She tried breathing but the air has taken itself anywhere else but her lungs. She could hear gagging sounds from her left side. Her older sister is foaming in the mouth she could see moving, her eyes trying to focus on her. Panic has tightened its grip around Chaeyoung's heart. She almost twisted her neck when she heard the door of their cell slam open. People in gray uniforms piled in and dragged her almost unconscious sister out of the doorway. She ran to the exit so she could go with her sister but large hands held on to her arms and dragged her back to the cot. She kicked and she shouted at them but her little seven year old fists could not hurt them. She wanted to hurt them for taking her sister. She screamed and thrashed around.
"ALICE, ALICE , ALICE!"

Hands clutched at her but they're no longer large.
Shaking her out of her nightmare.

"Shshh calm down, it's just a dream."  A soothing voice said.

Her shallow breathing came in short gasps. Little by little the surroundings made sense to Chaeyoung, she spent the night here after she escaped from the laboratory. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she's face to face with the girl who helped her last night, Jisoo. Dark hair, pink lips, she's wearing that expression she cannot name. From last night when she told her she can't sleep and Jisoo stayed with her in bed until she fell asleep.

Her wide eyed stare must have solicited a reaction from the other girl because her hands reached up to cup Chaeyoung’s face.

“You're safe here.” Jisoo said, wiping the sideways tear tracks, she didn't even know she was crying.

“What have they done to you?” Jisoo’s voice shook with an emotion she can't put a finger on. Without her bidding Chaeyoung moved in and pulled Jisoo effortlessly toward her  then buried her face on Jisoo’s chest. She’s so soft that the creeping numbness she kept close to her heart threatened to go away, but she clings to it desperately, she doesn't want to feel anymore. Any attachment that she had to anybody or anything eventually ends in ashes or nothingness. The girl's warmth makes her want to stay that way plus she smells so good. She held on but inside she's waging a war against herself that she knows she will lose. No, she doesn't have the luxury to feel.

“l’m leaving later.” She said.

“Right away? Where are you gonna go?” Jisoo untangled herself and looked at her.

“About that, I really don't know.” She answered. She looked into Jisoo’s eyes and she knows she could trust her with her soul.

“I need to find my sister, before I escaped I heard some female subjects were taken to the Western concentration, I will go there.” She said with conviction.  “But I don't know where that is, I've been lost.”

“I could help you with that.” Jisoo said “but you'll have to let me go with you.”

Chaeyoung looked at the girl as if she has grown a second head.

“ W-what? No, it can't be. I am a ticking bomb, anyone near me when I'm in a rage can't survive.”

Jisoo’s lopsided smile looks so inviting when she said “Bombs are my babies, I could handle that. I'll show you a map after we eat breakfast, a friend is coming over some time later. Let's go.”

“I still haven't said yes to you going with me.” Chaeyoung protested.

“You don't have to.” she smiled that blinding smile again.

After breakfast Chaeyoung surmised that she must have ate up all of Jisoo’s provisions, which she voiced out.

“You don't have to worry, eat some more. Lisa always brings food whenever she comes here.” Jisoo replied giving her another serving of red beans.

“Tall people like you need more.”

While she ate, Jisoo a screen next to the table and showed her a map.

“Here this is us.” Pointing to a spot marked with something red. Other places have marks too that looks unfamiliar to her.

Chaeyoung nodded.

“Show me where you came from.” Jisoo said, going to the other side of the screen near Chaeyoung.

“I- I uhh, I can't read.” Chaeyoung bit her fingernails as she looked at the map closely. From where she grew up reading wasn't part of the curriculum, only survival. Her sister taught her some letters and numbers but they were separated so soon before she could put those letters together.

“Is the name of the place you're from called Falcon Industries?”

Another nod from Chaeyoung.

“How many days have passed since you've escaped?”

Chaeyoung held up 3 fingers.

“Okay, what was your means of transportation?”

Chaeyoung shook her head “I was barefoot, and I crossed a river before I got to the place where we met.”

Jisoo’s eyes widened at that. “So you came all the way from the Falcon Industries headquarters, that's the only place that you'll cross a river to get here. That's crazy far from here.”

Chaeyoung scratched her nose “I swam too, there were things in the river, big ones.”

“You came close to aquatics and lived to tell about it. Wow, you're really one of a kind Rosé.”

“You're still not scared of me?” She asked.

“Why would I be?” Jisoo countered with a raised eyebrow.

“Wait, what are aquatics, where are they from?”

“That question will launch a week long history lecture from me, but we don't have that time so here's the short version. Roughly half a millennium ago humans thought they were smart enough to cure cancer, stop global warming and end the people's problems in general. That's where they were wrong. They tinkered with nature and produced monsters, Crawlers, Aquatics, the Airborne and the Amphibia. They did not end the problems of the world but ended the world instead.” Jisoo said wistfully. “Then a disaster came, much like the big flood of Noah from the olden times but this time with fire and lava. The world crumbled and drowned but came back mutated and unnatural from what it was before, some people survived, some are changed too. This is our world now, haunted ghost towns. There could be more I could tell you, I spent a lot of my life studying, but I'll save it for another time. Today I'll hack the Falcon Industries system and help you find your sister, is that alright?”

Jisoo is standing there and Chaeyoung haven't known until now that a ray of hope could also shine underground.

“Okay.” She answered.

While Chaeyoung stuffed her face with toast, she watched Jisoo tapping on her computer, watched her tuck a wayward strand of hair. Her heart shaped lips. Her dark eyes intently looking back at her Chaeyoung swallowed.

“I'm sorry, I don't want to disturb-

The relentless blaring of the alarm bells seared through her eardrums. She brought both hands to cover her hurting ears.

“Oh , that's Lisa. I forgot to turn off the security system.” Jisoo ran to the screen that shows a live feed from the camera outside her shack, but what she saw wasn't Lisa, but a horde of uniformed men. Stunned with electric shock and another group approaching.

“I'll activate a lockdown, but it's too late, some are already inside. We'll have to go.”

Chaeyoung recognized those uniforms, she's beginning to hyperventilate. They've found her. Her hope to find her sister crushed to pieces. Then Jisoo’s face is in her field of view. She's saying something over the alarm but she couldn't hear her. Jisoo grabbed Chaeyoung’s arms and brought her to a standing position she disappeared to another room bringing a backpack as large as her and took Chaeyoung’s hand leading her to a maze of dark hallways. Everything fell away except the feeling of Jisoo holding her hand, further into smaller and damp tunnels the alarms faded. She followed Jisoo to the end where there is daylight.