This was supposed to be a short chapter but whoops 💔💔 I ended up combining two different chapters because I thought the flow would work better

It was during the night again, under the cover of the darkness that consumed the medic's room, that hands gently shook him awake once more. This time, hushed as the grip touched into his shoulder, securing him until he was able to flutter his eyes open and adjust them to the shadows he was awoken into.

"Hey, get your cloak," The hand that gripped his shoulder tenderly, connecting him to a silhouette wrapped in the heavy fabrics protecting them from the desert, already marred with the hints of dusting sand collected on the folds blurring together into an indescribable shape under the cover of the night. Though his waking eyes couldn't make sense of the silhouette, couldn't decipher clearly where the night ended and the person began, the familiar voice resonated clearly inside of his head. Changbin. Changbin's hand released from his blanket enveloped shoulder, retreating back underneath the medic's own cloak as he told, "I.N. needs us to return to the Dreaming City on an supply run. We can take you with us, if you were still wanting to go."

Between the lack of sleep laden inside of his groaning mind and the gradual reeling of his wavering consciousness reconnecting thread by thread with reality, Felix was hardly able to make sense of the medic's words. Hardly able to process them in his mind before he was sludging to leave the comfort of his mattress, forcing the heaviness in his muscles to cooperate with him long enough for him to properly dress himself while Changbin waited outside of the room, trudging after the medic once he deemed himself ready to leave. And again, in the wobbling of his head slipping on the borderline of his dreams, hardly able to process much of the movement flickering by around him in that unknown hour.

Though not as unknown or mysterious as he had originally believed, not a wavering dusk or the midst of twilight that would keep them hidden from the desert sunlight forever. He figured that much as soon as the sleepiness tunneling through his veins like a needle burrows beneath the sands, as soon as he reconnected his wandering mind down to the firm surface he was sitting on. The back of one of the many Centaurs, alive and purring on the outskirts of the Sanctuary as it's engine waited to toil tirelessly across the desert sands, the flat surface supporting him as his legs dangled off the edge. Catching him in his wavering weight as his gaze coursed after the three officers. Changbin, Jisung, and Hyunjin, Calmly scurrying to finish packing what they needed for the journey.

Felix coursed his eyes over the three one more time, busying himself with slowly chewing away at a meal Hyunjin had given him to tide over his hunger; Their usual grain, millet, seasoned, with a boiled meat Seungmin and a group had hunted down a few days prior (They called it sheep, though he wasn't sure what a sheep was), all stuffed and wrapped up inside of a leaf, small enough to fit comfortably in his fingers as munched the few he was given into the void of his bottomless stomach. As Jisung approached the flat backing of the Centaur, what looked to be a heavy box in his hand he set down beside Felix, the outcast wondered, "Minho and Seungmin aren't coming?"

"It's better for only a few of us to go at a time," Jisung hopped up onto the back of the Centaur with a practiced amount of ease to his movements, skillfully jumping in one fluid motion as if he had done so hundreds of times before. Perhaps, he has. Most likely, he has. More contained and controlled for him to not be comfortable with the trembling of the ground beneath the soles of his shoes. Without much effort, he kicked the box a few times, sliding the heavy crate to the far corner of the bed before he crouched down to tie the weight off against the steel framing of the vehicle, "I.N. needs them to stay around the base and take care of our duties while we're absent. Which, is kind of funny when you think about Seungmin having to do laundry and Minho taking care of wounds when the guy hates the sight of blood."

"How long will we be gone?" Felix then wondered to him, pushing the remaining piece of the snack inside of his cheek to chew as he grabbed up the final wrap from the once mountainous pile stacked in the bowl he was given. Once mountainous. Now gone. Devoured between his lips, and sitting heavy to cement the cracks of hunger that had been breaking apart Felix's stomach. Why did it seem as if he was always hungry, anyway? Was it because of the constant walking, jogging, hiking up and down the scaffolding stairwells, lugging heavy crates, dragging impossible to move baskets, working, bounding, was it normal to always have the need to consume? Did the other five eat as much as he did?

"Week there, few days inside, week back. A while. If we gas it and don't stop at all, which it sounds like that's what Hyunjin and Changbin want to do, we'll be there in three days," Jisung finished up, finalizing the last rope strap with a thick knot before trudging to where Felix sat. He flopped down beside him, a heavy huff accompanying his lips as he then slumped full down. Laying on the flatbed while he settled into the surface eagerly catching him in his fall, "We'll be back before anyone starts missing us."

Finishing the last few nibbles of his food, Felix found himself scooting back and laying down in the flatbed beside him, allowing his eyes to fall shut to the hushed chatter of the officers moving around him. Bundling himself up, tucking close his arms and legs into his curled chest as he settled down with Jisung.

