Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Bryan, you up yet?"
Drifting somewhere between sleep and waking, Bryan was pulled back to consciousness by the knocking and the voice at his door.
"One second!"
He sat up and checked the time—nearly seven o'clock. After a quiet response, he grabbed a loose casual shirt hanging nearby, pulled it on, and walked to the door, easing it open.
Standing before him was a young woman with striking features, golden hair cascading past her waist. Her white lab coat hung open at the sides, accentuating the curves beneath it.
The moment Sarah spotted Bryan's silhouette in the doorway, her eyes lit up with pure joy. She launched herself at him, wrapping around him like an octopus—legs hooking around his waist, lips finding his before he could say a word.
His hands instinctively moved to support her, settling beneath her. Bryan's expression was somewhere between helpless and amused, but he returned the kiss with equal warmth.
After a long moment, he patted her back gently and set her down. "Alright, alright—I've got a mission to get to."
That earned him an immediate pout. Sarah puffed out her cheeks, doing her best impression of righteous fury. "You came back from your mission and didn't even come see me! If I hadn't come looking for you today, would you have just forgotten I exist?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I've been buried in paperwork these past two days. I was planning to come see you once it was all sorted, but then I got another assignment notice yesterday. And since you were studying for your medical internship exam, I figured I'd wait until after this next mission." He paused, his gaze traveling over her until it landed on the name badge pinned to her chest.
It read: Intern — Sarah.
His eyebrow rose, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Well. Looks like I was worrying for nothing. You already passed."
"Hmph. You were gone so long last time, there's plenty you don't know about." Sarah rolled her eyes, clearly unsatisfied with his understated reaction. Her lips pushed into a pout as she continued:
"But seriously, the QZ government is getting worse by the day. You brought back supplies that important, and all they gave you was a promotion to sergeant? Just a squad leader? That's—"
"Quiet."
Bryan's expression shifted instantly. He cut her off in a sharp whisper, then darted a nervous glance down both sides of the hallway.
He remembered all too well—a soldier had been stripped of his military status and sent to a factory labor detail for running his mouth about government corruption. Loose lips could be fatal here.
Fortunately, at this hour, most of the barracks were already empty. They were the only two on this floor.
Sarah caught herself immediately, clamping a hand over her mouth, a flash of regret crossing her face.
"It's fine. Everyone's already headed out." Bryan exhaled slowly, then reached over and tapped her forehead with a finger. "But watch what you say next time." He stepped aside to let her in. "Come on—I need to pack anyway."
"Oh. Okay!"
The two entered the room, and Bryan shut the door behind them. He moved to the bedroom, pulling out a backpack and stuffing it with essentials. "If you've passed your internship exam, why aren't you reporting to the hospital?"
"I just got certified yesterday. I still need to wait for the hospital to send me a placement notice." Sarah wandered slowly through his compact room, glancing around as she spoke. "But I heard that ever since the Fireflies showed up, the number of wounded soldiers has been climbing nonstop. They're apparently short-staffed, so it probably won't be more than a couple days before they call me in."
Her hand found a thin cord dangling from the ceiling in the living area. She tugged it, and a rolled-up sheet of paper unfurled from its hiding place—a meticulously detailed map of the Quarantine Zone, every street and structure painstakingly illustrated.
"I've always wanted to ask," Sarah said, tapping the map with one finger and turning toward Bryan as he emerged from the bedroom. "You spent years drawing this map of the QZ. What's it for?"
Bryan's steps faltered. He looked at the map, something unreadable flickering behind his eyes. "Who knows? It'll come in handy someday."
Then he walked over, rolled the map back up, and took Sarah's hand, guiding her to sit down. Somehow, a hair tie had appeared in his other hand, and with practiced ease, he gathered her long golden hair and tied it into a ponytail.
"How many times do I have to tell you? Cut your hair. Shorter is better. It's fine inside the QZ, but out there, this much hair is a liability—someone grabs it, and you're dead."
At the mention of cutting her hair, Sarah winced as if struck. "Absolutely not. Short hair looks terrible. I'll think about it if I ever have to go outside."
