Sand people [part 10]
Title: Sand people [part 10]
Characters: Junho/Wooyoung, Junsu/Nichkhun
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2278
Summary: Year 2063. Mankind has been trying to fight the invasion of aliens for 10 years, but there's not many people left alive. And those who are still alive are struggling to survive. Junho's one of them. But when his life is at stake there's someone who saves his life and offers something Junho can't refuse.
Author's note: Thanks to @egle0702 for editing things for me ^___^ I'm posting this in two chapters to make the flow look nicer :'D Also, this is the end. I really hope you liked reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for your comments! Scifi-futuristic-oppars FTW!
P.S. I know these are not jumpsuits, but imagine they are jumpsuits :'D
They meet in the hallway, first sunrays making Junho squint his eyes. That sofa wasn’t big enough for two grown men, but it’s better than sleeping in a spacious cave. Nichkhun stares at Junho, but it seems like he’s looking at nothing in particular. His mind must be very busy, Junho decides. Then, Nichkhun looks at Junsu and the latter nods slightly.
“We should all change into our jumpsuits,” when Junho looks at him with an invisible question-mark on his face, Junsu explains: “Gaia’s climate is a bit colder and we might not have the time to change later. Also... Khun thinks water-carriers might be aware of our birthmarks so we have to cover up our bodies to hide them.”
“Hmm, tricky...” Junho puckers his lips.
“Right?” Junsu smiles and uses his repkit quickly, extracting four black jumpsuits, decorated with iron spikes and plates.
“Wow, you really love everything that has spikes, don’t you?” Junho looks closely and inspects the details with his fingers. Soon he learns it’s pretty sharp, pulling back his finger quickly from sharp objects. “Protection during close combat, huh?”
“Yeah,” Wooyoung zips up his jumpsuit. “Just like our shoulder armours.”
“Hurry up; we don’t have much time to waste,” Junho glances at Junsu and Nichkhun who’re already dressed up.
Junho’s actually glad to get rid of his old clothes as this jumpsuit fits his body perfectly. The material isn’t leather or anything of that sort; it’s something else, because it feels like his own skin, as if the suit’s stuck to every patch of his body. Nothing similar to the usual human produced clothing. “Cool, now I look like one of you. Too bad I don’t have super powers.”
“Someday...” Wooyoung’s hand taps Junho’s shoulder and Junho wants to ask more, but Wooyoung pushes him forward. No more questions.
They’re outside in the alleyway, but it doesn’t feel hot at all and Junho realises the jumpsuit somehow regulates the temperature. Alien technology, Junho rolls his eyes and almost bumps into Nichkhun, but the latter touches his chest before Junho does so. “I was wondering,” Junho ignores the super humans who’re already on their air-bikes. “Do you speak at all? Or is it not necessary since you and Junsu can communicate using telepathy.”
Nichkhun’s soft chuckle surprises Junho a bit. “Talking is more fun. But these days I seem to use telepathy more.”
“Do you use telepathy with Wooyoung too?”
Nichkhun raises his thick eyebrow. “Are you jealous?” His smirk irritates Junho, but he thinks he hides it well.
“No, I’m not a fan of soap operas. I trust him.”
“Sure, that’s why he’s got that mark. You understand it.” Nichkhun squeezes Junho’s shoulder as he leans in and whispers, “He doesn’t let me in.” Nichkhun pulls back. “Cherish your man.”
Junho can feel his ears burning as Nichkhun walks away, and Wooyoung’s voice telling him to get on his airbike makes them burn even more. He wishes he knew how to make Nichkhun feel embarrassed, but it is something impossible as the fellow human’s brain seems to be working on a different frequency. Junho turns around and walks over to Wooyoung’s airbike. He glances at the super human’s serene face, but looks away immediately and sits behind him.
“Hey, hug me. You’ll fall off.” Wooyoung reminds him as Junho’s head floating somewhere in the land of embarrassment. Nichkhun sure knows how to tamper with one’s feelings.
“Bastard...” Junho mutters and circles his arms around Wooyoung waist, avoiding the spikes.
“What did I do!?” Wooyoung sounds a bit offended.
“Not you! It’s that freak.”
“Why?” Wooyoung tries to twist his waist to face Junho, but the human moves Wooyoung’s body the other way.
“Nevermind. He’s just annoying.”
