JoonMyeon reached up and wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve as he stopped to rest. His feet were throbbing from the continuous walk over fallen dead trees and raised vegetation. Breathing heavily, he collapsed on a giant moss covered log. He felt light headed from the heat and his stomach churned and growled with hunger. "Ah man, I'm so hungry." He couldn't even remember his last meal, but he was pretty sure he hadn't eaten all of it. Gods how he was regretting that now.

"Me too." BaekHyun reached up to wipe his forehead of the sweat that was dribbling down his face from the edge of his hairline. "I'm craving KyungSoo's Kimchi spaghetti."

JoonMyeon chuckled as he rubbed his stomach. "I want Dwaejigogibokkeum." He sighed and glanced around amongst the trees shading them, "You'd think we would've ran into a fruit tree by now with this being an island and all." 

BaekHyun hummed in agreement while plopping down alongside the EXO-K leader and resting his head on the older's shoulder. His eyes flicker to the gold stained canopy. "We're gonna have to find shelter soon too."

"I know." JoonMyeon agreed drearily. They were tired. Neither knew how long it would be before they found food or water and the constant walking and detained exhaustion was finally catching up to them making them clumsy and sluggish. It was only a matter of time before they just collapsed from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and dehydration.

Something landed with a light tap on JoonMyeon's shoulder. Turning to the side, he found a wet foamy splotch slowly seeping through the cotton fabric of his flannel. Curiously, he reached up and touched the spot noticing that it was warm and had a slimy slippery feel to it similar to that of saliva. He scrunched his face in an intermixture look of confusion and disgust when its rancid rotten stench brushed his nose. He wondered what could have left something like that seeing as it obviously wasn't rain. A monkey? A bird perhaps?

Two more splotches landed on his hand. The last one being long and stringy before falling loose, the warm wetness slithering between his fingers like rancid slimy goo. He turned around and looked up, scanning the branches and leaves. 

He stopped. 

A feeling of dread began to coarse through him like heavy molasses as his heart began to quicken. There was something beyond the leaves, one of the trees...just didn't look right.

JoonMyeon narrowed his eyes and focused. He noticed that one of the pebbled, grainy bark of a tree was slowly expanding and retracting. Almost as if it were...breathing. He let his eyes crawl up the breathing tree to it's branches because that-

Wasn't a tree...

He nearly lost control of his bladder. His heart slammed into his chest with sheer terror and the blood drained from his face at what towered over he and BaekHyun for God knows how long.

"Baek..." He whispered through his teeth, his mouth unmoving afraid the movement would trigger the thing to attack. With his eyes still fixated on the massive thing before him, he called out to his DongSaeng. "BaekHyun...get up and run. Now." BaekHyun slowly raised his head to look at JoonMyeon only to find the older staring up into the trees. He tried to follow the other's gaze, but JoonMyeon gave a harsh squeeze to his wrist, stopping him from doing so. "Don't look. Just run."

BaekHyun frowned at the leader's demeanor in confusion. "What? Why? What do you-"

It happened so fast.

The head came down from the tree tops, mouth open revealing teeth bone-crushing sharp straight for them.

Reacting quickly, JoonMyeon grabbed BaekHyun by the arm and pulled him out of harms way. "Run!" 

Startled by the sudden situation, BaekHyun's knees gave out and he faltered. He skitted across the ground dirtying his hands and knees with mud and moss. "Ah, !" He pulled himself onto his knees with a grimace. He attempted to look over his shoulder to see how long he had before-

"Come on! Don't look back! Just run!" JoonMyeon jerked BaekHyun back on his feet before dragging him through the tropic trees in a random direction. Any one would do just to get away from what was beginning to chase them.

The leaves rustles and branches bent and snapped as whatever JoonMyeon saw trampled after them with great speed. Speed  that was terrifyingly fast. A low growl rumbled in the beast's throat, the sound shuddering through their bodies like very loud bass blasting in a car.