When he woke again, sunlight broke over the tops of the serene dunes surrounding them, the soft blanket that had been set underneath his head and curled around his body offered as protection against the frigidness of the flatbed now warmed up underneath the rays that burned down into the he slept on before doing nothing to alleviate the slight ache in his neck from the uncomfortable angle it crooned at. Beneath him, the flatbed of the Centaur vibrated with protesting groans, bumping against the ripples collected in the sands as the sensations tickled along his arms. The heated wind sprinted over his curled body, lipping naturally over the fast vehicle as it dashed with an impressive speed he had only seen once or twice before. Then there was Jisung, still fast asleep (Practically dead), cuddled up beside Felix as they bundled together.

He sighed softly to himself. Deeply, inhaling the fresh yet viscous scent of the pure air hovering around his body waking from the deepest dreams he had ever slipped into. Exhaling the heaviness that weighted on his muscles like dazzling gold armor, the weakness that clouded him up temporarily escaping from his veins to allow him to press himself to sit upright off the flatbed. Slowly. A gradual process that had him rocking from one elbow, to the other, one side of his hip, to the other, while his head swiveled to reorient his blurry eyes to the world. The bright sunlight, the endless desert touching into the horizon, the Sanctuary nowhere to be seen, and the two officers; Changbin focused in the driver's seat, Hyunjin beside him, their voices hiding beneath the flying wind.

Their day continued on as such, Felix and Jisung relaxing in the back of the Centaur, the occasional conversation that drowned out beneath the wind while Changbin kept their speed unstoppable, Hyunjin who swapped with Jisung to munch on chunks of bread with Felix or to pass the elongated hours with braiding chunks of Felix's growing hair, the fast comment that he might want to consider asking Changbin to trim the splitting ends fraying with exposure to the heat and sunlight; The night following a similar pattern, where Changbin slumped in the flatbed to sleep through the hours, Jisung and Hyunjin switching between themselves to drive underneath the starlight, and the sky that Felix traced in his mind until he slipped into his dreams once more.

The following day mimicked the first, waking up to the moving vehicle, the officers rotating around, Felix sitting in the passenger seat for a while to allow Jisung and Hyunjin to socialize rather loudly in the back. Their gossip beginning to carry over the power of the wind until even Changbin was cracking smiles at their fervent conversation (Even if Felix didn't understand much of if, but he was happy being in their presence while their laughter turned them into maniacs).

Though in the evening, the routine changed when the familiar rows of bones jutting from the desert clipped the horizon. And, in a unanimous agreement to stop for the night for a proper rest and somewhat cooked meal with that little food they brought with them in the packed chests, they quickly found a stable building in the graveyard to occupy. Climbing up the debris Jisung traversed up first to ensure none of the pieces would slide undone, they followed shortly after set up camp beside the collapsed wall. A small fire Changbin set alight with what chunks of half-rotten wood he tugged off the thresholds and walls of the building, the warmth combating against the frigid night as they bundled up with their makeshift beds of blankets and cloaks, the soup they had brought in one of their many clay jars sitting heated and heavy in Felix's filled stomach.

He slumped down beside Changbin, where the medic laid with a firm look on his features, his arms tucked beneath his head to act as his pillow while he became occupied with the fragmenting ceiling above them. Felix tugged his own blanket closer to his body, pulling the fabric into himself for warmth as he narrowed his gaze to scrutinize the glow of the fire dancing across his features, how the warm hues cascaded and fell across his cheeks dusted with glimmers of powdered pink. How in the corners of the abandoned building, being chased by the casted flames stretching far across the floors, the shadows of the evening dark outside seemed to caress him as well. Both the illumination and the umbra seemed to curl above his chest like a weeping loved one embracing him, the last time he would ever be held in their arms. Their patterns softly hugged him. Accenting his features within the ethereal blaze of the fire in perfect ways.

Ways which Felix hadn't known affected him, until his lungs burned with aches. He forced himself to exhale the breath he locked in his chest,

He's handsome.

His eyes trailed the medic's face. An odd sensation in his heart that pinched as something told him, he was... Familiar? Even if he knew that feeling wasn't true.

Changbin slowly peeled his eyes off of the ceiling, coming to meet Felix's unwavering gaze as he wondered to him softly, "Is something wrong?"

"You looked upset," He answered with a nod that had his cheeks grinding into the ground below him, wiggling himself closer to the blanket tucked around his body.

"Sand..." In the corner across from them, Hyunjin grumbled to himself as he lifted his head off the ground, swiping the sand that had managed to track along with them into the building, "Fuck off!"

"Memories are the worst form of torture, Felix," Changbin murmured back to him as they both ignored the huffing and complaining from Hyunjin slumping himself onto the ground again, his gaze trailing back up to the ceiling as he found a fixed point on the concrete above him. Where his eyes traced the cracks, a strange distance inside of his gaze that kept him from ever truly seeing the rubble and collapse building up around them as a monument to the melancholic look souring his features. To the strength in his voice that tried to resist breaking apart as the permanent cement did around them, "People do bad things to survive, you make bad decisions to survive, and... And that's what you are. Young, reckless, stupid, and willing to die for nothing."

