From the Darkness

14. The Light

Wooyoung wouldn't know how to interpret those cryptic words. If he hoped the first glance inside the massive cavern before them would provide immediate answers, he was wrong as well. It was so dark he couldn't see the far wall and its innards most certainly had nothing to do with light.

He was about to turn to Jongho and gauge by his reaction whether this was where his madness spawned and he worshipped some hailed fungus in a corner when Jongho hopped inside the room. Cautious, Wooyoung followed. The heavy door shut behind them, but it was easier to open from inside than outside. Whatever was in there needed to be protected from anything foreign, not the other way around.

Out of his good manners, Wooyoung didn't pull his gun even when a shudder had goosebumps erupting on his skin. Something was in here with them. Lurking in the shadows. Jongho wasn't the best team partner to count on, but Wooyoung would be damned if he wished San were here. Yunho was the one whom Wooyoung shared new marvels with. He would always be.

As composed as possible, Wooyoung followed Jongho into the darkness. The room was barren aside from a single round table in its midst. No furniture, no belongings. Just a vague heap of something displayed in its center like some altar.

"Did you... find this here or put this here?"

"We found him under the earth. Buried in the leftovers of the laboratory. He said he had been there for eight years. He is safer this way."

Now that he was alone with Jongho in this cave and his whispers echoed off the ceiling to haunt Wooyoung's ears, paranoia almost made Wooyoung hysterical. Who was Jongho talking about? There was no 'he' in here, was there? The object atop the table looked inanimate.

If Jongho was about to show him a disembodied head, Wooyoung wouldn't refuse his instincts to strike him down with the barrel of his gun any longer. And then get the fuck out of that cursed place.

With his jaws gritted to resist his fight-or-flight reflexes, Wooyoung neared the table along with Jongho. From up close, the faint light falling under the door unveiled the object on the small table. It was large and chunky, with a rectangular glass front and a flat back. Rows of buttons offered letters to tap on and a cable hooked the item to a battery.

Wooyoung had seen things like those before. They were computer systems, and their leftovers were strewn all across the desert. Most of them were useless, the scrap too filigree to build anything from it. Was this what Jongho held in such high regard?

"Does it work?"

Jongho nodded and shook his head at the same time.

"Not how you think it does. We have no access to the internet but we don't need to. The device is only his host."

As if he didn't just say something ludicrous with a mad glimmer in his eyes, Jongho turned to address the laptop.

"Seonghwa, are you there? I have someone I wish to introduce to you."

The dark screen came to life and Wooyoung flinched back. It lit up with the same artificial light as a blinking LED signal on a rare bomb, only that this blaze filled the square screen to its very corners. Then, it assumed a picture. A dark room and, in its midst, a single lantern. A soothing copy of their very situation.

Entranced, Wooyoung stared at the simple yet so haunting display. He was almost too preoccupied to realize a third voice had joined their conversation. It came right out of the speakers on the side of the computer.

"I was looking forward to your next visit," the device hummed and Wooyoung reeled back. Flabbergasted, he stared at it.

This wasn't the first time he heard technological devices talk. Yunho and he once found walkie-talkies and used them for a while until they got stolen. Radios were not uncommon either and though the fabled internet got mostly destroyed with the holocaust, radio waves still picked up on the occasional haunting crackles.