A desolate silence hung in the air. The streets were lined with closed and run down stalls, with no sign of life around. The air was thick and heavy, as the winds picked the dust and dried leaves, throwing them around with no mercy. If one were to look at this scenery, they would've no doubt come to the conclusion that this was an abandoned street. This was Reiner 21.
Except it wasn't an abandoned street. Deep inside these rundown shacks, there were people. Maybe not the liveliest and happiest people but nonetheless people. You see, no matter what the situation, humans always had a tendency to live. Well, at least most of them.
Yeonwoo coughed and knocked erratically on the run down door of one of these abandoned buildings. While it may have seemed like some sort of erratic knocking, it was indeed a code. There was a reason people were hiding down in these sorts of buildings, the last thing they wanted to do was accidentally open the door to a patrolling officer and his equally terrifying canine.
The door slightly opened, revealing a quarter of a young boy's face. There was suspicion and hostility in his eyes when he opened the door but the minute he saw Yeonwoo, his eyes widened and he opened the door wide open.
"Hyung!" the boy cried out, jumping into Yeonwoo's arms for a hug.
Yeonwoo smiled as he picked up the young boy and pinched his nose. "Shh, you can't be so reckless. What if I was wearing a disguise?"
The kid pouted. "I know Yeonwoo hyung when I see him. I can instantly recognize hyung."
Yeonwoo merely shook his head as he walked into, closing the door behind him.
The inside was equally run down as the outside. Old and mouldy paint covered the entirety of the walls and the only places where this paint was not there where the places where the paint had fallen off.
The furniture was scarce, with a few chipped off chairs here and there and thin, and somewhat torn blankets lay on the floor. There were no cushions and the air was heavy and humid. While the furniture was scarce, the people weren't.
There were at least 15 people in this room. They all looked worn down and weary, tired of living this kind of life but their innate spirit wanting to stay alive despite all circumstances were what kept them alive.
And maybe Yeonwoo.
Yeonwoo looked at elderly man, who was sitting on one of the broken chairs. Everyone in the room had been alert ever since they heard the knocking on the door but this old man had his eyes closed and appeared quite relaxed. He walked towards the old man and softly shook his shoulder.
"Uncle," said Yeonwoo, using a common term used to address elder men. There wasn't any familial bond between them but Yeonwoo thought of these people as his family and even treated them as such.
The old man opened his eyes and smiled at Yeonwoo. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
Yeonwoo sighed. "Is that the first thing you should be asking me? Are you sure it's safe to send Ming-hae to open the door?"
Yeonwoo pointedly looked at the young boy who was sitting in his arms. The said boy, Ming-Hae, frowned.
"Hyung! What do you mean by that? I can check on the door myself, I'm not a small kid."
Hearing Ming-hae, Yeonwoo almost wanted to chuckle but promptly stopped himself from doing so. There was no reason as to why he should dampen a child's spirit. "Well, why should my brave Ming-hae do a task as boring as opening a door, you should be watching over the people here instead. Guarding them when I'm not there."
Hearing his hyung's words, Ming-hae's eyes flared up in passion and he nodded vigorously, a sense of pride filled him up as he felt like he had been assigned a rather important task.
Yeonwoo let Ming-Hae down from his arms and put him on the ground. "Off you go. I need to talk to uncle for a bit."
Ming-Hae ran off to some of the other younger boys, presumably wanting to boost of the important assignment Yeonwoo had given to him.
The old man merely chuckled at the sight. "It's good to see the young ones here so full of life. It makes us adults look so pitiful in comparison. They look so happy and content and full of life and then there is us, living in the same conditions yet so unhappy."
Yeonwoo sat down the bare floor, propping his arm on the edge of the crippled chair. He also stared as the kids frolicked around, laughing without a care in the world.
"It may sound cruel but these were the conditions they were born in, they haven't seen the world like we had seen it. They haven't seen what a beautiful world can actually look like."
