Round Four: The Fifteenth Day
Title: The Fifteenth Day
Team: Dystopia and Oddities
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, OT5
Summary: They work well, the five of them, because they know when to back off and let each other work. Minho likes the way his team works, knows it'd be an honor to die for the men on his ship.
Author's note: I'd like to thank the team for being there to bounce ideas off of and for encouraging my idea of shinee in space. You all are fantastic.
Prompt Used: Shinhwa- Run
Jonghyun is flying the space ship when they get ambushed by the Plutonians from the Northern sector. Minho runs the Eastern sector, transporting illegals into the habitable planets. Kibum is the best flyer and they've never been caught when Kibum was driving the ship. Minho doesn’t know why Jonghyun has to take over, but he's pretty pissed when they're shot.
"You forgot to turn on the camouflage skin," Minho yells.
"I don't know how to fly this shit. You should have gotten Kibum."
Minho is too angry to say anything then. He shoves Jonghyun off the controls, roars out for Kibum and shoves him into the controls when Kibum comes out of the back room. Jinki and Taemin are back there mapping out meteor routes and back ways to other planets.
"Where the fuck have you been," Minho growls at Kibum. "Jonghyun got us fucking shot."
Kibum rolls his eyes but sits down. Minho runs for the weapons, Jonghyun following behind him. Out of the five, they're the best shots and even then they're outnumbered because the Northern sector always has three men at the weapons.
"Taemin," Jonghyun yells as he and Minho pass the back room. "You better find a way to get us out of here before Minho pops a vein."
Minho says nothing because Taemin is young and Jonghyun knows it's Jinki who has to find a way out. But they work well, the five of them, because they know when to back off and let each other work. Minho likes the way his team works, knows it'd be an honor to die for the men on his ship.
The next shot comes from Minho's right and makes a hole in the side of the weapon's room. The air around them stops for a second before it's all sucked out through the same hole. Minho's got his hand on an energy gun and a destabilizer. Jonghyun has the same, but he's closer to the door. By the time Minho finds something to grab onto, Jonghyun has made it outside.
"Where the fuck is the automatic lock on this shit," Minho spits out.
His hair is in his eyes and he wishes they had more time on planets so that he could get a proper haircut. Jonghyun shrugs at him from outside the door, shut because Jonghyun isn't stupid enough to leave the door open.
The air thins out and Minho knows he can't make the door. His lungs hurt from the effort of breathing, vision swimming in and out. He catches sight of Jonghyun trying to get the door open, but the automatic lockdown is working again.
Minho can't get out.
The last thing he sees before his vision blacks out are two men holding guns in either hand. And shit, Minho is screwed.
-
The planet is empty.
Minho can't see, but he hears the silence that boots on dried ground can't mask. It's bone deep in the planet and Minho thinks this is what the Northern sector is--cold and empty. He figures it's the reason why the Plutonians are always looking to get out of this side and into the planets Minho's team knows.
None of the planets stay habitable for long though--unless they're government controlled--which is what makes transporting such a profitable job, if illegal. Some planets last weeks at life sustaining temperatures, the best at months, the worst at days. Nothing lasts longer than that and for the people outside of government planets, there's the back and forth, the constant moving across bridges that were meant to unite a long time ago. If they make it to the bridges in time, they can hop from planet to planet, but there's always the danger that they won't make the bridge in time.
That's why transporters exist, to make a profit out of desperation. Minho and people like Minho get paid to sneak people into government planets. They fake identities, lose the people in the system so that they've paid years in advance. Or they send in families with a contact so that seven people can be living in a home meant for one. But even that, they all know, is better than life outside. They're lucky, the ones who scrape enough money to pay transporters because it's a one time fee for a life of relative safety.
But the luckiest people are the ones with enough money to buy a legal pass on a government planet or the ones who have talents to sell. Minho's father sold thirty years of his life to get Minho, Minho's brother and Minho's mother on a government planet. Their house had been small, one room for them to sleep and a kitchen to cook what little they could afford. They'd had artificial day in the bubble that protected the people from the burning temperatures and roaring electrical storms. Night lasted exactly half of their 24 hour day and most of the time Minho's father had been forced to work then too. There was nothing there for Minho but the endless, automatic days or the flashes of their barren planet when the shield switched from day to night or vice versa.
