-

The two men bring Kai and Taemin to a house in the middle of nowhere, as far as Kai’s sense of direction goes. The minute they step in through the door, the blonde man yells, “Lay! Bullet wound!”

A guy with brown hair and deep dimples shows up, and puts a hand on Taemin’s back. “Come with me,” he says. As the two snake down the hallway, Kai doesn’t see much of an option except to follow.

Kai sits in an empty chair and watches as the man named Lay sterilizes and then bandages Taemin’s shoulder. The man’s hands are quick, and Taemin’s shoulder is wrapped up in no time. “Thanks for the help man,” Taemin says, and with a smile, Lay hands Taemin a wadded shirt. When Taemin pulls the shirt on, it’s too big on him, but he seems content to be at least clean and covered.

The two tall men walk into the room and pull up two chairs. “I’m Chanyeol,” the less tall of the two with the reddish hair introduces. “And this tall guy is Kris.”

Kris gives Kai a nod and takes over. “How long have you two been on the run?” he asks.

Kai looks at Taemin, who scratches his chin. “Two… maybe three weeks?” he mutters.

Chanyeol nods. “Not too long? Not a lot of going back in time?”

Taemin shakes his head. “We didn’t have any sort of plan. Everywhere we went, they found us.”

Kris eyes Kai and Taemin, as if sizing them up. “That’s no surprise. Their technology is way too advanced. They have machines that can find us, even when we jump back in time. They’ve developed a method of tracing a time jump when it happens, and finding the location where the time traveler lands,” the blonde man explains.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if they only knew where the time traveler landed,” the guy named Lay adds. “But the thing is, when we jump back in time, it’s not just the time jump that becomes available on their radars. It’s the heat wave patterns in our bodies. Right after we time jump, our body temperatures have some sort of overdrive, and make us traceable for a certain amount of time.”

Kai’s brain races with thoughts. He finds himself recalling the rise in body temperature every time he time jumps. “Then… is it safer to stay in the present?” he asks.

“Sadly, no,” Chanyeol answers. “They can find you ten times quicker if you stay in the present. Right now, in 2013, with how much power the League of Hunters has, all us time travelers are as good as dead.”

An ominous silence follows. Kai wonders how many time travelers have already been killed, when Taemin breaks the ice. “Then, what the hell do we do? Just sit here and wait to die??”

Lay clears his voice, before giving Taemin a crooked smile. “No,” he says,  “That’s why we brought you here.”

Kris stands up, his massive height towering over Kai. “There’s a time machine in the year 1983. It’s creator is transporting all backward time travelers who make it to that year to the future, to 2030, when the League has been wiped out. It’s the only way us time travelers can survive,” he says.

“But… but that’s impossible. We can’t travel back more than a few months, maybe a year, at best. How the hell do we get to 1983?” Taemin argues.

Chanyeol gets up from his chair as well. “With numbers,” he replies with a smirk. “It turns out, when us time travelers combine our time jumps, we can go back way further.”

Kai can’t help but feel intimidated by the heights of the two men. But he fights the urge to stand up with them, since he would still be shorter anyway. “Still… can’t we only time jump from and to a place we remember? I wasn’t even born back in 1983,” he says instead.

The sound of a cell phone ringing makes Kai jump in his seat. He watches Kris pull out a tiny rectangular phone from his pocket, and leave the room to take the call.

“That’s another thing,” Lay remarks. “Actually, there is a way for time travelers to go further back in time than what they can remember. It’s done by using an object from the past, instead of your own memories.”

The information makes Kai blink in confusion. Taemin’s jaw drops. “You’re right, the two of you could never get to 1983 by yourselves. Because one, you don’t have memories of 1983, and two, two travelers don’t have enough power to travel thirty years into the past.” Lay points out.

“So,” Taemin utters. “The three of you have an object from 1983? And you’re coming with us?”

Chanyeol and Lay exchange looks. “We do have the object you need to jump back to 1983... But we’re not going with you guys.” Chanyeol explains. “We’re trying to look for as many survivors as we can, to tell them about this solution. What we’re in charge of is finding people, sending them off, and trying to get groups to meet up with each other once they're in the past.”

Kris comes back with a clear frown on his face. “They traced a group of three that jumped back to a place near here, but Siwon says he won’t make it there in time. Chanyeol, we need to go help,” he says.

“Damn,” Chanyeol swears. “Three… how many men do you think the hunters will send for three?” Without waiting for Kris’s answer, the man goes and opens a tall dresser on the wall. Kai’s eyes widen as he realizes, Chanyeol is pulling out two full-length rifles from the drawer.

