fallen empires | myg (m.)

01: the beginning

It had only been 27 days since you'd landed on Earth when the grounders attacked your group. You were all just a bunch of kids trying to figure out how to stay alive on the ground; but that didn't matter to the men and women covered head to toe in warriors clothing, war paint on their faces. They'd killed your people all the same.

After 42 days, your camp had managed to capture one of them, tying him up with torn out seat belts from the dropship that had hurdled you through the Earth's atmosphere and onto the surface of the planet. You'd been against it, begging Namjoon to reconsider holding someone hostage; you had seen the conflict in his eyes when he hesitated, but he eventually pushed you aside and gave the go ahead to do with the grounder as they pleased for information.

When the 46th day had passed, you snuck into the top part of the pod, climbing up the small ladder and locking the opening once you were inside. You turned around and met the unwavering gaze of the grounder man.

Well, boy.

He couldn't have been a warrior; he looked so young, almost the same age as yourself. But he had war paint smeared on his face, sweat and blood mixing on his body. You winced at how he was tied up, standing on his feet and his arms held apart tightly so he couldn't move them. He was scowling at you.

"Um," you started, aware that he probably wouldn't understand a word you said. "I brought you some food and water."

He didn't respond, watching you carefully with his dark eyes. You cleared your throat and made your way over to him slowly, raising one of the slices of meat you'd swiped from earlier when no one was looking, too busy drinking the moonshine Hoseok had made to notice that you'd taken three slices off of the sticks by the fire.

He lunged forward and you flinched back violently, nearly dropping the meat.

"Don't do that," you pleaded with him. "I'm trying to keep you alive." You raised your hand again, offering it once more. He bared his teeth at you, but when you didn't back away, he opened his mouth and allowed you to help him eat.

You waited another week for him to finally speak to you in English.

"Thank you," he said quietly. Your eyes widened and you rushed over to him in excitement.

"You speak English?" you questioned.

"Yes, I speak your language," he replied cautiously. "Our warriors learn all of the languages." You nodded in interest and grabbed the wet cloth you'd brought with you this time, carefully cleaning the wounds that had been inflicted in the torture sessions you'd tried to stop from happening.

"What's your name?" you asked him, dabbing at a fresher cut on his abdomen.

He hesitated before answering you. "Taehyung."

"Taehyung," you repeated quietly. You finished cleaning the blood from his skin and straightened up, smiling widely at him. "It's nice to meet you. I'm ____."

You'd started to form a friendship with him in the weeks that followed. He taught you words in his native language, and informed you that he was from Trikru, which meant Wood Clan. Taehyung also told you that his people were scouting yours. They wanted to know who exactly had been attacking Trikru warriors and putting up such a fight. He'd called you Skaikru, which meant Sky People.

You explained to him how you had been living on the Ark, a ship in space that had held your people for centuries, drifting in Earth's orbit after the nuclear war had radiated the Earth beyond imagination, killing nearly everyone on its surface. No one on the Ark had known there had been survivors, entire groups of people, living on the Earth, immune to the dangerous radiation. Detailing your experiences had turned out to be a bit harder than you'd thought; your eyes stung when you told him how the Ark had been dying, the oxygen levels diminishing until the Council had decided to send the children prisoners in the Sky Box to the ground to test the habitability of the radiation levels.