Fic: Resistance Divided
First Cycle - 1.3 The Expected Unexpected
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Three weeks later
The past days after their arriving to the Wall hadn’t been anything enchant. The days had passed quite boringly, though no-one was complaining about it - who would anyway? They hadn’t been attacked and they had been safe for some time already.
The soldiers were able to breathe, but everyone was still waiting for the worst to come.
It was inevitable.
Hyukjae along with his teammates had been playing card games for a daily basis for the past three weeks. Playing cards they were able to clear their minds and think about something as superfluous as game tactics. Of course there was always someone in charge of the observation. They also had their walkie-talkies to discuss about the events with the other guard stations.
“D45 to Hangeng”, Kibum said to his radiophone. He was walking in circles at the observing room while the others tried to play poker when Seunghyun tried to nap.
It was somewhere around 3:45PM on Monday, November 2, 2020. But it almost didn’t matter anymore to anybody. It was just a number or title for a day. Of course everyone wanted to keep their minds on track but it was in some way useless, when the days didn’t really matter anymore like they used to do.
“Go ahead”, it was the raspy answer when Hangeng picked up his walkie and leaned on the railing of the station. He could see the coast further onward, even when the fog almost prevented him to see much.
“Just the usual, nothing happening actually”, Kibum said and scratched his neck. He didn’t even remember when the last time he had a proper shower was… “Is the weather as foggy as here? We can barely see anything”, he sighed.
“Ah. Same here but the sea breeze is helping a bit so it’s not as thick as yesterday.”
Kibum exhaled heavily.
“This is boring… I know I shouldn’t be whining, but being trapped inside here is frustrating. I’m sick and tired of always losing at poker.”
He could hear how Hangeng snickered at the other end.
“I know, Kibum. Just try to bear for few weeks here. You have a change at four?”
“Yeah.”
“Try to stand each other, okay? The day after tomorrow I’m going to check on you guys.”
Kibum hummed for an answer.
“Clear?”
“Clear.”
Kibum put his walkie on its place and turned around to face the red headed young man, who had obviously lost to Yonghwa again.
“Nothing new?” he asked, but the blank gaze told him that he knew already.
“No.”
Probably Hyukjae wasn’t the only one who still found those words calming his heart. He didn’t whine about the boredom, he was more than pleased when he heard those words again.
He soon pulled a cigarette from his pocket and ignited it. The smoke he inhaled fulfilled his lungs, until he exhaled that out heavily. Hyukjae had been smoking more than usual, and at least Kibum was aware about the fact that the youngest was much moodier than usual.
Tomorrow seven years ago Hyukjae’s sister died on bus accident, which was caused by nothing else than one of the creatures, which soldiers then had tried to destroy before it would have caused more destruction than it already had.
Because of a kanghui, there was a huge split on the road and the bus she was in, lost its control and drove through the railing down the slope. In the end the bus was on fire, but many had already lost their lives because of the crash.
For the first years Kibum had known Hyukjae, that time for the latter had always been very hard. But as the years passed he noticed that it was easier every time. Not that it was easy, but it wasn’t so shattering for him anymore.
Hyukjae had the night shift and the three other men were already fast asleep. Even if it was night; dark and cold, he didn’t mind. The calmness eased his mind and it was easier to think about when no one wasn't disturbing all the time.
He wasn’t actually that kind of person who would talk out loud about his feelings; he preferred to stay silent and not to bother anyone, though he knew everyone was willing to listen if he had something.
One could say he was some kind of a dreamer. He had lots of thoughts, mostly these ones which started as “what if”.
What could have happened if anything like this hadn’t happened to them? What if everything would be normal? Would he have a different kind of job? What would he like to do on his spare time? Would he had gone to university? Would his life be easy?
Would he be happy?
When he still was a teenager, he loved to dance. He liked to play console games. He was a normal teenager boy, who had his whole life open - until almost every door closed and everything was different. It was just absurd to think that someday he could be a dancer or something when the world fell apart around him.
