A warning: to the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim; this is war.

Fight. Run. Hide. Live.

They were four most important guidelines.

Fight…and don’t show mercy.

Run…and don’t stop.

Hide…and don’t reveal yourself.

Live…and don’t die.

Junhong darted around the corner, nearly skidding across the stones. Pressing himself to the walls of the buildings surrounding the street, he tried to blend in with the crowd. He slipped by pregnant women and elderly men, little girls and teenage boys. He heard the hum of the street grow as people noticed the Imposers filtering through the crowd.

Gulping, Junhong quickened his pace, rushing through the crowd. He was careful not to draw attention to himself by pushing people out of the way. Finally, near the end of the street he slipped into a narrow alleyway. The entrance was so discreet you could easily have missed it, but Junhong had travelled this way so many times he had lost count.

The alleyway widened further down. Barely a soul was seen, a stark contrast from the bustling market street he had just exited. He broke into the street. He could still hear the confusion of the people in the markets at the sudden appearance of the Imposers.

Trying to ignore his rushing heartbeat he kept running at a steady pace. Turning another corner he came upon another street. This one was larger with a few shops and people milling about. Junhong smiled in relief, he had nearly made it.

Slowing down he tried to look nonchalant as he entered a noodle shop. It was empty save for one beautiful young woman behind the counter. Seeing Junhong, she straightened up.  “Junhong,” she whispered. “How did it go?” She ushered him behind the counter.

“Not good, Yuri. Not good,” Junhong sighed. Yuri grabbed a cup and quickly filled it with water, pressing it into the young boy’s hand. Junhong gratefully took a gulp.

“I was caught,” he whispered. “I got the job done, but the Imposers chased me down Market Street. I barely got away.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, loud voices and heavy boots could be heard approaching down the street.  Yuri and Junhong made eye contact as her eyes widened. “.”

Yuri calmly took Junhong’s hand and pulled him out of the main room of the small noodle joint. She pulled him into the small storeroom in the back. The two went into the corner where the elder girl pulled away a rug.  Underneath the worn rug was a heavy metal ring. It took the two teenagers to pull it, but they managed to open a trap door.

“I’ll get you later,” she whispered. “There’s a candle and matches down there.”

With that, she practically pushed him down the trapdoor.

Junhong peered into the trapdoor. It showed nothing but inky blackness, like a hole leading right down into hell. But Junhong knew there was a ladder in the side of the vertical tunnel.

His hands fumbled in the dark until he grabbed the first rung of a rusty ladder. Hauling himself over his feet found the next rungs. Once he was down a bit, Yuri closed the door over him, leaving him in complete darkness.

Junhong began to climb, very slowly. His hands were sweaty and he could barely grip the rungs. Stopping for a moment, he heard the door to the noodle shop open. He heard Yuri fix the rug concealing the door and head back out.

“Hello sirs, what can I do for you?” he heard her ask in a cheery voice. Junhong continued his climb, full of admiration for the brave young woman.

If the Imposers (who Yuri was no doubt chatting with as he climbed) found out she was hiding him they’d flog her in public before hanging her. Yet she spoke as if nothing was wrong.

Gulping, Junhong continued. He soon couldn’t hear anything apart from the blood rushing in his ears. His hand slipped and for a scary moment he thought he was going to fall; but he regained his balance.

He climbed for what felt like years, but was probably only ten minutes. Junhong’s breath was unsteady and shallow by the time his feet touched solid ground. He felt the edges of the walls with his fingertips until he found a little nook in the stone. Reaching is hand in, he got a fright when he brushed off a spider web, but soon his fingers grasped what he was looking for: a box of matches and a candle stick.

Fumbling slightly, Junhong managed to light the match and quickly ignited the wick.

Dim light flickered and Junhong got a few of his surroundings. He shivered slightly. It was cold and damp in the shaft and he had no idea how far underground he was.

The light of the candle was faint but Junhong’s eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly. He was standing in a small square, about three feet by three feet in area. Looking up, the shaft which he had just climbed down stretched into the darkness. The boy guessed that he was about three levels underground.