The old man gently patted his head. "I guess you have it harder than us old people. I know I'm going to die soon and maybe it's lucky that I didn't get live long in this kind of world. But looking at young people like you, I feel bad that you know how beautiful life can be and yet you are forced into these conditions."
Yeonwoo shook his head. "It's alright, besides there isn't much I can do except reminiscence about the past."
Yeonwoo got up and dusted his pants. He removed the backpack which was on his shoulders and placed it on a tattered rug nearby. He looked up at the old man and grinned. "If I were to mop about, thinking about the past who else would bring the food rations?"
The seemingly lifeless and dead group inside the run down buildings instantly regained some life as Yeonwoo put out their rations.
Well, he said rations but in reality, they were just stolen food items. Infact, he had no idea whether they were safe to eat or if they had expired long time back.
But given the situation they were in, none of them could afford to be picky. Placing the food items on one side and the water on the other, Yeonwoo picked up some items to give to those who couldn't walk or were too exhausted and malnourished to move.
He crouched in front of a young woman who quietly sat at the corner. She was the latest addition to their "family" and had joined them only about 2 weeks ago.
She was quiet and rarely talked to anyone. The only person she exchanged a few words with were Yeonwoo and that was just mere pleasantries. Yeonwoo had no idea who this woman was, where she came from and how she ended up in this dead street where there were no signs of life.
He only accidentally stumbled across her on one of his ration picking trips. Her right food was clearly broken as it dangled at a weird angle. Her hands and feet were blistered and torn, red from abuse. Whether those wounds were inflicted by others or whether it was through accident, Yeonwoo had no way of finding out.
Don't misunderstand Yeonwoo. He wasn't a hero and wasn't the type to save every single person that he came across. He already had his hands full trying to keep the small group he had alive, no matter how battered or tattered, Yeonwoo was no knight in shining armour and had fully intended to leave the girl alone, pretending to have never seen her.
However, a certain detail had caught Yeonwoo's eyes. The woman had a small black dragon tattoo on ankle. Her right ankle. Yeonwoo had never seen a tattoo like that. In fact, judging from the girl's face she looked like she was 16 or 17 years of age. There was no way for her to have gotten such a tattoo anywhere since the rebellion had occurred 15 years ago. Unless she got it tattoed at an extremely young age, it didn't make sense.
Yeonwoo's everyday life was boring and mundane. He followed the same routine. He set out, sneak into abandoned warehouses which were a considerable distance from where he lived and steal whatever food and water he could. Of course, there were plenty of days where he would find nothing and instead walk even more far until he found something he could take back. And if luck was really not on his side, he'd have to choice but to steal from the Liziers.
Which is precisely why the appearance of this girl, and that too so close to his residence, puzzled Yeonwoo beyond reason. Not to mention the strange dragon tattoo on her. He didn't trust her one bit. And for the right reasons as she refused to tell him anything. Nevertheless, he still brought her in and provided her with food, clothes and shelter in hopes of finding an answer one day.
An answer that might break him out of this everyday hell.
He gently placed a small can of what seemed to be beans and a crushed tetra pack of long expired mango juice. It was embarrassing to offer such a measly meal but beggars can't be choosers.
The girl looked up at him and mumbled a quick thank you. Yeonwoo's eyes drifted towards her ankle which was now covered by the clothes that he had given her.
"How is your wound? Is it healing fine?"
The girl merely nodded in response, not wanting to continue a conversation with Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo sighed, this was nothing new to him. She was always like this. Although Yeonwoo had taken her in, in hopes of getting some information about the outside world, it seemed like it was all for nothing. The girl know something but she wasn't going to open her mouth. The fear was way too evident in her eyes.
Maybe she had seem something happen in the other sectors or maybe she had killed someone in order to survive.
Yeonwoo got up and walked back towards the rest of the group. He once again glanced at that girl and in particular her ankle.
He really wanted some answers, some information from here.
Just surviving wasn't enough, he needed to know what was happening. What was going on in the world that was shut off to them?
