels to help better humanity.

One time, Youngjae and Mark had seen on the news that some lady had been killed by her ex-boyfriend who was a sociopath. Her ex-boyfriend was given a bail of $10,000 and under the law of the Government in section 6785 stated that since he had gone through a test at the rehabilitation center and passed, he was safe and ‘normal’ enough to raise their one year old child. A year later, he drove his car off a cliff, killing both his son and him on impact. Mark pulled out two things about this case. One, was that the boyfriend was a compulsive liar, who lied time and time again, and yet was still released from jail without being sued by their dead girl’s family. And two, the court was clearly warned about how dangerous he was five times by different witness accounts and yet they failed to protect the child and allowed for the situation to happen by letting the man take responsbility of the child.

The final tick on the clock was when the Nightcrawlers came crashing into the city like a tsunami, crashing into every civilian and killing them instantly. But instead of drowning them to their deaths, it brought them back to life as rotting corpses that wanted to feast on the living.

Bambam was the first to discover the signal of warning that was coming their way. He had known many languages, so when he heard an urgent warning speaking in Spanish coming from his radio transmitter, he was the first to jolt up and spread the word about what was happening in the city. It was coming from the laboratory in El Dorado, the doctors were screaming and saying that that time was over, that they had messed up on the research by injecting the wrong serum into the animals. They said to warn the city of what was to come, until their voices abruptly cut off with the grueling sound of their bloodcurdling shriek.

“We are in big ing trouble. We need to infiltrate the walls. NOW!” Bambam shouted to s. They were a day ahead of their schedule, but Bambam knew that they had but no choice but to move now. Before Jaebum could ask what was wrong, Bambam explained in a rushed manner while everyone grabbed their coats and left onto the boat.

Once they arrived on land, they caught a cab.

“Sorry mate,” said Jinyoung as he struck a needle into the cab driver’s neck. Instantly, the old man fell unconscious. He was going to be gone for a long while.

Youngjae took the wheel and they made their way towards the building.

Getting the gates to open was almost as easy as grabbing food out of the hands of a five year old. There were two security cameras at the front gate. Mark had smiled into the camera before ramming his fist into it, cracking the screens into pieces.

From his pocket, Youngjae pulled out a screwdriver out and began working his magic. He unclipped a yellow wire and a red wire from the black box. It made a noise, as if saying goodbye to its old life as it reset for its new one. The gates buzzed and it opened slowly for them.

Jaebum smirked and clapped Youngjae on the shoulder while the seven of them marched forward.

There was a security office in the front, and when he saw the young men breaking in casually without a worry on their faces, he yelled out, “Hey! What the are you kids—” Before he could finish, Bambam pulled out a gun and shot him in the face. He stood frozen, the bullet wound oozing blood in the center of his forehead before he slumped over and his body crashed onto the keyboard. His eyes were still wide open when they left.

“We promised we wouldn’t kill anybody,” Yugyeom muttered, feeling slightly bad for the young gentlemen.

Bambam rolled his eyes, he wanted to laugh at that. “You’re going to give sympathy at a time like this?”

“He was going to get in our way anyways. It’s better that he dies now than later when he gets infected,” said Jackson, as he took out his glock and reloaded it.

The painful reminder of what their world was turning into caused all seven of the boy’s faces to turn grave and their lips to straighten into a grim line.

Mark nudged Jackson to tone it down a bit, knowing how sensitive the topic was right now. None of the boys had returned home in the last six months, so after this excursion they knew that returning home was a must. They didn’t know how their parents were, or what they were going to expect, but they prayed that the city wasn’t filled with the filthy things yet. They were still early; the sun was still blazing outside. Bambam had told them that their skins could not handle the sun, it was too brittle and sensitive and they smart enough to stay inside.

That was the last thing he had heard from one of the voices on the transmitter before they left.

---

It appears that they have been waiting for the Rebels.

The building was at least five levels, but no one was in any of the levels aside from the rooftop. When the boys discovered the committee of people who swore they would protect their land swaddled together on the rooftop without a drop of fear in their life, a scoff escaped Jaebum’s lips. They weren’t hiding from what was happening; they were planning to make their escape. They were waiting for help to come to them. They were waiting to be taken away, far, far away.

When they saw the seven boys appear from the door at the rooftop, they looked unsurprised.

Jaebum was unfazed by their reaction. Instead he said, “Unbelievable, you’re trying to flee the country while your city is under flames? You mothering traitors. We know what you’ve done, so don’t play with us and give us false modesty.”

“It’s not what you think,” the President of EXODUS told them. He came forth, in his grey suit and red tie. In spite of his old age, it looked like he had been living well because there was not an ounce of white hair on his head. He still had a head full of black hair as he looked gravely at the young men. “We are going to transfer over to Blue Bell island, and we will send help to the rest of the city once we get there. We will set things up and make sure to prepare for the rest of the civilians.”

“Don’t ing lie to us,” snapped Mark. He took a step up to them, making the President stagger back in fear at the sight of the enraged young man in front of him. He could feel his anger pulsing inside of him, “If you were planning on sending help, you would’ve informed news stations to send out that report to the rest of the population living here on EXODUS. But take a look at this.” Mark taps on his watch and a large holographic screen appears. He switches back and forth on a dozen websites, all indicating that it was the end of the world and that everyone will be killed by this plague. Another news article stated that the Government was doing nothing about it, and that no sources were coming from any end denying otherwise.

“We have to be careful about our decisions,” explained the President in a shaky voice, that didn’t seem to convey the trust of the boys. “We can’t allow all civilians up here or else chaos will occur. We don’t know how strong these things are. We need to be safely transferred over before making any moves.”

“What? Are you being serious right now?” Jinyoung stormed over and held him up by th