Chapter 9 - The Aftermath

Pushing open the door to the small classroom in the engineering school, she was weighed down by a plastic bag in each hand, laden with food, medical equipment, and other various items. She would have to begin exploring another area in a couple days. She had picked clean the couple of stores she had been scrounging from, slowly nibbling away like a rat at their supplies until they were gone.

"I'm back," she said to the seemingly empty room, words echoing hollowly back to her.

"Ye Joon?" She rounded the desks and saw him sitting against the back wall, legs curled up, head bent low as he scribbled away at the notebook in his lap. It was one of the first things she had picked up on her supply run. She had hoped it would help calm him down in the first couple of days of him getting injured. He had blown through the first notebook within the first week, filling it with drawing after drawing of the happiest scenes he could imagine, but each with a twisted undertone that made the drawing look corrupt and wrong.

As time wore on, and his wounds began to heal, his drawings slowly became what she was so used to. Eventually she had to get him another notebook, and from the looks of it, she would have to get him another soon.

At the sound of her approaching footsteps, Ye Joon looked up. Her stomach jolted as it did every time she saw the bandage wrapped around his head. He blinked up at her with his left eye, the one not covered by that cursed bandage, like he was trying to clear his mind from a fog. He smiled up at her, but it wasn't a true smile. It was just a mask for her.

"How are you feeling," she asked as she knelt in front of him and slowly began unwrapping the bandage.

It was a routine they had fallen into. Every few days she would unwrap the bandage and apply ointment to the cuts from the explosion and test the vision in his right eye.

"Same as every day," he said, sighing. But he held his hand up to cover his good eye, as he did every time they went through this, leaving his damaged eye staring out.

She allowed herself a moment to stare at him, assess him. To feel the guilt and regret shifting from the always present dull ache in her chest to the mind-numbing stab of pain through her heart like someone rammed a knife in and twisted.

It should have been me, she thought as she stared at him.

He had always had a pale complexion, but now it was dull and sickly. The cheeks that had given him a cute boyish charm were sunken. His cheekbones stood out prominently with a defined jawline that could almost be called handsome if there wasn't an air of death about it. A faded red chemical burn surrounded his bad eye spreading up to the side of his forehead and down onto his cheek. One could almost mistake it for a bruise that was in the final stages of healing, but Ji Hye knew better. Two small cuts marred his skin, one on the bridge of his nose while the other cut through his eyebrow stopping just above the eye. They were still angry and red despite her administration. She had done the best she could with the little she had, but the cuts had just been too deep, and the chemicals had gotten too far down to heal properly.

Then there was his eye. The rich dark brown of his iris had faded and morphed, the chemicals turning it a pale glassy blue like a turquoise lake freezing over in the winter. His pupil had also been taken over by winter and now shimmered a milky white.

She so badly wished she could turn back time and not let him join her suicidal mission. Scratch that. She wished she could turn back time and never have thought of the stupid idea in the first place, then they might only have had to worry about the one cube roaming the city rather than the dozens.

She pushed away the thoughts that threatened to consume her. The pain. The regret. The guilt.

She shook her head, clearing her mind. She couldn't think about that now.

She held up two fingers, "how many fingers am I holding up?"

"You know I don't know."

"Try," her voice took on an edge of pleading, "please."

"Four."

"How about now?"

"One."

"Now?"

"Three."

She let out a deep exhale, hand dropping back into her lap. Blinking, she tried to hold back the tears that now threatened to spill over. It had been weeks, but she had still held onto some shred of hope, but that was all gone now. Ye Joon had lost all the vision in his right eye and there was no chance it would return.

"How did I do, doc?" Ye Joon asked, with forced joviality. "Zero out of three, right," his tone was lighthearted and joking, but there was a bitter undertone that weighed heavily on the room.

"Well," she said with the same forced joviality, "the good news is, you are officially off bed rest."

She groaned as she shifted to lean against the wall next to Ye Joon. These past weeks had not been kind to her body. Endless days of running through the streets not knowing if it would be her last or not. Because of her, more cubes roamed the sky, making searching the areas harder. A couple close calls had forced her to get creative in hiding from the monsters. She would come back with various scrapes, bruises, and aching joints from whatever the day had put her through.

