Taeyeon could barely move through the sea of people that were in the hallways leading to the common area of the civilian sector. Trying to squeeze through, Taeyeon was thankful for once for her small frame so she can squeeze through.

“Taeyeon!”

Turning, Taeyeon smiled at the Dumpling House owner, “Auntie!” Giving the older woman a big hug, Taeyeon held her tightly, feeling like this would be the last time she saw her alive, “I need your help.”

The older woman was surprised, “My help? But I am not one of the soldiers like you.”

Taeyeon shook her head, “You don’t need to be. I have reason to believe there is going to be an attack in this room but I don’t know from who, what or when. You know everyone in the Resistance correct?”

The older woman thought for a second, “I would say so. I have been here since the beginning and many of the people like my dumplings.”

Taeyeon smiled, “Exactly! I need to know if you have noticed anything unusual from any of your patrons.”

“I am sorry Taeyeon but I am not really sure. With how many missions you do, I can’t say I notice regular patterns. There are a few customers that I am surprised I haven’t seen in a while though. How long do your missions last? I feel like a year is a very long time.”

Taeyeon perked up, “Who are you talking about?”

“Byun Hongsuk, Jin, and what is his name…Won Bin. They used to come nearly every day but these guys kind of disappeared.”

“I knew it!” Taeyeon had suspicions about Won Bin for a while now, “Thank you Auntie! You have been a huge help.”

Taeyeon knew she needed to find Won Bin. He had to be the mastermind of whatever the Party was planning. Going through the crowds of people waiting around, Taeyeon was having a hard time identifying anyone in this mess. She needed a way to scan the whole area from higher up. Looking around, Taeyeon decided to get a better vantage point from the roof of one of the restaurants.

Pulling over a few garbage cans, Taeyeon carefully climbed up the roof of a noodle restaurant to scan the crowds again. She knew she was running out of time and needed to find Won Bin fast but the place was getting even more crowded by the second. Junho was right, she wasn’t going to be able to do this on her own.

Climbing off the roof, Taeyeon spotted a few familiar faces, “V, N, L and Y why are you here?”

The boys showed off their cameras, “There was a ban on surfacing for the newspaper recently so we were all reassigned back here in the complex. We were just talking about what kind of photos we wanted to capture for the next issue.”

“Was this job assigned to you by Won Bin?”

The boys shook their head, “No, Seohyun gave all the people in the newspaper jobs here. It has been a while since we did a piece strictly on the lives of those in the Resistance.”

“I think she wants to capture the human side of us.”

Taeyeon bit her lip, “Or she wants to make sure as many of us as possible are here.” Shaking her head, Taeyeon hated to think that Seohyun might be one of them, “I need your guys’ help.”

“Us?”

“Yes. I think something is going to happen here. Being photographers you must be good at capturing things others can’t see. Did you notice anything suspicious or did you see Won Bin?”

The boys thought for a while, “Not really. Everyone just looks scared since the alarm went off.”

“Yea. Most of these people here are civilians and don’t know any combat or had any training. If the Party gets in here, this could be the end.”

“Although, if you are looking for Seohyun, I saw her go into the Editorial office a while ago. Maybe she knows where Won Bin is.”

“The Editorial office of course…” Taeyeon patted the boys on the back, “Thanks a bunch! Keep your eyes out for anything out of the ordinary.” Running off, Taeyeon took the stairwells to the next floor and went around the empty hallways that already cleared out. Right away, Taeyeon felt something amiss.

Carefully, Taeyeon reached for her gun and put her finger on the safety just in case. Walking briskly but careful with every step, Taeyeon made her way to the newsroom. Hiding behind a pillar, Taeyeon scanned the room but there was no sign of anyone there.

Taking slow, calculated steps, Taeyeon entered the office and looked around. Going towards the editorial office, Taeyeon pushed the door open before jumping with her gun ready to fire, but it was empty. Looking around, Taeyeon made sure no one was there but out of nowhere, the gun was kicked out of her hands.

Turning, Taeyeon saw Seohyun coming at her with another kick which she blocked, “Seohyun what the hell!”

