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A/N: it's a double update so if you haven't read 'staying alive' click back to read it first! [5/4/2017]

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
―Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

"Do you remember everything?" Nari asked quietly.

The rain had stopped but the roof was still flooded, causing the two of them to climb onto the small platform above the door. They sat there beside one another, staring at the moon above them.

She looked over to see him nod. He turned to look at her and she averted her eyes from his gaze.

“Why didn’t you come back?” he questioned. Nari wrapped her arms around herself, pulling her jacket tighter around her body. “There was no reason to.”

“Were we not a good enough reason for you to come back?” he whispered. She bit her lip, hearing the hurt in his voice as he spoke.

“I resented you guys,” she started, “I hated that you left me alone. I hated that none of you reached out to get in contact with me.”

“We-”

“Then I realized it wasn’t by choice that you guys forgot about me. I figured Soohyuk must’ve done something to prevent you guys from getting me. It probably didn’t help that I took out the chip so nobody could find me.”

At that, Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, you mean the Forerunner did something to our memories? How do you know that?” She looked up at the moon and let out a sigh.

“Because I know him.”

He didn’t press on further with her question and instead, he asked another, “Why were you labelled as a traitor? I remember being sent on a mission to either kill you on sight or coax you into coming back with us.”

She let out a laugh, although it held no humour. “I guess you could say I’m an enemy in his eyes. I took important information from him and he wants me back for it. That’s why I took out my chip.”

He blinked in confusion. “Your chip? You mean the one implanted at the Culling?” She nodded and his frowned deepened. “How on earth would you know where that even is?”

Ignoring his question, she turned to him. “We have to take out yours too or else he’ll send his soldiers to look for us.”

He tilted his head. “Wouldn’t that be a good thing? We can get the other guys back too.” She shook her head. “They’re not going to be let off easy, letting me get away. Not to mention, they lost you too.”

He was about to say something else but decided against it and instead, turned his body to the front and looked down at his hands.

“I can’t imagine how hard it was for you to live up here on your own for so many years,” he said.

“I wasn’t really alone,” she replied. Taehyung turned his head. “You were with that one soldier right? The one who we were sent to search for?” She nodded.

“Where is he now?” he asked. She closed her eyes at the question.

“He’s gone.”

“I’m sorry,” he quickly said, not wanting to press on further with the topic after seeing her expression.

They sat there in silence, hearing nothing but the soft rustling of the wind brushing past their ear.

“Then,” he said, “what do we do now? Aren’t we considered outcasts too?” She looked around the rooftop before answering.

“We finish the research and find a cure. Then, we confront him.”

He stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I have a lot to explain to you.”

“What do you mean you lost them?” Soohyuk asked through his teeth. He stared up at Namjoon who stood a step closer to his desk than the others. Namjoon ducked his head and tilted his entire body into a deep bow.

“I’m sorry, sir. We lost them when an unexpected storm hit. We were forced to retreat.”

Soohyuk leaned back in his chair and he ran a hand through his hair. “And you’re telling me you lost a soldier too?”

Namjoon nodded, still ducked in a bow. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

Soohyuk let out a dry laugh. He clenched his fist and was about to slam it onto the table but he refrained himself from doing so. Instead, he straightened up.

“I think you all deserve a rest. Losing a member must be devastating. I will call for you when something comes up about his location. Return to your chambers for now.”

Namjoon stood up, bowed with the rest of his team, and the six of them left the office.

Soohyuk stared at the monitor on his desk and he narrowed his eyes. He typed in something and Taehyung’s profile popped up onto the screen. He scrolled down to the location tracker and he tilted his head, seeing that the dot remained unmoving.

This time, rather than sending men out there right away, he would wait it out. He knew Baekhyun would not last long, so there was one less person to worry about.

Rather, he was more concerned with Nari and what she would do knowing that soon, she would lose someone precious to her.

He smirked at the thought and a surge of unexplainable pleasure ran through him at the thought of her suffering.

