They looked at each other.
Gazed.
Puzzled.
The smell hit them first.
Melted iron.
Burning skin.
It floated through the air like something that had given up trying to hide.
Small rain of ash drifted down from above, touching the green leaves, turning them black where it landed.
Quietly.
Irreversibly.
Large powerful forces shook everything around them as they grew closer.
The ground.
The trees.
The air itself.
Their feet kept moving.
Their eyes kept moving with them.
Nerves uneasy.
---
Ha Joon moved forward.
Then stopped.
He felt it.
Air moving when it shouldn't.
Something running.
Moving fast.
Then faster.
Until it was a blur that tore through the forest, the force of it sending discord rippling outward through the trees, bending branches, scattering leaves, disturbing everything in its path.
He turned.
Looked back.
Eun Byol had stopped.
Long stopped.
A large space between them now.
Ha Joon spoke.
"What's the problem?"
Eun Byol was quiet for a moment.
Then:
"This moment. We're close to the outside world. We could run. Maybe reach home. Back to—"
A powerful bang.
It hit the middle of the space between them.
Detonating without warning.
Pushing them both away simultaneously.
They flew.
Bounced across the grass-rich earth.
Rolling.
Tumbling.
Stopping hard.
Dust rose instantly.
Turned to smoke.
And in the smoke—
A shadow moved.