The girl didn’t respond as she lunged towards Taeyeon trying to tackle her but Taeyeon was quick to dodge it. Rotating between kicks and punches, Seohyun was relentless with her attacks, however, being the better fighter, Taeyeon dodged nearly every attempt before grabbing her arm and twisting it around to put the girl into an arm bar.

“Seohyun what has gotten into you?” Carefully looking behind her ears, Taeyeon didn’t see the device Yunho had.

Seohyun snickered at Taeyeon, “I am just stalling. Soon you will either be part of the Party or die with the Resistance.”

“Where is Won Bin?” Taeyeon tightened her hold on the arm causing the girl to grimace in pain, “Tell me or I will break you arm.”

Seohyun squeezed her eyes shut from the pain, “I will never tell you.”

“Why are you working with the Party? You are smart. Can’t you see what they are doing to the country, to the people? Everyone is starving out there while they take away everything and use intimidation to rule. Why do you help a nation that doesn’t care for anyone but themselves?”

“And you think the Resistance is some savior?! You are just as brainwashed as the rest of them!”

Taeyeon sighed, “I just want this war to end. I want the nations to come together and for us to prosper together.”

“You know that will never happen. Someone has to fail, someone needs to die…a whole rebel force needs to fall.”

“So you are willing to kill hundreds of innocent people to make sure that we fail? How many people does the Party need to kill?”

Seohyun laugh, “Why don’t you ask your girlfriend?”

“What?”

“I know what happened that night. What happened to Jessica’s parents. Don’t act all innocent Taeyeon. The Resistance has killed too for their benefit. No one here is 100% innocent.”

“Shut up!” Taeyeon squeezed the arm tighter, “You don’t know what you are talking about!” Reaching for something to tie the girl up with, Taeyeon wrapped the phone cord around her hands and then found some tape to secure her to a pole.

“I can tell you are afraid of her knowing the truth…maybe more than death?”

Taeyeon crouched down to Seohyun’s level, “Who would believe a liar like you anyways?” Getting up, Taeyeon needed to get back to her task of finding Won Bin.

“Taeyeon you know you will die before you find him. You can’t stop the inevitable.”

Taeyeon turned back to face the other girl, “The only thing that is inevitable is that after today, there will be no more Party or Resistance. Like you said, we wither all die together or a new nation is born.”

--------------------

Jessica waited patiently for Taeyeon to come out into the forest but when the latched opened to reveal Sunny and Junho, her heart sank, “Did you see Taeyeon?”

Sunny looked at Jessica sadly, “She had to go back to umm find someone.”

“Who? We have everyone here. We need to get into the Party fast before they increase security.”

Taecyeon stepped forward, “For all we know the key cards we brought are already useless. There is no time to waste.”

“Taeyeon said 1 hour. If she doesn’t come out by then, we can go on without her. I know time isn’t on our side, but we owe it to Taeyeon not to leave her behind.”

The group looked around and nodded, “She has 1 hour then we need to get going.”

Jessica leaned against a tree looking at the latch that stayed firmly closed, “Taeyeon why are you always looking for trouble?”

Sunny put down her pack and pulled out one of the receivers found behind Yunho’s ear, “We found out the Party is controlling certain Resistance members using this device. It is amazing that the Party has such technology. We saw this completely change Yunho’s personality. Like he was no longer the same person anymore.”

Taecyeon stepped forward taking the device, “This looks exactly like the one I took from the prison.”

Sunny nodded, “The exact same. There has to be a connection with the prisons and this device.”

“I have someone in the Resistance working in the prisons. We should reach out to her.”

“Do you really think she would admit to the Party using secret technology?”

“She would. Although with the Party crackdown on Resistance members she could be in hiding. Or worse, already captured.”

Sunny rubbed her eyes in frustration, “So we are back to the original plan of shutting down the mainframe that links to these devices.”

Suddenly the ground started to shake for a few seconds and stopped, “What was that?”

Junho touched the ground, “That felt like a bomb.”

“Do you know where it came come from?”

Junho looked down at the latch, “It felt like it was coming from right below us.”