It wasn't just a matter of curiosity, Yeonwoo needed information in order to figure out whether they were truly safe right now. What laws were being implemented? Or maybe the laws had been changed and they didn't need to be in hiding anymore. Whatever the case was Yeonwoo had no idea of knowing. Unless the girl he had brought in would tell him.
One of the youngsters in the room casually threw an arm around Yeonwoo. He grinned as he lightly punched Yeonwoo's stomach.
"Why do you keep staring at that girl? She's too young for you, you know. Plus, I doubt we can have sex in these kind of conditions, unless you're interested in minors and public exhibitionism."
Yeonwoo pushed the man's arm off his shoulder. "Do you even hear half the things you say? I can't believe you're older than me."
The man rolled his eyes. "Older than you by like 3 months, grow up."
"Hah? Shouldn't that be my line? You should grow up, Hyuk."
Hyuk rubbed stubbly bearded face against Yeonwoo's smooth complexion. "Aww, you're so not cute. What happened to my cutie Yeonwoo?"
Yeonwoo pushed him off yet again. "Hah, what's gotten into you today?"
Hyuk smiled and looked around before beckoning Yeonwoo to come closer to whisper something into the latter's ear.
"Guess who found this?"
Yeonwoo looked down to see his friend pull out to what seemed to him be a small bottle of alcohol. Yeonwoo's eyes widened in shock.
"YOU WENT OU--?!"
Yeonwoo was immediately shushed by his friend. "Shhh, you want to announce it to everyone here?"
Yeonwoo stared at his friend in disbelief and in a softer voice said, "You went out? Are you crazy?"
Hyuk merely shrugged. "Well, you always bring back boring stuff like food and water. So I thought I should go bring back something to have fun with. I was hoping to find some erotic magazine but I guess luck was not on my side."
Yeonwoo didn't whether he should laugh or cry at his friend's stupidity. "Hyuk, it's not safe to wander out like that. You don't know who's hiding where and what they're up to."
Hyuk raised an eyebrow and then looked at the girl that Yeonwoo was talking to. "Oh, so you're allowed to bring in a girl but I'm not allowed to sneak in a bottle of alcohol?"
Yeonwoo face-palmed himself. He couldn't tell whether Hyuk was purposely acting like he had no clue or whether he was pretending just to get Yeonwoo off his back.
"Don't show these to the others. Otherwise, you won't be able to even get a drop of it." Said Yeonwoo, sighing after he decided to drop the matter.
Hyuk grinned. "Of course, I'm not giving it to these geezers. This is only for me, you and Reno."
Yeonwoo looked around. "Speaking of which, where is Reno?"
Hyuk grinned awkwardly and sheepishly said, "Ah, he also may or may not have gone out in search for some erotic magazines."
Yeonwoo didn't have the energy to get mad anymore. After all, he had spent the past 2 days walking all over in order to find basic rations while his two idiotic friends decided to use their time to pursue bullshit like alcohol and porn magazines. Well, he couldn't really blame them, they were young men after all.
"When did he leave? Why isn't he back yet?" enquired Yeonwoo.
"Well, we both don't go out overnight. We're not that reckless. Usually, we both set out in the morning and come back in the evening. I found what I wanted so I ended up coming earlier today." Said Hyuk.
With the way Hyuk phrased it, it seemed as if these two youngsters took the chance to sneak out whenever they could whenever Yeonwoo was not around. Yeonwoo internally sighed. If they had the guts to step out, they should've helped Yeonwoo with ration hunting.
Yeonwoo looked outside the window. The sun was still up and about so according to what Hyuk said, Reno should comeback by sunrise whether he was successful in his porn magazine expedition or not.
A feeling of foreboding come over Yeonwoo. The desolate silence that hung in the air was the same as ever, but Yeonwoo could sense a distant, very distant cry. A bird? Or maybe an animal? Or maybe some fight had broken out at another sector.
A shrill went down Yeonwoo's spine.
Intuition is indeed a scary thing.