Rated PG for survival situations

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Yongguk had absolutely no idea where he was, though he had slightly more of an idea what he was doing.  The gravity on the new planet was about a third of Mato’s, if Youngjae’s calculations were correct (99.9% of the time, they were), which allowed them to move quickly and easily.  However, the operable group currently consisted of Zelo, Jongup, and himself, and all three were laden down by their other three comrades and their equipment.

“Zelo, can you scan while carrying Daehyun and all that stuff?” Yongguk asked.

“Yes, sir!” Zelo said.  “It may take me longer than usual, though.”

“That’s alright,” Yongguk said.  “Do it.  Jongup, how are Himchan and Youngjae holding up?”

“They haven’t moved or anything,” Jongup said.  “I’m worried, sir.”

“We’ll have Zelo do a medical scan on everyone when we find a place to rest,” Yongguk assured him.  “Until then, we have to keep pushing on.  All those vehicles they’ve got have the capabilities to catch us easily.”

“The areas that my scanners can reach are all urbanized to heavily urbanized,” Zelo reported.

“What area offers the most hiding places?” Yongguk asked as they kept moving.

“There’s a moderately urbanized area ahead in the one-hundred fifty degree region,” Zelo said.  “It seems to have alleys that lead to an extensive but more heavily fortified area.  The alleys and the less fortified area surrounding them could provide us cover and resources.”

“Do any of your databases have the ability to process any of the apparent writing system?” Yongguk asked.

“I’d need Youngjae’s help,” Zelo said.

Suddenly Himchan’s voice rang through Yongguk’s mind.  What’s going on?  What’s the status?  I’m not feeling well enough to run, and I’m not about to distract Jongup.

Yongguk fell silent as he allowed Himchan access to his most recent thoughts.  He waited for a few minutes as the telepathic general got his bearings.  “Yongguk?” Zelo asked.

“I need a second to think,” Yongguk said.

I’m all set, Himchan told him.  I’ve checked out Jongup and Zelo as well.  I say move toward the moderate area for now.  It feels like Youngjae might come to within the next half hour or so, but Daehyun feels like he’ll probably be unconscious for the next twenty-four hours.

Roger that, Yongguk thought, assuming that Himchan was listening.  Then he said, “We’re going to head toward that more moderate region, alright?  Zelo, lead the way.  Do your best to keep us out of sight, though.”

“Yes, sir,” Zelo said.

“There’s so much life on this planet,” Jongup observed as he kept pace with Yongguk.  Jongup’s physical endurance never failed to impress him.  Even with an injured leg, the boy was still running at his side.  Yongguk knew from experience that Jongup could easily run circles around him at full health, and could scout an entire territory within a day.

“It looked so green in some places from space,” Yongguk agreed quietly.  “There was also so much water.”

“It looks absolutely beautiful,” Jongup said.  “No wonder its people defend it with such ferocity.”

Yongguk kept silent and wondered if that was the reason that the natives were so aggressive.  He had a feeling that this planet was not just a place of beauty, as it appeared from afar.  It was definitely his warrior instincts telling him to be wary of the promising place.  He would have to talk with Himchan as soon as the leader got a chance to feel out the minds of the people nearby.

They pressed on until Zelo said, “I need to take a minute to recharge.  An hour or so of solar energy should restore me enough for now.”

“Alright,” Yongguk said.  “General Himchan’s been awake for some time now, so you can let him down, Jongup.”  Jongup obliged, gently setting Himchan down on his rear.

The group took cover under in a deep in a dim alleyway.  Zelo laid down Daehyun and all the mechanical equipment that he had been carrying before sneaking away to catch some sun.  Yongguk watched as Himchan assessed the equipment that they had been able to carry.

“Are you feeling okay, General Himchan?” Jongup asked.

“I’m fine,” Himchan said.  “How about you guys?  You’ve been running for a while now.”

“The gravity difference is astounding,” Yongguk said.  “Everything is so light and easy, even carrying all of this metal.”

“Yeah, it was like you and Youngjae weighed nothing,” Jongup agreed.

“Speaking of Youngjae, can you feel his consciousness anymore?” Yongguk asked.  “Having him awake would definitely help us.”