Grabbing a bag of potato chips from her recent looting, she opened it. She offered one to Ye Joon and he took it. The satisfying crunch of the overly salty potato chip was enough to make her moan with pleasure. She sat there eating the potato chips, the crunching of the oily chips, the only sound breaking the silence, and for the first time that day she let herself relax. She was safe. She had made it another day.

"I want to go with you next time," Ye Joon's voice was low, barely even a whisper, but it clanged through her like a cannon blast. He stared adamantly at the potato chip in his hand refusing to meet her eyes.

Her body immediately tensed, every alarm going off in her brain as if warning her of danger. If he came along, that would be another thing she would have to watch out for. It wouldn't just be her life she would be worrying about; it would be his too.

"Ye Joon," she said, and she could hear her own weariness in her voice.

"I know what you're going to say," he cut her off before she could continue, "it's too dangerous. But Ji Hye," he looked directly at her then and she was forced to look away from his pleading look. "This isn't living. I have been in this classroom for weeks. You're liable to see me go insane before any cube has a chance of killing me if I have to stay here any longer. I know I'm a liability and I know it gives you one more thing to worry about, but I'm not useless. Think about it. With me, we can grab double the stuff so we wouldn't have to go out as much. Please, I want to help. I want to leave."

The silence weighed heavily on her. He was right, she couldn't keep him in here forever. She wasn't his prison guard, and this wasn't his prison. They wouldn't have to go on as many supply runs either, but the thought of him leaving, being anywhere close to one of the cubes again terrified her.

"I want to see the sun again," his voice shook, and she was forced to close her eyes, a single tear rolling down her cheek, as she felt her heart shatter. "I want to see the trees and the sky. I want to see the dirty streets lined with buildings, a stray cat roaming around or even one of the annoying pigeons that never seemed to go away. I want to see the outside."

She looked down at his notebook, at the papers scattered around him. All of them were filled with images of everyday life. There was nothing mystical or fictional about it, just still life images as if someone had taken a picture on an ordinary Wednesday. This was his fantasy now.

"Okay," she breathed. She had to calm her beating heart. She didn't want this. She didn't want him to leave the safety they had built. The paradise he imagined didn't exist anymore. But she couldn't say no. She wouldn't do that to him.

"Okay," she said, her voice a little stronger this time. She looked at him then and gave a slight nod, "okay."

"Really?" His face lit up and he smiled, a true genuine smile, nothing like the one that she had seen these past weeks. His face may have become hard and sallow, but nothing had changed about that smile.

"Ye Joon," she said, trying not to snuff out his happiness, "things out there have changed. It's not like the city you're used to."

He lifted a hand and brushed a finger across her cheek, wiping away the tear, "I know."

Then looking at his hand, his smile changed into something resembling more like a grimace. He stood, walking to the corner of the room where they had set up a makeshift sink which was little more than a bucket and a couple of washcloths. He dunked a washcloth into the water wringing it out. Coming back, he handed it to her.

"Here, you look like shit," she snorted out a weary laugh but took the washcloth with a grateful nod.

It had been a week since Ye Joon joined her on her supply runs. He had convinced her that now with the extra pair of hands, they could afford to bring a couple of non-essential but fun items back. Ji Hye suspected they were the only reason she hadn't given into despair yet, now that she had nothing to keep her mind focused on with Ye Joon being healed. It often felt like they had been transported back to times before the invasion as they joked around with their new treasures.

So far, they had been lucky only having had only one close call. They had escaped by the carefully planned escape routes she had made the past weeks and was pleased Ye Joon hadn't lost much of his physical prowess while he was on "bed rest".

They had begun running out of items on their usual supply run and had decided it wasn't worth going back to it if they couldn't get everything they needed. So today, they were trying a new route, and she was absolutely terrified.

She hadn't been able to scope out any escape routes if one of the cubes descended. Finding the best paths were about practice and potentially dangerous and life-threatening situations, neither of which she wanted Ye Joon to have to experience. She knew he wasn't helpless, almost matching her for speed and stamina. And he might not know the city as well as her, but he knew how to read her cues and take directions. But all that hardly made her feel better.