His father had told Minho stories about how once, people lived on a planet that was habitable for millennia, where animals lived and one could breathe without the aid of purifiers. They called it the Green Planet and Minho heard whispers of it as he grew up. The older people spoke of it as though they'd seen it, lived it, even. The younger kids called it a legend and slowly it became just a story, an anchor for the desperate as the number of people grew, until there wasn't enough space, until the government started charging extra for letting people stay.
Minho's father was one of the officers in charge of evicting the newer tenants who couldn't pay their rent. It was an accident, really, that Minho was there the day his father threw out the girl and her family. Minho never knew her name, but he still remembers the tears in her eyes and the desperation with which she'd begged Minho's father to spare her baby.
From then on Minho had started transporting.
It amused Jonghyun that Minho tried so hard to put back the people Minho's father kicked out.
Minho didn't talk about it.
He thinks of Jonghyun now as he's shoved forward and if he ever gets out, Minho's going to punch Jonghyun in the face.
Minho walks and tries to count off how many turns they make, judge how far he is from where they landed. He intends to go back as soon as the men untie him and take the blindfold off.
There's another jab at Minho's back and he stumbles forward. He's sure the men pointing guns at his back are from the Northern sector because that's where Minho had gotten his last job. He thinks it's fucking hilarious how jealous each sector is of the people in its area. Minho doesn't care where the people come from as long as they pay, but he's always known that if transporters from other sectors ever caught Minho, he'd be fucked.
"Should we just leave him here?"
The voice is male, but that's all Minho knows. He doesn't recognize the accent or the voice. He knows the men are shorter than him from the direction their voices are coming from.
"Might as well," the other man answers. "He's not going anywhere."
There's silence for a bit and Minho hates just having to sit there and wait.
"What about his friends?"
"They're about half an hour away," Minho answers.
He gets a blow in the space between his neck and shoulder for his mouth. The men shove Minho down until he's kneeling on the ground. His hands are bound tighter behind him and the rope burns. Minho can feel it scrape along the inside of his wrists and he makes a note of that for later.
"Kibum's a good flyer," Minho says. "He'll have followed you."
"Shut up."
Minho grins. "Jonghyun is good with guns and Taemin and Jinki already know all the entryways into the planet. They know what it's made of and how much time we have before it burns."
The men are silent and all Minho has is the satisfaction of knowing he got to them. He's still stuck on a planet that could burn or freeze at any moment and he has no way off it.
"Fuck."
The curse is low, but Minho catches it and grins. It's followed by a whirring of engines and heat that lets Minho know Kibum's out of fuel.
"Shit."
Minho sits back on his legs and waits. He hears the men running around him, yelling at each other. There are shots, followed by a yell that sounds like Kibum.
"Fucking shoot them," and that is definitely Kibum.
"What if he shoots Minho?"
"Shut up, Taemin."
"Jonghyun."
Minho shake his head. He can feel the energy blast from the men next to him and he hopes they at least grazed Jonghyun.
"Will you just fucking shoot," Minho yells.
"We're trying to save you," Kibum yells back. "Will you wait a fucking second. Bastards have fucking guns too."
There's a shout from next to Minho and then there are hands on him. He jerks away and gets a smack on the head.
"Kibum?"
"Who the fuck else?"
"You could have said it was you."
The blindfold comes off last and then Minho is looking at Kibum's brown eyes and his blond hair. Personally, Minho's always found Kibum unnervingly pretty; his cheekbones were Minho's favorite. But aside from that, Kibum's endless dedication and his desire to learn what could be useful was also something Minho admired.
"How many of them were there?" Minho asks.
"Five," Kibum answers handing Minho a gun. "Jonghyun got three of them on the ship."
"What did they want?"