After a moment, Himchan said, “He’s getting there.  He should be awake within the hour that Zelo needs to recharge.”

“Thank the gods,” Yongguk muttered.

The three sat in silence.  After Himchan bandaged his head, Yongguk tinkered a bit with the materials that he, Zelo, and Jongup had recovered from the crash.  Himchan sat, deep in thought, and Jongup admired the blueness of the new planet’s sky.  No one was really keeping track of time because they knew that Zelo would come back either to alert them of danger or to tell them that he was ready to go.

A groan from Youngjae stirred the three from their quiet.  “Ack, great goddess Toto have mercy on me,” he moaned as he sat up.  “I feel like a heard of those giant, mutated monsters from that bad movie we watched last month ran over me.”

“Good, you’re awake,” Yongguk said.  “How bad are your wounds?”

Youngjae inspected his current state.  “I’m a bit cut up on my torso, but that’s not relevant now.  Where are we?”

“We’re on our way to a moderately urbanized area which has plenty of hiding spots in which we can recover,” Himchan said.  “We’re currently resting while Zelo recharges himself.  Jongup’s leg is cut up, Yongguk has a nasty-looking head wound, Zelo’s got a few bumps and other surface damage, and I’ve got a few cuts and scrapes, but that’s all manageable.  However, Daehyun has sustained more severe wounds which will likely leave him incapacitated until we find a way to completely heal him.”

Youngjae scooted over to inspect his friend’s wounds.  “These are serious,” he said.  “I need material to bind these.  We have to remember that we have absolutely zero immunity to whatever pathogens exist on this planet.  Infection will be what kills everyone except Zelo if we can’t find a way to treat ourselves.”

“Fabulous,” Himchan muttered as he handed Youngjae his jacket, which the brainiac proceeded to tear up.

“What about the language?” Yongguk asked.

“I’ll need Zelo to act as my processor,” Youngjae said.  “I’ll need to get a wide variety of spoken samples in order to even start comprehending it.  Then I’ll need numerous writing samples.  In summary, it’ll be a lengthy process, depending on how similar or different this places’ speech patterns are to our own.  Ah, it’ll be the ultimate test of my intellect!”

“I’m glad you’ll enjoy it,” Himchan said.  “However, what about our immediate survival?  We can’t lose anyone, and because of the infection thing, Daehyun’s in the most danger right now.  His skill in differentiating sounds will come in handy when we’re able to spend time on the language.”

“This place appears to be sophisticated enough to have a currency system,” Youngjae said.  “Unfortunately, being unable to speak the language will be extremely disadvantageous for us.  We’ll likely have to resort to thievery.”

“Do you think the gods will frown on us because of it?” Jongup asked.  “I don’t want Toto to be angry at us, and I don’t want Keke to punish us.”

“I think the gods will understand that we’re trying to survive and that we mean no harm,” Himchan assured Jongup.  “Now, what should we do about the natives who are pursuing us?”

“We can settle in a general area, but we should keep moving around it,” Yongguk said.  “If I were looking for alien life forms, I would expect them to move away from the crash site to explore and escape.  Therefore, we should remain in this close area and hope that once they determine that we aren’t here, that they move on.”

“It’s risky, but it’s got potential,” Himchan said.

“We have to avoid the inhabitants, though,” Youngjae said.  “If we’re seen once, we’ll have to move to a new area because they’ll probably recognize that we’re strangers.”

“Fun,” Yongguk muttered.

“Will Daehyun be okay if we move him from place to place while he’s hurt?” Jongup asked.

“He’ll have to be,” Youngjae said.  “It’s gonna be really rough on him until I’m able to get my hands on some medical supplies, but he’ll have to make due.”

Himchan turned to Jongup.  “Take Youngjae with you to scout.  I’ll call you back when Zelo returns.”

“Yes, sir,” Jongup said.  He helped Youngjae up onto his back and zipped off.

When the two were gone, Yongguk turned to Himchan.  “What are your plans for after we become more acclimated to this planet?”

“Until we all manage to learn this language, we’ll be totally reliant on Youngjae and Zelo to navigate us,” Himchan said.  “Until we’re decently proficient, we should avoid contact with the natives, and even after that, we’ll need to figure out their culture in order to blend in.”

