minkyung had heard of the lands to the west and the creatures that lived there, the savage animals that fought to the death over the smallest disturbance, but she had never given them much thought. inside the fortified walls of her hometown, there was no need to worry. 

climbing onto a stranger’s fire escape at midnight on a weekday was not how minkyung expected college to go, but she figured she shouldn’t have expected anything less from yebin. 

yebin had never seen the city so desolate. she wasn’t used to the pitch black nights, kept expecting a neon sign or a glowing convenience store on the corner. but everything was empty.