I was lying on a flowerbed, somewhere on an unnamed prairie; I was wearing a simple, A-line, pink dress. The sky was light blue, and the fresh wind tousled by hair. I heard footsteps getting near me, and so I sat up. I saw a man walking towards me, wearing a long sleeve white shirt and some jeans. Whoever he was, he had his face covered with a bouquet, which he held with his right hand. The man came up to me, kneeling in front of me and pushing the flowers forward. I was stunned with such a sweet gesture. I took the flowers and admired their colorful beauty. I looked back at the man, to finally see it was JongIn. He smiled, showing that beautiful face of his. I blushed, hiding my own face behind the flowers. Kai slowly pushed them aside, bringing his face closer to mine. I began to move away from him, but he continued on. Little by little I was once again being laid on the flowerbed. Kai was now kneeling over me, looking straight at my eyes with mischievousness.

As much as I admired him, I didn’t want to kiss him… or did I? The man kept getting closer, and there was nowhere else for me to turn to. I closed my eyes and waited for his lips to touch mine…

But the kiss never came. I opened my eyes again and found myself being hugged by someone. I looked up and found a woken up JongIn gently patting my hair. I jumped back in surprise, separating from him some distance. I eyed him with nervousness, trying to distinguish between fiction and reality. I looked around and found the brighten up cave, meaning it was already another day. He was staring at me with worry.

MJ: …um…I just had a dream… and it startled me… that’s all… sorry for scaring you…

I half smiled, trying to control my emotions, but… Woah Woah WOAH! What is this!! I completely separated from Kai, got on my feet and looked back at him. He was sitting now, with a very confused expression. I faked a chuckle.

MJ: …hehe… just a little jumpy because of the journey today… hehe… you know… period issues!

I said while pointing and my pants. I looked down and found my legs once again stained in drips of blood. Kai nodded while looking down, touching the back of his head with his right hand.

MJ: ..um yeah, I know… Too much information…sorry!… I’ll just go have dip in the water then… so, take your time to wake up… hehe

I walked away from him as fast as possible, getting into the cold water; just what I needed. Period was right!! But I wasn’t jumpy… believe me! I was far from that!... Didn’t they tell this guy to be careful around bleeding women?!... WE’RE DANGEROUS! And I was feeling like a hungry wolf, so please JongIn, don’t touch me…Please! Just take in the coldness of the water and let out all your bad vibes… let it go let it go let it go! Kai came near the water’s edge, filling up one of the canteens. Mmmmm, you look mighty fine today… Mind giving Mama Jeong some shuga?...WAIT! OHMY GOD! WHAT DID YOU JUST IMAGINE!! You filthy ……Did I just insult myself?...

Meanwhile, Kai finished his water and went to wake the others. They woke up and began to get dressed. Maybe seeing them all clothed again will ease my hormones. I saw Lay checking out everyone’s injuries, making sure they were healing. He cleaned them and re-bandaged them with more salts. I was finally feeling a little better, so I came out of the water and got dressed. I had to use my blazer as the only top-clothing, since I used up my entire white school blouse to wrap everyone’s injuries. It didn’t cover as much as the blouse, but it wasn’t so exposed either. As I was making the finishing touches on myself, I felt something hard on my blazer; it was something in the front pocket. I took it out and found BaekHyun’s locket.

I opened it up and viewed once again the picture inside; a pretty middle aged woman with an average looking young boy. I have a feeling this belonged to his mother… What was he trying to tell me?... What could have his words meant?... And who could this mysterious person you were telling me about be?... I took the necklace and put it on myself; who knows, maybe it would bring me luck. I turned towards the rest of the group, which was ready to set sail.

MJ: You guys, I need you to be sincere with me. Are you alright? What I mean is, if you’re all feeling well. We don’t want to risk no one. If someone needs extra rest don’t be afraid to say it; remember we work for each other’s health (none of them showed concerns regarding the topic). Well, in that case let’s go through the plan quickly. Kris told me we had to go downstream to reach the next stage. He didn’t tell me what it was like, only that we would encounter it if we kept on track. So, I’m guessing the only way to get there is letting the river carry us.

LanFang asked why we couldn’t take the sides of the river, where a forest stood at each side.

MJ: Well, I think they might have a specific way of getting into the area. Or maybe Kris is just toying with us and we should take the sides. But if you look well, those forests look very vast and dangerous; overgrown with vegetation. I think an animal could attack us. But then again, going down stream in a river isn’t any safer. Let’s just get out of here and see what wilderness has to offer us.

