Leftovers~All of us are dead

Chp. 21 Nothing

As Hyo-ryung reaches out for the hands of a soldier waiting for her Y/N spots from the corner of his eye one of the soldiers frowning as he puts down a walkie-talkie from his ear. The soldier looks at the girl who's about to enter the helicopter and gives some sort of signal to the soldier that was about to help her. Suddenly the wire stops moving up and instead starts descending. The soldier who received whatever message from the walkie-talkie then whispers something to the one putting a harness on Ji-min. After he's done the soldier immediately starts taking off the harness.

"Wait! Wait!" Hyo-ryung yelps as she nears the roof again, "The wire's not working! Wait!"

"Hey," Ji-min tries to put the harness back on, "Wh-what are you doing?!" The soldier remains silent at their protests and yanks the harness completely off her. "Hey! Wait a second!"

Hyo-ryung struggles against the harness and tries to grab onto the wire, making an attempt to climb up it. "What's happening?" she cries, her hands slip against the copper wire, "Help me!"

Y/N rushes to one of the soldiers, "What's going on?!" he questions, "What are you doing?" He notices that the soldier's eyes seem distant, "What's wrong? Tell us!"

Suddenly the man holds a pitch-black metal rod in front of the boy's face. No. Not a rod. A gun. Y/N's eyes widen and he takes a step back, instinctively putting his hands over his head. The soldier gestures for him to go farther back with the gun. Y/N looks around and realizes all the men have their guns pointed at the students. His mouth opens, but he can't make a sound. What...What...Why...?

Hyo-ryung finally reaches the ground and the soldiers quickly take off her harness and push her into the group of students. Their guns remain on the teenagers and On-jo grabs onto her twin, shaking in fear. The soldiers put their finger on the trigger and Y/N sees his life flashing before his eyes. What did we do to deserve this? All we wanted was to live.

Then a soldier lowers his gun, his eyes reading despair. "Leave them," he says, his voice cold and empty. The rest all lower their guns and they start boarding the helicopter, Y/N notices one of them holding what looks like a black laptop.

"Wait!" On-jo runs after them, "You can't just leave!" Y/N quickly grabs onto her sweater and pulls her back, fearing the soldiers will shoot her. "Please!" the girl trashes in his arms.

"Don't leave us!" Hyo-ryung begs as the soldiers begin boarding the helicopter, "You can't!"

"Help us! Help us!" Ji-min shouts out, her knees crashing down to the ground. "P-please..."

Y/N glares at the soldiers. Cowards, he thinks fiercely, Fucking cowards. Finally the men finish boarding and the chopper starts moving away.

"What are you doing!?" Gyeong-su shouts out, "Fucking bastards!" Y/N never saw his friend ever get angry before.

"Yeah," he joins in, "You pieces of shit!" Soon everyone else begins shouting curses at the soldiers until the helicopter is just another dark patch in the night sky.

Y/N finally lets go of his sister, but she doesn't make a move to leave his arms. He leads her back to the fireplace, now dimming, and finds the others doing the same. The students just sit there, silent, defeated, thirsty, starving, lonely, and exhausted. No one dares say a word. They all just listen to the wind howl against their ears and feel the bitter cold of it biting their skin.

Then a bright light suddenly flashes in the sky, startling the group. A large whip-like noise quickly follows it. Lightning. Rain starts pouring down and the fire extinguishes fully.

On-jo stands up and holds out her hand. Soon her palm is filled with water and she smiles, taking a sip of it. I've never tasted anything better... She takes another sip, and another until eventually she just opens her mouth and lifts it to the sky. The rest of the group soon do the same and they all smile at the fresh water.

Y/N opens his mouth and lets the water splatter all over his face. He feels the small drops drip down into his dry mouth and soothe it. His throat aches at the reminder of water and begs for more. However, the more he receives the worse the pain feels, the more real. Y/N drops his head back. What am I doing? Soon all the emotions he's fought so hard to keep down rush to the surface. His eyes water and overfill, his tears mixing with the rainwater.

The boy's knees give out and he falls to the ground, sobbing. Without even having to look up he can tell everyone is doing the same. The students' cries echo through the hollow night and they feel lonelier than ever before.

After crying together for what seems like hours the students gather back around their dead campfire. Woo-jin brings his knees close to his chest, "What are we going to do?" he asks to no one in particular.

"I don't know..." Y/N answers, cradling Nam-ra's head in his lap. Earlier he noticed her in pain and offered to cover her ears during the storm.

"We can't just stay here," says Cheong-san, frowning in frustration.

"Well what else are we supposed to do?" Ji-min mutters. The boy can't think of a response.

"He's right," On-jo starts, "No one is coming for us."

Y/N ponders this for a bit, "So we'll have to get out of here on our own."

"Is that even possible?" Joon-yeong questions.

"We have to try," Cheong-san stands up and thinks for a few moments, "I have an idea."