Before it All - A Love Wins All Fanfic

Chapter 1 - The First Meeting

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."