“What happened?” Xiumin asked as Chen and MAMA entered the camp.

Chen gently laid MAMA on the ground and placed her head onto a backpack as the others gathered around. Carefully, he unwrapped her bandages. The Guardians all gasped at the sight of the blood soaked wound.

“What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?” Sehun shouted, pacing back and forth quickly. “If she dies, we’ll all end up stuck in this stupid desert!”

“Nice to see you have your focus in the right place,” Luhan scolded, kneeling down next to MAMA. “How are you feeling, MAMA?”

“I’m fine,” MAMA groaned, sitting up. “Why are you all so panicked? It’s just a wound.”

Lay looked at MAMA’s wound and bit his lip anxiously. After fighting with his conscience, he pushed everyone aside and crouched in front of MAMA. He lifted MAMA’s shirt up slightly and began examining her wound.

“What are you doing?” Tao asked, covering his eyes. “Are you helping her? You?”

“Don’t get any weird ideas. I just want to make sure she doesn’t die. If she dies, we won’t know what to do. For now, she’s the only one who knows this planet like the back of her hand. I know I’ve been a bit skeptical,” Lay apologized softly.

“A bit,” D.O. scoffed.

Lay shot him a glare and continued to speak as he dabbed away the blood with a handkerchief from his pocket.

“But, I know that everyone is a bit shaken up and scared right now. I mean, we have no idea where we are, and MAMA,” Lay said sternly. “You kidnapped us, so now you have to take responsibility, okay? You have to make sure we at least keep alive until you take us to wherever the hell you’re taking us.”

MAMA was a bit taken back by Lay’s speech but nodded to show that she was listening.

“Someone get me water. Chen, can you light the firewood? I think I have a lighter in my backpack,” Lay ordered.

“I’ll do you one better,” Chen smirked, placing firewood inside of the rock circle the boys had prepared. He held his hand out at the wood and shot a spark of lightning, igniting a fire.

“Whoa! Dude, that was awesome,” Baekhyun commented, high fived Chen. A spark lighted between the two, electrocuting Baekhyun. “Yow!”

“Sorry,” Chen held his hand up apologetically. “Still new to the whole powers thing.”

“Here’s the water,” Kris called out, tossing his bottle of water to Lay.

Lay caught the bottle and slowly rinsed out MAMA’s wounds, making sure no debris got into it. Once that was done, he looked through his backpack to find a small rag, which he used to put pressure on her wound. MAMA gritted her teeth at the sting of a foreign item pressed against her wound.

“Are you sure you should be treating her wound? Do you even know how to treat a wound?” Tao asked.

“Well, I have to do something to stop the bleeding! Besides, I’ve gone with my parents on meetings with hospital managers before and checked out plenty of operations and treatments. Pretty sure I have the gist of things,” Lay replied calmly, not taking his focus off of MAMA. “Do any of you have bandages in your backpack?”

The boys quickly ran to their backpacks and began searching for anything that could stand for a bandage. Eventually, Chanyeol’s hand brushed against a soft, porous surface jammed at the bottom of his backpack and pulled it out. Grinning from ear to ear as he identified it as a roll of gauze, he ran over to Lay, handing him the roll. Lay began to wrap MAMA up when she stopped him.

“Lay, I can do this myself. Just let me bandage myself,” MAMA said, trying to take the gauze from him.

“MAMA, just let me do this… okay?” Lay gazed into MAMA’s eyes sternly. He smirked as he continued wrapping the gauze around MAMA’s abdomen. “Besides, you’ll owe me after this. I could use that favor for anything.”

MAMA scoffed at Lay’s sly plan but let him continue. Once he was done, he used the gauze clip to hold the bandage in place. Once Lay was done, he stepped back to give MAMA some air.

“It’s getting late. You should all probably go get some rest,” MAMA sighed. “Are you guys hungry?”

“We’re fine, MAMA,” Sehun replied softly.

Suddenly his stomach growled loudly and he wrapped his arms around it sheepishly. All the other guardians stared at him wide eyed as he bowed to them, flustered.

“Okay, okay, maybe I’m a little hungry,” Sehun chuckled.

“I think we have some food in our backpacks,” MAMA groaned, sitting up.

“Oh, no,” Chanyeol said sternly, pushing MAMA back down. “This is my area of expertise. You leave the cooking to me and rest.”

“Chanyeol, really, I don’t need you to baby me,” MAMA rejected, pushing Chanyeol away.

“I said rest!” Chanyeol barked, pushing her back down.

MAMA looked at Chanyeol in surprise and obliged to his command. As Chanyeol ran around from backpack to backpack, collecting ramen ingredients, Luhan walked over with a blanket and tucked MAMA in. He smiled softly and petted MAMA on the head.

“You seem really young. How old are you?” Luhan asked, sitting next to her.

“I don’t have an age,” MAMA replied.

“What do you mean? Everyone has an age,” Luhan continued curiously.

“I’m not exactly like… everyone. I’m different. I don’t even know when my birthday is. The scientists who have taken care of me say that I’m about seventeen or something,” MAMA explained, looking away glumly.

“Oh.” Luhan whispered softly. He smiled and continued playing with MAMA’s hair. “Looks like you’re my dongsaeng then. You’ll be little sister from now on, okay?”

“Why are you being so nice to me? I kidnapped you from your homes,” MAMA asked bluntly.

Luhan looked taken back, but he casually sighed and stuck his lips out, thinking.

“Well. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. I guess it’s just… instincts,” Luhan pondered the question. “Even if you did kidnap us, no one should be left alone to die in the wild. We need to stick together if we want to survive. And, you know, as a human, it’s natural for an older person to care for a younger person, whether they’re good or not.”

MAMA took his words to heart and snuggled under the blanket, thinking about what he really meant. As she drifted off to sleep, she could hear the sound of Chanyeol, Lay, and D.O. fighting over the cooking.

Is this what a family is like? MAMA wondered.

Did you guys hear about the EXO comeback? .... //spazzes out. Anyway, to give you a little hint on who or what's coming up. I just have to say. Duizhang.