The guys all nodded. Everyone got to packing. Each one took his or her new weapon, with a filled canteen, and a small leather pouch filled with the remains of fresh fruit. Everything got tired up to each person’s waist or pants upper trim. We all reached for the edge of the water, and slowly began to introduce ourselves in its cold depth. Little by little we began to descend, as the river bed gave way to enter its vastness. We had reached the cave’s exit, now floating completely, trying to maneuver all our movements according to all the weight we were holding. We took a look beyond, taking a batter view of what the river was all about.

As beautiful as it all was, the fear of actually being in it made me shiver.

MJ: You guys ready? I anyone feels some sort of insecurity, speak up now. We can’t have anyone drowning on the long swim we’re about to take (no one protested). Remember to look out for each other. Everyone, get into pairs. Any pains or if something is just plain wrong, let us know. Also, we don’t know how the Exotics will attack us here, so stay on guard… I don’t want to think they have a giant octopus waiting for us… (Kai mouthed that octopuses didn’t live in rivers). Still!! A crocodile or something! Or is Mr. KAIman gonna save us? Hehe, get it KAI- man? Yes…No… (coff)…sorry, no time for jokes; I’m just a little nervous. Now, let’s get moving. We’ll go nice and steady, just to make sure everyone is getting use to it…

We began to swim, slowly making our way in the same direction as the river’s gentle, continues movements. Kai was at my right. The other four were right behind us, all grouped up. We simply followed the only current that was running around. We didn’t even have to so much, since the current itself lead us forward. It’s funny, how I’ve been such a clean girl all my life, always running away from bacteria filled places. Yet here I am, swimming in an infested green-watered river that’s filled with unknown creatures and their “businesses”. LuHan use to tease me because I always carried around a little bottle of Hand Sanitizer… to bad I didn’t have one around… LuHan… why do I feel so weird recently? Why do I keep dreaming about you?... My conscious is really not helping me control myself…I just want you to be safe and alive… I want to see your smiling face… And… I want to tell you how much I lo…

A flying fish jumped from the water and slapped me right in the face. The rest of the guys started laughing, and had to stop swimming so they didn’t drown. Kai was actually the only one that looked worried and came up to me, taking my face in his hands so he could inspect me better. I took a view of him; his wet hair spiking out in all directions made him seem even more appealing. Water drops ran down his face, glistening with the sun rays that shone upon us. He looked like a mythological god… oh oh OH! NOT THAT AGAIN!

MJ: I’m fine, really!! Don’t have to get all worrisome about some stupid little fish… hehe… now let’s go on…

I took Kai’s hands and removed them from my face so I could keep swimming, but he reached back towards me and passed his thumb near my nose. He showed it to me and a blood smudge was there.

MJ: Oh… a scratch! Don’t worry…I’m fine…really fine…(last phrase came out a little bit sensual, but I managed to recover)… I mean good!! Now chop chop!

I turned sideways and continued on, trying to get the rest of them moving. Soon we were once again on our way; Kai had managed to catch up to me. I tried not to look at him too much. Lord, why can’t this period go away? Not only is it uncomfortable and embarrassing, its turning me into a beast! I mean, why am I acting like this around JongIn... HELLO! He’s younger than me… like by a few months… STILL! He’s just my friend… scratch that… HIS MY BABY!! I just needed LuHan. He always knew how to make those “fuzzy” filling go away. He’d actually arouse me: he took my hand, he took me into tight hugs, he’d kiss my cheeks… And for some reason, my body got scared and BAM! The went away. You might be thinking he got al “happy”, right?... Well he didn’t. That’s another reason why I think he’s…well, you know… UGH! Anyways, the thing is I don’t feel like if I did these things with Kai, it would go away. I think he has TOO many pheromones on the loose, and they affect me instead of helping. Not like LuHan; he was always so calm and sweet, I think he NEEDED pheromone injections… Oh dear, my poor baby LuHan all mistreated in those dungeons. He must be having a horrible time down there; I think it’s a MIRACLE he’s still alive… He’s been so strong…

MJ: …Kai… how is the dungeon life like? What do they do down there?....