“What about contacting Mato?” Yongguk asked.

“While Youngjae works on the language, you and I can work on building a radio from what we’ve got.  These beings seem like they might have radio capabilities, so if we find that we do, we can acquire one of their devices and upgrade it,” Himchan said.

Yongguk nodded.  “Understood.”  He scooted over to check over Daehyun.  A quick glance had been enough to give him an idea of how serious his wounds were, but closer inspection upped his worry several notches.  Deep gashes marred his back, torso, and shoulders.  Youngjae had done a quick job of binding them, but the blood was already seeping through.  “Hey, Himchan, help me out here.”

Himchan, thanks to his freakish mind-reading abilities, Yongguk was sure, had already begun to move over to them.  In silence the two fixed the bindings more tightly to help stop the bleeding.  Soon after, Zelo came back.

“I’m all set,” he announced.  “Where did Jongup and Youngjae go?”

“I sent them scouting,” Himchan said.  “I’ll call them back now.”

A few minutes later, Jongup and Youngjae returned.  “We’re actually surprisingly similar to these beings.  They’re bipedal, cephalized creatures with two upper limbs and two lower limbs just like us,” Youngjae announced.  “We’ve got the right almond-shaped eyes, but their dominant colorings are dark hair and eyes while ours vary widely.  So, basically, only Himchan and maybe Jongup can get away with walking around without arousing too much suspicion, and that’s only if they don’t look anyone in the eyes.”

“Wow, I was expecting a lot more trouble,” Himchan said, surprised.  “Anything else?”

“Inhabitants of the area that we just left are leaving,” Youngjae reported.  “It appears as if they are evacuating, the cause of which is likely our appearance.  Also, the direction in which we are heading does not seem to be too overrun with defendants.”

“Alright,” Himchan said.  “Let’s keep moving.”

 

The group went on until night fell.  They all were hungry and tired, so they found what appeared to be an abandoned building and dumped their machinery and Daehyun in it.  Youngjae stayed to keep guard while the rest headed out to find food.

Himchan found the streets surprisingly empty.  Even though Zelo had said the area was less populated than some of the surrounding areas, he had expected at least a few of the beings to be out.  Maybe that was just not their way.  Himchan took note of it and kept to the shadows.

There were several buildings that seemed like they served food.  However, it was obvious that they required currency, of which he had none, so Himchan was forced to look elsewhere.  Eventually he came to the devastating conclusion that he would have to pick through the waste of those food-bearing establishments to find something to eat.  He slipped around one of the buildings to investigate, and found a large trash bin with writing on it.  Bracing himself, he hopped up and began to rummage around in it.  The smell was not pleasant, and he was glad that Daehyun was not on this particular job.

After finding something that appeared reasonably edible, Himchan reached out with his mind for his teammates.  A brief scan of each of their minds revealed that each one who had gone out scavenging had come to the same conclusion that he had – trash-searching was the only way to find food.  Himchan gathered some more of the stuff that appeared to be food before heading back to their temporary base.

“That was gross,” he told Youngjae as he handed him a bit of what he had found.

“Was it?” Youngjae asked.

“I went trash hunting,” Himchan said.

“Ah,” Youngjae said as he picked at the strange item that Himchan had handed him.  “I see someone fixed Daehyun’s bandages?”

“Yeah,” Himchan said.  “Tell me honestly, do you think he’ll make it?”

Youngjae was quiet.  “Daehyun’s tough, so if we were on Mato, I’d say yes with great certainty.  However, we’re on a new planet with alien diseases.  He’s strong, but his body will have to acclimate, just like ours will.  We need to find a way to clean his wounds.  Even just water would be good, though I could use some hydrogen peroxide or something.”

Jongup zipped in.  “I looked around in what looked like the junk of restaurants and found this stuff,” he said, setting down several partially eaten items.  Both Zelo and Yongguk came back with similar results, though Zelo had managed to locate water on top of more edible-appearing things.  Youngjae wet a cloth to clean Daehyun’s wounds before they split the rest of the water among them.  Then they played rock-paper-scissors to determine who would get the first watch for the night before settling down to sleep.

