It hadn't been that long since Wooyoung woke to a proper ceiling. Usually, he lingered in marvel whenever he got a full night of sleep in the protection of a building. This time, however, he jerked up from his peaceful slumber as soon as his eyes opened. Hasty eyes flicked left and right.

The ceiling wasn't tilted. The building wasn't crumbling. He was safe in the shelter deep in the earth.

But Yunho was still gone and the spot by Wooyoung's side was empty.

Ridiculed by himself, Wooyoung wrung a hand through his hair. Though he was rested from the peaceful night, the scare so early in the morning made his skin clammy. He was fine. Nothing happened. The shelter wouldn't collapse around him.

After a few minutes, he calmed. When he glanced around the room, he found the door locked and his gun on the table he moved to the side of his bed. It was loaded.

All his other belongings were in their designated places. As Mingi promised, no one touched them.

In disbelief, Wooyoung glanced at his hands braced on the bed. He hadn't thought he would sleep this deeply after tossing and turning for so long. He almost felt he betrayed Yunho by slumbering peacefully despite missing his warmth.

After he shrugged his vest over his shoulders and packed his bag, Wooyoung peered outside. Mingi hadn't specified when they could leave their rooms, but there could be no harm waiting in the entrance area. Once Wooyoung announced his departure, Mingi wouldn't need to bother about his presence.

With his bag over his shoulder, Wooyoung walked the path he remembered. He didn't stray, not keen on meeting those mysterious safety protocols. The bunker was nice; airy and cool without getting moldy. It made a perfect refuge, one that Wooyoung and Yunho wouldn't even dare dream of. Maybe, if they hadn't saved Jongho and knew these people, Wooyoung would have made it his.

If only Yunho could share it with him.

When Wooyoung arrived at the entrance zone, he was surprised to find San there. Contrary to the other raider, he didn't have his bag with him and the laces of his boots were undone where he loitered on Jongho's chair. He glanced up when Wooyoung shuffled in.

"There you are. How did you sleep? I missed your sleeping face; it's adorable when it doesn't scowl."

Wooyoung scowled purposefully hard.

"Just fine, since you weren't there to do weird things," he hissed. His arms crossed as he came to lean against the table.

"What about your bag?"

"I'm not leaving," San said with a mild shake of his head. "We made it to the cliffs, and we found a shelter, so our deal is over. You saw this place. It won't get any better than this and they are hiring." San beckoned around the cave, at the fathomless depths obscured by darkness.

Wooyoung lifted a brow.

"You don't know what they are doing in here."

"Do I need to care? I get paid to protect them, not to question them."

Wooyoung gnawed on his lip. He knew it was dangerous to get involved, but San had a point. What would Yunho do in this situation? Would he trust them and favor survival? Or would survival be more likely out in the desert where each day was a gift?

San seemed confident that he could eliminate anyone who threatened him. He hummed a merry tune and swayed his boot on the ground.

No, Wooyoung shouldn't let their temporary alliance sway him. San knew what he was doing, but Wooyoung knew, too. They had different experiences and their paths were bound to split. Any upset that it was so soon was an irrelevant liability.

They didn't have to wait for Mingi for long. He had probably been up already tending to Jongho because they joined Wooyoung and San together. The injured mechanic hung from Mingi's shoulder and his calf was wrapped with a thick bandage, but he didn't look half as gray as the day prior. At least saving him hadn't been in vain.

Jongho grinned when he saw the two and left no doubt who was the older of the peculiar duo. Mingi still glowered at them with those distrusting eyes. They made Wooyoung trust him more. Not enough people with a healthy sense of survival around these days.

"I'm glad you haven't left yet. Please, allow me to reward you for your help."

"Staying here was reward enough. I will be on my way," Wooyoung refused. He would accept food, but nothing else Jongho tried to butter him up with.

Mingi picked up on his wording and glanced at San.

"You aren't going together? I thought you were a couple."

Wooyoung's face heated. He glared at San, who fluttered his lashes at him and stomped out the quirk of glee inside his chest.

"I have a boyfriend," he clarified. "And it's not that oddball. I have to go back to him."

"Oh, right," Jongho muttered when he remembered. He seemed hesitant to question Wooyoung on it or to share what he had seen with Mingi.

"I would like to stay. If you accept me instead of Death. I am just as good of a fighter and trained with the knife where he is the better shot," San suggested. He looked foreign to the two others, especially with his features obscured, but they considered him. Clearly, what he hid below the bandages didn't hinder his abilities.

Ultimately, Jongho nodded.

"I'd be happy to have you. Is there anything we can do to make you stay, Death? To have you consider?"

Thick-headed, Wooyoung shook his head.

"Unless Yunho appears and persuades me you are worth my time, it won't happen."

Disappointed, Jongho sunk into a heap. Mingi patted his shoulder.

Wooyoung told him he had been wasting his time all along.

"Then at least let me send you off with the protection you need out there. You saw what I can do. I will make you the best rifle the world has ever seen," Jongho begged.

Wooyoung's ears pricked.

"A rifle?"

"Long-range. With a scope. Anything you ask for. It will take me a few days, but you can stay here and relish the safety. I won't push you to help us, but view it as a token of my gratitude. I'd be dead without you."

