Chapter 10 - The Mall

They ran for what seemed like hours, having no idea where they were going so long as they could escape the metallic monster in the sky. Twigs snapped under foot, each sounding like a gunshot in the calm morning accompanied by the machine gun fire of the endless dead leaves. She just hoped the sound died away in the canopy above before reaching the sky. She didn't know if those things could hear, but she didn't want to find out.

Her legs felt like jello, her breaths coming in hard heavy pants. She had long forgotten the proper running posture she had so heavily preached to Ye Joon so long ago, and was doing everything she could just to stay up right.

Next to her Ye Joon wasn't faring any better. He had started to slow, his face a pained mask of exhaustion. She reached out grabbing his arm, hauling him forward so he was next to her as she found a new wave of energy.

Since her collapse to the forest floor, this had become normal for them. Ye Joon having had to haul her behind him almost more times than she did. Their weakness was the other's strength. As one began to lag behind, the other would grab their arm refusing to let go until the other could match the pace again on their own. Neither would let the other stop.

After what seemed like a century, the trees began to thin. They stumbled to a stop just inside the treeline not wanting to expose themselves. Beyond the trees, she could make out a large shopping complex and parking garage. Tall apartment buildings were behind the massive structures rising high into the sky. They must have stumbled into a residential area which meant there could possibly be many stores with the supplies they needed. They just had to get there.

The air was filled with the sounds of their labored breathing. Her lungs burned as she gulped in deep breaths of the chilly fall air. She could barely remain upright as she glanced at the sky to see if she could see the cube floating there. Not that it mattered. She didn't think she could run another step even if it meant saving her life.

Ye Joon was bent over, the hands on his knees the only thing keeping him from falling flat on his face. It had only been a few days since he got off of bed rest. She was surprised he had been able to make it this far at all.

He was always so much stronger than the world gave him credit for, she thought.

Reaching out, she put a hand on his shoulder causing him to look at her. His complexion had gone a sickly shade of green and his body shook as he gasped for air. Through the holes in his sweater, her fingers touched hot feverish skin, now slick with sweat.

It was too much for him, she thought in a panic. They couldn't have made it this far for him to only die of exhaustion. That was a real thing, right? The heart simply giving up? She had read about it before but never done much research on it since her specialty was more on the disease side.

After a few seconds, though, his breathing began to ease. He inhaled deep slow breaths as he looked at her with a slight shake of his head indicating he was fine.

Leaves began to fall around them, withered and dead as if it were an omen to what awaited them if they stayed there. A deep soft hum filled the air and Ji Hye could feel it vibrating down to her core. With each passing second the humming grew, like someone had cranked the bass up to maximum on their speaker. The sound penetrated her skull. It was so loud she could barely think. Her insides were vibrating so much, she wouldn't be surprised if all her organs turned into a smoothie. The branches high above began to visibly shake then, raining down the last of the leaves that had tried so desperately to hang on.

Ye Joon and her looked to the sky, dreading what they knew they would find there.

The cube was on top of them. Despite knowing what she would find, the sheer enormity and timelessness of it still shocked her. She tightened her hold on Ye Joon. Could they still run?

Then it was gone. It continued past the line of trees, blotting out the mid morning sun as it flew over the heavy concrete parking garage. The world, again, falling into silence.

She stared at it as it disappeared behind the plain gray structure.

Are you kidding me, she thought. Their mad dash for their lives hadn't even been necessary? The damn thing hadn't even noticed them?

She quickly chided herself at the thought. Who was she to complain, they were alive.

She looked out past the tree line towards the large shopping mall where a plaza expanded out in front of them. Empty benches and tables were scattered about. Food wrappers, blowing around in the wind, littering the pavement, the food having long disappeared from scavengers.

Tugging on Ye Joon's arm, she gestured to the entry of the shopping mall and he nodded. She pulled him from the copse of trees and he stumbled along behind her, his body still too exhausted to move on its own.

Walking along the edges of the trees, they passed by a plain rectangular fountain. It was set low to the ground, a simple concrete lip the only thing keeping the water in. It was the type of fountain where jets of water would shoot into the air as kids splashed about and teens and adults alike would dip their feet in all trying to escape the summer heat. It wasn't hard to imagine this place being full of laughter and fun.

But that was only a remnant now, the trash blowing about and the stagnant water still in the fountain, now green with scum, the only signs that life used to exist here.

She pushed open the wide glass double doors to the mall, and it was as if they had walked into a set for a horror movie. It was no different than all the other places they had been in the city, but it was far more eerie, more haunted.

