“They just sat back laughing at the wounded city, each breath in ashes and fumes. Oh it bled all right, drier than Moore County. All expatriate flames hurrying to found new nations of blinding dust. But the two of them, they just squinted at that pipe-cleaner skyline, and it burned hotter in their oil slick pupils. One elbowed the other and said “I’ve seen better.” Knowing that they were paid to remember the past - he blew out a hot breath and said “Burn it all.” - FOB, PAX AM Days

March 6th, 2019

4 months after the liberation of the Capital

“Six...seven...eight…”

Heechul’s eyes scan the room as he counts, the numbers muttered under his breath.

“...nine...ten ━will you stop moving around, Sungmin?━ eleven...twelve…”

The headcount should take two seconds. But with the way no one in the gathered group wants to sit still, Heechul’s life is a bit difficult at the moment.

“...thirteen. Who the hell are we missing?”

Siwon looks ready to respond from his position on the couch, but a series of loud knocks on the door interrupt him. With a long-suffering sigh, Heechul goes to let the latecomer in, some choice insults already taking form in his mind.

He opens the door a little more aggressively than necessary. “Kyuhyun, what took you so━?”

“Why?” The man in question asks, cutting Heechul off. He’s breathing hard enough to look like he’s just run a mile. “Why did you make us come all the way over to your house, of all places?”

“Because there’s enough room for everyone now that a certain best friend of mine moved into the Council building and left Geng and I by ourselves. Now come inside; you’re late.”

Hyukjae speaks up the minute they make it back to the living room where everyone is gathered. “Honestly, Heechul,” he says dryly, “I don’t know why you’re being so hard on him. You don’t even have a plan for what we’re going to do tonight now that everyone’s together again.”

“What, you think you’re all superior now that you’re a married man?”

Hyukjae’s eyeroll is impressive even by Heechul’s standards. “It’s been over a month, and yet you still insist on━”

“Don’t any of you appreciate the time I took to finally get all of us together? It’s been exactly four months since we kicked Mayor Park’s , and guess how many times we’ve all been in the same room since the ceremony? Zero. But all I get is thinly veiled insults, complete disregard for punctuality, and not even one suggestion for what we could do. Does that seem fair?”

It certainly gets everyone’s attention. The silence that follows Heechul’s words is almost disturbing compared to the earlier atmosphere.

“Babe…”

“You did not just ‘babe’ me, Geng.”

Kyuhyun shamelessly raises a hand from where he’s perched on the arm of the couch.

“I’ve got an idea,” he says. “If we’re going for something nostalgic here, why don’t you go back to the beginning? Finally tell the full story of the Resistance? I only know bits and pieces, and I’d put money on most everyone not knowing every detail.”

“Seriously, Kyu? That’s just…” Heechul’s objection dies in this throat when he sees a sea of expectant faces looking back at him. “So you’re all old and boring now.” Another sigh. “Jungsoo, you want to take the floor?”

“I’ll chime in if you miss something. Go ahead; you’ll make it more dramatic than I ever could.”

There are at least six people Heechul sees attempting to hide their smiles at the comment, and the rest don’t even try.

“And here I was thinking all it took was my nearly-fatal sacrifice to get your respect. Brats.” His eyes slide back to Kyuhyun. “How far back are you asking for?”

“Like I said, the beginning. Doomsday. The end of the world.”

Jungsoo’s expression loses its content glow. “I’m warning you now: it’s not a very happy story. I don’t mind Heechul telling it, but if you’re looking for entertainment…”

“Not entertainment. I just want to know the truth.”

The kid is being more honest than Heechul initially judged. “Fair enough, then,” he says, taking the empty seat in between Jungsoo and Han Geng. “The beginning. It all started on a breezy September afternoon, back in our old neighborhood…”

~*~

September 29th, 2016 - Park Residence

“I’m telling you, Heechul, it’s not going to happen.”

The voice pulls Heechul’s attention away from the television and back to reality, where Jungsoo is nudging his sprawled-out form with a socked foot.

“And on a different note,” the older of the two continues, “what are you still doing on the floor? You’re getting potato chip crumbs everywhere.”

“Simple. You’re still hogging the couch,” Heechul says through another mouthful of said potato chips. “What were you saying?”

Jungsoo snorts, digging his foot in a little harder. “The news station you’ve had your eyes glued to, idiot. Where they’re debating the possibility of nuclear warfare? That’s what I’m talking about, even if you think I’m stupid for being optimistic.”

“Not stupid. You just have way too much faith in humanity.” And with that, Heechul snatches Jungsoo’s undefended foot, mercilessly tickling the sole.

“Heechul!”

“Feeling more cynical now, Jungsoo?”

Heechul’s cackling is louder than the other’s protests, but it can’t drown out the sudden high-pitched wail of a siren going off outside. It takes a moment for both of them to process the sound, but when they do, they immediately freeze.

“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Jungsoo says, voice hardly above a whisper.

Heechul doesn’t want to answer. He watches mutely as the debate on the TV screen is abruptly switched to an emergency broadcast, and a frightened-looking news anchor reads from the script in front of her.

Attention all citizens: we’ve just received word that a nuclear warhead has been released. You are to take immediate action as dictated by government protocol. Thank you for your cooperation.

They’ve prepared for this. Half of the people on the planet hadn’t believed it would be necessary, but they’d still learned. Heechul feels the training kick in on instinct, and his spot on the floor is abandoned in favor of grabbing his phone off the table and heading toward the door.

“Heechul…”

Jungsoo stops him with a hand on his arm, but what makes Heechul’s actions come to a halt is the amount of fear packed into the single word. It’s enough to snap him back to the reality of the situation.