He woke up from his thoughts when the cold shivers ran through his slim body after very wintery-like breeze twirled his burgundy red hair. The fog had disappeared and the sky was clear, for once. He could gaze the stars above him and sometimes check the surroundings with the night vision binoculars.
He felt how the winter was just few steps away. On the mornings the ground was in frost and the little water ponds were on ice.
Soon he heard his brother’s voice in his mind repeat the words: "It’s going to be a hard winter. But we can make it through, right Hyukjae?"
He didn’t understand how his brother could always be so optimistic about everything. Even when he was full of fear or grief, he tried to find the sun everywhere. Sometimes it was encouraging, but sometimes it was just…depressing, when he knew that the hope itself didn’t prove anything to be alright, even in the end.
Deep sigh escaped from his lips when he leaned on the railing and tried not to think about anything. It was exhausting. Every freaking thought was exhausting and tiring; because even when the moment was calm, it would change to a disaster in few mere seconds.
Was there even any point to keep going? Would anything ever change or would they be beaten down eventually?
Did any of his friends have these same thoughts? Why did they keep going? What made them keep going?
Was it all just because of the sense of needing to be alive?
For the whole night he kept twiddling these same and different thoughts on his head again and again. Nothing else happened. When the clock turned to five at morning, Seunghyun came to change shifts with him.
But it still took few hours before Hyukjae was able to fall asleep.
Hyukjae had been taking a nap on the afternoon when he suddenly heard the atrocious noise of the tocsin in the air. Not paying much attention to the strangling feeling on his neck, he stood up and tried to focus.
The red light was flickering around. The noises and yells around made him feel nauseous immediately. Everything in his eyes was part of a big blurry sight he couldn’t bring into focus. It was just a nightmare, wasn’t it...? He heard the beep of a radiophone. Yonghwa’s anxious voice in the background was next. Suddenly he heard Siwon’s raspy, yelling radio-voice too.
“We are deep in the shit! There’s one of them on the way here! Air defense is called to help, but we need more men here NOW!”
Yonghwa’s hands were almost shaking when he raised the walkie talkie closer to his mouth.
“W-we are on the way!”
“HURRY! Clear!”
Hyukjae’s body was moving like it should, but he didn’t understand a single thing what was happening around him.
The station D49 was under a terrified chaos.
They had called the headquarters, other stations and other soldiers around for help when they got the first sight of the monster coming from the coast. It wasn’t as big as the one some time ago, but it has huge anyway - and it was going to exterminate much on its way.
Twenty minutes ago they still had some proper electricity, but now they had only half of that. They needed to use the backup generators few kilometers away from the station, but at least some other soldiers were working on that, so the crew of Hangeng’s could focus on the defense.
The air force was ahead on them with their two Boeing F/A-X2* jet fighters. The front defense barrier's roof was fulfilled with mortars, anti-tank missiles and automatic grenade launchers designed to this kind of ‘war’ - and those were just little part of the different weapons they were using these days.
This station barrier was like the miniature version of the proper Wall, which was used on defense when it was possible to destroy the enemy before it was able to damage the actual Wall behind it.
Hangeng and his teammates were currently using the anti-tank missiles, when other little crews were using the others. They had the place on the left side, closer to the inner region than the coast. They could clearly see their cause of fear when there were just ruined dust fields several kilometers ahead of them.
There were booms, peals and rumbles on the air without a pause. There was also one word they used the most right now.
“Fire!” the captain shouted, and the voice of a missile was echoing all over them.
They didn’t have time to talk, when over 50 meters high creature was getting closer and closer. There were no proper words to describe the monsters they had to attack. Kanghuis were like mutated versions of scaled reptiles and lizards. Deathly and damnedest.
There weren’t any specific formulas for their existence.
Hyukjae didn’t want to wake up from his stupor. He didn’t want to understand what was happening. He didn’t want to face the fear of the unknown.
