The rest of the trip back to the camp was extremely boring and cramped as well as hot. Hongbin’s driving wasn’t helping the cramped situation, he drove extremely fast and cross country, his idea of a “shortcut”. Seeing as I was sitting in the middle again I became grumpy and I could tell that Wonsik and Jaewhan were equally fed up with the whole situation. Sanghyuk and Taek were the only ones who seemed to be okay with everything. Hongbin was obviously enjoying the drive immensely, I wasn’t sure whether it was because he knew we were terribly uncomfortable or because he was in charge of our destination. I suppose being able to drive would be freeing. The ability to go anywhere you pleased, not that there was really anywhere to go TO.

We got back to the main camp and as soon as we fell out of the car we were practically jumped by Sabriel and her underlings. She latched on to Taek and I and dragged us to an examination room. Demitria guided Jaewhan and Sanghyuk to another and Wonsik and Hongbin were escorted by another girl.

Sabriel sat us down side by side on the examination bed and looked us over thoroughly. When she was finished she slumped back in the chair which she had dragged across from us. Heaving a sigh she pinned Taek with an intense look. It was obvious that they were having a silent conversation. The discussion came to an end when Taek lowered his eyes. Sabriel brought her hands over her eyes and dragged them down her face. Suddenly she looked much, much older than she was. She gave me a tired smile and stood up with a groan. I could hear her joints popping as she stood and then an almighty snap. She breathed a chuckle and put her hand to her hip.

“My body just can’t seem to keep up anymore. I need a holiday. A LONG holiday.”

She motioned us to follow her as she exited the examination room and all but disappeared between the other buildings. For someone who claimed to need a holiday, she certainly went about her job with the vigor of a newbie. Taek and I had trouble keeping up as she ducked and weaved her way through the mass of buildings and people.

We came to a place I’d never been before. It was a very large building with glassless window holes all along the second floor. It seemed very old.

Sabriel didn’t pause, pushing right through the door without even so much as a knock. Taek went in right behind her but I hesitated for a few seconds, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the building.

The inside didn’t match the outside in the slightest. While the outside was made of some sort of light yellow stone the inside was dirt and rusted metal everywhere. We were only allowed in for a few minutes at a time because the radiation from the war was still pretty strong in the building.

Sabriel led us through a maze of corridors like she knew the place back to front, which she probably did. After a series of complicated turns we found ourselves in a room with some sort of paint all over the walls. She explained to us that the radiation was the weakest in this room so they had made it into a map. The walls of the room had been painted, brown for land and blue grey for water. When I looked down I saw that there was paint on the floor too. In the middle of the floor there was a dot which was labeled “Guiyang”.

Sabriel caught me looking and told me that was where we were. She led me around the room and showed me where everything was. There were various dots each with their own label. On the far wall, up near the ceiling was a star labeled “Beijing”. She moved over to the other end of the room and motioned to an area.

“This is where your team went on patrol.”

As we stood, Taek came over and made a marking on the floor.

“That’s where the camp was.”

At that Taek stood up and left, leaving me and Sabriel alone in the room.

“Each time a team goes out on patrol they have a smaller version of this map with them and to make sure that we keep everything up to date when a team comes back from a mission they have to mark anything they found on this big map. Taek came here before the mission to add anything important to your mission to his map.”

The system was pretty sophisticated I had to admit, though it could’ve been better. Oh well.

Our time limit was running out so Sabriel led me back out through the maze and into the pink tinged sunlight of the sunset. It had gotten pretty late and now that I registered the time I realised I was starving. My stomach gurgled loudly and I flushed an unflattering shade of pink. Sabriel just laughed at me and took me to the kitchens. We sat and ate together, occasionally she’d stop for a second and a strange look would pass over her face but then it would pass and I was left wondering if I’d imagined it. As we sat eating slowly and talking the kitchens began to fill up. We were joined by Yifan and Zitao who sat on either side of Sabriel and I, a few minutes later Jongin and Kyungsoo sat across from us. We chatted and laughed until it got dark and then the others started to peel off. Jongin and Kyungsoo left arm in arm, looking a little more than just friends or teammates. After they had gone Zitao and Yifan left, not touching but almost. When they were out of sight Sabriel stood up and took me back to the dorm. I was starting to be able to navigate by myself but everything was more confusing in the dark.

We stopped just a little way off from the dorm and Sabriel turned to me. She opened as if to say something but closed it almost straight away.

“Goodnight N. Sleep well.”

With that she her heel and left and I went inside. I was completely exhausted so I stripped into my underclothes (which consisted of a cotton shirt and cotton boxer briefs) and fell into bed. I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.