minho
EARLY MORNING on Tuesday, two familiar figures step into the small dining area of the Alliance safe house in the third sector.
"Yoon!" I greet, quickly standing up and moving over toward him. "Nephi! You're safe."
Nephi looks up at me and smiles. He has tired eyes.
"Where were you?" I ask. I turn to Yoon. "How long did it take you to find him? Are you guys okay?"
"Everything's fine," Yoon responds with a small smile. "Nephi's smart. He was just hiding in an abandoned house. It didn't take me too long to find him, but it took longer to get back here. We stayed in an old bus in a junkyard last night because we were too tired to continue. But we were up really early and... now we're here."
Nephi lets out a sigh. "I'm just really tired. It was kinda scary being out there all alone. And I missed my bed and all my old things."
Yoon ruffles Nephi's hair. "Let's get you a new room, shall we?"
Nephi nods.
Yoon looks at me. "Where's Jinwoo?"
"Still in his room," I respond.
Yoon nods. "I'll be right back. I gotta get this one into his room."
"Yeah, yeah, definitely," I say.
He then takes Nephi's hand and leads him out of the dining area, down to where the rooms are.
I go back to the table I was sitting at.
This Alliance base isn't as big as the one in the sixth sector, but I still haven't been able to explore all of it. I don't think there's much more for me to explore. I think most of the base just consists of this dining area, a hallway or multiple hallways with rooms, and a front room.
I decide to go exploring anyway.
I leave the dining area and go down the hallway that leads toward the front room. When I get to the front room, I look around, studying it.
There's a desk in the middle where two people sit, typing on computers or writing things down. A hallway branches off to the right; that hallway leads to the dining room. The second hallway is behind the main desk, and it doesn't lead very far to two large showering rooms and multiple bathrooms. There's another hallway on the left that leads to rooms. Maybe there's another hallway full of rooms somewhere else.
In front of the main desk, there's a small, hidden staircase that leads up to the main building. Unlike the one in the sixth sector, the stairs lead up to a door in the middle of a hallway upstairs. It's better hidden than the sixth sector base.
I move down the hallway where the rooms are, taking light steps on the carpet to get to the end of the hallway.
When I reach the end, I see that I can turn left and there is another long hallway with doors on either side, leading to rooms. I move down this hallway. I scan the doors as I walk past, looking at the different numbers.
Once I get to the end, I see that it's a dead end. There's just a wall with the soft yellow and orange wallpaper.
I step forward, pressing my hand against the wall.
This base is a lot smaller than the sixth sector one.
"Hey,"
I turn around and see Yoon standing next to a door, his hand on the knob still.
"Yoon," I greet him. "Is Nephi doing alright?"
"He is," Yoon responds. "He's very tired, so he's going to sleep now. What about you and Jinwoo? Have you guys been holding up?"
"Yeah," I tell him. "We've been doing fine. I was just exploring the place since I don't have much else to do."
Yoon gives me a small grin and then moves over toward me. He looks at the wall and then turns his head toward me. "Do you notice anything about the wallpaper?"
I look at the wallpaper on this wall, trying to find anything, but I don't see anything different.
"No," I say. "Why?"
"Good," Yoon says carefully. He takes a step toward the right and then kneels down. He presses his hand against the wall with a lot of force and a small part of the wall swings away from Yoon. It's small, but still big enough for someone to crawl through.
"What?" I ask, stepping forward to see.
It looks like a small crawlspace or something.
"Where does it lead to?"
"It goes even further down, but there's a way to come up outside, above ground," Yoon answers. "I chose this place because it had this thing, but I added the way to get out on the other side. I thought it would be safer, especially now that the sixth sector was discovered."
"Yeah," I remark. "It's a really good feature. Do you think if the AAN found this place, they wouldn't find this little door?"
Yoon shuts the door and it looks exactly like a solid wall again. "No, I think they'd find this door. But it would take them a bit, because they wouldn't know exactly what to look for. It would give us a little more time to escape."
