VIII

’For all that we have, for all that we are’ is written in red, perhaps blood, on a half-torn wall. Yongsun simply looks at the words, but does not bother to read or understand them. She realises, as she walks away from the wall, that it could have been written by anyone: a soldier, an anarchist, a rebel, or someone from the regiment. There are so many sides in this war, Yongsun has lost track of all the people who are fighting. All she knows is that the soldiers in the white uniforms with intimidating masks covering their faces are the ones who are protecting her country.

Yongsun is placed in the infirmary, much to her confusion, she is not a doctor, she is a newly graduated woman with an engineering degree, she thought she would be producing prosthetic limbs, not… this.

It is horrible, Yongsun discovers that steel is replacing skin, inch by inch, it swallows the body as flesh is covered by shiny grey plates. Ethics and morals thrown out the window, soldiers are being saved from the brink of death only to be sent out to the frontier again as humans with ticking hearts and bodies that are no longer their own.

Yongsun is shocked at what the world has become and what it expects her to do. She does not want to be a part of this monstrosity, does not want to play around with fate — it is wild, reckless and can not be controlled — but humans do as they please and challenge any thing that might stand in the way of their own interests or what they think is best for humanity.