-

The factory is just a run-down building full of useless machinery. The two men who lead Kai and Taemin there aren't what Kai expected, at all.

One of them turns out to be just a boy, Kai thinks. He's tall and bony, and has small, boyish features, with two very small lines for eyes and straight, light brown hair.

The other seems older, by the way the boy treats him, but his features are just as youthful. He's even shorter than the boy, and keeps smiling at Kai and Taemin gently, as if pitying the two friends for their cluelessness.

Taemin has found a stack of blankets and supplies in a dimly lit part of the factory. He plops down on the floor and lays his pistol beside him, closing his eyes. He rubs circles on his shoulder and upper arm.

Kai stands there, watching Taemin, when the small-eyed boy comes and hands him a chunky piece of bread as big as Kai's fist. Kai just looks at it in his hand for a good while. The last time he ate, he thinks, was hours before he and Taemin were ambushed during the blizzard.

He finally takes a bite of the bread. Chewing feels difficult at first. But the hearty taste of the dough in his mouth wins him over. Before Kai can think, he’s stuffing his face.

Taemin eats just as hungrily. The other boy then comes and hands each of them an apple and water. "I'm Luhan," the older boy, with hair similarly fair as the younger, introduces. "That other one is Sehun. Sorry about earlier, we were just trying to be careful."

"It's no problem," Taemin calls, his mouth full of apple. In what seems like a matter of seconds, Kai and Taemin both devour their food. Their exhaustion is momentarily forgotten by gratified bellies.

"Great job making it here," Luhan continues, smiling at Kai and Taemin with soft, glittering eyes. "Feel free to get some sleep. We'll be on the lookout for more arrivers."

Luhan looks at Kai and gestures to the pile of blankets. Taemin is already grabbing one and lowering himself to the ground, using his one good arm as much as possible.

“What if they track us down…” Kai mumbles, but his eyelids are too heavy. The drowsiness that washes over him commands him to reach for a blanket, whether his mind wants it or not. Kai can’t help but feel like he’s letting too much of his guard down. As he lies down next to Taemin and drifts off into sleep, he hears the two guys talking to each other in hushed tones. The only medium of comfort Kai has left is the hand he places on his semi-automatic.

-

A gun shot. It jolts Kai awake and forces his muscles to shiver under the single blanket. He sits up and looks around him. He remembers that he’s at the old factory, that he’s on the run with his childhood friend Taemin, that they are both being hunted down to be killed.

Luhan and Sehun, who had been sitting on the ground several feet away from Kai, scramble up, listening to the dry night air intently.

Taemin whips up with confusion in his eyes. “Was that a gunshot?” he breathes.

Sehun darts away and disappears into stacks of old factory equipment, before reappearing with his shoulders and arms loaded. Seeing the boy’s grim expression as he returns makes Kai’s stomach churn. In the boy’s arms, are at least six black, sleek, half-arm-length submachine guns.

Kai watches Sehun hand two of the submachine guns to Luhan. He then comes over to Kai and Taemin, making Kai gulp. “Here,” Sehun says, handing Kai a gun. “Get ready to attack if necessary.”

“I already have one,” Kai stutters, pointing to the semi-automatic in his belt.

Sehun shakes his head. “We’re going to need these,” he replies, pushing the machine gun in Kai’s hands, and then giving another one to Taemin.

The loud yell of a male voice in the distance interferes with any further argument. Kai jumps up, the submachine gun in his hands bulky and heavy. Another gunshot whizzes through the air, the sound of the bullet meeting solid brick clear and precise.

Luhan snuffs out the small lamp light they had been using in the factory. Kai is again surrounded by darkness, a feeling he doesn’t like.

The atmosphere is so tense, it feels like the four of them are stuck in the fuzzy space between a backward time jump. Kai hears a ragged dash of breaths, and thinks they’re coming from Taemin, standing right next to him. But he turns to Taemin to see his friend looking back at Kai, with wide eyes and thinly set lips.

No one has time to make out how many footsteps they hear, because the noise is too close, and a figure slams into the single door of the factory, right in front of Sehun. Kai sees both Luhan and Sehun raise their guns. The door bursts open, and a misshapen figure stumbles in.

Neither Luhan or Sehun fire. There’s hardly any light, but Kai finds himself stepping closer to the open door to look at the figure.

“They’re coming,” the figure says, and Kai is taken back. The voice is a girl. And just a few steps behind Sehun, Kai realizes that the figure isn’t just one person. It’s a girl, carrying another girl on her back.

