1 Chapter 1

Dara's oxygen was running out. She could see the vague outline of the mansion's gates through the condensation on the glass of the gas mask. She forced herself to walk the last ten steps. Black was creeping in the periphery of her already blurred vision. She trudged on with feet feeling as heavy as lead but she obstinately refused to lose it. No one dies tonight, or at the very least not her. If she dies, she knew without a doubt her siblings and mother will die with her. She refused to let that happen. She had made a promise to her father.

She made the final steps and arrived in front of the gate. She slapped her hand onto the scanner. The blue light flashed and she slumped against the metal door gasping desperately for air. She felt the door slide against the leather of the worn oversized jacket that was once her father's. She could vaguely hear the ahjussi's voice raised in alarm but the buzzing in her ears prevented her from understanding what he was saying. That was the last thing she could remember before the darkness surrounded her completely.

An unfamiliar voice welcomed her back into the light. The light was so bright she reflexively swiped her hand to remove its source. "Sleeping beauty is finally awake." The mildly amused voice belonged to a female. As the after image of the bright light disappeared, she finally saw the owner of the voice. "Sorry for almost blinding you." A hint of a smile grazed her lips. "You've been out for a couple of hours already."

"Where am I?" She asked as she struggled to sit up. The stranger offered a hand and helped her get up.

"Infirmary." She answered simply. "I'm CL, by the way." She offered her hand in a handshake.

The still weak girl reluctantly took it. She hadn't shaken anyone's hand in years. She couldn't even remember the last time she did. She's the first new person she had met since the Change. For as long as she could remember no one new ever worked in the mansion, or even the whole district. No one came to the border districts anymore. Work was available here but the benefits could barely keep you alive.

Nobody wanted to live in these forgotten towns. Everyone wanted to go to the Capital Cities, that is everyone except her father. She knew he was a scientist years before The Change. He had already started acting strange a year or two before the Change. That was why they have moved back to his hometown near coast. He refused a government promotion and decided to bring his research home with him. The government gave in and instead gave him a grant allowing him to work remotely in his home. The move was hard for them but it had been for the best because they were spared from the Quake that rocked the Capital claiming thousands of lives in a matter of minutes in the winter of 2020.

But a year or two after the quake when the Capital had started to rebuild, the officials gave him an ultimatum to go back and work in the Labs again. He didn't want to leave but one scorching hot day a mysterious visitor in full military attire came. They spent two hours locked inside his study. When they went out he gave his wife a signed contract to keep for safekeeping. He then tiredly went down the stairs to his lab and meticulously gathered years' worth of his data to bring with him. She could remember her mother crying soundlessly in their room as she lovingly folded his clothes and other essentials into the battered hard case suitcase that he had never used since The Change.

That night, he tucked all his children as per their usual routine. Saying their prayers with them as he did every night without fail but the hugs he gave each of them were tighter and longer causing little Thunder to squirm against his grip. Giggly Durami thought it was a game and had squeezed back as hard as she could with her little arms. But Dara knew better. She knew another change was coming. She was older and more observant than her younger siblings.

She thought it was weird of him but he made her swear on her grandfather's torn Bible that she would take care of mom, Ami and Thunder. He also told her to never lose the Bible and the box. After everyone else was asleep he showed her the hidden latch to the secret chamber in the basement. He then led her back up to her bed, hugged her tight and whispered, "I love you and your siblings. Never forget." She had felt the desperation in his embrace.

He would always tell her every night the exact same words even before The Change happened but that night she felt that what he was really trying to say was goodbye. And she was right. She only knew from her mother that the Palace needed his services. She told us when the project was done he would come home to them again. Ami and Thunder had believed what their mother told them. But Dara knew better. She was lying to them and to herself because they knew people who got sent to the Capital never came back.

The girl named CL snapped her fingers at her. Dara blinked and realized she had spaced out again. "You're not from here."

"What made you say that? I was born here." She told her with a single brow raised.

Dara wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Here? It's the first time I've seen you here."

She chuckled. "But it's not the first time I've seen you here, Dara."