Contemplating him with narrow eyes, Wooyoung imagined such a rifle. What he needed wasn't ordinarily found, just ever the same pistols. Such a gem for free was a tempting offer.

San chortled at his hesitation.

"Just take it. Does your paranoia forbid you from refusing anything that helps you survive? Be glad they want to show their gratitude and have it over with."

"Fine," Wooyoung barked, if just to show San he was no child. He could make his deals all by himself.

"I'll stay until the gun is finished."

"Thank you," Jongho grinned. "I will get right to it! My leg won't hold me back. It can pay me company while I sit here and work, yes, yes."

Mingi looked as if he wanted to say something, but he left it. Instead, he nodded at San to follow him while Wooyoung discussed his new weapon with Jongho.

"Come, I'll show you around. Glad to have you on the team."

Wooyoung and San switched places and Wooyoung purposefully shouldered into him when they crossed past each other. He sustained more damage when the solid muscle of San's shoulder blocked him off. Grumbling, Wooyoung stared after him. He swore San's cheek protruded with a grin.

Jongho beckoned Wooyoung to his side, and they leaned over the desk together. Between the masses of clutter was a sketchbook and a pencil, which Jongho unearthed to flick to a page free of scribbles.

"Will San be of help?" Wooyoung asked while the mechanic whipped up a first sketch of a rifle so it could be modified. He hummed, bracing his leg on a crate below.

"Definitely. We need people who know the desert and its dangers. Mingi is good at fighting, that he is, but especially now that I am injured... Too much risk to go alone."

"Go where?"

The movements of Jongho's hands were quick and lazy, but a shape developed from it. Already, Wooyoung liked the idea of such a weapon in his possession. The damage he could do with it...

"North and even further north. We seek the ruins of the past civilization."

"Because the cure is there?" That sounded like a fairytale. How would they be so sure? This big of an operation to chase after legends?

Giddy with his secret, Jongho giggled. He was chatty since his task and the medication in his veins distracted him.

"We have the cure. But it cannot be applied in this place, it needs a specific outlet to work. So north we go. All the way north."

"And you know that because..." Wooyoung tried to ease some of the ridicule in his voice. If Jongho was missing a few screws, he needed empathy. It was hard enough to live in a world like this. But Mingi seemed sane, and he knew his way around. San agreed to join, despite the dangers.

"He told us."

More puzzled than before, Wooyoung leaned his hip against the working bench. He pointed out that he wanted a longer range to it and Jongho adjusted his drawing.

"So you need people to bring you north and supply you with the resources for such a journey."

Jongho nodded, scribbling notes around the rifle.

"And preferably not get nibbled on by coyotes on the way again. If anything, this injury proved you and San can deal with those poor things," he chuckled with an absent-minded pat on his thigh.

Though Wooyoung was flattered by having his skill recognized, it wasn't as if he purposefully chose such a life. He fought out of necessity. He was no mercenary.

"How is this?" Jongho offered as he cleaned up the sketch with harder lines. "Long range, a scope, all black. Up to eight bullets per round."

"Is a first batch of bullets inclusive to the favor?" Wooyoung asked as he studied the sketch. He liked it. A gun like that could become his new partner on lonely nights.

"Since you listened to my ramblings," Jongho chuckled. He made another note and circled it. After checking a few other bullets he found lying around, he figured out which shape and length worked best for a gun that size.

"I'll build it so it matches the rifle ammunition Mingi often finds out there. It's rarer than gun ammunition, but I might find you a recipe to build them yourself. Have some patience." With a piece of tape, he glued the bullet in question to his sketch and scribbled some obscure facts about gunpowder and metal below. When he was done, Jongho peered up from his paper. Wooyoung pulled back, having leaned a tad too close since he was so invested. If Jongho caught his moment of a slipping mask, he overlooked it.

"Do you want to see?"

"See what?"

"The cure."

Wooyoung was dying of curiosity. Less so to find out what this mystery was about, but to understand Jongho's babbles.

He glanced at the blueprint. It would take a while to morph into an actual weapon. Now that San was part of their team, that meant more days spent here while everyone talked about the cryptic mission. At this point, he heard so much it became aggravating not to understand the core of the topic. Chemicals? A book? An artifact that might not even be what Jongho mistook it for?

A look couldn't be so bad. At least, Wooyoung might develop more sympathy for Jongho's ramblings.

"Why not?"

Jongho beamed at him and got up. He found a wooden pole between his clutter and used it as a cane before he hopped into the darkness of the cave. Wooyoung followed him, deep into the shadows where coldness seeped from the walls to penetrate his clothing. The facility took them deeper and deeper, past a floating water orb trapped underground in a vaulted cave and multiple high-security doors.

By the time Jongho slowed, Wooyoung was absolutely sure he stumbled his way into a former science lab. In those sterile walls died countless beings to research.

But Jongho didn't seem to have the same on his mind. He unlocked yet another solid steel door, sealed with lasers and combinations Wooyoung never saw before in his life. Whatever was behind there was more important than any treasure he found out in the desert.

When the entrance finally gave way, a rush of cold air howled through the cavern. Wooyoung's fingers hovered near his gun, but Jongho smiled at him in reassurance as he heaved the gate open.

"He is the light."