The next few days consisted of much of the same sort of thing.  Youngjae took Zelo out to gather samples of the local language and culture, Himchan and Yongguk set out to find clothing that would allow them to blend in a little better, and Jongup stayed behind with Daehyun to guard their hideout.  Between their collective experiences, they determined that society on the new planet was not too different than their own society on Mato.  It seemed that the beings were generally employed, most likely as a means to earn currency.  They were also social beings, and could often be seen travelling in pairs or larger groups.  Younger beings went to be educated, and groups of beings lived together in the same home as families.  Overall, the lifestyle seemed more familiar than foreign, which was very comforting.

More good news was in the making.  “I’ve determined that their language is not too different than ours,” Youngjae announced that evening.  “The great deities Keke and Shishi must have guided us to this location on this particular planet for a reason.  The language seems to be an extremely garbled and grammatically-distorted dialect of one of the more secluded regions of Mato that I’m not going to bother to name since none of you have probably ever heard of it.”

“Try me,” Zelo said.

“You don’t count,” Youngjae said.  “You retain information on hard drive for situations like this just to annoy me.”  Zelo grinned.  “Anyway, this makes figuring out the spoken language much easier, if using our own language as a base to decode it works by a touch of fate.  The writing system is another thing entirely, as it’s completely foreign to me.  I’ve determined a pattern in it, but I have no idea how it corresponds to the spoken language itself.”

“Thank the gods,” Himchan said in relief.  “Now please work on deciphering the language so that we can find jobs and have something edible that’s not trash!”

“I’ll do my best,” Youngjae promised.  “I’ll need Zelo to stay with me so we can go information gathering.  Is that alright?”

“Do what you need to do,” Himchan said.  “Yongguk, Jongup, and I will take care of everything else.”

The days following were dull for Himchan, Yongguk, and Jongup, consisting of trash-picking for food and water.  Meanwhile, Youngjae and Zelo were hard at work, doing their best to figure out the language.  Their progress was slow, and Youngjae would have been having the time of his life, had his meals not consisted of half-eaten, stale, dirty food and bad water that sometimes made him throw up.

While Himchan, Yongguk, and Jongup were out one day, Daehyun finally woke up.  His strong senses made the pain of his wounds unbearable, so Zelo poked a few pressure points to knock him back out after Youngjae had managed to give him water and feed him.

Overall, the secret of the existence of the aliens seemed to be safe.  Decent food and water were difficult to come by, for certain, but they had not run into too many problems obtaining enough to survive.  It was a meager existence, but they had each other for support.  Then infection and illness began to set in.

Once Youngjae had determined the nature of their illness (it was not unlike the common cold virus back on Mato), Zelo, who could not become sick as easily due to his mostly-cyborg body, was the only one allowed to tend to Daehyun.  The infection caused a bigger problem.  Their daily jaunts to collect food and water become more difficult as their bodies weakened and wounds hurt more.  Everything seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket, and the mood worsened.  Then everything was topped off one day when Jongup came limping back to their hideout.

“I- I’ve been seen!”

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Pardon the minor cliffhanger.

Just so you know, the boys all have different looks from different eras.  Yongguk is One Shot, Himchan is No Mercy, Daehyun is Power, Youngjae is Rain Sound, Jongup is Crash, and Zelo is Warrior.  Their eye colors are their Matoki colors, so red for Yongguk, pink for Himchan, black for Daehyun, etc.

So, the aliens have their own religion, which will probably be explained in more detail later when Sheila starts making comments about it.  However, so you’re not totally confused about why B.A.P keeps invoking the names of the different Matoki, here is a brief overview:

Tats – the perfect, good, and loving queen goddess who created a perfectly balanced universe

Keke – the mysterious goddess of fate and creativity who deals with paying back living beings’ actions with their just desserts and determines reincarnation

Dada – the gentle god of life and goodness who brings Tats’s love from her divine realm outside of the universe directly into the universe

Joko – the trickster god who rules wit and liveliness while at the same time guarding the balance between good and evil

Shishi – the protector god who guards living beings as they struggle against the evil that is inevitable as the shadow which is cast by the strong light of goodness

Toto – the goddess who brings comfort and healing to those hurt by injustice; takes special care of the innocents and children

Got anything to say to me?  Leave me a comment!  Watch out for flames, though.  They could come back to burn you!