Fresh fear propelled them forward. BaekHyun could feel the thing right on his back, its hot breath hitting the small hairs on the back of his neck and his sweat-soaked flannel, warming the sweat. He habitually glanced behind him to check the distance and he felt his heart settled into his stomach. Tongue and sharp yellow tinged teeth filled his line of vision. 

He was only a hair away from being eaten.

Just then the creature reared it's head back and lunged forward, its jaws wide. Instinctively, BaekHyun winced waiting for teeth to sink into his flesh-

There was a sharp jerk on his wrist before he found himself shoulder slamming a tree and tripping over mossy rocks while weaving through a dense thicket of trees that were clustered together. A twig nicked him in the thigh ripping through his khaki pants and slicing delicate skin, but he didn't have time dwell on the sharp pain as he continued to follow after JoonMyeon who had yet stop running. 

Behind him, BaekHyun could hear the creature snarl and thrash against the cluster of trees trying to desperately to wretch its way through. It gave a snort before a deafening roar of frustration filled the air and rattled their chests with fear.

                                                                            ********

"Hyung, slow down." BaekHyun huffed his breathless voice drifting meekly into the ears of his leader in front of him. The two hadn't broken their connected hands as the two shuffled from side to side through the dense trees. Their steps were soft as they stepped over mossy rocks and tramped over dead leaves which to BaekHyun looked like dried seaweed. "Hyung..."

JoonMyeon tugged BaekHyun behind him urging him further so that thing couldn't see them. As badly as he wanted to run, he didn't want to risk any sudden movements to give it reasons to squeeze in to get in here after them. "Hyung..." He still felt like he could see its eyes watching them. Its gaze boring a hole in the back of their necks through the growing distance. "JoonMyeon Hyung..." How long had it been in those trees watching them? Standing over them? Waiting for its moment to strike? He shivered at the flashbacks of how close it came to catching BaekHyun. Close to killing- "Hyung! I said slow down!" 

JoonMyeon halted abruptly sending Baekhyun slamming into his back which in turn had him stumbling forward a bit, their hands disconnecting. "S-Sorry." He whispered turning around to face the younger. The two synonymously slid down to the ground in a mixture of exhaustion and defeat. BaekHyun pushed himself against a tree trunk and pulled his knees into his chest, his chin resting in the crease were his knees meet.

Joonmyeon too bushed up against a tree to support his weight, his legs stretched out in front of him and his head resting on the tree trunk. The two didn't speak, both too tired and scared. He glanced at BaekHyun, taking in the younger's appearance. BaekHyun's face was flushed and looked pained, his hair clung to his forehead from the sweat and his once tired brown eyes had now dulled in color exhibiting no emotion. He was sure he looked the same to the other. "Baek...are you-are you okay?" JoonMyeon inquired in a breathless whisper.

BaekHyun shook his head. "No. I just-just what the hell was that?"

JoonMyeon shrugged, "I don't know, it looked like a-a..." He couldn't say it because he felt crazy just thinking about it. It had a massive head with small horns just above its eyes and a small snout. Pebbly murky green skin stretched over it's body giving it that ability to blend in with the surrounding trees. It looked very much like a dinosaur...but surely it was impossible. Because those no longer existed. Maybe this was a reality show. 

A cruel and twisted reality show.

A pained groan from BaekHyun suspended JoonMyeon from his thoughts. He eyed the other, watching as BaekHyun cradled his pained left shoulder. His face contorted in pain. "What happened to your shoulder?"

"I think that shoulder slam with the tree finally caught up to me." BaekHyun said heaving a pained groan before pulling at the ripped fabric on his thigh where a welted blood splotched scratch stung his skin in irritation. "As did that scratch from that twig."

JoonMyeon pulled away from the tree to inch closer to BaekHyun. He started to reach out and rest his hand on the other's wounded shoulder; however thought against it and withdrew his hand. BaekHyun was already in pain, no need to cause any more pain or discomfort. "It's not broken is it?" He whispered out of concern.

BaekHyun shook his head, "I don't think so. It just hurts like it's bruised or sprained." 

"So you'll be okay?" JoonMyeon glanced down at the welt, "How about the scratch? It could get infected."