Minho takes Kibum's hand before the other man can answer and drags him to the side. They're in the middle of a wasteland, empty dirt streets with tall crumbling buildings. Everything seems hollow, but there are places to hide. Their ship is parked a few meters away; Jonghyun, Jinki and Taemin are ducked behind the ramp that leads inside the ship.
"Behind you," Kibum snaps and tugs on Minho's hand.
The shot that comes from behind misses Minho's ear by an inch. He can feel the heat graze by, catching his shirt and singeing the fabric. He'll have to go to the detox chamber later to make sure he didn't pick up anything from the planet's atmosphere. It seems stable enough to Minho; the purifier--a little black box he carries around his neck--does the job most of the time.
"Will you stop thinking and shoot already," Kibum yells.
Minho turns in time to see Jonghyun's shot catch one of the men in chest. Minho's gun is reassuring in his hand and when he aims and pulls on the trigger he knows he won't miss. His shot catches the second man square in the chest. There's no blood, just a blast of energy that shuts down organs.
"Yeah," Taemin cheers from behind Jinki.
Minho walks over with Kibum. Jinki and Taemin have matching grins on their faces. Minho claps Jinki on the back and goes straight for Jonghyun.
"Hey sexy," Jonghyun grins.
Minho feels the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"You almost got me killed," Minho glares.
"I just saved you."
And Minho should keep his promise and punch Jonghyun in the face. Any smarter group of Plutonians would have killed him. But then, Minho knows Jonghyun. He was there when Jonghyun's family missed the bridge. Jonghyun made it, but his father went back for Jonghyun's sister and didn't make it back.
Minho was their transporter.
That Jonghyun would become one too was a given after that.
"Where are we," Minho asks Jinki instead.
That's clue enough that he forgives Jonghyun.
"I don't know," Jinki shakes his head. "It's not on any route we've taken. Taemin ran diagnostics and it's strange."
"Strange how?"
Jinki frowns, his light brown hair falling over his forehead. He and Taemin have the same haircuts from the time Kibum decided he'd seen enough hairs in their shower. The haircuts were one of the reasons Minho still had long hair; he'd never let Kibum come at him with a pair of scissors.
"The air quality is significantly different from the other planets," Taemin adds. "The oxygen concentration is almost ten times what it is on the best planets."
Minho nods at Taemin. The kid is barely eighteen years old and he's well on his way to becoming the best planetary mapper Minho's ever met. Jinki is partially responsible for that.
Minho picked up Jinki after Jonghyun joined. They'd been arguing who was the best shot back when they'd been on a ship run by the Southern sector. Jinki had snuck on the ship and Minho saw him. He'd been on his way to report Jinki when Jonghyun stopped him. Apparently, Jinki was good at cards and Jonghyun wanted to keep him. That trip took three days and by the end of it, Minho was ready to steal his own ship with Jonghyun and Jinki.
Jinki was smart, had read all the books he could get his hands on. He and his family had been separated a few years back and Jinki had never been able to find them. He was still looking for them now.
They'd found Taemin instead, or, well, Jinki had found him hidden in the kitchen cupboards of the first ship they tried to steal. It took Jinki three hours to talk Taemin into coming out. Minho was there. He heard.
It was a bunch of technical talk that bored Minho and Jonghyun out of their minds, but it calmed Taemin down. He said Jinki had a soothing voice that reminded him of his mother. It was the last time Taemin ever mentioned her.
Since then, Jinki and Taemin stuck together. Jinki taught Taemin about the planets and stars and Taemin tried to map them all. He was good at it.
"Minho," Kibum says dragging Minho out of his thoughts. "How hard did they hit you?"
Minho rolls his eyes and drops an arm around Kibum's shoulders. Kibum had given them the ship three days after Jinki found Taemin. He'd just handed it over on the condition that Minho take him too. It'd worked pretty well seeing as how Minho didn't know how to drive the thing.
"Let's get out of here," Minho sighs. "We'll sort this shit out later. I don't want to get caught by more Plutonians."
"They won't find us," Taemin says. "I don't really think they knew where they were going."
