"Captain, the radio signals have stopped."

            The whole troupe fell into silence.

            "I... Captain, I think we're alone."

            Hyoyeon looked around at the last remaining men and women under her command. She couldn't afford to show weakness now. Not when the whole world depended on her. They were the whole world.

            "We will keep going through Buhangin land. Set up camp for the night, we'll decide what to do in the morning." One man let out a quiet groan and the others glared at him. This was not the moment for self-indulgence.

            They pitched their tents beneath one of the last trees before the endless sand stretched before them. She knew this place well from her 5 year tour of the northern continent and was not afraid of getting lost amongst the endless dunes. She had graver things to worry about.

            Lying in her insulated reso-plast tent that night, she had an important decision to make. If there were a single other person left on Earth, she would have detected their microchip by now. Hyoyeon, her lieutenant, and three privates were all that was left of the Earth colonies. The nearest humans were happily settled in the Andromeda galaxy and would be unaware of their situation until the next centennial carbon exports. By then it would be too late. She'd never imagined the end of the world to be so dry, so full of diease and ugliness. Their only choice was to survive as best as possible. Become a family and live out Earth's last days with each other for company. What scared her most was not the inevitable end or lack of purpose in an empty world. It was the immense lonliness that would arise had these people not stayed with her.

            Eventually, she slept.

***

In the morning, she was woken by a quiet knock on her tent. She sat up and blearily rubbed her eyes.

            "Come in."

            Lieutenant Lee crouched under the zipper and sat at the end of her makeshift bed.

            "Captain, the soldiers are getting restless. I'm sorry to wake you, but..." He looked embarassed and uncomfortable. "They want answers."

            "Of course, of course." She pulled her fatigues on over the undergarments she wore to sleep and crawled out after him. The three privates were hovering outside her tent.

            "As I'm sure you've all figured out, we have a choice to make." There was no point in beating around the bush. "There is one way to survive and that is to stick together and look after each other. Of course, that will mean dropping the formalities. For the sake of sanity, we will have to become a family. A life without affection is no life at all. I understand that this is a big commitment and anyone not willing to make it may leave with no judgement. If you chose to stay, we will live out the ends of our days as the last humans on Earth. It isn't ideal, but... well... we're all we've got."

            Lieutenant Lee stepped forward.

            "Captain, you know I would follow you to the ends of the Earth. Literally now, it seems."

            "If this is going to work, I think we should start using first names. Call me Hyoyeon from now on." He looked hesitant.

            "Sure. Okay Hyoyeon, let's do this."

            "Right, so Sungmin's on board. What about you Kyungsoo? Amber, Jongin?"

            "I'm always on your side, you know that."

            "And me."

            "Sure, alright."

            She smiled around at her soldiers. For the first time since the crushing news yesterday, she felt a glimmer of hope.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

Hey guys. Sorry if there are any typos in this, my spell check stopped working and I don't know why. Weirdly enough, at one point in the dream I knew I was Chanyeol and yet I didn't put him in this at all. I just really needed Kyungsoo okay because he's adorable and great and he can totally buy me a drink next time he's in the land down under.

The chapter's pretty short because I thought this might be better as a multichap thing. I'm super busy right now with writing this webseries so sorry if updates are a little slow. I promise not to let this one stagnate too much though because it's in a style I really like. Comments make my world go 'round <3