Vector || An Ryeji Adventure

Mission V: Lycan

Yeji gulped. "Thanks."

"Thank me once you get back. The Gobi is simply the worst place on Earth. It's often called Satan's Anvil."

. . . . .

The dust storm was terrifying. It was a sand hurricane. She could only see a few feet in any direction.

Yeji was wearing a traditional full-length robe and had her head and face tightly wrapped in a long checkered scarf. She also wore goggles to protect her eyes.

In one hand she held a long leather chord that curved up and disappeared into the darkness. Every few minutes she gently tugged on it, and she could feel movement at the other end. But not this time. She followed the cord back until she was face-to-face with the most fearsome enemy she'd ever met: Babaloo the Camel.

When she set off from the Delta base, all had gone well. It wasn't comfortable riding a camel, but it seemed preferable to walking. But then the sandstorm hit, and Babaloo didn't want any riders, so he'd spit and kick violently. After tumbling off a few times, Yeji gave up, and they walked side by side. One of the things that kept Yeji sane was being able to laugh at the absurdities that came with the job.

She realized why Babaloo had stopped. He had delicate eyelashes that were designed to provide protection from the sun and from blowing sand. Yeji looked closely and saw that his eyes were almost completely scaled over with a crust of sand. You must be scared, she thought.

Yeji took out her flask and realized how low her water supply was. The storm had slowed them down, and she was constantly washing sand out of her mouth. "It's me or the camel," she thought. "The camel isn't here to do what I am going to do. I'm a killer. It's just helping me and trusting me. He's one of us." Carefully she rinsed out each eye. She was putting the cap back on the canteen when Babaloo spit in her face. She wiped it away and smiled. Now she had no water.

That night the temperature dropped to 40F. She knew that deserts can get cold, but she wasn't expecting this. Pain, she could handle. But cold was a different beast. Around midnight, she stopped. Her camp consisted of nothing more than her lying on the sand in the same clothes. Slowly Babaloo dropped to his knees and curled his neck until his head pressed against his abdomen.

For three hours, Yeji lay on the ground, freezing and growing thirstier. She tried everything she could to fend off the discomfort: she meditated, she hummed, she told herself jokes, and even imagined entire Itzy concerts in her head. But it didn't work. Her teeth chattered more and more violently. She had once heard of an Antarctic explorer named Apsley Cherry-Garrard who had become lost and his teeth chattered so hard he broke all 32 of them. What worried her the most was that she could feel herself getting groggier, a sign of hypothermia. She kept thinking about the MI6 agents being tortured. She couldn't, wouldn't let them down.

Painfully she got to her feet. "BABALOO," she shouted, "KPOP PRINCESS APPROACHING FROM STARBOARD."

The wind was still ferocious, and she staggered blindly until she reached the camel. She got on her hands and knees, forced her back against his side, and pushed with all her strength. A chunk of Babaloo's fat oozed upwards, and very quickly Yeji climbed underneath, and let it fall.

It was a little hard to breathe, and her legs were still sticking out, but otherwise she was in the tight embrace of a chubby, mean-spirited, but warm animal. But Babaloo didn't seem to care. She quickly realized that she could feel his heartbeat, and as she listened, she fell asleep.

"Winter, Winter! I can't do this again, I'm supposed to be getting married," Yeji mumbled as she gradually woke up. "Girl, you smell awful, and I think... I think I got a tick from you." Then her eyes snapped open, and she was momentarily blinded by the deep red sunlight coming from the east as dawn arrived.