"They were trying to lose us," Kibum nods. "Stupid. As if they could."
"Right," Minho gestures to the ship. "In anyway."
"Can't," Kibum says. "No fuel."
"You must be fucking kidding me."
The silence that follows is answer enough.
"All right, we get fuel. From their ship," Minho says kicking one of the fallen men.
They set off, half at a run because they've been on the planet at least an hour and sunlight never lasts much more than that. The path they're on is dirt, but the layer is thin. Their boots hit hard pavement, grey cement that the government uses to build walls. On either side of the streets are buildings, taller than any Minho's ever seen. They tower overhead almost as though they're reaching for the sun. There are glass windows, things that look like metal boxes with wheels. There are no shields, no protection against UV light. They pass chairs out in the open.
It's almost as if--
"Whoever lived here didn't need a shield," Jinki says.
Minho can hear the awe in his voice. He pays attention because there are few things that awe Jinki.
"It would make sense," Taemin agrees. "With the level of oxygen in the air, they wouldn't need purifiers. And the atmosphere was enough to down our fuel. It would be enough to keep away UV radiation."
Minho sees Jonghyun first, catches the understanding in his brown eyes. Minho knows what it sounds like. He remembers the stories, the myth.
"There are no animals," he says. Besides him, Kibum nods.
"Plants," Jinki says. "There have to be plants. Animals would have died with whatever killed the people here, but plants always survive."
They keep walking, Jonghyun running ahead with Taemin. Minho doesn't believe in plants or in green planets. He knows Kibum doesn't either, but Jinki's a dreamer. Practical when he has to be, but he believes in things Minho has given up on.
"Jinki," Taemin calls.
He sounds scared and the three of them break off into a run. Minho's legs are longer, his gun not heavy enough to stop him from getting there first.
Minho finds Taemin next to Jonghyun. They're fine as far as Minho can tell. In front of them is the ship from the Plutonians, steel bird with their insignia on it--two planets overlapping. But that's not what stops Minho.
The ship landed on a crater and Minho's not sure how the men who brought him here missed what's behind the ship. Far out in the distance there are more buildings rising up like graves. Hanging off the buildings are long green vines. They cover every inch, green tendrils hugging every surface as though they'll fall.
Minho's heart is loud in his chest. He sees, but he doesn't understand. Jinki's soft exhale next to him doesn't register, but Kibum's curse does. It drags Minho out of his head, reminds him that he's not the only one here.
"What the fuck," Kibum whispers.
There's no one around for thousands of miles, but whispering seems appropriate. The sheer vastness of the city before them, the green city, what it means. It's overwhelming to even entertain the idea that this could be the Green Planet, that there may be hope.
Minho's long since given up on hope.
"How many people do you think could live here," Jonghyun asks.
"Billions," Taemin answers.
"You don't know that," Kibum says. "There's no proof."
Jonghyun's fingers trace over his purifier, "there could be."
Minho is too stunned to do anything when Jonghyun removes the little black box he carries around his neck. He waits, breathless, for Jonghyun to fall on the floor. He waits for the purpling of Jonghyun's face, the veins that should pop out of the side of his neck as he asphyxiates.
"Fuck yeah," Jonghyun whoops. "I can breathe."
Taemin laughs and tugs off his purifier. Jinki's more reserved about it when he does it. Minho exchanges looks with Kibum, but his fingers itch to take off his purifier. He does so carefully, unlatches the safety and pulls off the box.
The air is thick, a bit like breathing through syrup. But Minho takes another breath and his lungs expand, unfurl as though they've been tucked into a box and are now just taking form. It hurts, but the air is beautiful in Minho's lungs, catches at his throat and leaves him breathless.
"Fuck," he whispers.
He can't believe it, not even when Taemin breaks off at a run. Minho doesn't believe it when they reach the green city and he's holding the plants in his hand.
He can't believe it when the day lasts twelve hours or when the sun rises the next morning.
But on the fifteenth day--when Jonghyun finds the lake and Minho feels water, fresh and clean, cool to touch--on the fifteenth day, Minho believes.
