Area One

18

As soon as the nauseating feeling had vanished, Junmyeon opened his eyes. The first thing he perceived were the painfully loud noises that surrounded him.

"Hey! You! Can't you move? Are you suicidal?"

Upon hearing a person's voice, he searched for its owner. There was somebody - it had to be a person - dressed completely in thick, dark clothes. He had a huge, black, shiny round thing around his head. But what was that he was sitting on? If he had to compare it to something, he would say it resembled a bicycle, but there were no pedals. It was far broader than one, and the way it roared at Junmyeon made him believe it was maybe alive.

"Are you deaf?" The loud noises surrounding him were even more annoying now. He looked down.

He was lying on a grey, flat ground with white lines on it. Behind the man, there were... yes, what were they? They were made of the same shiny material as the person's bicycle, but more in a box - like shape and there were people sitting in them.

One of them now opened the door to her device and came towards Junmyeon.

"Can't you see where you are?" the woman asked him angrily. What had he done wrong?

Slowly, a headache started building up. Was he dreaming? Where had these people come from? Where was he?

The woman sighed and dragged him with her.

"No! Please don't!" Junmyeon screamed, flashes of people dragging him somewhere playing before his eyes. The woman stopped and the loud noises ceased. Now, the air was filled with roaring sounds like the one the black thing had made and the boxes moved.

"Why would you lay down in the middle of the street? You got there so quickly, no one saw you before you stopped walking. Don't do that from now on, okay?" Her voice became more friendly when she saw how he was clutching his head in pain. "Are you alright?"

He only shook his head and the woman sighed. "You should go see a doctor. I just told my friend to drive on without me, but she must already be waiting for me. And... is that blood?" Her sudden wide - eyed expression made Junmyeon lower his gaze at his clothes. He was still wearing the clothes he had worn during the torture and in the prison. They were ripped, dirty and there was a lot of his own blood on them. Embarrassed, Junmyeon didn't meet the woman's gaze.

"That won't do. You should go to the hospital."

"Could you show me the way?" Junmyeon asked, as politely as he could. She stared at him.

"It's not hard to find, I could explain the way to you -"

"My head hurts," Junmyeon explained with a weak voice. "I've been passing out quite often lately. I don't want to waste your time, I really don't, but I'm scared of fainting somewhere without anyone who can help."

The woman gave in and Junmyeon started to feel guilty, but he brushed that feeling off quickly. He couldn't lose consciousness here. There was only one possibility where he was now, and if he didn't get off the street quickly, the Red Force would find him. They had probably sent troops everywhere in the city to search for them. Just what had Jongin done? And where were the others?

There were too many things in the city that he had never even dreamed of to try to understand them. The signs of the shops were glowing in colours that hurt his eyes. There were far more people than he had ever seen in one place and most of them were staring at the same small, flat device in their hands. It reminded him of the other electronic devices he had encountered, and he quickly looked away whenever he saw one.

They were walking beside the street he had stood on and the loud metallic boxes and the noises they made were really intimidating. Junmyeon didn't want to imagine what would have happened if these things hadn't stopped as soon as the people had noticed him.