He pressed a button on his desk, and a few seconds later, someone entered the room.

“Send the test subjects to their location. I want that city surrounded,” he ordered. The man looked up. “How many units, sir?”

“Twenty.”

The man bowed, leaving the room.

Soohyuk grinned, placing his hands onto his desk. “You’ll come running back to me, Nari. You always did.”

“So, everything we’ve known about the Cover is all false?” Taehyung asked.

She had caught him up on the truth about the Surface; how it was not toxic, that the air was breathable, and that there was still fresh water and life aside from the Erratics out there.

He shook his head, burying his head into his arms. “I can’t believe this. Why would he lie?”

“To keep you under his control,” she replied. Taehyung looked up. “Then we have to tell the others! We have to get them out of there.”

She shook her head. “It won’t be easy getting back in right now. Especially not with both of us wounded and unwell.”

“So we’re just going to leave them there? To remain manipulated and in the dark?” he asked. She shook her head. “We’ll get them back but now is not the right time.”

He let out a groan of frustration. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

She shifted herself so that she could lay down onto the damp cement.

“Don’t. Just rest for now. We have to remove your chip tomorrow or else they’ll catch up to us.”

He turned to her and shook his head. “I’m fine, I’m not tired. You should rest, your fever is still running hot. I’ll keep watch.”

She said nothing and instead, turned her body to the other side. Within minutes, she had drifted off to sleep. Taehyung stared off into the new city ahead of him.

He rested his chin on top of his arms, which were resting on his bent knees. His eyes wandered over the broken buildings that nature had begun to reclaim with its greenery.

“Is the rest of the world like this?”

“Nari, wake up.”

“Nari.”

“Nari!”

She opened her eyes, seeing Taehyung looking over her. He searched her frantic eyes. “You were tossing in your sleep. Was it a nightmare?”

She pushed herself up and looked around. “I don’t remember. How long have I been sleeping?”

He looked up at the sky. “The sun is up now, so I’d say you got in a few hours.” She nodded, standing up. She felt another dizzy headache start as soon as she stood and Taehyung got up to steady her.

“We should get moving,” she said. Taehyung stared at her. “Are you sure? You don’t look too good right now.” She shook her head, shrugging off his arm. “I’ll be fine. Did you clean out your wounds?”

He nodded, looking down at his newly bandaged leg.

“Where are we headed?” he asked. He had dropped down first, and then looked back to catch her.

“We need to find a vehicle. Then we head South towards the docks. Are you good with vehicles?” she asked. He grinned, and she almost felt herself smiling along, seeing that his boyish smile was still the same.

“Of course. I may not be as good as Yoongi but I can still hotwire any vehicle and drive us.”

She nodded, walking towards the door. “Good.” She was about to go first when he pulled her back. She looked at him in question.

“I’ll lead the way. If it’s a hospital, there’s bound to be a lot of Erratics. You can watch my back.”

She didn’t say anything, and let him lead the way down the stairs.

Fortunately, they stayed quiet enough that no Erratics came searching for them in the staircase. Once they made it to the main floor, they only encountered one Erratic before they were able to make it out of the hospital and onto the streets on the city.

“Won’t the vehicles be flooded?” he asked, finding his way towards the parking lot of the hospital. She shrugged. “We’ll just have to try our luck. Without the vehicle, it’s going to take us days on foot to get to the docks.”

“How do you know where the docks are? And how do you know we can get a water vehicle there?” he asked.

“It’s a harbour, there’s bound to be boats and rafts lying around,” she said.

She waited by the edge of the parking lot while he went towards each car and checked for water damage. He came across a pickup truck, and with its heavy-duty build, no water had gotten in. He waved her over.

He was able to pull open the door to the driver’s seat and from within, he unlocked the passenger door for her. They set their bags in the middle seat and Taehyung got working on hot wiring the vehicle.

“Is there gas?” she asked. He shook his head, seeing the flashing letters on the dashboard. He looked back and he spotted the gas cans sitting in the trunk. After retrieving them, he emptied the contents into the gas tank.