Poll The Fifteenth Day
Team: Dystopia and Oddities
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, OT5
Summary: They work well, the five of them, because they know when to back off and let each other work. Minho likes the way his team works, knows it'd be an honor to die for the men on his ship.
Author's note: I'd like to thank the team for being there to bounce ideas off of and for encouraging my idea of shinee in space. You all are fantastic.
Prompt Used: Shinhwa- Run
Jonghyun is flying the space ship when they get ambushed by the Plutonians from the Northern sector. Minho runs the Eastern sector, transporting illegals into the habitable planets. Kibum is the best flyer and they've never been caught when Kibum was driving the ship. Minho doesn’t know why Jonghyun has to take over, but he's pretty pissed when they're shot.
"You forgot to turn on the camouflage skin," Minho yells.
"I don't know how to fly this shit. You should have gotten Kibum."
Minho is too angry to say anything then. He shoves Jonghyun off the controls, roars out for Kibum and shoves him into the controls when Kibum comes out of the back room. Jinki and Taemin are back there mapping out meteor routes and back ways to other planets.
"Where the fuck have you been," Minho growls at Kibum. "Jonghyun got us fucking shot."
Kibum rolls his eyes but sits down. Minho runs for the weapons, Jonghyun following behind him. Out of the five, they're the best shots and even then they're outnumbered because the Northern sector always has three men at the weapons.
"Taemin," Jonghyun yells as he and Minho pass the back room. "You better find a way to get us out of here before Minho pops a vein."
Minho says nothing because Taemin is young and Jonghyun knows it's Jinki who has to find a way out. But they work well, the five of them, because they know when to back off and let each other work. Minho likes the way his team works, knows it'd be an honor to die for the men on his ship.
The next shot comes from Minho's right and makes a hole in the side of the weapon's room. The air around them stops for a second before it's all sucked out through the same hole. Minho's got his hand on an energy gun and a destabilizer. Jonghyun has the same, but he's closer to the door. By the time Minho finds something to grab onto, Jonghyun has made it outside.
"Where the fuck is the automatic lock on this shit," Minho spits out.
His hair is in his eyes and he wishes they had more time on planets so that he could get a proper haircut. Jonghyun shrugs at him from outside the door, shut because Jonghyun isn't stupid enough to leave the door open.
The air thins out and Minho knows he can't make the door. His lungs hurt from the effort of breathing, vision swimming in and out. He catches sight of Jonghyun trying to get the door open, but the automatic lockdown is working again.
Minho can't get out.
The last thing he sees before his vision blacks out are two men holding guns in either hand. And shit, Minho is screwed.
-
The planet is empty.
Minho can't see, but he hears the silence that boots on dried ground can't mask. It's bone deep in the planet and Minho thinks this is what the Northern sector is--cold and empty. He figures it's the reason why the Plutonians are always looking to get out of this side and into the planets Minho's team knows.
None of the planets stay habitable for long though--unless they're government controlled--which is what makes transporting such a profitable job, if illegal. Some planets last weeks at life sustaining temperatures, the best at months, the worst at days. Nothing lasts longer than that and for the people outside of government planets, there's the back and forth, the constant moving across bridges that were meant to unite a long time ago. If they make it to the bridges in time, they can hop from planet to planet, but there's always the danger that they won't make the bridge in time.
That's why transporters exist, to make a profit out of desperation. Minho and people like Minho get paid to sneak people into government planets. They fake identities, lose the people in the system so that they've paid years in advance. Or they send in families with a contact so that seven people can be living in a home meant for one. But even that, they all know, is better than life outside. They're lucky, the ones who scrape enough money to pay transporters because it's a one time fee for a life of relative safety.
But the luckiest people are the ones with enough money to buy a legal pass on a government planet or the ones who have talents to sell. Minho's father sold thirty years of his life to get Minho, Minho's brother and Minho's mother on a government planet. Their house had been small, one room for them to sleep and a kitchen to cook what little they could afford. They'd had artificial day in the bubble that protected the people from the burning temperatures and roaring electrical storms. Night lasted exactly half of their 24 hour day and most of the time Minho's father had been forced to work then too. There was nothing there for Minho but the endless, automatic days or the flashes of their barren planet when the shield switched from day to night or vice versa.
