Behind The Hourglass

Blinding Light

Chapter-4

Suho and Lay were trying to run back towards the van, where they had originally started their exhausting journey of escaping the SMinions from. Since the others had teleported away to safety, they had been running non-stop. There were a bunch of them behind them shooting from their guns. But thanks to Lay, they were still very much alive.

The trees around them were barely more than a stump and provided little to no cover. The few trees that hadn't been cut down were literally falling apart. Suho was starting to breathe more heavily, and he noticed that Lay was slowing down a bit, slightly behind him.

Suho turned around to see Lay, when he noticed a big shot of light shooting their way. He grabbed Lay's hand, yanking him to the side. Suho noticed a pile of tree branches. He pulled Lay and himself behind it, crouching down to stay covered from the SMinions.

"Ouch," he heard groan. "Did you have to pull me that hard?"

Suho shook his head in dismay. The things he does for these kids. It reminded him of the moment a few minutes back, when he had thanked Lay for staying behind with him, only to find that he was only flattering himself.

Suddenly, Suho noticed a small stump. He turned back to the pile of branches. He recognised this pile from when they had started running. The van must be close by. He pulled Lay up again by the arm and started running. Loud thuds informed him that there were SMinions behind him.

He reached down, mid-run, and grabbed a fallen tree branch and flung it behind him, in hopes that it would slam into the SMinions and perhaps slow them down.

He turned back, hoping to see a smaller number of them, but to no avail. Suho and Lay jumped over a pile of leaves and turned right, leading straight to the pathway towards their van. Suho could spy just around the massive tree in front of them. They were nearly there.

Just then, Lay caught his arm, causing Suho to turn and look at him. The loud booms from behind made Suho's eye sight hazy. Suho noticed that Lay's mouth was moving, but he couldn't make out what he was trying to say.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"The van could have a tracker on it!" Lay screamed back.

Suho had thought of that possibility. It was most likely the best explanation there was to the SMinions finding them. When Suho and Kris had found the van, they had been completely sure that no SMinions would find them, especially in the few hours that they were even there.

"We can still take cover inside it!" Suho screamed back.

Lay nodded and the two continued on forward. Just then, a strong gust of wind hit Suho from the left. His head was thrusted to the left. The impact left him unbalanced, causing to fall to the side, pulling Lay with him.

Their surroundings blinked a bright white, before returning back to normal.

"Suho..." Lay whispered.

"Hm?" he replied from beneath Lay.

Lay got up, straining his neck, looking the other way. "The van..." Lay whispered again.

Suho turned to look at what the other boy was talking about. He edged closer to the big tree blocking their way to the van.

"I don't see it," Suho stated confused.

They both looked around the tree. The path was no longer there, and the van had vanished along with it. The wide path had been replaced by a river. Suho looked around, turning a full three-sixty degrees.

He found himself surrounded by a large grove of trees. The large stumps and fallen branches had disappeared. They'd been replaced with trees that were much much younger, and healthier. And very very whole. He looked back at the big tree in front of them. It wasn't as massive as it had originally seemed. It had lost a good few hundred years. If that were even possible.