"You have one other base, right? Does that one have anything like this?"
"No, unfortunately, it doesn't." Yoon lets out a sigh. "There are a few back doors so people could escape a little more quickly, but it's not as intricate as this base."
I nod.
"Anyway, I'm gonna go get some food," Yoon says.
"I'll come with you," I offer.
Yoon nods and we walk through the hallway, heading toward the dining room.
When we get there, I see Jinwoo sitting at one of the tables. He looks up and sees us coming in, and he smiles wide.
"Yoon, you're back!" He exclaims. "Where's Nephi? Did you find him?"
"Yes, yes, I found him," Yoon says quickly. "He's in a room right now. He's sleeping."
Jinwoo sighs in relief. "That's good. I'll be honest, I was worried about that kid and about you looking for him. I'm glad you guys are here safe."
"I'm sure everyone is glad they're back," I comment.
"I'm gonna get something to eat, I'll be right back." Yoon heads over toward the small kitchen area in the dining space.
I sit down across from Jinwoo and let out a small sigh. "How did you sleep? Did you even sleep?"
"Some," Jinwoo tells me. "I was really restless. But it wasn't as bad."
"Any memories?" I ask, hopeful.
Jinwoo shakes his head. "No. Not even any feelings or anything. The walls here aren't white. They're a beige color."
"Ah, okay." I didn't really notice that.
"Anyway, how are Yoon and Nephi doing?" Jinwoo asks. "Are they okay? Did they get back okay and everything?"
"I think so," I say. "Nephi hid in an abandoned house and Yoon found him there. They slept in an old bus last night until they were able to come back here. Now, Nephi's sleeping."
Jinwoo nods. "That's... incredible. How did Yoon even find Nephi? He could've been anywhere."
I shrug. "Yoon and Nephi have a closeness that I don't know if I can explain. It's almost like they're blood-related brothers or something, even though they're not."
"Yeah," Jinwoo replies.
Jinwoo and I let silence wash over us until, a few moments later, Yoon comes back over to our table with a plate of food. He's got an egg, a biscuit, and a piece of meat.
"Are either of you hungry?" Yoon asks as he sits down on my left.
I shake my head. "I'm not. I ate this month. I won't need to eat for a while."
Yoon looks over to Jinwoo and my eyes trail over the same way.
"I'm... sort of getting hungry," Jinwoo answers carefully. "I just... I don't need to eat very soon, but at some point... yeah, I'll need to."
Yoon nods. "I think that's part of being turned Noctura from human. Eunmi was way hungrier than any Noctura I'd ever seen. I think you're somewhat the same way."
"I can go with him tomorrow," I offer. "He knows how to do it himself, now, but he might need a little more guidance or something."
"Or a friend," Jinwoo responds.
I give him a small smile.
"Yeah," Yoon agrees. "Minho and Jinwoo, you guys will go eat tomorrow. I'll make sure everyone else here has eaten and isn't hungry. If they are, I'll get a small team together so we can go get some food for them."
"How do you do it?" I ask. "How do you bring food back here for the others?"
"A serum we came up with keeps people alive but knocks them unconscious for about twelve hours or more," Yoon responds. "We give them that serum, bring them back here in a van, and then let everyone eat."
I nod, not saying anything more.
"But that'll be tomorrow," Yoon says. "Eating day will be tomorrow. For today..."
He trails off, getting lost in his thoughts.
"You wait for Nephi to wake up," I offer. "Then you two can spend the day together. Just one day, where you and Nephi can do whatever you two want."
Yoon smiles down at his plate of food. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?"
"Come on, why can't you do it?"
Yoon lets out a sigh, his smile disappearing, and looks up at me. "Nephi's probably going to sleep for a while. He was really tired. Hasn't slept much in a couple days. Plus, I've heard some whispers on the street about something big coming. Something we need to prepare for."
Jinwoo and I look over at each other, giving each other confused looks, before looking back at Yoon.
He looks at Jinwoo and then he looks at me.
"A war is coming. One between humans and Nocturas."