His father had told Minho stories about how once, people lived on a planet that was habitable for millennia, where animals lived and one could breathe without the aid of purifiers. They called it the Green Planet and Minho heard whispers of it as he grew up. The older people spoke of it as though they'd seen it, lived it, even. The younger kids called it a legend and slowly it became just a story, an anchor for the desperate as the number of people grew, until there wasn't enough space, until the government started charging extra for letting people stay.
Minho's father was one of the officers in charge of evicting the newer tenants who couldn't pay their rent. It was an accident, really, that Minho was there the day his father threw out the girl and her family. Minho never knew her name, but he still remembers the tears in her eyes and the desperation with which she'd begged Minho's father to spare her baby.
From then on Minho had started transporting.
It amused Jonghyun that Minho tried so hard to put back the people Minho's father kicked out.
Minho didn't talk about it.
He thinks of Jonghyun now as he's shoved forward and if he ever gets out, Minho's going to punch Jonghyun in the face.
Minho walks and tries to count off how many turns they make, judge how far he is from where they landed. He intends to go back as soon as the men untie him and take the blindfold off.
There's another jab at Minho's back and he stumbles forward. He's sure the men pointing guns at his back are from the Northern sector because that's where Minho had gotten his last job. He thinks it's fucking hilarious how jealous each sector is of the people in its area. Minho doesn't care where the people come from as long as they pay, but he's always known that if transporters from other sectors ever caught Minho, he'd be fucked.
"Should we just leave him here?"
The voice is male, but that's all Minho knows. He doesn't recognize the accent or the voice. He knows the men are shorter than him from the direction their voices are coming from.
"Might as well," the other man answers. "He's not going anywhere."
There's silence for a bit and Minho hates just having to sit there and wait.
"What about his friends?"
"They're about half an hour away," Minho answers.
He gets a blow in the space between his neck and shoulder for his mouth. The men shove Minho down until he's kneeling on the ground. His hands are bound tighter behind him and the rope burns. Minho can feel it scrape along the inside of his wrists and he makes a note of that for later.
"Kibum's a good flyer," Minho says. "He'll have followed you."
"Shut up."
Minho grins. "Jonghyun is good with guns and Taemin and Jinki already know all the entryways into the planet. They know what it's made of and how much time we have before it burns."
The men are silent and all Minho has is the satisfaction of knowing he got to them. He's still stuck on a planet that could burn or freeze at any moment and he has no way off it.
"Fuck."
The curse is low, but Minho catches it and grins. It's followed by a whirring of engines and heat that lets Minho know Kibum's out of fuel.
"Shit."
Minho sits back on his legs and waits. He hears the men running around him, yelling at each other. There are shots, followed by a yell that sounds like Kibum.
"Fucking shoot them," and that is definitely Kibum.
"What if he shoots Minho?"
"Shut up, Taemin."
"Jonghyun."
Minho shake his head. He can feel the energy blast from the men next to him and he hopes they at least grazed Jonghyun.
"Will you just fucking shoot," Minho yells.
"We're trying to save you," Kibum yells back. "Will you wait a fucking second. Bastards have fucking guns too."
There's a shout from next to Minho and then there are hands on him. He jerks away and gets a smack on the head.
"Kibum?"
"Who the fuck else?"
"You could have said it was you."
The blindfold comes off last and then Minho is looking at Kibum's brown eyes and his blond hair. Personally, Minho's always found Kibum unnervingly pretty; his cheekbones were Minho's favorite. But aside from that, Kibum's endless dedication and his desire to learn what could be useful was also something Minho admired.
"How many of them were there?" Minho asks.
"Five," Kibum answers handing Minho a gun. "Jonghyun got three of them on the ship."
"What did they want?"