It was an enclosed space but on one of the rough stone walls of the tunnel there was an entrance into what Junhong presumed to be another tunnel. Clutching his candlestick and trying to ignore the increased thumping of his heart, he pressed through.

The tunnel was a lot smaller and tighter. Junhong was a tall boy; he had to bend double so that his head wouldn’t scrape the rough stone of the ceiling.

He was in the catacombs of course.

After the Lightless Days, when the sky rained fire and the world turned to ash and rock, Old Seoul and the majority of its inhabitants had been obliterated. Out of the ashes of the old city, the survivors from the Lightless days created a new city, New Seoul. It was much bigger than Old Seoul and was the only part of the country that remained inhabited. Of course, Old Seoul had been gone for centuries by the time Junhong was born. He only knew the basics of the matter, he wasn’t a ing historian: he was a kid.

“You may be a kid, but you’re also a murderer,” whispered the voice in Junhong’s head. He tried his best to ignore it and continued to stoop through the tunnel.

Of course, under New Seoul were the tunnels, the catacombs. Jungsoo said that they had been old sewers or something. Junhong knew even less about the catacombs. The older ones in the group explained that there was basically an unused set of tunnels underground. Some of course, had caved in in parts. Jungsoo wanted to excavate them so the Resistance could use them to their advantage. He and his friends had helped the owners of the safe houses dig down so they could use the catacombs as a hiding place in times of trouble.

Yuri was the owner of one of the safe houses. She had a little hide out underground to shelter Resistance soldiers in times of trouble. After his mission had gone awry, Junhong had headed to her noodle shop because it was the closest safe house.

He finally came to the end of a tunnel. The ceiling rose and the walls widened to form a small room. Crawling out, Junhong sighed in relief; he could stand up straight without banging his head.

It looked as if the others had dug through the tunnel and had stopped here. The walls (apart from the one he had squeezed out through) were roughly hewn and much grittier than the rest of the tunnels he had seen.

As a keeper of a safe house, Junhong knew what Yuri had to do daily. The hideouts had to be equipped with water and some food (nobody knew how long you might have to stay down there; Donghee had once been in a hideout for two weeks without surfacing). Every morning (when she was able to) Yuri would have had to make the journey down the shaft with a loaf of bread and a jug of water. Junhong frowned; he would hate to have to come down here daily.

As well as the bread and water (which were resting in one corner) Yuri had left a blanket and a cloth. Smiling at the small comforts, Junhong knelt down. Dabbing one corner of the cloth in the water, he pushed down his shirt sleeve to examine the wound on his shoulder. It hadn’t really pained previously but the adrenaline was slowly pumping out of his system and what started as a little stinging was steadily getting worse.

His victim – the captain of the fourth regiment – hadn’t gone down without a fight. He had managed to sound the alarm and injure Junhong. “So much for stealth,” he thought. But Junhong had gotten him in the end.

The knife wound didn’t look deep but heck; it was stinging a whole lot. Junhong said a quick prayer that the knife hadn’t been poisoned. Gingerly he daubed the wet cloth against the wound, trying to clean out any dirt that may have gotten in.

When that nasty task was done, he sat in silence. There was no noise coming from above – from neither Yuri nor the Imposers. Rather than sit with his guilty thoughts, Junhong made himself comfortable. The little hidey-hole was just big enough for him to lie down. Pulling the blanket over himself, he tried to fall asleep. Out of his four guidelines, he had fought, ran and hidden. He just hoped he would live. Junhong closed his eyes.

***

Junhong had fallen into an uneasy sleep filled with knives and blood and stone.

He woke from his slumber when a gentle hand shook his shoulder.

Jumping up, he relaxed when he made out the silhouette standing beside him. “Sorry if I frightened you,” Yuri whispered. “They’re gone, the Imposers. They questioned me for hours.”

Junhong stumbled groggily into a standing position. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Sorry,” he muttered. “What time is it?”

“Early morning. They want to meet you in the Cavern.”

Junhong groaned. His shoulder was aching from his wound and his back was aching from sleeping on the stone floor. He wanted nothing more than to flop down on his soft bed at home – well, maybe not soft, but softer than the rock.

Yuri seemed to sense his dissatisfaction. “I bet you want to go home. But I bet you know that if you don’t go now, they’ll drag you there tomorrow.”

