Cataclysm

1

Morning dawned again.

He forced his eyes to flit open, letting the soft light of early day pass through his irises, past the ruined slab of concrete that hid him from the shadows of night. A new day. Another chapter for the book of life.

If this were a novella he'd name it Every Day I Could've Died.

It took a while of adjusting before he came to his senses. The nights were brutal in the outskirts, with the abyss of darkness engulfing the entire terrain. Being blinded from your sight is one thing; in the cavernous open fields of demolished buildings and rampaging foliage ?

That's the last thing I'd do even when my will is nit.

From his resting place he glanced over to his left. Tufts of soft blonde hair and a back facing away from him greeted his morning view, wearing a loosely rag-tagged blue-black flannel and some weathered jeans. His sneakers were situated nicely against the messenger bag they ran off with as they escaped the hauntings of night. In the stillness that came with early mornings, it was as if you could hear a soft voice coming from the boy opposite him.

Yeosang.

Quite suprising how he could sleep peacefully, the boy thought. After the shit show of running a marathon from mysterious lurkers beyond the shadows, Yeosang was the one he'd thought that would've been petrified to even flit an eye. Surely it was hard, when all your thoughts become louder the further you move from the chaos.

It was what the boy definitely feared the most in his opinion. Thinking and thinking, to then wondering and dreaming of things that could have been. When you've lived a life full of adrenaline, you tend to lose out on most of the other things in life. Examples include: formal studies, family time, finding that special one etc. You start to yearn it, too. Stupid, but life just throws that to you and slaps a few daydreams as an apology.

But enough food for thought. He propped himself up, carefully missing the few spokes poking out from the rubble and extended an arm out to Yeosang. A slight shake and a flinch from the other guy and they soon end up face to face with each other, Yeosang still rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Ah ... Wooyoung, it's you."

Wooyoung returned with a squint. "No shit ..? Who were you expecting ?", he said, smirking as he began to sit up. Brushing off the dust from his faded hoodie, he continued. "I think it's best we leave for now. If we're quick, whatever that chased us last night would still be biting dust here."

He waited as Yeosang fixed on his sneakers outside their hazardous night stay. Vines and shrubbery entwined the synthetic materials, acting as Mother Nature's diligent ravagers. They cascaded from the trees that seemed to have grown past the old remains of outpost buildings and fences. Moving forward from here would mean that they'd be arriving at the edge of the city at around late noon or eve.

Shifting his gaze to Yeosang, who fumbled with the messenger bag, he let his questions flow.

"So ... how was sleep ?"

"Sleep ?", Yeosang returned, looking up to him. He took a few seconds to consider, a flash of confusion came through and went. "Sleep was ass. Kinda miss the feeling of a pillow under your head, you know ?". They both scoffed, Wooyoung giving a light slap on the shoulder to Yeosang. As he began to walk away, however, Yeosang dropped one for him.

"And you, how was sleep ?"
"You know I don't do that much."

Yeosang stood, dusting his knees. "Something interesting happened when I was asleep." He slung the bag on his shoulders and went beside Wooyoung as they made their way through the dirt trail, following wherever it went. The sunlight filtering through the trees unveiled the ragged beauty of their world and their own, both beaten yet somehow still standing.

Honestly, nature was thriving much better than they were.

Wooyoung could only see Yeosang from the corner of his eye, trailing slightly behind him. "Hmm .. ? Something rustled near you or something ?".

"No, you would've noticed that if it happened."

It took a slight huff of air and a bit of head scratching before Yeosang could muster what he wanted to say. He seems pretty pressed, Wooyoung thought. Something he didn't notice ? Strange. Whatever that struck out to Yeosang in his slumber was either stealthy as heck or Wooyoung lost his guard last night, from the short fits of tiredness that made him close and open his eyes for minutes on end.

Wooyoung wasn't used to sleeping. Well, that is, not in the manner where none of it has ever crossed his mind. Something he learned on his chaotic journeys, with Yeosang being a recent addition, was that enemies lurked within every moment of lowering guard. A slight trip on a tree root would cause the enemy to rustle the leaves nearby. A change in wind meant they were close.

The last thing they both needed was to get in trouble for something stupid.

He wasn't sure when it clicked and buried into his mind, but once he confirmed his beliefs, Wooyoung just felt better to be all eyes on deck the most he can. Yeosang did tell him to cut it out on several occasions, often offering to take shifts. "The more you're killing sleep, the more you're lost in your own mind. The last thing I need is you perceiving things, not seeing." As usual, logic won over.

"I don't know how to explain it, really. Trust me, my eyes were closed the whole time-".
"You sleep with your eyes open ?".

Now why did that come out like a genuine question, Wooyoung ?

"No I-", Yeosang let a heavy sigh. Face covered with one hand and another propped on his hips, he brushed his long hair up in frustration. "I saw something. I saw ... you, but it was wild, like- I can't explain it, man-".

Wooyoung could only look on as the confusion heightened. What's he going on with here ?

"Take it slow, alright ?" was all he could come up with. There were things that seemed odd, but he didn't want Yeosang to start losing track of himself. "We've got a long road ahead, just compose yourself and tell me on the way."

Another sigh. Yeosang gripped his hair and under a sharp breath, "Screw it, I forgot."

There was nothing else to be said.