Sneaking out of the camp was much easier than Taemin had expected.

Of course, it probably helped that everyone was still trying to recuperate after being ambushed by the wildcats. Taemin wasn’t sure if the vicious creatures would attack again, but he wasn’t waiting around to find out, either.

Plunging deeper into the darkness of the jungle, Taemin looked around curiously. Trees blocked out the sunlight overhead, making it dark and cool. There was little to no sound, and his footsteps seemed excessively loud—stark against the silence.

After a while of walking, Taemin began to grow tired. He stopped as he reached a fallen log and sat down on it, avoiding the mossy bits. Resting his chin in his hand, Taemin wondered reproachfully why Jongin and the others had made the jungle out to be so terrifying; at this rate, he’d be lucky to be attacked within the next century.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, a long, drawn-out hissing noise sounded from behind him. Taemin froze, his heart thudding loudly in his ears as an icy drop of dread trickled down his spine. Slowly, he turned his head to look—and felt his mouth fall open in a silent scream of horror.

Before he could move, the snake struck once, twice, three times. Taemin fell forward onto the ground, his breaths becoming ragged and labored as he felt the snake’s venom seeping into his veins. Soon the world had begun to grow black around the edges—and then it was fading in earnest.

His last thought was of Jongin and the others; a silent wish for them to be better off now, without him. Please…

◊◊◊

His next thought was that if this was dying, then it wasn’t so bad.

He felt like his body was floating, suspended in midair while his mind just barely skirted the edge of consciousness. Slowly he opened his eyes, and was met by a surreal sight.

Figures in white lab coats wandered about, holding clipboards and occasionally jotting down notes. There were around twenty or so human-sized cocoon-like structures surrounding the room, and little TV screens covered the walls, filled with images of…was that…the Island?

Taemin realized then that everything looked kind of foggy—as though he were looking at it through a layer of murky lake water. Water. And it hit him.

He was floating in water.

Immediately he tried to inhale, but his lungs filled only with liquid. The first traces of panic began to well up inside of him as he scrabbled desperately for escape, his hands waving wildly around—and hitting glass. He was trapped.

At that moment, a lab worker who happened to be passing his cocoon (or whatever the hell it was) caught sight of Taemin, and promptly dropped his clipboard. His lips moved, and a muffled shout reached Taemin’s water-clogged ears:

“Oh ! Put subject seventeen under, NOW!”

And, just as it quickly as it had appeared, everything went black.

◊◊◊

“…aemin. Taemin. Taemin!”

He opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light. Hovering over him were the anxious faces of the Islanders—who, as soon as they saw that he was awake, burst out into shouts and cries collectively.

“Oh my god,” a familiar voice moaned, and Taemin lifted his head to see someone flung across his torso, hot tears soaking into his shirt. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” Jongin repeated, sobs of relief wracking his thin shoulders.

“Taemin! What on earth?” somebody else yelled, and Taemin looked up to see Jonghyun standing over him, his face ashen with mingled relief and fury. “What—why—what the hell were you thinking?” he exploded, his hands in his hair. Taemin opened his mouth to reply, but the noise from all the chaos surrounding them drowned him out.

“SHUT UP!” Jonghyun roared over his shoulder, and the tent fell silent. He turned back to Taemin, his eyes urging the boy to speak.

Taemin took a deep breath, unsure where to begin. Finally he asked, “Who brought me back here?”

“Minho did,” Jonghyun replied immediately, still looking mutinous but speaking in a calmer tone of voice now. “He noticed you’d gone missing first and went into the jungle after you. But that’s not important at the moment.” He glared at Taemin, who involuntarily shrank back a little against his bed. “What the hell happened?” he spat.

Taemin hesitated, wondering how best to phrase his response. At last he gave up, letting the words his mind had been repeating since he’d woken up fall out of his mouth.

“I’ve done it.”

“Done what?” Jonghyun demanded impatiently. Taemin took another deep breath, looking him right in the eye.

“I’ve breached the simulation.”