Junhong sighed in defeat. “However, we can’t send you out without a decent feed,” Yuri mused. “Come on, let’s get back upstairs. I hate this place.”

A bowl of hot noodles later, Junhong approached one of the Cavern entrances.

Right on the outskirts of New Seoul, the Cavern was an underground hall, part of the catacombs according to Jungsoo. But unlike the other tunnels, the Cavern had been found four years ago and it was now near fully furnished: a suitable Headquarters for what Hyukjae called “the first successful rebellion.”

When Junhong had asked what ‘Cavern’ meant years ago, Jungsoo had answered “a massive hall.” Now, the Cavern wasn’t massive but Jungsoo insisted on the name.

This entrance wasn’t as unpleasant as the last underground one.

Near the city walls (but just out of sight of the guards on patrol) there was a loose stone in the pavements beside a large oak tree. If you applied pressure to one side, it was possible to dislodge the stone and move it over to reveal a small hole. Junhong swung his legs into the hole and dropped down. Usually there was more than half of the Resistance in the Cavern at any one time and so the place was well lit. He landed six feet underneath the hole – if he raised his hand it would stick out of the ground. He hauled the stone above back in place and continued his descent.

An untidy set of spiral steps were cut into the stone with torches flickering at irregular intervals. Junhong quickly descended. A hundred steps later he ended up in a small corridor. At the end of the corridor was a crudely made wooden door. It was already open. Junhong stepped inside the cavern.

A large table sat in the middle of the hall. Men and women surrounded it – Junhong counted fourteen – plus a figure he didn’t recognize. The fourteen were talking and gesturing but fell silent when Junhong entered.

Junhong prepared himself for a severe grilling on arrival. He presumed that was why he had been called. Junhong had killed many times before. His young age made him an unlikely suspect. Nobody ever paid any attention to him – until it was too late.

So far, Jungsoo and the others had been testing his potential. Junhong had killed fourteen so far – all of them soldiers beginning to move up the ranks in Her army. Jungsoo had thought it was time to let Junhong truly show his worth; kill the Captain of the Fourth Regiment. Junhong had of course, brought fifteen Imposers chasing through Market Street and had nearly been caught, potentially blowing the Resistance's cover. He figured they would be pretty pissed off.

He was wrong.

When he entered, Jungsoo (who was in the middle of a dramatic argument complete with hand gestures) looked up at Junhong and frowned for a minute. "Junhong? Ah yes, Junhong, we sent for you, I remember now!"

Upon seeing Junhong's expression, Hyukjae (the leader of Junhong's team) explained. "Jungsoo called for you, but between your summoning and arrival there has been a development." Hyukjae gestured at the hooded figure standing beside him.

On closer inspection Junhong realised the cloaked one was a woman. She was small and thin. He could just see the ends of long hair poking from underneath the hood of her dark cloak. Junhong noticed she was shivering slightly - as if she was cold. That was odd, it was a summer night and it was warm even in the Cavern. 

"Who are you?" Junhong asked. "A newcomer. She wants in," Hyukjae spoke for her, but Jungsoo interjected.

"A newcomer who arrived out of seemingly nowhere, who nobody knows and just happens to know about the Resistance and wants in. Don't you think that's a bit suspicious, Hyukjae?"

Hyukjae didn't back down. "If she was working for Her, why would she have helped me?" he asked.

It was obvious to Junhong that it was an argument between the two men and the others in the room were simply taking sides.

Shaky hands were brought to the hood that cast a shadow over her face. The new woman pulled the hood down, revealing her face. Junhong's brow furrowed. He couldn't remember where, but she looked very familiar.  She was pale, he noticed. She had dark rings under her eyes. Her voice quivered slightly when she spoke. "I promise you, I am not one of...of Her people. I want to help you." She sounded honest, but Junhong wasn't sure if she was or if he was just imagining it.

Jungsoo was unimpressed. "Who are you?" he asked.

The young woman hesitated. "I am...the Traveller." 

A/N okay, first chapter! May be a bit boring but I'm just introducing some main characters and the settings. Lyrics at the top are from 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War.Thanks to all who subscribed! <3