They had finished their looting without a hitch, their arms laden with bags of supplies. Her body was tense and twitchy, trying to keep an eye on every direction. At one point Ye Joon, laughing, compared her to a meerkat on watch duty.

She didn't understand how he could be so lighthearted. He hardly seemed to comprehend the danger they were in or the pressure she was under trying to keep both of them alive. The constant weight of the knowledge that it was her fault. Her fault that he was now blind in one eye. Her fault this city was now more dangerous.

She let out a little grunt as she ran into Ye Joon's back. He had stopped suddenly and was looking down one of the side streets, his head cocked to one side.

"Did you see something? Is it a cube?" She asked in a whisper, body coiled as tight as a spring ready to burst into action. Her mind was racing, trying to think of every possible escape route she had seen on the way.

He shook his head slowly and started down the street.

She tried to grab his arm to stop him, but her efforts were futile, unable to reach him in time with the heavy shopping bag weighing her down.

"Ye Joon," she hissed. He ignored her, continuing down the street forcing her to follow.

They got to the end of the small street and came upon the edge of a small forest of trees. Their city butted up against the mountains although their beauty was often concealed by the never-ending expanse of skyscrapers of the city. Along the city's border, it often had to give way to mother nature, the terrain being too difficult to build on.

This was one such area. The usually lush trees were now spindly and bare, their branches reaching out like claws. The ground was littered with dead leaves and twigs covering the rocky and wild terrain. None of that stopped Ye Joon as he plunged in without a second thought.

What in the world is he doing, she thought, following behind him as her mind continued to scream at her "danger."

As she entered the trees, the bright light of the midmorning sun dimmed, and she looked up frantically searching the skies for a cube that was blotting out the sun. There was none, just the dense foliage of the conifer trees that had held onto their needles in the face of the chilly weather.

She breathed out, trying to slow her beating heart. She was being paranoid. Rightly so, in her opinion, but something had caught Ye Joon's eye, and she felt she owed it to him to let him do this one thing.

She turned back to him and found him crouched down petting a calico cat. It walked back and forth brushing up against his legs. It was scruffy and scrawny, its rib cage forming little bumps along its skin. A corner of its ear was ripped off and one of its eyes was sealed shut. She could hear its purr of contentment from where she stood, and she was surprised she couldn't hear Ye Joon purring with how big his smile was.

He scratched under the cat's chin, and it pushed its head into his hand closing its good eye, savoring the scratches. Ji Hye felt herself smiling then. How long had it been since she had seen him smile like that?

She crouched down next to them, placing her bags on the forest floor being careful not to spill any of their contents.

He started at her approach, "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have wandered off like that. But she just caught my eye."

She shook her head, "it's okay. I understand." She took over scratching the cat's chin as Ye Joon ran his hand down the speckled black and brown body.

The last time she had seen another living thing was when she saw that group of people get slaughtered in front of her. The cat's form began to blur, melding with the dark foliage that was so similar to the color of its soft fur. She blinked away the tears not wanting to dwell on the sadness.

This cat might not be human, but it gave her a sense of hope that maybe the world wasn't completely lost to the cubes. That maybe, there was a chance.

"What do you think," she said, knowing Ye Joon was thinking it but didn't want to voice it, "should we take it back with us? We could feed it and keep it safe. We could give it a home."

The classroom was nowhere close to being a home, but it was theirs. With Ye Joon back to his usual spirits after his first trip out, the atmosphere of the room had changed significantly. No longer was it a cold shell of pain and death. It had brightened and warmed like all rooms did when Ye Joon entered.

It wasn't a house, but they made it their home and she hoped Ye Joon felt the same.

The word hung in the air between them, crackling with electricity at the implied intention, the unasked question. They sat there like two exposed wires, frayed and broken, but who only needed to come together to feel whole.

He looked at her, his eyes wide. She couldn't tell if he was breathing. His hand stopped mid stroke, much to the cat's disappointment. It let out a faint mewl of protest, head butting against his fingers and he began absentmindedly scratched between its ears.

"Home?" his whisper was barely audible over the cat's purr.

She smiled at him, and repeated, "home."