“It’s going to be okay,” he reassures the other. “There’s just one lone warhead that was released, right? That’s a far cry from the end of the world. Hiding out in the bomb shelter is just a formality.”

“But my parents are still working in the city. What if━?”

Heechul shushes him before the thought can finish forming. “I promise that all of us will be fine. Trust me?”

And it doesn’t really matter in that moment that Jungsoo is the oldest. They’ve had each other’s backs for enough years to know how to complement each other’s weaknesses. There’s no shame in Jungsoo’s voice when he replies with a firm “always,” before following him out the door.

Heechul’s glad he sounds more confident than he feels.

~*~

Personal bomb shelters had become commonplace in the past few years. After the potential for global disarmament had faded into near impossibility, and tensions between nations hadn’t seen a decline, it only made sense to prepare for possible nuclear war ━ even more so after a few serious threats had arise from across the globe.

But there’s a distinct difference between threats and the real thing. Heechul keeps telling himself what he’d said to Jungsoo earlier: only one bomb, a formality, they’ll be fine. He has to believe they’ll be fine, to repeat the mantra over and over again in his head until he can’t think of anything else beyond the words “we’ll be alright,” unless he wants to spiral into a pit of self-doubt. Even as they sit there in the dim lighting of a single bulb, listening to the hand-crank radio and hoping the steel walls are enough to keep them safe.

“Alert: a second warhead has been released. Any citizens not currently in their shelters are instructed to get to safety immediately.”

Who started it? Heechul lets himself ponder the question for a few fleeting moments before throwing it aside. In the end, it didn’t matter; the destruction would be the only thing remembered if anyone survived.

“More warheads have been released, though the exact number is currently unknown. Emergency level has been raised to━”

Will it be a quick death? If the explosion is close enough, and the shelter isn’t strong enough, they might be killed before they realize what hit them. If they only get hit with the radiation…

“...have confirmed that the first warhead has hit the surface. Large amounts of radiation are to be expected, along with strong seismic activity from the blasts. The second will touch down in━”

Maybe it isn’t so bad, though, Heechul supposes. If this is the end, maybe he can count himself lucky enough to see the end of the story, just before the book closes. Go out with a bang.

“...another warhead has made contact. Estimated time until the next explosion is━ pztTTTTT”

Heechul crawls forward to slam the radio’s power button, cutting off the static. Not five seconds later, he feels the ground shake as the lightbulb flickers.

This is it. This is really it, he thinks to himself, both mantra and internal monologue abandoned. If he’s going to die, he’ll give himself the dignity of paying attention to when it happens.

Wordlessly, Jungsoo’s hand reaches out toward his, and Heechul takes it without a second thought. The older of the two may have been seeking reassurance earlier, but that stream flows both ways: Jungsoo is, and has always been, Heechul’s pillar, even when times are at their bleakest. And hell, does Heechul need even the smallest bit of that strength right now.

“We’re going to make it,” Jungsoo tells him, words echoing in the silence.

It takes a moment for Heechul to find his voice again. “Yeah? You sure about that?”

“Of course.” Jungsoo’s grip on his hand tightens. “When you make a promise, you keep it.”

Another violent tremor shakes the ground, and the room is plunged into darkness.

~*~

“I don’t know how long we were down there for.” Heechul suppresses a shudder at the memory. “When the shaking finally stopped, we went out with our facemasks, and most of the neighborhood was in ruins. The quakes from the warhead hitting were enough to collapse most of the houses, mine included.”

“We could still see one of the mushroom clouds in the distance,” Jungsoo adds. “But neither of us wanted to admit we were terrified, so we didn’t say a word to each other.”

Kyuhyun’s next question is asked so softly that Heechul barely hears it. “And...your parents?”

Heechul’s eyes briefly meet Jungsoo’s before the latter replies, “They survived the blasts. My parents were in a safehouse in the city; they came back later that day to meet up with us. Heechul’s parents were in the shelter at his house ━ shaken up, but still okay.”

“So why…?” Kyuhyun doesn’t seem to want to finish the thought, so Heechul spares him the trouble.

“Why start a group of vigilantes if our parents were still with us? Trust me, we’re getting there. Your turn, Jungsoo.”

“Back to the story already? Where were we...Right. Heechul’s house was in ruins, so I offered to let him and his parents stay with my family. Ours was one of the few buildings still mostly in tact.

“For about a week, things were relatively normal, consolidating resources and rebuilding aside. And I’m sure you all remember that’s when information began to be passed around through word of mouth: the extent of the devastation, the rise of the government in the newly-named Capital, even the first use of words like ‘Cluster’ and ‘Outsiders’.”

“It was also when the Capital’s government started to show how controlling they really were,” Heechul continues for him. “They wanted everyone to move into the city, but there were those who either didn’t want to, or ━ like Jungsoo and I ━ didn’t trust them in the slightest.”

He leans back into the sofa, slipping back into his narration.

“When the end of that week was up...the story hits its turning point.”

A/N: Long time, no see, everyone! In honor of the Super Junior comeback today, here's the first chapter - writing is still in progress, but it's going pretty well; I have one more chapter finished, and most of another. I promise I won't make you wait this long for the next update^^ I was super excited to see all of you subscribing even before the chapter was posted, so thank you! I'll appreciate any thoughts/comments, and while I'm at it...make sure you're watching the new music video! (Also, does anyone have a favorite song on Devil? I started crying halfway through "Stars Appear", so it's definitely up there for me, but I'd like to know about you guys~)