Dara. No one has called her that since after the Change. She had always been called Dee by everyone. She insisted. She hated hearing her name. It reminded her of the world they used to live in. She asked everyone to call her Dee years ago, deciding that if the world had changed then she needed to change, too.

"I gave you TamTam. Don't tell me you don't remember?" CL said in a mildly offended tone, apparently hurt to have been forgotten.

Long buried memories came flashing back. Dara stared at her face and tried to see any resemblance to the face of the friend she thought she had lost a long time ago. The mole was the only physical thing that resembled the Chaerin of her childhood. Chaerin who now calls herself CL had lined her eyes with black and dark wingtips extended from the lateral canthus of her naturally chinky eyes, making them look larger than they really were. Her once dark hair had been bleached a platinum blond but the smirk still held the same familiar hint of mischief it once had.

"Chae." A lump lodged in Dara's throat. She swallowed convulsively before saying, "You're alive."

"I told you bitches won't die easily." She grinned widely at Dara before gathering her friend into a tight hug. "You're alive." Dara mindlessly repeated still trying to convince herself that this wasn't a dream. She tugged sharply on her hair. "That hurt."

"Feel that. You're not dreaming. I'm just as alive as you are." She smirked at Dara. She was a bad ass when they were in middle school. It appeared the Change didn't affect the attitude in any way.

"They told us your family got swept by the flood in Bali." Dara looked at her dear childhood friend's face and unconsciously reached out to touch her cheek, still not quite able to believe her eyes. She had to feel that she was here. Her cheek felt soft and warm on her fingertips. She was real.

"Haerin and I survived. It took a year before we were handed over to the Capital. It was a mess during those times but my Uncle Yun Suk luckily was there and he took us in." CL explained briefly. She said it in a matter of fact way as if she was just spoutin random facts and had not lost people who were dear to her during those times.

It was not surprising for people to sound detached talking about the catastrophes that had happened. Everyone had been so used to losing half of their world it made no sense crying over one's misfortunes. Everybody lost someone. There were no exceptions. It would be foolish to dwell on sentiment when survival was more important. To survive you had to deaden a part of you to make yourself keep on going. Let go of the pain. Stop thinking of what it was like before. It was either that or you wallow in your loss and follow your dead loved ones to the grave. Grieving was a luxury. Moving on was a necessity. The Change will do that to you.

Dara wished it did the same to her. But she felt pain every night as she forced herself to forget people and places she will never see again. She felt it when she looked into her mother's tired eyes every time she greeted her in the morning. She felt it every time her mother wheezed whenever her lungs seized. It was a constant physical reminder of how the change affected them. Her once vibrant mother was now faded and weakened by bronchiectatic lungs, a common enough occurrence for those who survived. She felt it when her brother asked her to tell him stories about their father and how it used to be when he was still there. She felt it when Ami kept on insisting that their father was coming back some day and he would take us with him. She felt it when she found out that that when their mother told them to eat first it meant they didn't have enough food for the four of them. She felt it when she would look at old faded pictures of how life was before the change. Pictures of a life she sometimes could not believe she once had, when all she had worried about was if her outfit for the day was good enough to post online. She felt it every time she looked up in the smog filled, perpetually grey sky. She would reluctantly remember how it was once able to show a clear blue and that the sun wasn't the same angry red as it was now. Nothing was ever the same after the Great Fire. She sometimes cursed herself for her sentiments but the pain kept her going. It was the only thing that made her feel alive.

Their mother kept telling them to try to forget how it was before. Ami and Thunder have had it easy, they have barely anything to remember. She knew their mother despite her stoic words, remembered just as she does. Dara can hear her muffled sobs every third night of the month of June. She and their father first met on that day. They got married on the same day and ironically also said goodbye to each other on the same day. It was a date she wanted to both remember and forget. Dara would want to cry with her when she hears her cry to release some of the pain she felt but oddly enough her eyes have long dried up. Despite the constant dull ache she felt in her chest she had never cried a single tear since The Change and she doubts if she ever will.

Dara stared at CL wondering how seeing her again will affect her life. CL then said something to Dara that she never thought she would ever hear in the ten years that her father had been gone. "Your father sent me to get you and your family to The Capital."