The upper floors were grimy. The perpetual smog darkening the skies carried dust to settle in a sheen across the furniture. It was a place that looked most cozy for fouls, but the stairs would ward most of them off. Their fouling limbs often broke apart when they tried to maneuver those.

Contrary to the entrance floor, this one repurposed its office spaces after the war started. At least for a while, people used this as their shelter to transmit their messages across the world. Documents were strewn about and weapon closets secured the survivors against the incoming barrage. All doors had been reinforced, but the walls couldn't withstand the falling trees. 

The place didn't get demolished, so something else must have reaped the people working here. Perhaps a lack of food. Perhaps the fouls. Perhaps the silence when the world around them fell into despair and the skies darkened permanently.

Their struggle hadn't been unlike what Wooyoung knew about survival. Empty cans of food were piled into corners and spots on the ground gave away where they curled up on bare mattresses. Even as they did their best to ensure survival for as many people as possible and constructed the hospital downstairs, it had been for naught. Only current raiders picked at their leftovers.

Wooyoung ducked under a fallen tree while Mingi stemmed open a door ahead that was stuck in its mechanism. Jongho slipped past him with Seonghwa tucked against his body. The silence was eerie, but Wooyoung preferred it over the leftovers of life downstairs. He would never complain about the haunted feeling of a dead planet again because at least time carried those traces away.

Hongjoong was still with them. He was nosy about this place he hadn't seen before, even when the researchers raided everything of value. Occasionally, he halted to peer outside through the broken windows and walls. The yearning in his eyes wanted to flee this building and run into the forest, but he was too scared of what might happen if he tried. Instead, he trailed behind the group. Wooyoung regarded it as a win that his eyes had cleared up a lot more compared to when they first saw him. He giggled in his corners occasionally and chased shivers down their spines, but he was doing fine. Even Seonghwa assured them he was making progress.

Now, only their AI needed to find his place. With some luck, it meant Jongho could also heal. Mingi had been tense ever since coming upstairs and he stuck with Jongho tightly, making sure he wouldn't collapse before he got to see the product of their labor.

Both giddy and anxious if it would work, Wooyoung checked every room for hidden enemies. A childish part inside of him wanted to grab San's hand and jump in joy with him because they made it to their goal in one piece. But San seemed deep in thought, perhaps exhausted from last night. He barely reacted to the group conversations and Wooyoung felt sorry for wearing him out the night before such a big day.

It wasn't his fault their sex felt much better than he anticipated. He should thank Seonghwa once today was resolved. His help had made a significant difference. 

"Looks empty up here. That means we should have cleared out the facility and have free roam," Mingi said after they checked yet another room. Seonghwa led them around via his blueprint and he worked on figuring out the safest route that wouldn't cave in below their feet. It had to do with possibilities and the state of demolition of the building, lots of complicated stuff they lived fine without. By now, Wooyoung was so used to not understanding anything he said, he shrugged it off as normal. 

"That's the best news we heard in a while," Yunho sighed. He let down his guard but didn't put his gun away in case something jumped at them. Funnily, the murder weapons didn't deter Hongjoong. Only spoons kept him at bay.

"Where to?" Mingi asked and glanced around the desolate corridors. Some vegetation had made its way inside before everything died and crawled along the walls and ground to try cracking the concrete. 

Seonghwa pulled up his complicated map that had too many sides for Wooyoung to understand on a flat screen. His head hurt just looking at it, but Jongho's eyes flicked along with a sober intrigue.

"The double doors at the end of this hall are sealed with an electronic lock. Behind it is all the sensitive data. I hope those researchers didn't touch anything. We need to restore power to open the doors and access the computer."

"They might have broken in. They had electricity downstairs," Yunho threw in and Wooyoung hadn't even noticed. Too many corpses hacked apart with anything but an elegant method.

Jongho frowned, but Seonghwa was quick to assure them.

"Computers often require the ability to read and to know which buttons to press. Even if they could power it up, it might not have been of any worth to them."

"They better didn't break anything," Mingi grumbled. He led them down the hall, and his intimidating frame demanded respect as it brought life to the barren halls. Scurrying by his side, Jongho looked so measly, but this was a pair to reckon with. If Seonghwa healed the world, it was thanks to their determination.

"So, the computer connects to the things floating in space, those that send the same transmission as you send on a smaller scale, yes?" Yeosang asked Seonghwa, greedy to understand this part. Some devices were more powerful than others and these radio waves were used to reach people all over the world, ridiculous as it sounded. If they did what Seonghwa could do with singular water balls, all water would fall and the dust in the air would lift.

"Satellites, yes." 

By now, Wooyoung heard that word a hundred times, but he couldn't remember it for the life of him. 

"The computer will allow me to access them and as long as they are functional, I can use their signal. The dust is trapped in the atmosphere surrounding the planet, which is, uh, let's say, the bubble in which we have air to breathe. But the satellites are beyond that and will penetrate the dust clouds with their emissions. That should fix things according to the scientists who made me."

"Sounds ridiculous," Wooyoung threw in. It was so much dust. How could those devices in the air have that much power? He only knew a part of the country, but even all of its survivors were helpless against an entire sky of dust clouds.

