Chapter 38. 

Mark heard the others’ steps before they entered the tent. Therefore, he pulled away in time so that the others wouldn’t catch him and Haechan. Haechan looked at Mark and the way the other turned around to face the entrance. Haechan immediately stepped back and wiped his mouth and Mark chuckled, doing the same. The two of them were trying to hold back on their giggles, when Jaehyun and Taeyong entered.

Mark was covering his mouth and his smile, when he looked up at the two. They looked grim and it immediately choked all happiness in the room. Mark dropped his hand. “What is it?”

Taeyong looked angry. Jaehyun had one hand on Taeyong’s back as if he had led the other in there. “Johnny and Taeyong still need some time to… yeah.” Jaehyun spoke and Taeyong shook the other’s hand off him, he walked over to the bed and threw his boots off. The Damned hid beneath the blanket and Mark and Haechan gave Jaehyun a look.

  “What happened?” Mark asked and walked closer to Jaehyun. The other’s eyes glowed a faint purple. Haechan couldn’t stop staring at the other’s eyes.

Jaehyun glanced towards the bed and then tugged at the two’s arms, bringing them out of the tent. Ten was sitting by the fireplace. The sun had passed the middle of the sky and they were nearing the evening. Mark and Haechan stood with Jaehyun in the middle of the clearing, away from all the rest. “Ten came back. Taeyong tried to talk to him, Ten seemed uncomfortable, and of course Johnny had to bud in.” Jaehyun looked at them both, and Mark released a groan, while Haechan shook his head.

  “It’s none of Johnny’s business.” Haechan said, and Mark nodded. Jaehyun’s eyes on them suddenly seemed to narrow.

  “What were you doing in the tent?” He asked and their eyes widened. Haechan’s face broke into a smile.

  “Nothing, my Commander. Nothing important, you go rest by the fire. Have you eaten?” Haechan spoke as he dragged Jaehyun away from Mark and towards the rest of the group. He looked back at Mark with a wink, and Mark couldn’t help but laugh. He watched Haechan drag Jaehyun with him, and Jaehyun turned his head from side to side in confusion, but eventually let the younger bring him to the fire. Mark stood for a moment, looking up at the crisp blue sky with large clouds rising like mountains in the distance.

Then a feeling ran through him. It felt like acid was running through his veins and darkness flickered in front of his eyes. He shook his head and looked at his hands. Something bad was coming. How he knew that? He just felt it…

Something terrible was coming their way.

The next day it was raining, but luckily it wasn’t acid rain. Mark and the other’s trudged through the mud into the shelter the trees gave and towards the border of the 1^st Clan. They would send the message and go to their posts to check out what they had to deal with. Mark was excited. He would see the 1^st Clan.

As Mark walked with Taeyong. Ten was walking ahead with Haechan, probably pulling out gossip about Mark because the two were laughing and glancing back at Mark. Taeyong chuckled, he was playing around with his dagger as he walked. It would take them long hours to get there.

  “Taeyong,” Mark started as he avoided a branch by ducking beneath it. “Weren’t you from the 1^st Clan?” He asked.

Taeyong looked at Mark and nodded. “Yeah.” He said and grew quiet.

  “You said.” Mark suddenly remembered. “You said you were family of the commander.” Mark remembered and he ended up stopping. “You’re related to Jaehyun?!” He exclaimed and Taeyong looked at Mark with wide eyes, then his cheeks grew puffy and then he laughed.

  “Who is the commander right now, Mark?” He asked and Mark shook his head.

  “Well. Commander Hun?” He replied with a shrug and Taeyong nodded.

  “He’s my cousin. Actually, I could’ve been chosen to become the double ganger of the True Commander, but I was a weak child. Se Hun was much stronger, and I wanted to become a soldier. Never met Jaehyun. If I had met him, wouldn’t all of this have been much easier. I would’ve recognized him the minute I saw him.”

Mark narrowed his eyes on the other. “Why? Because he’s so beautiful?”

Taeyong nodded. “Who could forget that face?”

It was Mark’s turn to laugh. “You just admitted to the fact that Jaehyun is beautiful.”

Taeyong pushed Mark so hard the other stumbled off the path. “Not as beautiful as Ten though, so shut up.” He said a little too quickly and Mark looked at the other. Taeyong his lips and scratched his forehead. Mark patted the other’s back.

  “I tied Haechan to a tree and stole the dead body of the True Commander, left him vulnerable to all kinds of beings and he forgave me.” Mark said and pointed at the two ahead of him. “If that Rox had appeared. I know that he’s a warrior and can handle himself, but what I did…” Mark stopped himself from continuing to speak. Taeyong nodded.

  “I don’t feel like I can ask. This was excessively intimate and just proved how unstable I am. I’m so embarrassed and disappointed in myself.”

Mark put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “What do you think I am?” He asked before he picked up speed, reaching the boys in front of him. Taeyong followed along a little more reluctantly. Yet when Mark looked back at the other, he knew he had pushed the other in the right direction. They all needed to talk, or they would fall apart.

When they reached a guard tower at the edge of the the Fallen City, they moved back a bit, trying to get a good spot, where the guards wouldn’t notice them. Taeyong seemed quiet, Johnny and Haechan were too. Jaehyun though wore a smile as he looked at the guard tower. This was his home. It was the home of Jaehyun, Jaehyun, Haechan and Taeyong.

  “Where did you live?” Haechan suddenly asked Taeyong, who stood by a tree, while Johnny and Jaehyun were taking off their backpacks. Jaehyun seemed to straighten, listening to their conversation. Taeyong eyed Jaehyun and then scratched his head again, looking small.