“How many?” Luhan’s soft voice cracks at the solid block of tension in the building.

“I think… six,” the girl responds. Her knees give out from under her, and she falls to the ground, just catching herself with her hands. The girl on her back tumbles off and collapses to the ground next to her, unmoving.

-

Kai wonders how long it’s been since Luhan and Sehun learned to use the darkness of the shadows to their advantage.

Right in front of Kai’s eyes, Luhan and Sehun look at each other and exchange nods, full of words that Kai can’t figure out. Luhan then points at Kai with a finger. “Keep your guard up,” he says firmly. “Don’t take your finger off the trigger.”

And with that, the two disappear through the door and into the blackness. An unbearable silence follows. The still conscious of the girls on the floor lets out a sigh, adjusting her sitting position on the cold ground. She puts her arms protectively over the unconscious girl, and looks around at Taemin and Kai.

A shower of distant footsteps jerks Kai’s head up. He feels the urge to go and shut the door that Luhan and Sehun left through. He then looks at Taemin, who gives back a nod of uncertainty.

Bone chattering sounds of multiple submachine gun fires slash at the night air. There doesn’t seem to be any firing back, just deadly, roaring attacks from within the shadowed streets. Kai furrows his eyebrows at sounds of bodies hitting the ground.

After the first of the fighting blares, silence follows. Instinct tells Kai to move forward, in the space between the single door and the two girls on the ground. Taemin comes and joins him.

The door opens slowly. The bony figures of Luhan and Sehun walk in. Sehun shows nothing on his face, but Luhan nods at Kai and Taemin before going and switching the single lamp back on. The light makes Kai squint briefly before he gets used to it.

“Is she hurt?” Luhan asks, crouching down beside the first girl.

Kai and Taemin both turn and watch the girl shake her head. “She passed out as soon as we jumped back to this year. I think she’s just, mentally drained. There were three of us before Siwon, Kangin, Kris, and Chanyeol came…”

Her voice catches in , but she only takes a moment to recollect herself. “Jessica’s boyfriend was killed by the hunters. She was hysterical when we got to Lay’s hideout, and it just got worse when Lay tried to give her the gun…”

Luhan nods again. He puts his machine guns down and goes to the girl named Jessica, lifting her up. He brings her to the corner of the building with the supplies, laying her down and draping a blanket over her. Meanwhile, Sehun wordlessly pops up and hands the other girl the same food Kai and Taemin got when they arrived.

“Thanks…” the girl mutters, nibbling away on the bread.

“Eat and sleep. I think we can afford to wait for others…” Luhan starts, but the girl cuts him off.

“There won’t be others,” she says. In the light from the lamp, Kai notices a dark, sharpness to her eyes paralleled by her dark, straight hair. Sitting on the ground, she looks way too thin and pale. But there’s a fierceness about her. Especially the hardness in her voice.

“The hunters tracked the house down. This location can’t be used for time traveling back any more. Chanyeol told us to go ahead and move on with the people we meet up when we got here,” she continues.

Luhan’s face hardens, and he looks at Sehun. They exchange silent words with their eyes again, and Kai takes the opportunity to speak up. “Did they escape?” he asks the girl. She turns her sharp eyes to him. “I mean, Chanyeol, Kris, and Lay,” Kai adds.

She nods in response. “They’re not very smart, the hunters,” she remarks. “They seem to like to announce the fact that they’ve arrived, and give us enough time to sneak off before they start shooting.”

Sehun lets outs out a puff of air at the comment. Kai doesn’t have anything more to say and just stands there with Taemin, while Luhan and Sehun continue the talking.

“We’ll take you four to the next time jump location in the morning,” Luhan states. “For now, I think it’s safe for us to get some sleep.” With a smile, he puts out a hand to the girl on the ground. He helps her up, and leads her to the corner next to the girl named Jessica.

“You guys get more sleep too,” Luhan turns to Kai and Taemin. With a sigh, Taemin deposits his machine gun against the stack of blankets, grabs the one he was using before, and lies down, a few feet away from the girls.

“Hyung, you sleep too,” Sehun states. “I’ll take the first watch.”

Kai plops down beside Taemin with his blanket. He glimpses at the girl with the dark hair, who is busy brushing stray hairs off of the other girl’s face. When he lies down and closes his eyes, his hand moves to the semi-automatic at his belt, again.

-

No image today ^^;