“Move aside, kids.”, the policeman declared as he pushed down the door of one of the flats in the building they entered. He shook his hands and blew over his knuckles, the aggressive force of his shoulders and his punch leaving a visible scar. He stepped aside and let the others get inside, before he himself walked in.

“One, two, three… Three bedrooms. If needed, we can just break down the door of another flat, yeah?”, Jisung started off as he looked around the lifeless home. There was a hint of craze in his behaviour, but the others decided not to question or pry any further.

“Umm, Soobin-hyung.” Kai called out as he went into the kitchen, pulling the fridge’s door open, hunting through for some food. He frowned at the smell and visibly shook at the sudden gust of cool air. “Nothing worth eating here, guys… Except for juice, I suppose, and some fruits. Anyways, hyung, is mom okay? Is she still in that building?”

“Oh, yes. Both Mrs. Huening and Mrs. Choi are alright, and so is Mr. Choi.”, Soobin said as he put his crutches aside and let his body relax onto the chair at the corner of the living room, Yeonjun lifting his leg gently in the darkness of the room. “Speaking of Yeonjun’s father… Uh… If we do see him again, I’d suggest Tae and Gyu to stay away. He was, umm, saying stuff he shouldn’t be.”

“Wow. With all due respect, and I’m sorry Yeonjun-hyung, but I will literally smother Taehyun with kisses right in front of his eyes.”, Beomgyu said furiously as he tightened his grip on a bottle of water he proceeded to chug down.

“What? Are you both dating each other or something? Here we go again with another pair of sinners…”, the policeman remarked in a hysterical tone as he leaned against the counter in the kitchen.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the house, and Yeosang almost pulled out his gun if it weren’t for Wooyoung restricting him. On the other hand, Jisung let out a chuckle, waddling across the room with a bizarre smile and raging eyes. At that familiar action, Changbin buried his face in his hands, knowing what was to unfold, while the others in the room stared in wonder.

“I’m sure you all are wondering about my history with the wonderful police of our country. I mean, this only regards a few officers, but it still hurts to this day, haha!” Jisung whistled a tune and suddenly dropped to his knees, his face contorting in pain. “You see, I have a beautiful, amazingly talented, sassy little boyfriend! But it’s a sin, a sin! And when those officers saw my hands intertwined with my love’s, oh, they were furious, they were suddenly priests and everything holy! Spitting out names and curses, and even pointing a gun at us, mocking us… Aww, poor me! I can only imagine what would happen if my social anxiety pushed through at that moment!”

The deadly aura radiating from Jisung was noticed by everyone, but they chose to listen and observe. They knew that it was a memory – a nightmare – that mattered a lot to Jisung, and his erratic behaviour was no more a surprise.

“Sir, my humble sir, you must be disgusted, yeah? Will you mock me, shoot me, kill me? Try me! We’ll just kill you like we did to the other two!”, Jisung concluded as he rose to his feet and twirled in his place. He was scarred, and that was as clear as day.

“The other two? There were two other officers with you? And y-you killed them? Well, so a bunch of murderers then?”, the policeman questioned as he took a step forward, his finger just a centimetre away from pulling the trigger.

Yeosang instinctively pulled out his hidden pistol, aiming it at the man, muting out the gasps of the others in the room. He fixed his gaze on the officer, his finger just as close to the trigger as the other’s. “Don’t even try, sir.”

“Wait, wait, please let me interfere.”, Seungmin piped in as he put out his hands in defeat. “Firstly, Jisung, I am terribly sorry that you had to face that, but we’ve talked about this before and I told you that they will be punished someday, okay? That was just a certain group of officers, so please calm down. Secondly, sir, we didn’t kill the two police officers with us! We were all together at the gym, but they couldn’t make it out in time, and the machine crushed the place with the liquid it secreted. We are not at fault. We are not murderers.”

It was a lie, but he couldn’t let anyone get hurt.

Consequently, one of the nurses interrupted, “Please stop. T-This is unnecessary. The night will slip away from us if we continue like this, and we all know that we need the rest, especially you all.” She looked at the university students understandingly.

“Okay, I’ll pick out clothes for all of us to change into. Someone pack some food into our bags. And umm, could someone explain everything that happened so far to those who just joined us?”, San suggested as he began walking towards one of the bedrooms.

“Taehyun, you’ve been through a lot. Please get some rest. I’ll explain everything to them.” Yeji was already sitting down on the carpet, gesturing Jisu to hold out her torch over the table at the centre of the room while Yeji began to draw on a piece of paper she ripped out from her notebook. “Sorry, but the drawings will be small, unlike the more explanatory diagram that Taehyun drew on the gym floor.”

While Taehyun settled himself onto the couch and shut his eyes, Yeji began to elaborate on the details of the chaos to those who wished to know. Meanwhile, Yeonjun heard his phone ring, and he immediately handed it over to Soobin.

“Hello?”

There was a moment’s pause, and Soobin couldn’t help but smile at the soothing, comforting voice on the other side of the line. “Mom… I’m fine, I promise. Yes, my SIM card’s not with me, and my phone’s dead, remember? I just… Well, I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily…”

But there was a glitch.

Soobin frowned and pulled the phone away, wondering if the call was still ongoing – and it was. “Mom? Hello?”, he tried to reach out but only flinched as he heard a loud, scratchy sound from the speaker. He stared in disbelief at the phone’s screen, pitch-black and unresponsive. “Your phone’s dead.”

“What? No, no, I still had enough charge left!”, Yeonjun complained as he took back his phone and began to tap helplessly, trying to restart the device.

“Mine’s almost fully charged from this morning. You can use mine to call her back…” Soyeon stopped midway as she blinked her eyes repeatedly. “E-Everyone, check your damn phones right now.”, she demanded and the others did as they were told, letting out a chorus of groans.

“Great. So our phones are really dead now, huh? Is it because of the electricity? But didn’t Soobin-hyung call Yeonjun-hyung earlier?”, Kai asked as he waved his torch around the dark room while stuffing packets of food and bottles of nutrition into the bags lying on the kitchen floor.

“Well…”, Haseul trailed off as she walked away from the table at the centre. She hummed to herself as she looked out the window, her eyes scanning the world outside. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Oh.” Haseul repeated as she looked back towards the others. “Cell towers. The ones within the barrier, and I believe there is only one, died out as soon as the electricity was cut, but these towers u