Minho takes Kibum's hand before the other man can answer and drags him to the side. They're in the middle of a wasteland, empty dirt streets with tall crumbling buildings. Everything seems hollow, but there are places to hide. Their ship is parked a few meters away; Jonghyun, Jinki and Taemin are ducked behind the ramp that leads inside the ship.
"Behind you," Kibum snaps and tugs on Minho's hand.
The shot that comes from behind misses Minho's ear by an inch. He can feel the heat graze by, catching his shirt and singeing the fabric. He'll have to go to the detox chamber later to make sure he didn't pick up anything from the planet's atmosphere. It seems stable enough to Minho; the purifier--a little black box he carries around his neck--does the job most of the time.
"Will you stop thinking and shoot already," Kibum yells.
Minho turns in time to see Jonghyun's shot catch one of the men in chest. Minho's gun is reassuring in his hand and when he aims and pulls on the trigger he knows he won't miss. His shot catches the second man square in the chest. There's no blood, just a blast of energy that shuts down organs.
"Yeah," Taemin cheers from behind Jinki.
Minho walks over with Kibum. Jinki and Taemin have matching grins on their faces. Minho claps Jinki on the back and goes straight for Jonghyun.
"Hey sexy," Jonghyun grins.
Minho feels the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"You almost got me killed," Minho glares.
"I just saved you."
And Minho should keep his promise and punch Jonghyun in the face. Any smarter group of Plutonians would have killed him. But then, Minho knows Jonghyun. He was there when Jonghyun's family missed the bridge. Jonghyun made it, but his father went back for Jonghyun's sister and didn't make it back.
Minho was their transporter.
That Jonghyun would become one too was a given after that.
"Where are we," Minho asks Jinki instead.
That's clue enough that he forgives Jonghyun.
"I don't know," Jinki shakes his head. "It's not on any route we've taken. Taemin ran diagnostics and it's strange."
"Strange how?"
Jinki frowns, his light brown hair falling over his forehead. He and Taemin have the same haircuts from the time Kibum decided he'd seen enough hairs in their shower. The haircuts were one of the reasons Minho still had long hair; he'd never let Kibum come at him with a pair of scissors.
"The air quality is significantly different from the other planets," Taemin adds. "The oxygen concentration is almost ten times what it is on the best planets."
Minho nods at Taemin. The kid is barely eighteen years old and he's well on his way to becoming the best planetary mapper Minho's ever met. Jinki is partially responsible for that.
Minho picked up Jinki after Jonghyun joined. They'd been arguing who was the best shot back when they'd been on a ship run by the Southern sector. Jinki had snuck on the ship and Minho saw him. He'd been on his way to report Jinki when Jonghyun stopped him. Apparently, Jinki was good at cards and Jonghyun wanted to keep him. That trip took three days and by the end of it, Minho was ready to steal his own ship with Jonghyun and Jinki.
Jinki was smart, had read all the books he could get his hands on. He and his family had been separated a few years back and Jinki had never been able to find them. He was still looking for them now.
They'd found Taemin instead, or, well, Jinki had found him hidden in the kitchen cupboards of the first ship they tried to steal. It took Jinki three hours to talk Taemin into coming out. Minho was there. He heard.
It was a bunch of technical talk that bored Minho and Jonghyun out of their minds, but it calmed Taemin down. He said Jinki had a soothing voice that reminded him of his mother. It was the last time Taemin ever mentioned her.
Since then, Jinki and Taemin stuck together. Jinki taught Taemin about the planets and stars and Taemin tried to map them all. He was good at it.
"Minho," Kibum says dragging Minho out of his thoughts. "How hard did they hit you?"
Minho rolls his eyes and drops an arm around Kibum's shoulders. Kibum had given them the ship three days after Jinki found Taemin. He'd just handed it over on the condition that Minho take him too. It'd worked pretty well seeing as how Minho didn't know how to drive the thing.
"Let's get out of here," Minho sighs. "We'll sort this shit out later. I don't want to get caught by more Plutonians."
"They won't find us," Taemin says. "I don't really think they knew where they were going."
"They were trying to lose us," Kibum nods. "Stupid. As if they could."