She slid her hand down Ye Joon's arm until she found his hand, wrapping her fingers tightly around it. His hand was warm and soft despite the chill outside and she felt a slow wave of heat rise up her arm from where their palms were pressed together. His fingers curled around her own and he gave a gentle squeeze. The reassuring presence of that contact was all she needed to walk forward down the dark hallway into the atrium beyond.

The atrium was curved like a teardrop, the walls meeting at a point that became two glass elevators. The vast space extended up four floors, each level forming a narrow slit opening in the solid concrete walls. Long, dark banners hung from the walls, the advertisements on them faded and old. Large 3 tiered iron chandeliers hung from the ceiling, but no light emanated from them.

The only source of light was from a large skylight that ran the entire length of the room. Through it she could see the clear blue sky that was slowly being overtaken by clouds. The ambient light did little to light up the huge space, instead casting a faint blue tint over everything as if the skylight were painted blue rather than being clear glass. Others would call it calming, but she felt like she was stuck at the bottom of the ocean, the light to escape so high above and just out of reach.

They emerged into the large atrium and the hairs on her arms rose at the chilling sight in front of them. A pile of clothes as large as the one that had been at the campus was lying in the middle of the floor. The vibrant colors were now muted as a thin blanket of dust covered the top. It had been weeks since she had seen one, the one at the campus having been reduced to little more than a laundry pile as mother nature continuously ate away at it. Here, however, there was no wind. Nothing to blow the clothes away, they were stuck here forever.

Ji Hye shivered at the thought. She looked around trying to find anything to focus on, besides the mass of clothes in front of them.

Overhead, the skylights began to rattle as a deep humming filled the silent space.

Whipping her head up, she saw the beginning edges of the mothership through the skylight. Her heart was pounding frantically in chest, sending alarm bells through her body. Body tensing, ready to spring, her eyes darted around looking for a place to hide.

She saw a large "L" shaped information desk next to them. It was nowhere near the protection she would have liked, but beggars can't be choosers especially when it was their life on the line.

It'll have to do, she thought grimly as she pulled Ye Joon down behind it.

They crouched there, breathing hard as if they had both just run a marathon. Trying to calm her racing heart, she shifted so she was in a more comfortable, but no less hidden position. Leaning back against the cabinets, she closed her eyes. Next to her, she felt Ye Joon moving into a similar position as her. She was on edge. Her nerves were frayed to the point of snapping. How much more of this could she take?

Ye Joon was shaking, his breathing fast, too fast. Worried, she turned to face him and found him hunched over his knees rocking back and forth. Small shallow gasps escaped his lips as if he were a fish on dry land, his eyes wide and unfocused.

This had been the first truly close call for him, the last one being a relatively easy escape back to the school. He hadn't yet experienced the mad dash for life into the unknown. The pure terror of being cornered like an animal waiting for slaughter. And it hadn't been one of the smaller cubes they had become used to, but the mothership. Even she had been unnerved by that.

She bet he was long past his limit of mental and physical strength. He had run to the point of collapsing with death chasing after them. To only find that their safe haven they found, was no safe haven but a cage with nothing to do but sit there and wait to see what their fate held.

She wasn't used to it by any means, if her racing heart was any indication, but she had experienced it enough in her solo supply runs to know that feeling. The terror. The helplessness. The loneliness. But Ye Joon wasn't alone.

Their hands were still clasped together, her fingers smashed together in his vice-like grip. Carefully lifting her fingers, she spun her hand and pried his fingers open so his hand laid flat. He made no move to acknowledge her as his eyes continued to stare sightlessly at the floor, his breathing ragged. His right hand was bunched in a fist on his knee wrinkling the white fabric of his pants, clutching it as if it were his last straws of sanity.

She slowly slid her fingers up his exposed palm, interlacing their fingers. His fingers closed around hers and she could see the hand clutching his pants relax slightly as his fingertips dug into the back of her hand. She squeezed back just as tightly while rubbing her thumb back and forth in a calming gesture, letting him know that she was there. They were safe. He wasn't alone.

After a few minutes, his breathing began to slow. He took a couple of deep rattling breaths as the bone rattling purr of the cube finally faded away.

"What happened?" Ye Joon whispered to her. His fingers loosened on hers as he relaxed, but he didn't let go.

"It's okay," she breathed, not answering his question, but knowing she needed to hear it, "It's gone. We're safe now."

She dropped her head back against the cabinets as relief washed over her. Ye Joon peaked over the desk, looking around, like he couldn't quite believe it was gone.

"What now," he asked as he dropped back next to her.