Wooyoung shrugs. “Hold tight.” The airbike shoots forward and Junho looks at Junsu’s vehicle in front of them. Wooyoung doesn’t let Nichkhun mess up with his mind. Junho grins.
He holds Wooyoung’s laser gun in his hands, looking back frequently as they fly above the old railway. It’s not very usual to meet so many water-carriers during the day, but Junho thinks it can’t be helped as they’re getting closer to the ocean where their population is the highest. Their only advantage is that the aliens do not have their advanced vehicles as most of them have been destroyed during the war, but they still have human made guns.
There’s no doubt they’re aware of the super humans’ existence, because water-carriers never wait in such big groups to ambush someone, especially when most of the human race is wiped out. They feel threatened. Junho doesn’t have the time to ask if their races have met before, because covering their backs is his and Nichkhun’s main task right now. Choosing the old railway appears to be the right choice, because so far there haven’t been any attacks unlike when travelling through the plains. Who’d use a railway anyway?
Wooyoung slows down and eventually stops beside Junsu’s airbike. Junho notices they’re in front of an old and small train station. Junsu’s about to say something, when Junho presses a finger to his mouth and shakes his head. He enters the station with the rest of the gang behind him, pointing the laser guns forward. He stops them with one hand motion and points to the other small rooms for them to clear out. Junho inspects the waiting hall and lowers the laser gun when everyone’s back with him. “Nothing?”
“No,” Wooyoung cracks his neck. “We’ve met more than expected.”
“We cannot stay idle. Not anymore.” Nichkhun states and everyone knows it’s a very unfortunate truth. No matter how tired they are. “Travelling at night would actually be better.”
“How come?” Junho frowns.
“They wouldn’t expect us to travel at night; they’d look for abandoned buildings like this to find us. Also, we would be less visible as well.” Junsu finishes Nichkhun’s explanation.
“We’re tired, but we can’t afford to relax now...” Wooyoung nods as he realises the danger. “There’s around 6 hours left till we reach the star gates.”
“Yes,” Junsu walks over to the dusty window. “Let’s have a short 10 minute break and we’ll continue our trip.”
“Awesome.” Junho feels his bladder awakening and he darts out to get rid of that problem. He finds a nice bush behind the building and does the deed with Mother Nature rapidly, listening to the insects chirping.
It’s so peaceful in this solitary place; he thinks he’s dreaming for a moment. He sighs and walks back slowly when he notices Wooyoung standing at the edge of the platform, staring at the starry sky. There’s no artificial lighting to distort the natural view. “Thinking about home?” He asks and the super human smiles as Junho approaches him.
“Yeah.”
“Do you miss it?” The moonlight casts a reflection of the iron plates and spikes on Wooyoung’s profile, making him look unearthly.
“I suppose. How about you? Are you going to miss your home?” He turns to Junho.
“Yes and no. You know how it is, right?” Junho smiles faintly and Wooyoung takes his hand, bringing it close to his chest.
“I do now. But I promise you, Junho, it’s going to be worthy. As soon as we reach Gaia, everything will be over. Your new home is waiting.” Wooyoung squeezes Junho’s hand as that strong feeling consumes him and Junho’s face gets closer, forcing Wooyoung to lean in and kiss his lover. Junho’s free hand touches Wooyoung’s neck and his thumb presses the skin near the super human’s ear.
Wooyoung’s tongue swipes across Junho’s lower lip, the latter granting the access inside his mouth. Their kiss is deep, full of short breaths and pure passion. Their energy is mixing again, taking all this experience to a higher level as they lose themselves in a short bliss. Wooyoung pulls away, but Junho manages to steal another short kiss from his lips. “We have to go.” Wooyoung seems a bit hesitant and Junho can relate to that too well.
“The faster the better, right?” Junho’s lips curl up and Wooyoung nods.
“In a few hours you’ll see our home.”
It’s true, the darkness gives them an advantage, however, the land is infested with water-carriers. The super humans fly their airbikes at full speed, obliterating any chance of being attacked. Junho doesn’t think much when he shoots the aliens; he just wants all of this to be over. The closer they’re getting to the star gates, the more tired Junho feels. He knows the salvation is right there, but Junho doesn’t allow himself to relax. Not yet, he says to himself and kills another enemy, while holding tight onto Wooyoung’s waist.
