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◦◦◦─╌⊰ ⚜ ⊱⧐ ♛ ⧏⊰ ⚜ ⊱╌─◦◦◦

In Y/N's mind, there was a clock ticking. Every second lost was precious. Her mind was linked with Taehyung's suffering.

The rain downpoured like the monsoons of deep rainforests, while Y/N made her way into the first house, confirming the state of total emptiness. She felt as though she was polluting the families' ancestral homes that used to inhabit these abodes, with her frantic search.

It's quite surprising how fear and thirst for survival boost determination and physical prowess. No matter how fast or how much strain the muscles undergo, on an empty stomach and an unquenched thirst, she would keep going on ceaselessly, with tenacious concentration. Nothing bothered her. Not the rain. Not the cold. Not her anxiety. Not the wet clothes sticking on her body.

She emptied cabinets and removed drawers and searched wardrobes and pantries. Nothing. Then unto the next house. And the next. And then the next.

How was it even possible that none of them had a bloody screwdriver or damned bobby pin? Then again, the WRA and other desperate scavengers of the road must have looted everything they could put their hands on, which explained the state of utter disorder of some of the houses and apartments. Not to mention that nothing was standing in the shops.

She cursed heavily and moved to the next house. She went up the wooden stairs and reached the room that seemed to belong to a woman. There she found a stash of brushes, ribbons, and bobby pins.

"Bloody finally!" She triumphed and shoved as many as she could in every pocket of her clothes.

She felt just a tiny spark of relief. But no screwdriver on sight yet. And right upon the edge of the desk, there stood a round mirror with a wooden frame, and above it, a small window gazing down the foggy ambient.

Her eyes inevitably fell on herself. For a moment she did not recognize the girl staring back at her. Her drenched, dyed brown hair, with wet wisps glued on her pale complexion. She had lost weight, her youth and beauty impaired by fear, poor hygiene, and wariness. Her eyes pierced through herself, morose, hurt, angry, and premature growth darkening them, mirroring the grey mist, dulling their emerald green. She felt disgusted and looked away, returning to her mission.

Day was turning into night, faster than she keep up with. It was becoming harder and harder to see.

She visited the next house, where the door was locked, unlike the other rashly abandoned ones, so she had to break in through an already broken ground window. The place was also stolen clean by intruders.

Suddenly, she heard multiple barks and howling. She jumped over a fallen library and looked out of the window. Strange to find packs of dogs out in the rain.

Her heart raced, craning her neck outside, trying to spot or hear the dogs, but the rain lashed hard and loudly.

"Shit!" She grunted through her teeth, a million scenarios playing in her mind.

Time was running out. She needed a diversion before the dogs would reach the area where the mines and Taehyung were located. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a pan and a large spoon.

The dogs were surely starving to death to hunt in this weather, which meant that they must have caught their smell.

She ran to the next house, ignoring her heart still pounding savagely, thinking how dangerous packs of hungry wild dogs can be, especially when they've been feeding on war corpses all this time. But, she was significantly more concerned with the carpet of landmines just waiting to explode in a chain reaction that will annihilate everything in its way.

On her way there, through the fog, her eyes fell on a large barn with the sign "Local Inventor". Her heart gave a little thump. If there's any place in the world that stores working tools, it's an Inventor's shop.

Dogs barked aggressively, closing in.

Y/N crouched and once more traced a safe way through the landmines, towards the barn. She started banging the spoon on the pan, making loud fracas.

"Over here, you dimwits!" She said while circling the barn, attracting the attention of the dogs in her direction.

She then dropped the pan and spoon in the mud and ran in front of the door, which, of course, was locked.

She could already hear the rapid gallop of the dogs. She took the bobby pin and started picking the lock. She kept her senses nailed on the process, ignoring the approaching pack.

Vicious barks and howls increased in volume and number.

She inserted the pins, with the rain pouring down on her like a waterfall, and poor illumination being of no help whatsoever.

Like a shark jumping out of the surface of the ocean, the first large wild dog, leaped out of the fog, just meters away from her. Black like the upcoming long night, sharp fangs bulging out of drooling gums, growling with murderous intent.

She panted in a panic frenzy, the lock almost unlocked. And just a meter away before those fangs could rip her leg, she slammed the door open and threw herself into the black internals of the barn, kicking the door closed. She could hear the dogs barking viciously and scratching the door with their front paws.

In the pitch black darkness, her hearth drumming violently in her chest, Y/N did not allow herself to relax. She had to find the tools to disarm the landmine fast, and a weapon to defend herself from the dogs.

"Bloody hell!" She groaned, standing up, "Ploughing war! I hate you, you damned son of a whore, Yujin!" She cursed the emperor out of her unhinged frustration.

Being preventive, Y/N carried a lighter in her inner vest pocket. She lit it up and started searching the walls for an oil lamp of any kind. After finding it, she lit it and looked around.

She breathed a heavy breath of relief when the metallic glint of a plethora of instruments and tools appeared on every wall and table, as well as a series of rifles, sniper rifles, revolvers, semi-automatic pistols, barrels of gunpowder, crates of dynamite, and loads of bullets.

Y/N gasped. 'The WRA's armory' she thought, 'Which explains the landmines. Which means someone is here guarding them'.

The dogs kept barking and scratching the door when a thought occurred in her mind: How come the animals haven't accidentally stepped on a landmine until now if this was their hunting territory? What if they were not wild dogs at all, but war hounds trained to sniff mines and avoid them, as well as guard the barn/armory? It was evident that they kept valuable goods in this supposed barn.

Y/N narrowed her eyes while staring at the door. She then hurried and gathered as many tools and weapons as she could carry. Climbed a wooden ladder leading to the upper floor, where she found more oil lamps. Lit them up, freeing the space from all the thick darkness, and sprawled the items on the second lab table. She found a bag and started packing the appropriate tools to disarm the landmine, and loaded a rifle and two pistols with bullets, which she inserted in her belt and hung on her shoulders.

Finally, she aimed the rifle at the door lock and fired a shot. A hole replaced the lock and the door was pushed open by the cold breeze.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the hounds, unswayed by the gunshot, entered the barn and immediately went for her, despite that she was safely standing on the upper floor, looking down at them. In addition, Y/N noticed that all five of them wore a black leather collar around their necks.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a dim flashing from behind her. Out of a tiny window on the wooden ceiling, lights switched on from a tall watchtower, a few blocks away. The WRA guards must have heard the gunshot and seen the light of the oil lamps from the barn.

She quickly turned to the dogs and pointed the rifle at them.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled regretfully.

Killing animals, or any living creature, was always a horrendous act for her, and one of the reasons she had been suffering ever since they fled the Capital. But the necessity for survival forced her hand.

She was compelled to shoot all five hounds, being trained not to fear gunfire, none of them ran after watching each other die. Her gut burned with remorse watching them cry and convulsed before dying. She knelt, choking, trying to suppress herself from crying.

'Come on Selenya, pull yourself together!' she thought to herself, reprimandingly.

She switched off the oil lamps, and while on her way to hide, she came across a pair of night-vision goggles, that the WRA had probably no idea of their function, nor how to use them. So she picked a dark corner, wore the goggles and the hood of her coat, and waited for the WRA guards to show up, aiming the rifle at the door.