"It's not that bad Hyung, it'll be fine." 

The EXO-K leader gazed at BaekHyun before nodding and retracting his hand. He returned to his original position of leaning against the tree. "Alright. If you're sure." He shifted his gaze upwards towards the canopy where the once golden sky had transitioned into the a deep blue with some pastel yellow. It was getting late.

JoonMyeon used the support of the tree to help himself up before pushing off it and swiping whatever debris was stuck on his backside. "It's getting late, we gotta find shelter." He reached towards BaekHyun with his hand out, fingers splayed, "Come on, let's keep moving."

BaekHyun looked up at the sky before turning his attention to JoonMyeon. "Yeah." He sighed accepting the hand and intertwining their fingers. "Yeah okay."

                                                                              ********

MinSeok was the first to climb down out of the ceiling. Feet landing with a soft thud on a metal table underneath them. Cautiously, he glanced around the room, eyes sharp for anything monstrous that could be waiting in the shadows ready to pounce. Not detecting any, he motioned behind him for ChanYeol and YiXing to climb down. 

ChanYeol came down first before raising his hands to help break YiXing's landing. YiXing gave a soundless chuckle, "I can walk now guys." He fought back the need to cringe when he tried to apply pressure on his ankle. "See? I'm okay."

"You're not even putting your weight on it!" ChanYeol countered staring at how YiXing wasn't really applying pressure on his ankle. He just allowed his heel to hovered still slightly above the ground while he supported himself against ChanYeol and the ball of his feet. "And what are you going to do if those things come after us?" 

"Though the air vent?" YiXing stared up through the ventilation they had just come from questionably, "How would they get in there?"

ChanYeol groaned and ran a hand down his face. "Hyung, that's not...that's not what I meant."

"Oh." YiXing shrugged, "Well then what's the problem?"

"He means what if those things sniff us out and find us in here. We're going to have to get out fast if we can." The two glanced over at MinSeok to find him giving YiXing's ankle a very fixed and steady look, he too could see passed the feigned facade YiXing was trying to maintain. "It'll be hard on your ankle." He looked up at the other two before glancing towards the broken main entrance door then back and gave a shrug. "But I think we should be fine here for now."

YiXing and ChanYeol finally took noticed of the room and everything in it. From the corners to the desks, everything was coated in a filthy layer of cobwebs while dust and smears coated several broken windows. The desks were upturned spilling yellowed and torn papers and broken computers onto the floor.

ChanYeol's eyes locked onto a phone resting on one of the desks not overturned. "Hyungdeul, a phone!" He pulled YiXing away from him and leaned the other on MinSeok before hurrying towards the phone. Hope filling him for the first time since crashing on this forsaken island. They could phone for help or at least let people know they were alive. He raised the once beige colored phone to his ear, only to be met with dead silence. He pushed a button in hopes it was a just a fluke yet still silence. He hung up, sighing. "It's dead."

MinSeok who had walked up next to him with YiXing in tow, tried the phone as well. He got the same silence. MinSeok sighed.

"So what do we do now, Hyung?" YiXing inquired in a hushed tone. He wanted to go home. Not be stuck on some stupid island filled with...dinosaurs.

ChanYeol shrugged as he leaned against the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. He stared down at the ground with an intermixture look of concentration and frustration before ruffling his hair in agitation. Everything just kept getting worse by the minute. "Aish! This is so frustrating! What exactly in hell is this place supposed to be?!" He mumbled rhetorically. He couldn't fathom why anyone would build and work on an island infested with man-eating creatures.

"No idea." MinSeok uttered back, glancing at the other standing desk hoping something would pop out at him. And it did. His eyes managed to settle on a desk on the far right where a clutter of tattered and torn maps, crumbled candy wrappers lied messily on its surface. Curious, he wondered over with a limping YiXing wrapped in his embrace.

He rustled through the pile of maps while scanning over the content and discarding all that he deemed useless. Which was the majority because he couldn't read the faded words. He finally found a map he could somewhat read despite it being written in English. It was at that moment he wished Kris or KyungSoo were here. 