  “I lived in Goblin, but moved to the army base within the city for my training. I was sent out of the city when the infection spread. Was one of the first to die.” He said shortly and crouched down to look through his own backpack. Jaehyun seemed to have forgotten that he was doing something, because he was wearing a frown, staring into space for a while.

  “You lived in Goblin?” He asked. Taeyong lifted his gaze hesitantly and then nodded. Jaehyun put his hands on his hips. “Commander Hun did that when he was younger. Only people who are in high ranks live there.”

Taeyong stood, holding onto the robe he had. “I was in high ranks.” He said shortly.

Johnny dropped whatever he was holding. “Just spit it out already, Taeyong. What are you hiding?”

Taeyong glared at Johnny. “It doesn’t matter much, if I had anything useful, I would’ve shared it with you.”

Johnny’s upper lip pulled back in a snarl and he stepped forward. Jaehyun threw out a hand and planted it on Johnny’s chest, without difficulty he forced the other back. Mark stepped closer to Taeyong, not wanting a fight to break out. Then Jaehyun walked forward and Mark stepped back. Jaehyun grabbed the robe Taeyong was holding. Ten who stood near them walked in the other direction, and Haechan seemed to back away too. Mark decided to turn his attention elsewhere, but he was still listening.

  “What some of us deem useless, may be useful to others, Taeyong.” He said, and Taeyong blinked up at Jaehyun. Mark’s mind decided to remind him about the time in the tent. When he had fallen asleep and woke up to Jaehyun and Taeyong. Was Jaehyun speaking about that? Mark decided that couldn’t be it.

Taeyong looked up at Jaehyun. “Did you change a lot?” He asked and Jaehyun frowned.

  “Well, I was tiny when I was younger. It was my mind that got me through the trials.” He said with a small smile and Taeyong hummed.

  “Se Hun is my cousin, but it never brought me close to anything. Quite early off I was sent to the army base, because my mom died.” Mark looked at Jaehyun and Taeyong. The smaller had a rather defiant look on his face, daring Jaehyun to question him. Daring anyone to continue to doubt him.

Jaehyun though seemed to be surprised. “You knew Se Hun’s father?” He asked and Taeyong shrugged.

  “Not much, he always gave me a weird vibe, my mother told me to avoid him.” Taeyong tugged at the robe and it slipped out of Jaehyun’s fingers. The other seemed to be thinking hard. Then reached out a hand, grabbing onto Taeyong’s arm.

  “Thank you for telling me.” He said softly, and Taeyong gave the other a small smile. Jaehyun turned away, looking dazed as he walked in the direction of Johnny and Haechan. Mark scratched his neck and looked up. He threw the brick that he had tied his rope around up into the tree. He had to use that to get up, since there were no lower branches.

They got up into the tall tree, and could see the tall sky scrapers rise up before them. There were still about a mile between them and the border, to make sure they wouldn’t get caught by patrols. Jaehyun released sigh and looked at the buildings wistfully. Taeyong looked sad, and Johnny and Haechan looked proud.

Ten and Mark sat there, looking at the buildings with awe expressed by their jaws dropping and their eyes wide. They knew their trees were high up, but it couldn’t match the many stories of the tallest building. Not even the smallest building called Gnome.

The tallest building had windows that reflected the sun’s light, whenever it peeked through the clouds. Smoke rose from several parts of the town and the mountains rose up in the distance. It was a beautiful view, otherworldly to Mark.

  “You’ve lived here most of your lives?” Ten asked and looked at the other four. They all nodded. Johnny leaned closer to Ten, he held onto a branch above him, standing on one. Ten was sitting on a branch, yet they were almost the same height. “In one part of town we have night clubs with live music. We’re still working on getting electricity out of using the river running through the landscape, coming from the mountains, but everything was too damaged. Up till now the council, has been denying to go through with it and the commanders doesn’t seem fond of it.”

  “I don’t really favor it either. We will go back to a luxury that humanity took for granted. They got greedy, used all of the earth’s resources, and eventually killed everything. Why should we try to get that back? When we all condemn it so much. We must not forget our past.”

Taeyong hissed. “We want nothing to do with that past. Killing the earth like it is waste. This isn’t just our world. The animals have all suffered.”

Ten hummed. “Imagine us looking like that Rox; part of our skull visible?”

  “If I remember right, I read in some of the books upon the Events After the Last War, that there was a part of humanity that had been badly affected by radiation. Many died early though, others had different kinds of mutations. You don’t see that anymore.”

  “No, because it became a rule for people with RM, that they couldn’t reproduce.” Jaehyun reminded them.

  “Oh, right.” Johnny said, and Mark and Ten looked at them. They hadn’t learned about this.

Jaehyun noticed their expressions. “Dark times after the Last War. If I remember right, many people with RM wandered off to find their own land.”

Taeyong sighed. “Us Damned. We could wander too. Walk away from all of this.”

Mark shook his head. “We’ve come so far. Let’s get in there and let’s go home.” He said with a kind of finality in his voice, also a desperation that seemed to make everyone stay quiet. Mark was right. They had come so far. They all wanted so badly to go home.

Mark tried not to think too much of the empty house he would return to.

A/N:

I got more busy days ahead of me, and at the moment can't contain everything so I'm quite stressed... Also got a rejection from the school I hoped to get in to... Maybe some nice words would make me feel better?

What is your favorite thing about this story? <3

Love,
Emma <3