Chen came over to Taemin's bedside just as he had awoke. "How are you feeling?", the doctor asked as he took his pulse and recorded it. Taemin only gazed sullenly towards the empty space where Luhan had been yesterday. He felt no strength to speak. Knowing from what Kai had told him of Minho, the images in his mind of his love being violated in such a way were like knives deepening the wound within his chest to puncture his heart. What made it all worse was that all he could do was lie in bed ordering others. If every time he sat up or moved too quickly his body didn't ache terribly, he would be dashing off to kill the demon of a man that would do such things to Luhan.

Eventually, after feeling the persistent stares of a caring doctor that wouldn't go away until he said he was just dandy, Taemin turned to look up at the man. "Well to be honest, Doctor, I feel so dead inside that I don't know how it isn't obvious to you I must be dead on the outside too. My one love is gone, and I'll never get him back. My best men are dead, and I wouldn't trust anyone else to get him for me. No, I would rather get him myself anyways. I want to be the one to be there sweeping him off his feet and carrying him off into a finally peaceful life after putting a full clip into the man I most despise for taking what is most precious to me", Taemin started grinning a little by end of his little rant, which gave the doctor some concern. Years ago, he would've sedated someone who spoke like this, but he would prefer to not end up like Taemin's former bodyguards, so he simply nodded, and slipped out while Taemin went on and on about his revenge plotting.

The doctor packed his things in a hurry. He was very excited to go exploring the wasteland like some grand adventurer would, but also very eager to not be here once Taemin is up running around again. When he was ready, and he saw that Xiumin was as well, he took the hand of his favorite nursing assistant with a smile that seemed to sparkle with charm. "Off we go!", he said, dragging Xiumin along with him as they rushed out the door into the darkness of simulated night. 

Xiumin coughed lightly after a small gasp of surprise when Chen wisked him away at a nearly running pace. "Slow down! You know it's my lungs that are bad!", he groaned as he tried to keep up with the very child-like doctor. 

Chen stopped to turn to Xiumin and listen to his breathing with a stethoscope. "Yeah... They've gotten worse since last month...", a rare frown dawned upon his face as he heaved out a soft sigh. The doctor knelt in front of his nurse to offer his back to him. " Come on, I'll carry you, and I promise I won't go to fast. Okay?", he smiled again as he normally did once Xiumin climbed onto his back hesitantly. Chen held onto Xiumin's legs to keep him supported while they piggyback to the dome's entrance. Even though people weren't technically supposed to leave the dome, no one really ever cared if they did. It was only when people tried to get in that IDs got checked, so the three had no problem getting through. Chen and Xiumin checked their bags for their respirator masks, but could only find one. "Damn.... We can't go back now. They'll want to know our business and such if we try to go back in now", Chen muttered with distaste. Although, as they stood outside the dome it didn't seem as if anything had changed. Curiously, the doctor took a few deep breaths, but still nothing changed. "Xiu... Something is weird. It's like, I can breathe normally outside. Is it the same for you?", he asked, but all he got in response were heavy coughs and a bunch of wheezing. " oh gosh! Put on the mask!", Chen became frantic, because Xiumin sounded awfully like he was about to drop dead. "Xiu???.....", he called out in a panic. 

The calming sounds of a gasp, and then lots of panting coming from Xiumin soothed away Chen's worries. Xiumin had put on the mask, and was breathing normally again. Well, he was breathing as normal as he could given his condition. Lay looked at them with some concern at first, but then as Chen pressed on, he chose not to question it. "I'm not dying anytime soon, so quit hollering", Xiumin muttered grouchily as he leaned forward to let all of his weight rest on Chen's strong build while he fell asleep. When his lungs burned bad enough, all he wanted was to sleep to release him from his suffering.

As they approached the village, Toshiro ran up to them with fresh and old tears all over his face. "They're dead! All the infected are dead!" The boy was clearly in shock, and was panicking. Chen stayed back, keeping his distance in case the boy had been contaminated. Lay, however, could not bring himself to isolate the boy whom he'd taken under his wing, and grown so attached to. He hugged Toshi, and rubbed his back to calm him down as a parent or an older sibling would. It didn't matter to him if he got sick too. In fact, the possibility of catching this sickness didn't even register much with him really, because they already had been exposed so much to the disease, and never caught it. Then his eyes widened as he came to a revelation. Maybe they were immune? If so, then the cure had been in their blood the whole time. Lay too now started to cry a bit as he realized how he could've saved all those people, their people, who had always been like a big family to them. Now all that remained were the two of them, and their chief.

Key came out dressed as a common wanderer. He wore tattered jeans, a faded navy blue T-shirt, and a pair of dirty red converse. It was what he had been wearing the day he founded this place. As he had entered it, he would come out, because a king was nothing without his people. The flashy garments would not bring back all the smiling faces that used to flood the town. He did not feel he deserved them anymore anyway. Key knew he had failed as a leader. While people suffered, he had sat dumbfounded in his little throne, trying to figure out what to do while the truly worthy one went out on a quest for aid. He went with Lay and Toshi to bless the dead with prayer, then went on his own way with only the gun his grandfather had given him long ago. Although he could've gone to the next village over, Key was too devastated to be around even Jonghyun or Jinki, the leaders of the other two tribes nearby, and his closest friends, Jonghyun even closer to him than a friend. "Key! Where are you going?", Toshi called out. The others watched him walk away without a care left in the world. 

With his back turned to them they somehow could still hear a distant yell. "To the world's end!", which was the last they ever heard of him. Strange as it was to hear, they could not follow him. The remaining four had to figure out this disease before more were killed. What caused it? How did it spread? And what could fight it? These were all the same thoughts that buzzed around linking up their minds into one. Chen insisted that Xiumin waited outside while Lay, Toshi, and him went in. He held a rag over his nose and mouth as he went in, since he didn't have a mask to protect himself from the possibly airborne disease.

Chen put on some gloves carefully, and started to examine the corpses, checking them for lumps and rashes. Nothing was there to be found though. Actually, it seemed like all outwards signs of disease were gone. After unpacking the tools they'd brought, Chen examined some samples taken from various bodies under a nearly ancient microscope. Still, there was nothing to be found. It seemed as if all the bacteria disintegrated once the body died. Chen tried to look for evidence that maybe it was a virus instead, but there was just nothing to go off of. All the samples looked to be from clean, healthy people, which made it stranger. The samples also didn't contain any of the normal bacteria one could expect from living like this out in the wasteland. Perhaps when the body died the illness self destructed and took all the other bacteria with it? Chen's brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of all this. Even though it did seem safe enough for Xiumin to come in now, since the illness was gone, Chen wouldn't risk it. Never would he risk Xiumin's life for anything. He already had a short one left, and Chen wanted to make sure he was able to live as long as the cancer would allow him to. Thoughts of Xiumin gave him new motivation. He decided that he would do this for him. Chen would figure all this out no matter how long it took, or how badly it hurt his head to think about. He just loved seeing that twinkle in Xiumin's eyes that only appeared when he was talking about him, and that made Chen the happiest man in the world, to have Xiumin look upon him with such admiration. It made him feel that he was doing right by the world, and that his actions mattered even when many believed that nothing did anymore.