However, from the English he could read, he could see that it was a map highlighting all the buildings on the island, as well as the paths that they would need to take to get to those locations. 

MinSeok continued to scan over the map, his mind jumbling over longer words that looked like another foreign language. Great. He already couldn't understand English now he had to decipher another language? He was getting frustrated with all these words he couldn't make out. 

Stupid language.

"There's an emergency bunker." YiXing's voiced passed into MinSeok's ear. He turned to said person with an eyebrow quirked in interest. He understood English? Since when? YiXing placed a finger on a small building. "Right here."

ChanYeol loomed over the map, staring at it questionably. "How do you know which building we're in to know that?"

YiXing chuckled and pointed to an area within the building they were supposedly in. "Because this says 'Cafe' which we were just in because of the kitchen, so I'm taking a wild guess and saying this is our building." YiXing tapped the larger image of the building they were in then the alleged emergency bunker. "Looking at the map it doesn't look to far from here, think we can make it?"

"Probably." MinSeok shrugged, "But...I don't think we should chance it now, especially with your ankle and those..." He trailed unsure of what to call those things after them. "Maybe we should rest up before moving again."

ChanYeol shook his head while still focusing on the map. "You guys go ahead, I'll be lookout incase something else comes lurking in here."

MinSeok turned to ChanYeol with his worry lines etching his forehead. The younger had been doing things for the shorter two ever since they had to pull Lay from the ocean. He had to be exhausted.  "Are you sure ChanYeol? Because I-"

"I'm sure Hyung." ChanYeol gave one of his signature smiles. One MinSeok couldn't help, but return it with one of his own. ChanYeol patted the older on the shoulder assuringly. "Get some rest, I'll be fine." When MinSeok opened his mouth to protest once more, ChanYeol cut him off saying, "I promise."

MinSeok continued to stare at ChanYeol before he heaved a sigh of surrender. "Fine, but just an hour ChanYeol then I'm on watch." 

ChanYeol's smile turned into an eye twitching grin. "Sure Hyung! Sleep well!" 

Giving a curt nod, MinSeok took himself and a half-lidded YiXing to a corner and curled up against the wall. Feeling settled, YiXing nuzzled into MinSeok's side drapping his arms around the other's waist and his nose buried in the older's side before succumbing to the land of dreams. MinSeok, on-the-other-hand, watched ChanYeol dabble about the room for a while. As he watched, he began to realize that maybe ChanYeol preferred being the one to take care of others. Perhaps it's the height difference or maybe how fragile MinSeok looked and Lay was, whatever the reason, despite ChanYeol's goofy, dorky nature, he liked protecting and would probably sacrifice himself rather than one of them.

A soft fond smile grew on MinSeok's lips as a new profound sense of admiration for the younger filled him. Now he understood why BaekHyun was so in love with the other. ChanYeol was truly selfless.

                                                                                ********

"Baek look. I think I see a stone hedge over there." JoonMyeon had stopped walking to point straight ahead through the trees, his eyes squinted. "Maybe it leads to a building or something."

BaekHyun looked over JoonMyeon's shoulder eyes trying to find what the leader was talking about. "Where? I can't see anything through these trees."

"Right there!" JoonMyeon aimed his finger once again straight ahead with more exertion. Maybe it was due to the exhaustion that BaekHyun hadn't noticed it before, but as if he had skipped over a key part in a book or a movie, BaekHyun finally managed to see something similar to stone ahead. "Come on." JoonMyeon walked forward. He briefly looked over his shoulder to make sure BaekHyun was following close behind to which he was.

Quietly and hurriedly, the two walked and dodge around trees. The sun was going to set soon and they needed to get somewhere safe in case there was something else lying and waiting in these cluster of trees.

As they came upon the edge of the tree line and began to approach the concrete moat, the two quickly noticed that aside from the fence, there was no building in sight. JoonMyeon cursed under his breath and exhaled heavily as his frustration, fear, and disappointment began to overwhelm him slowly breaking him. He was trying so hard to stay positive, but it was getting late they were tired and scared. Especially knowing that carnivores millions of years old lurking so freely. He'd be damned if they were walking blindly in the dark.

