"That's awful," mused Youngjae, his brown eyes throwing off the light from the fire as he stared at me.

"I've learned to cope. This leg is one of the greatest things to happen to me, honestly." I smiled wistfully.

"How?" Daehyun asked, doubtful.

"It made me realize that I couldn't just be content with the way things were in the world," I laughed bitterly.

Daehyun still baffled me after all these hours. The others seemed upfront with me and rather straightforward. Himchan was kind and motherly with just a hint of flirtatiousness while Yongguk seemed fatherly and protective as if he felt responsible for all of them. Youngjae mostly kept to himself, but I could tell that he was a carefree type who was just a bit shy with new people. Zelo seemed shy as well if not a small bit childish with the way he kept his distance from me and avoided eye contact.

Daehyun, on the other hand, was a complete mess of emotions and expressions. In the handful of hours I had already spent with them, Daehyun had been defensive, teasing, angry, flirtatious, and doubtful. I wondered if it had something to do with his being in the army. None of us here really knew what the army was like, and I felt that perhaps he wasn't telling the whole truth about how he escaped.

All that, however, wasn't any of my business. Each of them had their own stories, and each of them had their own reasons. Besides, I hadn't even been with them for a full day. I could hardly judge them from what I saw on the outside. The only thing I could do was let the time pass and see how things turned out.

"So what's our plan?" I inquired after quite some time of nothing but the crackle of the fire.

"Scope out the city and see what areas are weak. When night falls, we'll infiltrate the weak spots and get what supplies we can and then split," Yongguk said, straightforward and to the point. I quite liked how he spoke with no extraneous details or flourishes. Despite that, it left holes in my understanding of what exactly we were to do.

"You don't really need to scope out. I can tell you what's where and it'll be a whole lot faster and less risky," I offered, flicking a pebble by my foot into the fire.

"And we should just take your word for it?" Daehyun challenged.

"I got out, didn't I?" I countered, quickly growing tired of Daehyun's mood swings.

"Daehyun, she's right," Himchan said gently. "Astra, you should tell us what you know and we can figure out where to go from there."

I shot a pointed look at Daehyun before retreating into my memories of the city I had just left. There were so many details that I didn't know I knew after just months of living under the military's control. I had lived in that city ever since I lost my leg, and I knew it like the palm of my hand.

"I think I've got a good way to get us in," I said, looking up at Yongguk. "I'll take you back the way I got out and we can go to my house. As far as I'm concerned, no one knows I'm gone yet. If we can get there safely, I've got tons of supplies that I couldn't take with me and a map of the city. I can use the map to point out where I know there's less guards and all the places supplies are kept. From there, you can have a field day."

"That's not a bad plan," Youngjae piped up. "Finding shelter can give us a chance to collect ourselves and a map makes things much easier on us."

"Then it's settled." Yongguk nodded forcefully. "We leave here in the morning and go to the outskirts of the forest. Once night falls, we can get to Astra's place."

I awoke to see the rest of BAP still sleeping. The sun was just over the horizon and I guessed that it was somewhere around seven in the morning. It was almost peaceful, sitting in the forest as the chirping of birds surrounded us. There were no people out here to ruin things. There were no sounds of gunfire or suffering out here away from humanity. I would have preferred to be alone, but I was almost glad to have these six bandits with me. I had no plan for how to look for Delphi, and being with BAP at least gave me some sort of structure of life out here. 

As I watched their sleeping forms, I came to realize how normal they looked when they were asleep. With their eyes closed, I couldn't see the glimmer of desperation that hid inside of all of them. Each one had their own pain that they were running away from or towards and I could see it in their faces. Sleeping, however, they were peaceful. Zelo was but a child, perhaps around Delphi's age, and I could see that now in his relaxed features. He didn't deserve to be out here nor did any of the others. They were just people and I could see that clearly now.

"Do you always stare at people when they're sleeping?" Daehyun's voice asked from beside me.

"Only on Thursdays," I replied with a small smile, turning to face him. He looked disgruntled from sleep and it saddened me that his features were once again hardened by his past.

"Is that what today is?" He rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

"I think so. As far as I'm concerned, I left Wednesday evening, so unless I slept for a few days it should be Thursday." I shrugged indifferently. 

"I lost track a long time ago," Daehyun mused, but I got the feeling that it was more for himself than for me. 

"You hungry?" I asked softly.

"I'm always hungry," he replied, offering a small smile.

"I've got some beef jerky if you want any," I said, pulling the package from my backpack.

"Thanks," he nodded in gratitude, accepting the food.

"I smell food," Youngjae muttered groggily, eyes opening slowly.

His voice woke the others, and soon everyone was up and eating beef jerky. It was only one package between the seven of us, but the boys looked like that was the most they had had in a while. I wondered how they managed to stay in shape with little food, but I imagined they were all muscle now and no fat. 

"We should start heading towards the city," Yongguk said after we had eaten all of the jerky. "If we leave now, we should make it to the edge of the forest before nightfall so we can rest."

With that, we all packed up to leave our spot. I was slightly nervous about what was going to happen that night, but I needed to trust these people if I wanted them to trust me. If I was going to have any hope of finding Delphi, I would need these people to help me. They knew their way through the dense forestry between cities and they knew how to get around the military.

Despite my reluctance to believe in them, I had heard many stories about BAP and their conquests. They were dubbed "Bandits After Peace" by the people, and they had started tagging military walls with that name. Anywhere BAP had been, there was sure to be a wall somewhere brandishing their name. No one knew who they were, but they silently cheered them on from inside their homes. There was no one else in the world willing to stand up to the military and the mysterious man at its head except for those six mysterious men. There had been no casualties resulting from their raids, but BAP only ever stole what the military desperately needed. Where once there had been food and guns, BAP left empty shelves. On one occasion, they had even used military grenades to blow up the interior of all of their vehicles, rendering them useless.

All their efforts, however, never seemed to be enough. No matter how much they stole, the military always seemed to have more. If their tanks were gone, they would force us citizens into factories to make more. If their food supply was depleting, they would just give the people less. And no matter how much BAP gave the rebels, they would never overshadow the military.

But I didn't care. I had never believed in these men, but I needed to now. My sister's life depended on it and I would be damned if I didn't do something about it.