"Right," Minho gestures to the ship. "In anyway."
"Can't," Kibum says. "No fuel."
"You must be fucking kidding me."
The silence that follows is answer enough.
"All right, we get fuel. From their ship," Minho says kicking one of the fallen men.
They set off, half at a run because they've been on the planet at least an hour and sunlight never lasts much more than that. The path they're on is dirt, but the layer is thin. Their boots hit hard pavement, grey cement that the government uses to build walls. On either side of the streets are buildings, taller than any Minho's ever seen. They tower overhead almost as though they're reaching for the sun. There are glass windows, things that look like metal boxes with wheels. There are no shields, no protection against UV light. They pass chairs out in the open.
It's almost as if--
"Whoever lived here didn't need a shield," Jinki says.
Minho can hear the awe in his voice. He pays attention because there are few things that awe Jinki.
"It would make sense," Taemin agrees. "With the level of oxygen in the air, they wouldn't need purifiers. And the atmosphere was enough to down our fuel. It would be enough to keep away UV radiation."
Minho sees Jonghyun first, catches the understanding in his brown eyes. Minho knows what it sounds like. He remembers the stories, the myth.
"There are no animals," he says. Besides him, Kibum nods.
"Plants," Jinki says. "There have to be plants. Animals would have died with whatever killed the people here, but plants always survive."
They keep walking, Jonghyun running ahead with Taemin. Minho doesn't believe in plants or in green planets. He knows Kibum doesn't either, but Jinki's a dreamer. Practical when he has to be, but he believes in things Minho has given up on.
"Jinki," Taemin calls.
He sounds scared and the three of them break off into a run. Minho's legs are longer, his gun not heavy enough to stop him from getting there first.
Minho finds Taemin next to Jonghyun. They're fine as far as Minho can tell. In front of them is the ship from the Plutonians, steel bird with their insignia on it--two planets overlapping. But that's not what stops Minho.
The ship landed on a crater and Minho's not sure how the men who brought him here missed what's behind the ship. Far out in the distance there are more buildings rising up like graves. Hanging off the buildings are long green vines. They cover every inch, green tendrils hugging every surface as though they'll fall.
Minho's heart is loud in his chest. He sees, but he doesn't understand. Jinki's soft exhale next to him doesn't register, but Kibum's curse does. It drags Minho out of his head, reminds him that he's not the only one here.
"What the fuck," Kibum whispers.
There's no one around for thousands of miles, but whispering seems appropriate. The sheer vastness of the city before them, the green city, what it means. It's overwhelming to even entertain the idea that this could be the Green Planet, that there may be hope.
Minho's long since given up on hope.
"How many people do you think could live here," Jonghyun asks.
"Billions," Taemin answers.
"You don't know that," Kibum says. "There's no proof."
Jonghyun's fingers trace over his purifier, "there could be."
Minho is too stunned to do anything when Jonghyun removes the little black box he carries around his neck. He waits, breathless, for Jonghyun to fall on the floor. He waits for the purpling of Jonghyun's face, the veins that should pop out of the side of his neck as he asphyxiates.
"Fuck yeah," Jonghyun whoops. "I can breathe."
Taemin laughs and tugs off his purifier. Jinki's more reserved about it when he does it. Minho exchanges looks with Kibum, but his fingers itch to take off his purifier. He does so carefully, unlatches the safety and pulls off the box.
The air is thick, a bit like breathing through syrup. But Minho takes another breath and his lungs expand, unfurl as though they've been tucked into a box and are now just taking form. It hurts, but the air is beautiful in Minho's lungs, catches at his throat and leaves him breathless.
"Fuck," he whispers.
He can't believe it, not even when Taemin breaks off at a run. Minho doesn't believe it when they reach the green city and he's holding the plants in his hand.
He can't believe it when the day lasts twelve hours or when the sun rises the next morning.
But on the fifteenth day--when Jonghyun finds the lake and Minho feels water, fresh and clean, cool to touch--on the fifteenth day, Minho believes.
Poll The Fifteenth Day