Platinum Skies (The Manifests Series #2)

[25] Race Against the Fallout

May 11, 2023, 1:15pm, En route to the final Koul'in facility, Gyeongsan, South Korea.

The location of the final facility was in a forest clearing near Yugok-Gil Road---the southeastern edge of the province of Gyeongsan.

Cat once again plans to take alternative routes to lessen the risk of snowy alien ambushes and roadblocks.

But just approximately fifteen minutes after they left, a defeaning explosion suddenly echoed behind them, followed by a slightly strong shockwave that gets the whole van dragged a few feet.

"Woah, hey what in the world?!" Hangyeol shrieked as everyone clung onto something as the van skids across the road.

"Ggh, what the hell was that?!" Cat grunted as she swerves the van and slams the brakes. The van grinds to a screeching stop.

Jihyo slowly goes out, along with Zeke, Hyungwon, and Cat. They look at the direction of the explosion, and see that there was a medium-sized mushroom cloud in the distance.

They also see debris fall out of the sky. Jihyo reaches out her palm and immediately generates a crystalline shield around her and the van.

Zek notices that the falling debris consisted of giant shards of otherworldly glass, metal, mechanical apparatuses, and several chunks of cement walls, destroyed furniture, and steel beams.

The rain of debris took a while to subside, and when it finally did, it was already atleast a full minute. Jihyo's light shield soon fades, as Hyungwon proceeds to observe the chunks of debris lying around.

"Aish... That explosion was too loud. What happened...?" Sana asked as she goes down the van in curiosity.

"Not sure. It must've been a cryostine bomb, based on the leftover scraps here, but... considering that big of an explosion.." Zeke guessed.

"...it might be clusters of them in a specific area, or a huge bomb." Hyungwon said as he continues inspecting the debris.

As Jihyo's eyes scan the debris all over the area, she spots a weird object sticking out of the snow near her position, different from the ones that have rained down on them. She slowly approaches the round object, ever curious about what it was.

As the ever cautious TWICE member grabs it and pulls it out of the snow, her heart suddenly pounded in terror, her eyes dilating in the process. She immediately shrieks and lets go of the object. She falls to the snowy ground, shivering in fear.

"Jihyo! What happened?!" Zeke said as he immediately rushed to her. Sana follows. They look in the direction of object, and they could not believe their eyes.

It was a severed, frostbitten finger...

...with a silver ring that had a "III" design on it.

"...!" Zeke grunted, furrowing his eyebrows in utter shock.

Hyungwon and Cat scrambles to check what was going on, only to deliver the same bitter reaction to the finger that was laying on the ground.

"That explosion... It came from there...? No. No way..." Zeke muttered.

"H-Hosook-ah..." Sana gasped as she covered her mouth, tears slowly forming under her eyes. "It cant be, its just been only a few minutes..."

Jihyo couldnt believe the abrupt fate that was given to Hosook and her allies. She only met her for a very very short while, but it was as meaningful as it can be---for she was a long time beloved fan of hers. A fan that believed and admired her. A fan that dedicated herself to buy something to always remember her by.