"I love it," Jongho crooned. He patted the bag that carried Seonghwa in a gesture too human for the AI to understand. "Don't worry, my light. We will bring you where you need to be and then you show us. Then we will understand."

Right, the method didn't matter as long as it worked. The thought made Wooyoung's heart hammer in his throat. Would he see the sky today? The mystical sun and the stars that dotted a dark blanket of nothingness?

Feeling as crazy as Jongho, Wooyoung exchanged a glance with Yunho. A few months back, they never expected to end up here, with an organization that tried to cure the entire world at once. Caring deeply for a group and fighting for their survival and the lives of many strangers they never cared about. 

But here they were, unlikely as it sounded. Wooyoung was exhilarated. He was closer to the sky than ever.

"The door to the left should find you a breaker. Get to work there." Seonghwa guided them. Though he sounded anxious to mislead them, he let Jongho's hope take him along. 

Jongho equipped himself with his tools and went to fiddling with the fried cables and empty batteries. Mingi helped him and set up the generator for him. In the meantime, Hongjoong faced a corner and giggled to himself about the gummies Yunho handed him, so he had something to busy his hands with. 

Wooyoung leaned outside in the hallway so they had space to work in the narrow room. Yeosang and Yunho loitered with him while San wandered the nearby corridors and made sure no one followed them.

"Shit, this is nerve-wracking," Wooyoung muttered. "A bunch of hungry fouls are nothing. Or some dumbass water gatherers who think they can call dibs on me."

Yunho searched through his pockets and handed him a pack of cigarettes. While Yunho lit his own, Wooyoung leaned his head against the wall. Contemplative eyes stared at the last door dividing them from the answer.

Yunho offered Yeosang a cigarette, and the fighter shook his head at first. When Yunho lingered with a twinkle in his eyes, he conceded to his curiosity and took one. Unpracticed fingers held it to Yunho's.

"I don't know how this works," he mumbled, losing all confidence, but Yunho chuckled.

"Breathe in and out. Don't startle when it itches." 

Yeosang complied and Wooyoung watched from lidded eyes as he copied them with awkward movements. A moment later, he made a face. The smoke came back out in stuttered breaths and he splayed his hand over his chest, terrified of the burn.

Yunho snickered about him.

"You are so adorable. You don't have to finish it if you don't want to." He leaned in to free Yeosang of the offensive item and Yeosang handed it over bravely. Tears quelled in his eyes, but he resisted the urge to cough.

"Really, Yunho? Right in front of me?" Wooyoung pretended to be upset, but Yunho merely stuck his tongue out at him.

"You deserve it, asshole."

Chuckling, Wooyoung toasted his cigarette to that.

Interested, Yeosang glanced between them. He was more confident asking them questions than with Mingi or San, who kept scowling at him. Even as a notorious scowler, Wooyoung developed some pity for him.

"Are you, um... Are you-?" Yeosang waved his hands, not sure about what type of relationship he was asking. So happy to tease him, Yunho merely grinned.

"We sure are." In some shape or the other.

"We were," Wooyoung corrected him. "Things happened, and we didn't stay lovers, but we are very close. If he gets weird towards you, tell me, Yeosang. I will have a word with him."

"He's just jealous," Yunho assured Yeosang with a wink, and the poor guy just looked between the two smirking raiders in confusion. Wooyoung had to agree; he was adorable when he became overwhelmed like this.

San just rounded the corner and Wooyoung's eyes fell on him and the tilt of his head as he contemplated the ground when the door clicked behind them. Jongho echoed a cry of triumph and Hongjoong came racing out to stare with wide eyes as one electrical conduct led to the other and the massive steel doors opened.

Soon, everyone gathered to watch as they unveiled their insides. A towering hulk of darkness awaited them. It blacked out all light and circled around the room with countless tiny appliances and screens. The wall ahead of them was taken over by a giant display like the one Seonghwa had and cables ran along the floors and ceiling. Everything was dull, looking like an infestation, but Jongho lit up at the sight and some of his unabashed wonder returned to his tormented soul.

Yunho's mouth was agape as they entered the section of computers. Behind them, the door slid shut and shrouded them in privacy. The lights flickered on by themselves and two were broken, but their shine was enough.

"This is massive." Mingi marveled. Everyone was at an utter loss for what to do with all this. Thankfully, Seonghwa wasn't this big because there was no way to transport him otherwise. Their small laptop looked tiny in comparison when Jongho showed him around.

"It was once used to broadcast emergency news all over the world, after all," Seonghwa replied, and his voice sounded light. 

They made it where they needed to be. Now the only thing that was left was to boot the computer and find a way to transfer Seonghwa.

Already creeped out by all this machinery and its intimidating looming all around them, Wooyoung struggled to find a spot where he could stand in peace. They wouldn't need guns inside here, but some patience until everything worked. 

If it worked.

"What do we do?" Jongho asked as he stepped towards the main console. After a pause, Seonghwa replied with a contemplative hum.

"Let's find out in which direction the radio antenna is from this room, and then I will walk you through the steps of hacking me into the mainframe."

Wooyoung hoped, hoped more than he ever hoped before. He hoped Seonghwa could be their light and that everything would work as he planned. The most minor malfunction in this system might ruin it all.

Now, it all depended on irrational luck and whatever Seonghwa and all his fancy numbers could achieve.