“We can take em’,” Kris grunts, although his expression seems to say otherwise, Kai thinks. Without another word, Kris walks out of the room, and in a few steps, Kai hears the door to the house open and slam shut. Chanyeol follows, both rifles slung around his arm. Before he goes, the tall man turns to Kai and Taemin with a half smirk, half frown. “Hope you two make it,” he says, and he’s gone.

Lay stands up and walks to the dresser. Kai gulps, as the man pulls out two, sleek, black semi-automatic pistols, and several rounds of bullets secured in rows. He hands a gun and a row of bullets to both Kai and Taemin.

“A gun…? I… I can’t use this thing,” Taemin mutters, holding the pistol in his hand as if it might blow up any minute.

“You have to,” Lay states firmly. “We have to go. The two of you need to start jumping back in time. Your first destination is an old factory in district Lambda, two years ago. That’s where you’ll meet another crew like us, and more time travelers to get you to the past quicker.”

Kai mentally stops himself from dropping the pistol to the floor, and manages to stick the gun in his belt, along with the bullet rounds. Lay nods to Kai, and goes to Taemin to help him secure his gun and bullets. When both Kai and Taemin are armed, Lay hands Taemin a filthy shoelace to tuck into his pocket as well.

“That’s the object the two of you will use to jump back to two years ago. Of course, it won’t lead you straight to the factory. The moment you two arrive in the past, you’ll show up as red targets on the hunters’ radars.” Lay instructs. “Once you’ve jumped back in time, start running. Get out of the initial time jump location. You’ll still have enough body heat to be tracked down, so keep on the move for about half an hour. Don’t let them catch up to you, but don’t lead them to the factory either. After that half hour, your body temperatures will have come back to normal, and that’s when you head for the factory. The crew there will help you jump back to your next location.”

Taemin gulps nervously. Kai can feel the hairs on his neck stand up, and when he speaks, his voice is shaking. “What happens if the hunters track us and catch us?”

Lay looks him in the eyes with such a blank expression, it makes Kai shudder. “Either they kill you or you kill them,” the man responds, his hardened face unwavering. “Let’s get out of here then,” he says, and Kai and Taemin don't have much of a choice other than to follow Lay to a car identical to Kris and Chanyeol’s.

The man drives Kai and Taemin to an abandoned rail-train station right on the  outskirts of district Lambda. The sun is setting and the air is getting musty and chilly. Standing on top of the corroded rail-tracks, Kai can see numerous weathered factories in the heart of the district.

Lay gives them directions on how to jump back in time with an object, instead of memories. The jumping back further in time by concentrating both of Kai and Taemin's time travel abilities is easier than Kai expected. It's a simple matter or having skin contact, and so Kai and Taemin hold hands. On Taemin’s insistence, the man also briefly shows them how to use their guns.

“Remember, empty your thoughts, and concentrate on the shoelace,” Lay tells them, standing a few feet away from them to see them off. Kai clutches the shoelace in his free hand.

Taemin lets out a deep sigh. “Hey Lay,” he says. “Can I ask you, how you guys found Kai and me in the first place?” Kai watches Lay’s expression, as it takes on a barely noticeable smirk.

“We stole a few of the hunters’ trackers,” Lay replies, crossing his arms. “They think they can hunt all of us down to extinction, well they’re wrong. I don’t plan on going down until I drag a handful of dead hunters with me. Now, the two of you, go!”

Kai looks at Taemin, who tears his gaze away from Lay with fear in his eyes. Kai’s own heart is pumping faster than ever. He sees the concentration glazing  Taemin’s eyes, and tightens his grip on the dirty shoelace in his hand. The next  second, the crimson sunset disappears from Kai’s view, to be replaced by a bluish darkness. Taemin’s body pops into form right in front of him, the two of them still holding hands. Kai blinks once, then twice, before letting Taemin’s hand go. The air is much drier than it was in 2013. Taemin whips his head back and forth, observing the same rail-train station they had stood on two years later. Kai stuffs the shoelace in his pocket, and tenses his muscles. He feels the weight of the gun on his belt. “Let’s go,” he says to Taemin.

His friend nods, and takes the lead. Kai stares at the angle drawn on his friend’s shoulders, the wounded left shoulder lower than the normal right. But the worry only lasts for second, as Taemin’s pace quickens, and the two push on into the dark center streets of district Lambda.

-

Hello! I believe this is the first legitimate author's note here!

I hope you're enjoying the story! If you have any questions or if anything gets confusing, please don't hesitate to ask questions!

And just because I can... ^^