haven - zb1

41

It took maybe fifteen minutes of wandering before they spotted a figure. "Hey, isn't that Taeh-" Gunwook was almost going to yell out loud, before Taerae quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, desperately shaking his head. Zhang Hao, too, picked it up, "There's something... different about him. I can't explain it, but I think we've...never met this version of him. Rather, this version of him has never met us."

"How can that be? Unless...we went back in time," Jiwoong murmured. As they stood there, frozen as they mulled over the startling possibility, Taehyun spotted them. He paused, taking them in, before he hurried over, a bright smile blooming across his face. "I found you!" He gasped, grasping Yujin's hands excitedly. Yujin, understandably, was shocked and unable to budge, so Taehyun dropped his hands and turned to the rest of them.

"I found you," He repeated, "Thank goodness. Come, we must go."

Flustered and so taken aback by Taehyun's eagerness, they followed him as he walked through the forest with a bounce in his step.

"Does he have a few screws loose?" Gunwook whispered. "That's rude," Taerae hissed back.

"Um, where are we going?" Jiwoong decided to ask Taehyun. The latter grinned, "We're gonna go somewhere safe, somewhere we'll be accepted for who we are. Look-" He showed him a book he was carrying in his cross-body bag, a notebook, which he fanned open to display handwriting.

"I received a prophecy, to find people like me, and together, we're to find a haven, full of people like us."

With that, he returned his gaze straight ahead, "I know this is sudden, it's weird to uproot you from where you're familiar with, but at this haven, we'll be safe and happy and never have to be scared." He was so hopeful, so confident.

Lagging at the back of the group, Hanbin and Quanrui spoke in hushed tones. "If I were to guess," Hanbin started, "This Taehyun is before everything he wrote down, what we had access to from his room."

"That makes sense," Quanrui said, "He's so cheerful and excited. A far cry from how he sounded in his journals."

The further they walked, the less foliage surrounded them, the dense trees became more sparse and hints of foreign matter began appearing, gravel and cement littered the ground, even some glass and ceramics. Then, they reached a clearing, where before them, were buildings the nine had never seen before in their lives.

They were grey and blocky, with neat, identical windows lining the majority of the wall surfaces. Strange pipes stuck out from the top, where angry grey smoke was coughed out periodically. A menacing steel fence of thick metal encircled this building, and littered around the large fence were men, dressed weirdly, completely covered in these confusing patterns.

"What...is this place?" Gyuvin, eyes wide, asked Taehyun. Taehyun pursed his lips, "I know this seems scary, but we have to enter. My friends are in there, I have to get to them."

"Hold up, your friends are in here? What is this place?" Gunwook grabbed Taehyun's shoulder before he could take another step forward. Taehyun frowned, "Surely you've seen a military base before. My friends have been captured by the government. I have to save them."

"What in the world is a military?"

"On that same note, what the heck is a government?"

Taehyun ignored those questions as if he didn't even hear them. "We'll attack on the count of three, okay? One, two, three-"

Taehyun shot towards the gate, the earth rumbling below him. "He's crazy!" Gunwook yelled, but raised his bow and quickly fired an arrow, which gently bounced off the helmet of one of the men.

"Wait, wait. They've never done anything to us, should we really be killing them?" Yujin shouted as the men started to attack Taehyun. "Forget that, they're killing our great grandfather!"

"You gotta add more greats."

"Just help him!"

Hanbin sent a strong burst of water at the men surrounding Taehyun, which startled but didn't injure them. Taking the opportunities, Taehyun disarmed the handful of men, then slipped through the tiny crack open in the fence, and vanished beyond the base.

"We have to go after him," Zhang Hao urged, as Gunwook prodded the now unconscious strangers and Jiwoong put out some tiny fires. "It's as if he's not real," Woohyun mused as they ran, "It's as if he's a...spirit himself."

Quanrui melted down the steel fence with ease, marvelling at his new-found strength. Then, they spilled into the compound, managing to catch a glimpse of a swinging door. "Taehyun must have taken that one." And so, they too went through it.

They navigated the strange building easily, despite the twists and turns and narrow staircases, since Taehyun kindly left a trail of wounded people, puddles of water with dirt and burn marks on the walls. Hanbin stopped to check on one man, his breathing shallow and lids heavy.

"Why would he do this?" Hanbin breathed, confused and conflicted.

"There's only one way to find out," Zhang Hao said as he stepped cautiously towards a door, left ajar. Beyond the door was a large room, sterile and blindingly white walls boxing them in. In the centre, Taehyun was kneeling on the ground, a limp figure cradled in his arms and a tall man looming before him.

Taehyun's fingers trembled ever so slightly, but he raised his eyes to meet the gaze of the man before him.

"So? Are you going to shoot me?" Taehyun's voice was meek, child-like, and the man raised his weapon and pressed it to Taehyun's temple.

"Fight back-" The words died on Gunwook's lips as a deafening bang sounded.