They were only fifteen minutes away from the guard station 49. Their Jeeps were moving as fast as was possible to drive safely.
His hands were trembling. His throat was dry like a sand paper and every swallow hurt more than was imaginable.
It was actually his first time to cope with situation like this; with situation so severe, where he really needed to do something dangerous and life threating. His teammates had tried to assure that everything was under control. But he knew it wasn’t. How could anything be under control in a situation like this? If it would have been under control, this wouldn’t be happening right now.
The red haired was concerned mostly about his brother, and he was also worrying for Heechul too.
Because that man was - without a doubt - furious right now. And speaking of the devil, Hyukjae heard his radiophone called for an answer demandingly inside its cover. His anxiousness was noticeable, when he picked up the radio with his quivering grip.
“Heechul to Hyukjae! Answer right-fucking-now!” The voice of the man was like a raging of the thunder in late summer.
“Y-yes”, Hyukjae’s voice was shaking. He had to wipe out the cold sweat dropping on his forehead.
“Where are you?! Are you guys on the way to the coast station?”
"We are", he said and couldn't say what kind of tone Heechul had or what kind of mood was he in.
"How long far away from there?" His voice slowed and the furiousness died soon. Now it was easier to say that he was startled and worried. "This takes too damn long from here", his voice cracked.
"We are seven minutes away." Hyukjae's hands were shaking.
"Just... Just let me know when you arrive. It takes closer to twenty minutes to get there."
"Clear."
"Be careful, okay?" After that the older man shut the call.
The time passed way too slowly in Hyukjae’s and Heechul’s opinion.
Eventually Hyukjae and his crew from the D45 arrived to the disaster scene. The soldiers ran through the tunnel of the Wall, to the other side of it where the barrier was already in a bad shape after too many attacks caused by the kanghui. There was crack on the concrete, metal bars in danger to break down…
The sight was chaotic and terrifying.
The air seemed to got colder and the sky was black, but surrounded by the dark grey clouds.
Nevertheless, Hyukjae saw that his brother and his teammates had done good job. The dark, bawling creature wasn’t either in a good condition anymore, even when it was kind of a bit easier to kill when it wasn’t so big than they usually were.
The red head tried to locate his big brother from somewhere.
Before he knew, he was already running towards the loud noises, huge dust cloud and his teammates near their missile. He couldn’t see what was happening, but cold sweat was running down his face and he felt a wave of nausea over him.
“HANGENG!
“Oh my god, WE NEED HELP OVER HERE!”
“Hang on, hang on, the help is coming…”
Did he just hear right?
The dust was pervading into his eyes and it was hard to see anything, but he was able to make it near to the place where one of the metal bars was laying on the ground. The concrete had gave in and it had caused the bar to crash down.
There was Siwon, Yonghwa and Yunho already when Hyukjae arrived to the scene he actually wouldn’t had wanted to see. Their captain, his brother, was lying under the bar unconsciously. The metal bar and the concrete was above his middle body.
This can’t be happening.
Hyukjae was frozen. The others tried to do everything they could, and more men came to help as soon as they got there. Eventually they managed to get the bar off of the captain and few of the soldiers kneeled beside the man. They had forgotten the monster and all that mattered right now was Platoon 8’s captain.
“Hangeng, wake up!” Yunho ordered with a stern voice, but it didn’t cause anything.
“He’s breathing”, Siwon mumbled silently.
But they all knew that the damages were much worse than they could see from the outside. The man had several broken bones - it was obvious, because the bar was heavy as hell.
“N-no…” No-one didn’t expect Hyukjae to do anything. He wanted to, but he couldn’t move an inch.
Somewhere behind them were few more men coming, also actual medics. One of the men arriving though was Heechul.
“What’s happening? Where’s… Where…” The man stopped at his place first, but soon he was beside the injured man, speechless at first. “H-hangeng…” he whispered. “You have to wake up… Wake up for the fuck’s sake…!”
Soon the leader on Heechul’s lap opened his eyes a bit, but he frowned in pain.