Just then, the cat's fur stood straight up. The purring turned into a growl as its back arched high in the air.

The hairs on the back of Ji Hye's neck rose as a tingle went down her spine. She tensed as every one of her senses screamed of the danger nearby. She lifted her head searching the skies.

There, just peeking over a building from where they came was the top of a cube. Its razor-sharp edge glinting in the midmorning sun.

"Shit," she grabbed Ye Joon's hand and hauled him up, "we have to run."

He reached down for the bags they had left on the floor, but she grabbed his arm, "leave it. There's no time."

The calico let out a sharp yowl of agreement before vanishing into trees.

They took off in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the forest away from the cube. They ran through the trees trying to stay hidden under the canopy of pine needles. Neither of them was used to running on such rugged and rocky terrain and soon they were both panting hard.

The metallic cube followed behind, high in the sky. It was large, larger than any of the ones Ji Hye had seen this past month. It floated high overhead, but she could have sworn it just barely skimming over the tops of the tree. It was weathered and scarred, but its edges were no less sharp. She had a sudden moment of Deja vu and the memories of the first day rushed back to her. This was the mothership.

Her blood ran cold as she tried to keep from looking back at the immense cube. Instead, trying to focus on the path in front of her, or lack of in this case. Branches whipped at her face, her arms, her legs, and she felt a particularly spiny branch whip across her face, snagging on her lip and cutting her cheek, causing her to gasp in pain.

Her legs began to falter. She was a runner, she was fast and had good stamina, but she had never been forced to run on terrain like this. Having to navigate around or leap over the rugged crags in the earth as the little pebbles and dead leaves all shifted under foot was not only physically taxing but mentally draining as well. She would be lucky if she didn't break an ankle after all this.

At this point the damn cat has a better chance of surviving than we do, she thought annoyed. And that annoyance was quickly overcome by anger.

Why did a cat have a better chance of survival than them? When they had fought tooth and nail to survive. When they were just trying to make a life for themselves. This past week it seemed they had accepted their fate and decided to make the best of what they had. So why was the world trying to tear that apart again?

She hit a particularly slippery stone, and she went down, rolling, hitting hard enough to knock the breath from her, taking the anger with it.

She was tired. So tired. Tired of running. Tired of fearing for her life. Tired of feeling helpless.

Ye Joon stumbled to a stop; his voice filled with worry as he said her name.

She couldn't hear him over the pounding of her heart. Her chest heaved as she gasped for air. Lying there on the ground, she stared into the blue sky where she knew the cube would be fast approaching. But she didn't care.

The ground it seemed hadn't only knocked the breath out of her. It had done much more damage than that. It had knocked out her will to keep going and she didn't mind.

Maybe it'd be best to just give up, to stop fighting. That seemed to be what the world wanted them to do anyways. Why fight what seemed to be such an inevitable fate?

The answer filled her view. Ye Joon's face was mere inches from hers, his eyes filled with determination as a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Ji Hye, get up," he was saying, "we have to go."

She didn't move. She just stared blankly up at him, the question of "why bother" filling her mind but having no energy to utter the words.

Ye Joon saw it in her, though, her desire to give up and let go. She knew he did. He could always read her better than anyone else.

"Oh no," he said, shaking his head, "I am not letting you give up. You didn't leave me when I could barely run a mile and I'm not leaving you now." She smiled wearily at the memories from what seemed like a millennium ago, their runs along the river and her physically having to shove Ye Joon to make him keep going.

"You didn't let me give up and I'm not going to let you give up. And if your stubborn ass wants to stay and die then so will this stubborn ass," he glanced up to the sky where the cube flew steadily closer and his face turned even paler, "but I'd really rather not."

Grabbing her arm, he tried lifting her up, "please, you have to get up, Ji Hye. We have to go home," his voice cracking on the last word.

She took a ragged breath in. There was a reason to keep fighting. As long as he was there, there would always be a reason to keep fighting. And she knew he was stubborn enough to keep his word and lay down and die with her if she truly refused to get up.

"Idiot," she groaned but got to her feet. She took a few hesitant steps forward regaining her balance.

"Okay," she said. "Let's go."