The railway ends and the thick forest they enter helps them to hide their presence. It’s calmer here, no one’s attacking them, however, that doesn’t mean they’re not being followed. Water-carriers might be slower, but they have no plans of letting the four of them leave so casually. There’s around half an hour ride left to their final destination.
Junho’s heart is fluttering, knowing these are the last minutes on this planet he called home. He’s not torn about this though. Junho knows there’s no way the Earth is going to be what it’s been ten years ago. The only thing he’s regretful about is those remaining survivors that will be left behind.
The trail of his thoughts is cut off when Junsu’s airbike experiences a blow and the super human manages to catch Nichkhun and land on the ground before the vehicle smashes into the tree. Wooyoung stops immediately, grabbing Junho’s hand and forcing him to run towards the couple together. “Are you okay?” He yells at Junsu and Nichkhun.
“Yeah, Khun’s got a bruise on his leg.”
“It’s alright,” Nichkhun says and looks into the dark behind Junho’s back. “We have to run, they’re close.”
Junho looks back and notices the enemies rushing towards them. “Shit. What are we waiting for? Run!” He yells and all of them start running. He notices Nichkhun’s limping a bit, but Junsu’s helping him and the human ignores the pain, earning a little respect from Junho as all of them are moving fast. “Our only advantage is that this part of the forest is the thickest, they cannot drive cars.” Junho takes a peek at what’s behind, hoping the star gate is a few minutes run away from them.
“But they’re pretty fast,” Wooyoung also notices the horizon is getting brighter. “Just a little bit more! We’re close.”
“Hold on, I can delay them a bit.” Junho stops them all and Nichkhun gives him a thankful look as his calf is bleeding a bit. Junho fishes a grenade out of his bag and smirks, throwing it with all his might. Seconds later there’s a loud explosion and this wins them a few more seconds of precious time.
They reach a rocky valley in the middle of the forest and they stop in the middle of it. “What now? Where is it?” Junho’s getting impatient as the noises of their enemies are getting closer.
“It’s invisible until I activate it,” Junsu explains quickly and touches the rock, which reacts to the Gaian’s energy and Junho’s amazed when a huge round star gate appears. The rock that Junsu touched seconds ago has changed its form immediately and Junho sees a huge orange button in the middle surrounded by weird signs, looking like ancient runes. But he has no time to spare, when water-carriers start shooting at them, using simple human guns. They duck behind a rock and Junsu does the same as they get separated.
Wooyoung nods silently, staring at Junsu and Junho knows they’re using telepathy now. Wooyoung looks at Junho and Nichkhun, “We have only 10 seconds to make it to the star gates. We have to cover Junsu’s back; he needs to enter Gaia’s ancient code to activate the thing. As soon as he does that, we have to run as fast as possible. There won’t be a second chance.”
“Don’t tell me he can’t open the gates twice in a row?” Junho gulps in terror, sensing this might get ugly if they don’t succeed.
“Precisely. It’s protected, so we have only one try.”
“Well damn.” Junho turns around and shoots back at the enemies, Nichkhun’s joining him. “I have another grenade, take it out for me.” He says and Wooyoung does as he’s told.
“Junho, you’re the bravest here.” Nichkhun says, surprising him. “I admire you, really.”
“Thanks. You win the weirdo psychic award from me.” He glances at Nichkhun and kills another enemy with Wooyoung’s laser gun while grinning. “Is Junsu ready?” Junho takes the grenade from Wooyoung.
“Yes,” Wooyoung joins the shooting and waits for Junho’s final command.
“I’ve been saving those grenades for a special occasion, you know.” Junho chuckles, sitting on the ground and staring at Wooyoung’s concentrated profile. “Kinda sad to use them now.”
“I will give you more exciting toys when we reach Gaia.” Junho grins at Wooyoung’s remark.
“One... Two... Three!” Junho throws the grenade and it explodes, a cloud of dust descending everywhere while Junsu presses in the code quickly. Junho sees a water-like material appear in the star gates and he hears Wooyoung scream ‘Go!’. They do so, running with all they’ve got towards the massive thing that’s the only available port between Earth and Gaia. The only port between desperation and hope.
The remaining fateful seconds happen in a daze as all of them run without looking back, just shooting randomly with their guns pointed somewhere behind them.
And suddenly, Junho’s hand holds Wooyoung’s as they enter the dark water-like space. His body goes numb.
Chapter 11