Persona

Saltwater Taffy

May 27, 2045

Namja’s eyelashes fluttered, before they opened. Everything was blurry, extremely, and he smelled blood. Blood, fire, smoke, and for some odd reason.. Was that..

Saltwater.

He could feel that he was laying at an angle, and there was a lot of pressure on his back. Blinking a few more times to clear the blurriness, Namja took in his immediate surroundings. Aejeo was next to him, the younger buckled in tightly, tears, saliva, and blood streaming down the maknae’s face. As Namja became more in-tune to the conscious-world, his head was throbbing, legs aching, and arms in uncomfortable positions.

Nothing was broken, not that he could tell, anyway, but when he tentatively reached his hand up to his head, blood stained his fingers, and suddenly, he was nauseous, and cold, and scared. God, was he scared. He craned his neck in the direction of the middle aisle of seats, Seogi, and Mijin were in sight, but Mijin looked oh, so much worse. Namja couldn’t recall a time when he felt more sick to his stomach.

He felt around his waist for the first time since he woke up, finding purchase on the belt-buckle keeping him in place. He heard the soft click as it came undone, and he felt relief rush through him. When he sat up, Namja could see that the windows in the plane were broken, and a hole in the bottom allowed water to flow freely as it pleased.

Thankfully, the floor beneath his feet was intact, and he stood on shaky legs to help his fellow band-mates. Unbuckling Aejeo was easy, and the younger inhaled deeply when the belt finally came loose. Getting to Aeseok was a bit more troublesome, but Namja managed. His Noona was free in no-time, and Aeseok was awake enough to help Aejeo out of the plane.

By that time, Seogi was awake, however, having trouble unbuckling, and waking, Mijin.

“Namja,” Seogi called, a slight tremble in his tone. “I can’t get the buckle, could- could you?”

Namja grunted as he maneuvered himself over to them, minding the water that was slowly soaking his socks, and the pounding that was greatly bothering his head. Namja grabbed hold of the belt, and tugged when Seogi hit the button to release it.

No.

It didn’t work. They tried this a few more times, before Mijin woke up, opening her eyes. They were wide, and glassy, and lazily sliding around the interior of the plane.

“Mijin?” Namja put a hand on her shoulder. “Mijin-Noona? Can you hear me?”

Mijin startled at the voice, but couldn’t find the owner of it.

Namja cursed quietly, breathing out slowly. This wouldn’t end well for Mijin.

“Seogi-Hyung,” Namja got Seogi’s attention, his heart breaking as his once cheerful Noona searched in confusion for whoever she thought was speaking. “Please, get Minyoung and Sung-Ji out of here while you can. I’ll try my best to get Noona free, but..”

“Don’t think like that,” Seogi cupped one of Namja’s cheek with his free hand. “Mijin’ll be alright.”

Seogi tiptoed to where he last saw the ‘22-liners, inhaling sharply when what he saw scared him.

“Namja-yah,” Seogi breathed, heart beating as he tried to hold it down. “Namja, Minyoung is gone.”

“What?” Namja looked up from his current task. “Check- Check under the seats, Hyung, all of them. I.. I could’ve sworn I saw him crawling around on the floor, I-”

“Okay,” Seogi voiced, trying to steady his breathing, along with his heartbeat. “Okay, I’ll wake Sung-Ji, and get him out, and look for Minyoung.”