Rest. Sleep. The words flooded her brain as weariness and exhaustion threatened to take over. She knew it wasn't possible, not with the mothership being so close. They were sitting ducks here. They were in an unfamiliar place and their meager hiding spot would do little if a cube decided to do a little shopping. She didn't know if one of the cubes could get past the walls, but based on the pile of clothes not fifty feet away, she bet it was a strong assumption.

Groaning, she got to her feet. Her body ached everywhere, muscles already cramping from the hard run.

"Now," she said as she held out her hand to Ye Joon, "we need to do a little exploring."

He groaned at that, head gently thumping back against the cabinets. She bet he was hurting just as much as her, if not more, but he took her outstretched hand helping her to haul him to his feet.

With their hands still tightly clasped, she cautiously led him to a window display that was the closest to their hiding spot.

Through the glass she could just barely make out Ye Joon and her standing there, holding hands, like ghosts of a memory of what this place used to be.

They still wore the clothes from the very first day of the attack, unwilling to take any of the clothes that were now scattered throughout the streets. Their clothes were ratty and smudged with dirt and blood. The blackness of her clothes hid much of the grime, but Ye Joon's white ensemble showed every little detail of what he had been through. She should have gotten a new pair of clothes for him during one of her supply runs, but it had never crossed her mind. Maybe they could find something here. Something that could take away the terror of what happened today.

But no amount of new clothes could mask the hardships etched into their faces. If Ye Joon looked like a terminally ill patient, she looked like death itself. Even through the grime of the window she could make out the dark circles under her eyes standing out starkly against the pallor of her skin. The hollow haunted expression in her eyes was foreign to her, belonging to someone who had seen far more horror than anyone should have at her age. Malnutrition and the endless running made her lose the little fat left causing her cheeks to look sunken. There was an angry red cut on her cheek and chin from where the branches had torn at her while running.

She tore her attention away from her reflection, unable to look at herself anymore and focused on the shop.

It was a small shop but it barely seemed to have enough items in it to fill it. A sign in red capital letters read "horizon portal." Several of the letters were missing, leaving bright white shadows where they used to be. The shop was filled with antiques of box televisions, old magazines, and record players. She found it odd that a tiny shop like this would be in a shopping mall as grand as this. Granted, she bet the only people who could afford to come here would be the ones that could enjoy this trip down memory lane.

She pushed open the door, leading Ye Joon inside. Letting go of his hand, she walked the perimeter of the room. A mannequin sat against the wall dressed in a three layered ensemble of a white sweater covered by a dark brown "V" neck sweater all under a long brown wool overcoat. It reminded her of something Ye Joon would wear and she made a quick note that they should come back for him after exploring. Next to the mannequin was the real objective, a door. Quickly pushing it open, she looked inside only to find a small office empty except for a tiny desk. It was no good, not unless they wanted to be trapped like rabbits waiting for the fox.

Ye Joon had gone over to the stack of old televisions and picked up a small object. She walked to the otherside of the room, passing some old records that were hung up along the back wall. To her dismay there was no door on this side of the small shop.

Disappointed, she pushed open the door to the shop looking around for the next shop to explore.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ye Joon standing behind her. She turned to face him and noticed he had a small camcorder in his hands. He was looking through the small lens not even bothering to close his bad eye. He was looking around the mall, his lips parted in something like disbelief, although she couldn't imagine why. The little camera fell on her and she heard his breath catch, his bad eye that stared out unseeing glistened brightly in the blue ambient light.

"What," she asked, curious despite herself. They didn't have time for this. If the mothership was in this area, then surely more of its minions were around too. They couldn't get trapped in a place like this with its large atrium and hallways. Ignorance would make it the perfect place to get snuck up on and cornered. But, she was curious about what Ye Joon saw to have such a reaction.

Holding out the camcorder, he gestured for her to take it.

It was slightly smaller than her hand and she carefully wrapped her fingers around it. She lifted it to her eye having no idea what to expect from the small relic, but nothing was different. She just saw him standing there, hunched over with the weight of the world holding him down. His weary eyes stared at her expectantly, but she really couldn't see what was so special about it.

She held the camera back out to him shaking her head, "I don't see anything."

He pushed it back to her, "it's because you're not looking for it. This camera is special."

"No really," he said, in response to her skeptical look, "it'll show you whatever you want to see. Just think about what you want most in the world right now."

It took all her effort not to roll her eyes, but she lifted the recorder anyways. It was a load of bullshit, but it was so very like what Ye Joon would do before, force her to be creative as they created nonsense scenarios together. Any other time she would have appreciated the game, but not now.