This can’t be real.
He started to cough heavily, but they could see the tears in his eyes because of the amount of pain he was in.
Blood stained his lips and fell down on his jaw.
The medics weren’t the only ones who froze now.
“He has internal bleeding, he needs surgery immediately”, one of them said straight-faced.
Heechul tried to wipe the blood from Hangeng’s face but it just kept coming and coming. His eyes were blank. “The nearest place to have surgery is almost 50 kilometers away…”
“He can’t make it.”
Hangeng was somewhere between the line of consciousness and unconsciousness. He didn’t hear everything and couldn’t focus. The pain was starting to make him numb.
The youngest felt tears falling down his reddish cheeks.
This isn’t real. It isn’t.
Hyukjae’s legs couldn’t keep him standing anymore and he fell to the ground, staring Hangeng, but the look in his eyes didn’t say anything else but fear. He was totally out of everything.
Heechul’s lips were trembling.
“Can you… Take Hyukjae and…” Heechul swallowed his non-existing saliva. “And… L.. Us… A-alon…”
No one said a word, except also tearing Kibum, who raised Hyukjae up by circling his arm around the younger’s shoulder blade. They walked away with eyes watering...
"L-let's go, Hyukjae... You need to calm down..."
There was a long silence until Hangeng coughed the blood out of his mouth again.
“Heechul… I think we have to...“
“D-don’t you dare to s-say… It’s not… It’s not the time for goodbyes… What about your brother? What about the others? What about me…” He was trying to scream out loud, but his voice ended up to sound like it never had before; it was at its most vulnerable moment, broken like an old cassette, like missing someone who meant so much but wasn’t there.
He was holding the captain in his arms, whose uniform and part of his pale face was colored in deep red when everything around them was turning into white…
Heechul couldn’t breathe right. His heartbeat was way too loud. He couldn’t see or hear anyone else than Hangeng.
He couldn’t care less about his hands covered in Hangeng’s blood. He couldn’t care less about the feeling of his fingers getting numb because of the cold.
“I know you will always be there for him, right…?”
“Don’t say that…!” Heechul cried; his reddish cheeks soaked because of the tears.
The soldier held him against his chest, swaying their bodies back and forth and stroking the other man’s dark, soft hair. He could already feel Hangeng’s skin getting colder, his body weight getting heavier…
“Promise me… you will look after him… So I… will look after you…”
If he would have been there earlier, would things be different? If he would have had the chance to turn time back…
“Don’t do this…! Don’t leave me like this…” He couldn’t control his breathing. He was almost hyperventilating, even when he tried so hard to stay strong.
“Please… Promise me.”
The one year older caressed his best friend’s cheek and he knew, he knew too well, that it was the time to let go.
Oh, if it could have been just a bad dream…
“I love you, o-of course I... Promise you.” It was hard to try to understand his words under his endless cries.
“You know I love you too…” Hangeng said silently. His voice was getting huskier, too gauzy…
“Heechul… I will be your guardian. I know you can make it through…”
“J-just show me the light in the darkness.”
He nudged his face against his shoulder and embraced him tightly. Too soon Heechul saw his favorite smile slowly fading away as he took his last breathes in his arms.
It was the day when Heechul lost his best friend he’d known from a little toddler. It was the day when he lost the love of his life.
It was the same day as Hyujae's little sister passed away. It was the same date when Hyukjae lost both of his siblings. It was the third of November.
The first snow of the winter fell that day.
Explanations for the * (starred) -things:
Boeing F/A-X2*
This is fictional jet fighter model based on the The Boeing F/A-XX which is the only Sixth-generation jet fighter currently known to be proposed.
AN: I was literally crying when I wrote the ending.
By the way, this wasn't easy chapter to write. I've never ever before written anything about war on my fictional texts. Hopefully I don't disappoint you guys.
So, did you like it? Was there something you didn't?
Let me know about your thoughts! Every single comment is loved and welcomed with open arms.