Shackled Freedom

11. The Tree

Jongho sped through the desert at a psychotic pace for two more hours. Though his driving improved by the minute and his muscles didn't cramp in his shoulders anymore, Wooyoung breathed a sigh of relief once Mingi suggested a break. They had to check on the fuel tank and no one could have caught up with a speeding vehicle.

When Wooyoung stumbled from the car, his knees were soft. Everything ached after he sat wedged between San and Yunho for too long and he gladly plummeted onto the ground with a huff to catch his breath until his stomach stopped spinning. 

Their surroundings had changed, so everyone took a moment to look around while they stretched their stiff limbs. Gradually, the wasteland blended into what once was a striving forest. Old trees still towered in the dry earth, bare of leaves and any color, but stubborn in their tilted balance. They offered some shade for the fungus to leech off their rotten trunks, and insects crawled eagerly in their absurd quest for food. Their burrows tucked under fallen trunks and the cracked ground, but no sand piled up in the occasional dune anymore. 

Awed, Wooyoung tried to see the end, but there was none. They would have to search for one of the old roads Seonghwa mentioned to find a way through. 

"We are near the border now," Mingi noted as he retrieved the laptop from its place. Jongho rounded the car to help Yeosang, who got stuck in his chains. They sat down together while Yunho dug through the trunk of their car. No enemies loomed in the distance and the adrenaline of the chase evaporated. If Wooyoung had the humor, he would compliment Jongho on his driving and ask him to never do that again.

"It's not far," Seonghwa uttered as he displayed a mirror of the same forests before them, with lush green crowns and berries and soft mosses to roll in. Wooyoung never saw that much green in one space and he wondered if the world would return to this sight once the sky was fixed. If he understood right, the water cycle tied to the sky was its reason.

"Let's get to know our newest addition. Perhaps he knows his way around," Yunho suggested as he tugged some snacks from a bag. Wooyoung groaned as he stretched his legs. His eyes fell on San, who shook out the empty fuel canister into the tank. Slinging his gun over his shoulder, he came up to him. After the last two hours pressed together, he regained the stubbornness he needed for this conversation.

However, the other raider didn't even glance at Wooyoung. He hid behind his bandages and his hair, hands busy even when his task was done. 

Unwilling to let him off the hook, Wooyoung leaned against the car by his side. Behind him, Yunho and Jongho uttered with Yeosang as they tried to open his cuffs.

Yunho had made his peace, now San needed to, as well. He was the only one still brooding to himself and Wooyoung hated being the source of all the lingering unrest.

"A word?" He suggested to his mysterious companion. San brushed him off.

"I'm not interested in talking to you." He turned to stalk away and pretend to be busy elsewhere, but Wooyoung scoffed and came after him.

"You're avoiding me. How did you taunt me for so long and now that we could figure things out, you lose interest?" If he had to discuss it in front of everyone, so be it.

However, San still dodged him. Mingi watched them, smoking while leaning against the car. One ear listened to Seonghwa's instructions, but the other one undoubtedly gathered information.

"There is nothing more to figure out. I had an opening since your boyfriend died, but he is back alive and you are occupied. Let's forget what happened between us," San grunted behind his bandages. He was so gruff, rough as he shouldered Wooyoung out of the way to access the trunk.