Kai seemed amused by the question. Still, he couldn’t answer because we were swimming and he couldn’t move his hands around. I just told him to ignore the question for the time being. We kept on , and the Sun above kept on burning our skin. It would be midday soon, and we would have to take a rest. Over working ourselves isn’t the answer to anything either. I told them to keep at it, that we’d take a break soon. When the Sun was right above us I spoke again.

MJ: You guys, I think it’s time we took a rest. It’s been a couple of hours since we started out, and I feel like we need to recover. Let’s just float for a while. The majority of us got on our backs and let the current take us a drift. But I heard some splashing and took a glance. It was XiuMin oppa, who was having trouble floating.

MJ: Oppa… I think it’s going to be impossible for you to float with a hammer tied to your waist. I’m actually impressed you made it so far with all that extra weight on. You know what, give me that. You need a big rest. I’ll hold this for you for a while.

I swam up to MinSeok and took the weapon from him. At first he seemed unsure, but eventually sighted and just went with it. He smiled and thanked me before getting on his back. Wow, this was heavy! Poor guy moving this on his own. I made my way back to Kai, ready to ask him once again about the dungeons. When he saw what I had done, he took the hammer from me. But I took it back again.

MJ: No, you need your hands free. I need to know what goes around in the dungeons. Tell me everything… and don’t try to hide facts… I can take it…

Kai stared at me with a stern look, but eventually calmed down. He began his movements and mouthing; talking with him was the easiest. Since he’s been here for so long he must have grown use to interacting with other players, so he eventually knew the easiest and fastest gestures to express words. After seeing his messages, I could have a clear description on how those horrible places worked.

None of the prisoners knew where the dungeons were located, since each time they went in or out of them they would be knocked out or blindfolded. Women and men were in separated dungeons, but Kai seemed to be sure that they were still nearby. The dungeons cells were made out of stone and cement, without any commodities, just a hole on the floor corner to use as a bathroom. No beds, sinks, technologies. In each cell there could be up to 8 prisoners. The Exotics gave them one meal a day, and it was usually a small portion, accompanied by a glass of water. A new set of clothes were given each time a new game began. When no games were taking place, they would be scattered around Exotica to take care of the plants, reconstruction, corpse removal, and EXO Tower maintenance. Sometimes a warm hearted Exotic appeared, but sooner or later was found out and killed. When games were taking place, the majority of the prisoners were set lose, but they left a back up portion in the dungeons just in case. That was when they usually abducted some of the prisoners to the other dungeons where they were trained to be used as decoys and undercover. There was an even uglier side to all of this. Some Exotics often visited both dungeons looking to satisfy their unpleasant desires. Since women were sterilized after being captured, they didn’t have to worry about unwanted children being born. Because of the same reason, girl didn’t get their period.

MJ: WHAT!!? THAT’S HORRIBLE!... how could these people DO such things!? No wonder you’re all so desperate to get out of here!... (my voice was beginning to fail me)…What about talking? The Cyanide? The chain?

Kai explained that they couldn’t talk in the dungeons either. Everyone spoke their last word the moment they got defeated and brought to be prisoners. Some people often forget, and right on the spot when they talk, they get injected; just like his little sister. No pity for anybody. As for the chain, it’s used to maintain them in certain areas when put to work; just so they don’t feel tempted to strangle one of the supervising Exotics. Another thing Kai pointed out was the mid-prisoner treatment. That was what LuHan was: half a prisoner, but still with hopes of being freed. Mid-prisoners were treated as normal prisoners, but they were kept in a separated cell all alone. They usually received worst treatments to make them look all beat up when the first recording came along.

MJ:… okay.. that’s enough… I get the picture…

My eyes had begun to tear up, and my voice was already cracking. I’ve been complaining about my situation, yet… LuHan has been in more pain and fear than me. If I don’t see LuLu soon… I might die of a heart attack before I even reach the end. This tension if just too much… But the fear of losing him… the pain of even thinking about it… Kai saw my reaction and changed; he was already sad, now he was even more. He tried to come over to me, but I asked something else…

MJ: JongIn… do you think LuHan is still alive?... Do you think he has endures all of that? He’s so fragile and delicate…I…just…

His expression changed into some furrowed brows. He seemed disturbed…upset… He gestured out that he didn’t know, but that he hoped so… he had faith…

MJ: Thanks for telling me this Kai… Now I remember well why we have to hurry… Why I need to save you all… come, let’s go…

I asked everyone if they drank and eaten. They all seemed rested and well, so I told them to continue on. I gave XiuMin his hammer and started making way again…