“We’ll keep the second one here in case,” he said, closing the door. He started the engine and the car jolted to life.

“You’re going to have to be my navigation because I don’t exactly know where we’re headed,” he said. She nodded, pointing her finger towards the left.

“Follow that road.”

“I’m surprised you know this place so well,” Taehyung pointed out. The city was small, but nonetheless, it would still have been hard to work around it without knowing where to go.

“Baekhyun had a map and we studied it together. We lost it sometime ago, though,” she said. Taehyung nodded at her response.

He turned to her. "I don’t know if it’s my place to ask but when you said he was gone, what did you mean?” She looked out the window at the passing houses.

“Soohyuk injected him with the serum when he was captured. Since he had no cancerous cells, his body reacted to the serum as a Typic would,” she explained.

His eyes widened. “God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” She shook her head. “It’s fine.”

He turned his eyes back to the road and he let out a gasp, slamming his foot on the brake pedal. Nari winced when her body slammed forward and she looked up.

“What is going on?” she asked, staring up at the blood on the window.

Taehyung in air through his teeth and peeked his head out the window. “I think I hit an Erratic.”

She frowned. “Why would an Erratic be wandering around in the middle of the road?” He shrugged, starting the gas pedal again.

He frowned when the car didn’t budge and he looked at her. “I think its body got jammed into the wheels or something. I’ll go check it out.”

He opened the car door and just as he landed a foot onto the road, an arm grabbed onto his leg and he retracted back into the truck in alarm.

His eyes widened when an arm reached onto the window and he quickly pulled the window up. Nari took out her gun, ready to fire.

“What the ?” he whispered, staring at the creature on the other side of the window. “That doesn’t look like an Erratic.”

Nari narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Is it a human?” Taehyung shook his head. “I don’t think so. Look at how yellow its eyes are and the teeth look sharpened. It has to be an Erratic.”

She frowned. “But an Erratic wouldn’t be smart enough to play dead until we inspected-” She stopped her trail of thought when she saw the numbers tattooed into the collarbone of the creature and her eyes widened.

“Taehyung, we have to get out of here. Drive!”

He quickly the engine and began driving again. He looked at the rearview mirror, seeing the creature stand there in the road, watching them go.

“What’s wrong, Nari? Do you know what that was?” he asked. She nodded.

“I think I have an idea. If we don’t get out of this city soon, we may never be able to.”

“We just have to make it past this shopping district and we’ll be back in the farm roads towards the docks,” she said, looking around for any other signs of Erratics.

“What exactly was that?” Taehyung asked. She turned to him. “They’re test subjects.” He frowned. “From what? The Cover?”

She shook her head. “No, they’re from Tomorrow.” His eyes widened, but his eyes remained on the road in front of him.

“What do you mean?”

“Tomorrow isn’t what Soohyuk promised. When people reach an age past their usefulness, he takes them in and experiments on them. That thing back there was tagged, it had a number. It’s a manmade Erratic.”

His mouth fell open. “You mean, he’s making Erratics? By taking the people from the Cover?”

She nodded. “That’s exactly what he’s doing. I haven’t figured out why but I’m sure it has to do with keeping order within the Cover. If he’s able to send them out here after us, I’m sure he found a use for them already.”

“Holy ,” he whispered, not knowing what else to say.

“I doubt he sent just one. If we don’t get out of here before the rest of them are sent, we’ll have troubles getting out,” she said. Taehyung nodded, stepping on the gas pedal to go faster.

They had just turned the corner at the intersection, heading towards the farm roads when Taehyung eased his foot onto the brake pedal again.

“I think we’re too late,” he whispered, seeing the crowd of the manmade Erratics blocking the road ahead of them.

a u t h o r ' s n o t e

  Well, now you know what goes on in Tomorrow! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the double update.

  Also, if you want to connect with me elsewhere (because I'm terrible at replying on AFF), follow me on Instagram @ailoveru or add me on snapchat @ai.loveyou.