Luhan caught his breath as he opened his eyes.  It was as if he woke up from a deep sleep.    In the middle of filling his lungs with air, he coughed.

He was sure he opened his eyes, but he could not see a thing.  It was dark.  He blinked for a few times.  After a few moments, his eyes got used to the darkness.  Hazy figures started forming before his eyes.  He squinted in his attempt on figuring out what was before him.

Tall trees towered over him, their branches obscuring his view of the sky.  He figured it was night time, for he could see some stars from the spaces between the leaves high above him.  Cold air brushed against his skin.  Where is he?  How long has he been out?

He recalled hearing a grumbling sound and falling in a deep pit.  ‘Must have been a dream,’ he thought.  He placed his right hand on his forehead.  He yelped as he felt a stinging pain on where he placed his hand.  Something warm was trickling down his forehead. 

It was then that he felt how sore his whole body was.  It was as if he fell from a high place.  Every move he made was very painful.  ‘What a vivid dream…’

He bit his lip as he slowly got up, leaning on his elbows in the process.  Everything around him started swirling as he got on his feet.  He stretched his arm to the side in search of something to hold on to.  His palm hit a cold, jagged surface.  He leaned on it as he closed his eyes, feeling his knees trembling.  The warm fluid on his forehead must have been blood, he figured.  He might have hit his head somewhere.

He took a deep breath as he tried to gain strength.  He opened his eyes.

He was standing before a wall, about seven feet high.  Behind him was another wall of the same height.  Above him were long branches of trees that appeared woven together to form a roof.  Dried leaves and twigs crunched on the ground as he stepped on it.  He looked ahead.  He realized he was standing in the middle of a long, endless corridor.

A gush of wind brushed past him.  It was stronger than it was when he woke up.  A howling sound echoed on the long hallway.  The howl was slowly drowned by a grumbling sound, similar to what he heard in his dream.  Or was it merely a dream?

From the distance, he saw a thick sheet of fog coming his way.  He stared at it, too tired to think of what to do.  His eyes widened as he continued staring at it.  No, it was not fog.  It was dust.

The ground started shaking.  He leaned on the wall so he would not lose his footing.

The grumbling grew louder as the dust swept closer to him.  He squinted his eyes.  Something was coming his way.  Behind the cloud of dust was a surface.  It was moving closer. 

A thick wall was closing in.

There was no time to think.  He started backing away.  He looked around.  There was no other way to go but backwards.

He broke into a run.  He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the searing pain on his legs.  He must have gotten wounds there, too.  But he’ll worry about that later.  If he gets out alive, that is.

He looked ahead.  He saw an intersection a few meters from him.  He ran as fast as he could and dashed across it.  He was about to slow down when he realized another wall ahead of him was closing in.  He ran back to the intersection, took a swift right, and saw an open area ahead.  He dashed and rolled on the ground, curved into a ball as he covered his head.

After a few seconds, the grumbling stopped.  The sound of pieces locked together echoed in the place.

Luhan slowly stood up, looking around.  The hallway he came from was now covered with a thick wall, like a tomb that was closed with a huge boulder.  There were deep creases on its edges, marking where once the corridor’s walls were.

There was another crumbling sound, but it was softer that what he heard moments ago.  Gravel fell from the creases he was staring at.  As the dust settled on the round, the creases slowly disappeared, and in a matter of seconds, it was gone.

Deep, dark silence hung on the still, cold air.  Birds perched on the branches cooed above him.  Standing at the center of what seemed like another intersection, he looked around in a vain attempt to figure out where he is.   One… two… three… four passageways surrounded him.  What seemed to be the fifth aisle was filled with thick, thorny bushes.  Anyone would realize that it is not passable.

He stared at the fifth aisle.  For a moment, he thought he heard voices coming from behind the bushes.  As much as he wished to be with someone... anyone, he was not that much of a mean person to wish that someone was sharing the same ill-fate that he has.

The sound of rustling leaves and two bickering voices drowned the still silence.

“Oh, great.  Perfect!  You actually lead us into this… thorn-filled… I don’t know what this is—ouch!  You know, you are so brilliant I think you deserve an award.  Remind me to give you a medal of thorns when we get out of here alive.”

“What do you expect?!  I don’t even know this place.  A friggin’ wall was running after us—“

“Walls don’t run.  They don’t have legs.”

“Oh, shut up!  You should at least try and be a bit grateful that I saved your life.”

“Saved my life?!  You call this ‘saving a life’?  I could even die out of cuts and blood loss here!”

“Why don’t you just go back to that… wall-smashing… whatever and have your oversized head and extremely large ears ground into bits?!”

“Oh, c’mon man, that is gross!”

Luhan walked closer to the bushes, trying to see beyond.  “Chanyeol?  Baekhyun?”

“Luhan?” Chanyeol’s voice called out.  “Luhan, is that you?”

“Chanyeol!” he replied.  “How did you get in there?”

“I don’t know.  Ask Baekhyun.”

“Wow… you’re so grateful.  I really appreciate it,” he heard Baekhyun say.

“Wait.  I’ll get you out of there.”

Luhan grabbed one of the branches, forgetting the thorns.  He winced and let go as he felt thorns prick his palms.

He looked around for anything that could cut the branches or at least make an opening enough for them to get out.  He wiped his bleeding palms on his clothes.  Realizing he still had his school uniform on, he took his coat off, wrapped it on his right hand, and started pulling off the branches.  After a few moments of pulling off branches, getting cuts on his arms and face, and shushing the occasional bickering from the two, he finally made an opening large enough for them to pass.

“Where exactly are we?” Baekhyun asked as he checked on the cuts on his arms.  He and Chanyeol didn’t have their coats on.  Their polo and slacks were tattered, and blood and mud stained their clothes and skins.

“I have no idea,” Luhan answered, looking around.  “You remember how you got in here?”

The other two looked at each other before looking at him.

“We both had a crazy dream,” Chanyeol said.  “We were in school, waiting for the rain to stop.  Then lightning struck our school building three times… then it was on fire.  Then there was a storm—“

“A crazy one,” Baekhyun interrupted.  “It was so strong that trees and metal posts were uprooted.  Then there was an earthquake—“

“Then the ground opened and you fell in a pit,” Luhan finished, earning a nod from the two.  “Guess I wasn’t hallucinating after all.”

“Do you think that’s just a dream?” Baekhyun asked.  “It’s too vivid to be one.  And for us to have the same dream…”

“Is it just us?” Chanyeol asked, looking at one of the aisles.  “You think the others are here, too?”

“I hope not,” Luhan said as he looked at the same direction he was looking at.

They heard footsteps and huffing sounds from the isle.  It was ap