They needed to scout, plan out escape routes, figure out the closest place– every thought fled her mind as she looked through the tiny hole of the camera. The world shifted and she almost stumbled back from the shock.

He was standing there, right in front of her, but he was clean and whole. It was as if he had never attacked the monster, had never followed her foolish plan.

The eerie aura of the room melted away as she stared at him. The dingy blue tint of the light was overtaken by the golden warmth radiating from him. He stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, shoulders slightly hunched forward and she was reminded of a mischievous child who had just been caught doing something naughty. His white clothes almost seemed to sparkle with how fluffy and fresh they looked. His holey sweater looked as soft as a cloud that she could curl up against and fall asleep.

The scars and burn that marred his face had vanished, leaving nothing but his smooth milky skin. There was a slight upturn to his lips like they were sharing a joke only them two knew about while his eyes glittered with amusement.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Behind the hair that had been swept in front of his face, were two warm dark beautiful eyes. They glittered with the light of life and amusement that had so drawn her to him that first day they met. As he looked at her, she felt all the guilt she had felt this past month slam into her. This was a Ye Joon that could have been if only he hadn't listened to her, if she hadn't called him to the rooftop that day.

Her hand moved of its own accord, reaching forward and gently brushing her fingers across his forehead in disbelief. Through the camcorder, her fingers moved aside the hair that was partially obscuring his face, but under her fingers she could only feel the rough dryness of his skin from the burn. She slid her fingers down to gently rest on his cheek right below his eye.

She lowered the small recorder and the world once again shifted, plunging her back into the darkness. Ye Joon still stood there, but he was beaten and scarred from harm he never should have experienced. His hair was swept back exposing the harsh red burn under her fingers. Above her fingers, his sightless eye stared at her, milky and white. She closed her eyes as the cruel reality crashed back into her.

Something large and warm enclosed her hand, gently lifting her fingers away from his cheek. Ji Hye opened her eyes to find Ye Joon's hand cupping hers, gently squeezing it, reassuring her.

"It wasn't your fault," he said softly. Their eyes met and she could have drowned in the vast depth of openness and honesty that pooled there. He honestly believed it. How could she explain to him that he was wrong, that it was her fault. That it was all her fault.

"If you hadn't come," she sputtered, trying and failing to get the words out, "if you hadn't listened to me–"

"No," he said, cutting her off, "if I had listened to you this wouldn't have happened."

He dropped their hands, so they hung between them but didn't let go. His thumb stoked the back of her hand as he lifted the other and gently cupped her face.

"Ji Hye," his face filled her view as he took a step forward until they were mere inches apart. She barely had to tilt her head to look up into his eyes that were no less beautiful than before the accident.

"If I had listened to you this wouldn't have happened," he repeated and there was a firmness in his voice that left no room for argument. "You told me to run that day. You said that if the bomb didn't work then we needed to retreat. I heard you. I did. But in that moment, I chose to ignore you. I knew it was dumb and dangerous, but I was so sick of feeling useless. What I did was my choice. Don't carry the burden of what happened to me when it's not your weight to carry."

"But–"

"No," he shook his head, cutting her off, "It was my choice. Not yours. Mine. You did everything you could to protect and heal me and I'm so thankful."

She started crying then, hot heavy tears streaming down her face. He gently cupped the back of her neck pulling her towards him. He let go of her hand, sliding it up and around her back squeezing her tightly against his warm body.

Burying her head in the crook of his neck, she began to cry harder. All the tension and guilt of the past month coursing out of her in body shaking sobs.

She wrapped her arms around him, hands digging into the soft holey material of his sweater as she continued to cry. With each wracking sob, she breathed him in. She couldn't recall ever being this close to him before and despite the grime, he smelled of fresh paper and the charcoal pencils he would always carry around. She was surprised to find how comforting that smell was like coming home after a hard day.

Breathing in his scent, she began to take slow steady breaths. Her eyes were swollen and red as the final tears dripped down her face. Neither made any move to step away from the other, still clutching tightly to each other like they were each other's final life line.

He pulled away first and it was as if he took every molecule of warmth in her body with him. She shivered slightly as she lifted her head looking into his two toned eyes.

Resting his hands on either side of her shoulders, he smiled. It was one of those smiles that made the world explode with light. His lips took on the shape of a heart as it did only when he was truly happy, and she had to restrain herself from reaching up and brushing her fingers over them. Little wrinkles formed at the edges of his eyes as they scrunched up, the light of life blazing in them.

"Come on," he said, "there's somewhere I've always wanted to try here." He took her hand, fingers twining with hers, as he led her into the depths of the mall.