Seeing that his advice had once again fallen on deaf ears, Bryan could only shake his head. "It's getting late. I need to head out. Walk with me?"
"Of course! That's exactly why I came—to see you off!"
...
Summer.
The sun hung mercilessly overhead, baking the earth. Temperatures climbed steadily, and the humid air pressed in from every direction, thick enough to choke on.
The soldiers' barracks sat on the far-right side of the military base within the Quarantine Zone, a considerable distance from the main gate. The two walked through the base, exchanging greetings with familiar soldiers along the way, heading straight for the exit.
En route, Bryan's thoughts turned to the others. He glanced at Sarah beside him. "I've been gone so long, and the last two days have been nothing but busywork. Haven't had a chance to check in on everyone. How are they doing?"
"Heh. I was wondering when you'd ask."
Sarah hooked her arm through his and gave him a look before launching in:
"Amir's the same as ever—still on patrol duty in District A. Though I heard his commanding officer's been thinking about promoting him. Might even get his own squad before long."
"Dick got scouted by some professor who said he had natural talent. He's been studying botany and followed the guy to the greenhouse facility in District B. Some kind of specialist consultant position. Basically lives there—you won't see him unless it's a day off."
"And Lulu—remember she went into equipment maintenance? She's working at the power station in District E now. Covered in grease every day, chopped her hair short, looks like a total tomboy. If she doesn't clean up first, I wouldn't even recognize her at close range."
"Lucy and Daphne are about the same. Still working their factory shifts. We've been supplementing their rations a bit, so they're getting by okay."
Sarah paused, then seemed to remember something and burst out laughing. She tugged at Bryan's arm excitedly. "Allen's the only one still at the school. You have no idea—last time I visited, he was complaining about how boring it was with nobody else around. And guess what he did?"
Seeing Sarah practically doubled over with laughter, Bryan raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What'd he do?"
"He got so bored that he started picking fights with every bully he could find. Beat them up one after another. Eventually they were all terrified of him, but he still wouldn't let up. Now everyone runs the other way when they see him coming. They've started calling him the 'King of the School,' and he's absolutely thrilled about it."
"That little..."
Bryan's mouth twitched. At the end of the day, Allen was still just fifteen. No matter what he'd been through, some teenage recklessness was inevitable.
"What about Anna and Marlene?"
At the mention of those two names, Sarah hummed thoughtfully, tilting her head. "Actually... that's been a little strange. When I was studying at the hospital, I didn't have much free time to visit them. But whenever I did go, even though they work there, I'd always have to wait forever before I could see either one of them. I have no idea what they're so busy with..."
"Oh... is that so?"
Something shifted behind Bryan's eyes as he processed this. His gaze fixed straight ahead, thoughts clearly elsewhere. "When I get back from this mission... I'll drop by and see them."
By then, they'd reached the military base's main gate. The two guards on duty snapped to attention the moment they spotted them.
Bryan and Sarah produced their identification and handed them over. One guard verified their credentials, returned the documents, then turned and heaved the metal gate open, waving them through.
The streets of the Quarantine Zone hadn't changed much in five years. Moss crept across the damp patches on the walls, and more people wandered the streets than before.
As the QZ government continued tightening its policies—squeezing those at the bottom, slowing supply distribution to a crawl—a growing number of residents had simply stopped showing up to the factories.
To Bryan's eye, these were people caught in the middle: unwilling to join the Fireflies and throw their lives away for nothing, but equally unwilling to keep slaving away under the government's boot. So they'd settled on this toothless form of protest to make their feelings known.
Give it time, he thought. Once they watch their food run out, they'll go right back to the factories.
"End the exploitation! Punish corrupt QZ officials!"
"No more violent enforcement!"
They hadn't gone far from the military base when a wall of noise hit them—chanting, shouting, signs held high. A crowd of protesters flooded the street ahead, blocking their path entirely.
Bryan and Sarah exchanged a look and shared the same weary, resigned smile.
...
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