The D-Day

Chapter 10 - The Nightfall

Recap from Chapter 9:

Tae Pyung couldn't stop beaming like an exuberant child and kissed Eon Jin's fore head then her lips which he refused to pull away from. Something caught her attention and distracted her from the affection. Her hand slipped into the bag to pull out the map. She unhitched herself from the disappointed Tae Pyung completely and studied the map. Her watch said 6pm, the evening sun rays were still scorching in the summer. They had another 1 hour or so to do what Eon Jin was devising in her mind.    ~ end of recap.

"Boyfriend, do you see that opening over there? It leads to an old subway route undergoing derailing to lay new tracks before this event struck us. We have 1 hour to walk in the tunnel and we will be within 10km to the lock down site. That's a further savings of 5km."

Tae Pyung argued, "We can always do this tomorrow morning right? Baby, you just recovered from hypothermia."

"It's just a mild one. I really, really want to get over this as soon as possible. Furthermore, we still have light till another 1 hour or so."

As usual, it was challenging for him to win his sweetheart in such arguments. They split up the packing up to set on their journey.

Tae Pyung climbed down the ladder to rinse the utensils in the rainwater flowing through the canal they were in. On his way up he sighted how comical Eon Jin looked as she tussled to compress the sleeping bag and could not stop chuckling.

They had to ascend a flight of narrow steps without safety barricades to get to the entrance of the subway. Tae Pyung had to fight the haunting thoughts of any one of them falling and hide the sensation from the aching wound on his calf.

Tae Pyung sensed Eon Jin's unspoken panic, when she started marching ahead at top speed. From her expression, he could tell that she was pushing herself and would get wasted anytime.

"Baby slow down, you're bone tired and we still have time."

"There's no time."

"Anything wrong?"

"I just realised the visuals we are getting here are lit by reflected light. Once the sun sets, it'll be pitch dark."

"What? Hold my hand, we will make a run."

Tae Pyung led the way to the end of the tunnel, as he kept tab on his watch. They had 4km to the end of the tunnel, but it showed that they only had 30min. The marines soldier knew the dangers of pitch darkness and broke into a run intuitively.