Standing before the fence, BaekHyun took note how thick and solid the rustic metal fence was. It had to have reached at least thirty-possibly forty feet-with meshed cable or electrical wire draped within the inner sideline and barbed wire lining the top. He knitted his eyebrows in curiosity. What in the world kind of place were these people trying to create?

JoonMyeon looked through the fence at the clearing composing of tall yellowish-green grass stretching from the concrete wall to the opposite end before looking up at the cage and scanning it trying to find a way inside. It could be useful to cut through instead of going around wasting time. "Hey Baek, do you see anyway in?" JoonMyeon inquired.

BaekHyun shook his head and pointed through the bulk fence at the electric wire. "Not unless we can get through these tiny squares..." He trailed as he began to walk along the fence to find a way in.

"That's asking to get stuck." JoonMyeon chuckled before muttering to himself, "Maybe we can climb over?"

"How about this gap?" JoonMyeon noticed that the other sounded so distant. Turning, he found out BaekHyun had indeed walked a distance away from him and now stood straight, staring ahead. He hurried over. He followed the younger's gaze to find that they were looking at a gapping hole at least half the height of the fence. The bulk fence was completely broken and bent while the wired fence was ripped and completely distorted in different directions. 

"You think it's safe to go in?" BaekHyun eyed the gap wearily. Despite finding it, with carnivorous things wondering about, he had all the more reason.

Like an ominous sign, a flock of birds that had been in the trees suddenly cawed and took to the darkening sky just as a cool breeze flittered through the trees and brushed against the two making them to shiver. "I think we should just get inside."

The two stepped cautiously through the hole and peered around. Eyes sharp for any and everything which turnedcout to be beneficial because across the way, JoonMyeon noticed a large drain system sticking out from one of the sides of the concrete hedge. He tapped BaekHyun on the upper arm and tilted his head towards the drain. "This way. There's a drain over here."

BaekHyun followed willingly like he had been all day. The two walked through the clearing. The only sound was the soft nestling of grass bending under their feet as they walked through the tall grass.

Coming upon the drain, the two stopped before it taking in its unused dead grass-filled appearance. It was wide enough for them to move around in and tall enough for them to sit against the wall with being hunched over. It wasn't a building, but it was something they could rest in. "Guess we'll sleep here for tonight." JoonMyeon grunted settling in the drainage pipe, bending his knees.

The two grew silent and listened as the night creatures began to awaken and fill the dusky sky with their nocturnal lullaby. Exhaling a nasally breath, BaekHyun rested his head on the older's shoulder. "Hey Hyung." He whispered his voice echoing slightly in the hallow space.

"Hm?"

"You know we're not going to make it, don't you."

JoonMyeon pulled back to stare at the other in disbelief. How could he say something like that? "Baek, no we-"

BaekHyun chuckled bitterly as he shifted around so he could wrap his arms around JoonMyeon's waist and bury his nose in the older's neck. Needing as much human contact as possible. "It's okay Hyung. No need to keep being optimistic." He whispered into the older boy's neck, "Everyone has to go at some point."

JoonMyeon look down at BaekHyun his mouth open to argue that the younger he was wrong and shouldn't be so negative about their situation. He wanted to say that he knew they were going to make it and so would the others. That they were going to be rescued and be back on stage preforming before EXO-L with this island just being a horrible memory that will slowly fade with time. 

But he didn't. 

He didn't because there was truth in the words BaekHyun had spoken. This was the beginning of the end. Whether it was by dinosaurs, starvation or the island itself one of those factors would be the cause of their demise. And no matter how much hope and optimism he tried to instill in himself and BaekHyun about everything and everyone would be okay, he knew realistically it wasn't. It was a very high possibility that they were not going to live through this...but that didn't mean they weren't going to try and survive. 

Blinking away tears, he cleared his throat and lied his head on top of BaekHyun's. He wrapped an arm around the other's waist whispering, "We'll just go for as long as we can, Baek."