The fire crackled before me as I warmed my fingers in its glow. It casted shadows all around me, dancing like an eerie spirit. The smoke blew in my eyes, causing them to tear up, but I didn't mind. The smell of the burning wood brought back memories of the first time I had come face to face with the reality of the war. I could remember the buildings that had once been so familiar to me being charred into an unrecognizable blackness.

"You should sleep," Yongguk said softly, though his deep voice didn't sound very comforting to my ears.

The weight of a heavy woolen blanket dropped on my shoulders, and I tore my gaze away from the embers long enough to see Himchan grinning at me as he wrapped me in the warmth of the material.

"None of you are sleeping," I replied. "Besides, I'm not tired."

"It's okay if you don't trust us now, but we're going to need you to have a little faith in us if this is going to work," Yongguk said.

"I just met you, I have no clue who any of you are, and you have willingly admitted to me that you are criminals. All that and you want me to have faith in you? I can't have faith in someone I don't know," I said, listing off on my fingers to make a point.

"You're a criminal too," Daehyun muttered from the shadows.

"Excuse me?" I turned to glare at him, crouching by a tree.

"I'm just saying." He shrugged. "Going into the forest is strictly forbidden and you will be charged with treason if you dare to venture into its depths. You seem to be familiar with the law, so you should know that you're a criminal now too."

"I'm doing this for my sister," I hissed defensively.

"And we're doing this to end the war. At least we aren't being selfish and only thinking about the things that matter to us," Daehyun replied.

"So tell me, how is a group of criminals with a stupid name helping this war because I don't see anything changing!" I snapped, standing up and letting the blanket slide off my shoulders.

"Enough!" Yongguk raised his voice, making me flinch in fear. "We made an alliance and so we need to help each other. Right now, all of us are criminals. We need to help each other out, and the first step towards that would be getting along."

"You're right, I'm sorry," I apologized, sitting back down and wrapping myself with the blanket Himchan had given me.

"So, let's get to know each other. Maybe then we can get along," Yongguk offered. "What's your name? You never told us."

"Astra," I answered quietly.

"That's a cool name. Does it mean anything?" Youngjae asked, speaking to me for the first time.

"It means of the stars in Greek," I said, shivering as I remembered the similar conversation I had had with the general.

"I guess that means I can't use my 'are you from outer space cause your face is outta this world' pickup line on you, then," Daehyun laughed from the shadows, coming forward into the dancing light of the fire for the first time. His sudden change of character baffled me. Before, he had seemed so genuinely upset with me and my words. Now, he was laughing and smiling as if he were a completely different person. "Hey, no hard feelings, right?"

I looked at his dopey smile that seemed both sweet and mischievous at the same time before answering, "no hard feelings."

"Good." He nodded in approval.

"So, how did this all come to be?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"What do you mean?" Himchan asked, joining the rest of us by the fire.

"I mean how do six random men meet up and decide to fight the war from the shadows?" I turned to him. That question had been bothering me ever since I had met them. It was highly improbable that the circumstances would align this perfectly.

"We found each other just like we found you, really. Being in the forest alone, you start to get desperate to find any other living being. When you do meet up, it's pretty hard to trust each other at first, but when you realize that you can help each other everything changes." Himchan shrugged indifferently.

"But how did you all get to being here? Most of you are young." My brow furrowed, eyeing Zelo and Jongup who had to be younger than me.

"Well, I was supposed to go off to the military. I ran away because I refused to be part of the war effort. The day before they were supposed to come to collect me, I took my things and ran away into the only place there was to run: the forest," Himchan explained.

"Is it the same for all of you?" I asked.

"No, I have an older sister and a twin brother who were taken for the army," Yongguk said. "I ran away for the same reason you did, to find them and take them home."

"How long ago was that?" There was a hint of panic in my voice. Yongguk looked like he had been out here the longest. If he was still looking for his siblings, what were the chances of me finding Delphi?

"Two years," he answered, looking down at the dust beneath his boots.

"What about the rest of you?" I asked, trying to distract my mind from the thoughts of doubt that were swirling around.

"I escaped from the army," Daehyun said.

"Escaped?" I looked at him with shock. 

"I had been drafted to go to the front line against the rebels. I was supposed to be the army's spy, so I went over to the rebel side to gain their knowledge. I was a double agent, though, so I gave the rebels all the information they needed and split," he explained, shrugging as if it were nothing.

"That's...incredibly brave," I breathed. I could never imagine being able to do that had I been in his situation. "What about the rest of you?"

"We're all the same as Himchan, we ran before we could be drafted," Youngjae said, motioning to himself as well as Jongup and Zelo.

"You'd think there'd be more people who ran," I muttered, thinking about all the people that disappeared to the army day by day.

"It's both incredibly cowardly and brave at the same time. We ran because we were afraid of the army, but we were brave enough to run. It's one, big oxymoron." Zelo spoke up for the first time, poking at the dirt with a stick like a child.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I laughed half-heartedly. "There's something that's been bothering me. You told me on the way here that you don't kill, so I don't have to worry about that. How does one fight a war without killing?"

"We help the rebels. We give them information in exchange for food and supplies. Sometimes we'll sneak them supplies as well and trade for what we need," Yongguk explained.

"Isn't that indirectly killing people? I mean, you're helping people kill people." I bit my lip, trying my hardest to understand their view.

"If you think of it that way," said Daehyun, "everything you do is indirectly killing people. You leaving makes the army need to grab more people from families and those people will die. Every small decision in your life is, in a way, indirectly killing you or someone else."

"I guess you're right," I sighed. "I just don't know how you do this. I've only been out here for a few hours and I'm already regretting it. Tell me, when does that feeling go away?"

"I'll let you know," Daehyun answered casually.

I swallowed, taken aback by his serious tone and sad eyes. I couldn't for the life of me figure out this motley crew of war-hardened men. They all had their reasons for leaving, but they all seemed to almost regret leaving. I couldn't stand the thought of living my entire life here with these men, fighting from the shadows, slowly being forgotten from society. All I wanted was to save my sister, but it became something much bigger.

"How did it happen?" Jongup asked, jerking his chin to my left leg.

"How did I lose my leg?" I raised an eyebrow, glancing at the fabric that I knew concealed my metal leg.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I lived in another city before I live here. The rebels were attacking there and there was a high rebel population, so the army decided to just bomb the entire city," I started, remembering every gruesome detail of the incident.

Smoke was filling my lungs as my eyes snapped open to see everything engulfed in flames. The sound of bombs was much closer than it had ever been and it took my sleep ridden mind a few moments before I realized that the bombs were falling just outside my door.

Panic began to set in and I threw off my sheets to run out of my room. There was fire everywhere, and the smoke was burning my eyes. I didn't have time to worry about myself, however. I had to find Delphi and my parents.

"Delphi!" I called out as loudly as I could.

The sounds of bombs and the crackle of the fire was too loud for me to hear anything, and my voice was drowned out. I called out for my sister once more in vain, but the smoke filled my lungs to capacity and I instead doubled over to dry heave. It was unbearably hot, and I knew that I had to get out fast if I had any hopes of living.

"Astra!" Delphi's voice called out.

Through the smoke, I saw her silhouette approaching me. She came forward, wrapped in a thick blanket, and helped me back up to my feet. Delphi wrapped the blanket around our shoulders and we made our way to the door. It was our only chance of escape. I could tell in her eyes that she worried for our parents as well, but we would have to save ourselves before we could do anything else.

As we came to the door, a crack was heard and I looked up just in time to see a beam from the ceiling come crashing down towards me. I could hear Delphi's shrill scream as my ears rung loudly. There was a crushing pain coming from my leg, but I didn't dare to look at it. Delphi was running about, a terrified look on her face. I could feel the flames eating away at the beam as well as the flesh on my leg. The last thing I saw before darkness filled my vision was Delphi's desperate face.

When I awoke, I was on a cold metal table with lights shining everywhere. There were voices muttering nearby, but I couldn't understand anything being said. I strained to listen, but didn't have to for long. The voices stopped abruptly and I could hear the shuffle of feet coming closer. Two faces appeared in my line of sight. One, I recognized as my sister and I was relieved that she had made it out of the fire alive. The second, however, was unfamiliar to me.

"Astra, I'm sorry, I did everything I could," said the unfamiliar face.

"Sorry? Why?" I asked, trying with great effort to sit up.

"Astra, she really did everything," Delphi said, helping me up gently.

"You're worrying m-!" I stopped speaking when I saw where my left leg used to be. There was now metal workings that were both beautiful and terrifying. I screamed before blacking out one more time into the abyss of darkness.