He continued on softly, his words hardly audible over the crackling of the fire beginning to die out beside them, "It's always made me wonder how far the world goes. Where it ends. If there's anything out there that makes dying meaningful. These graveyards, there must've been a reason they chose to stand against the Dreaming City. There must've been something out here worth dying for."

Felix cuddled a little closer into himself, "Is the world... Big?"

"Bigger than we wanted it to be," The medic peeled his gaze off of the ceiling again. He rolled onto his side, his folded arm pillowing him as he faced him fully, his free one reaching out to tuck the blanket around Felix closer to his body, the whisper of his words cascading down from the soft breaths on his lips, "Bigger than we were taught it was."

Felix watched him, staying still as his eyes fluttered close and the hand that adjusted his blanket stilled on his shoulder.

I wonder if this is worth it.

In the morning, they woke before the sunrise again. Destroying what remained of their campsite to not be found before continuing on. While he familiarized himself with the homely rays of sunlight clipping incandescent hues through the dense canopy of haze that settled in the sky. Memorize the walks of life that may once have occupied the desert now leaving a barren basin to be discovered again and again, uncharted, wide valleys between the mounds of sand they were forced to cross. Accompany them like a friend, he couldn't shake the feeling of an absence where the sun boiled his skin beneath the cotton sleeves of his shirt and covering cloak, the fleeting glimmers of life dying out to the sandy stomp of dusty mist on bronzed ground stretching as far as his eye could see.

In the long hours, Felix grabbed his journal from where he kept the small booklet on his person, in a pocket that barely managed to squeeze the pages tucked away. He flipped to a new page, drawing out the scenery they had passed, marking down the stars when the nights rolled again over their eyes, scribbling as much as he could about the deserts on the way to the Dreaming City.

The other three keeping that constant rotation of paces to cover more distance into the desert as the day grew hotter, fading to the dark of the night as he was forced to rest. Rotating again, the day, then the night. Time passing easily and well as the spent seconds scanning the desert floors for signs of the life Changbin had referred to. Out in the vast emptiness of those never-ending fields of arid dirt stained misty copper and frigid gold while the world around burned wisps of mirages on his covered skin, only eased when the bright night came again.

I wonder if trying to find who I was is worth it in the end. I just hope seeing the Dreaming City will be enough for me to remember.

"There it is."

Felix perked his head up at Jisung's words, briefly tugging himself away from Hyunjin's hands as they busied themself in the strands of hair they were braiding together again. He glanced to the officer, where Jisung came to stand up off of his seat to hang himself off the side of the Centaur, securing himself with his gloved hands firmly clutching the steel framing to allow himself a better look. A better view that Felix tried to balance himself on his knees to see, wobbling closer with the bumping of the tires against the ground as he was forced to grip the metal beams too to fasten himself from tipping over. Even if all he was able to distinguish was a faint black line that blocked part of the horizon, as if someone blocked off the world behind a shadow.

The walls of a beast that laid in wait beneath the sands.

The Dreaming City.

He furrowed his eyebrows together, carefully securing himself tighter to the steel frames in front of him as he glanced down to Changbin in the driver's seat, "Why is it called the Dreaming City?"

Instead, Jisung readjusted his hands on the framing and whipped around to Felix with his gaze practically sparkling, "Long ago-"

"Oooohh history nerd Jisung back at it again," Hyunjin jeered, snickering gently.

"Shut up Hyunjin. Okay, so, long ago, centuries ago at this point, the world collapsed. The Great Collapse, we've mentioned it a few times. No one knows what happened? History books in the Dreaming City start from the conception of the actual city itself and not before, because, you know, why would you do that when you're a dictatorship society," Jisung began to explain, ranting vehemently with an endless flow of words Felix had never heard be poured from the officer with such excitement. Sure, Jisung tended to be bubbly and fast speaking, but never like this, "Anyway, so, after the Great Collapse went down and most people died, a collection of survivors got together and decided to build a new civilization. As you do. A rebirth, of sorts, in the form of an empire, built on the dreams of a new world."

"Inside the walls, especially everything around and inside the Inner Conflux, the city is beautiful. Massive skyscrapers, screens, neon, the technology inside is incredible. But you'll quickly find that it is nothing more than a nightmare, rocked to sleep by a lullaby that foretells of war," The frontguard elaborated further. His hands tugged himself back under the steel beams, plopping him down in the passenger seat on his knees to face closer to Hyunjin and Felix in the back flatbed (And if Felix noticed Changbin holding on to Jisung's belt loop so he didn't tip over, then he didn't chose to comment on the warmth it filled his heart with), "It's appearance is nothing but a mask that covers the monster it's built on top."

"Is there a monster?" Felix's eyebrows just furrowed closer together as he delved into his own mind, attempting to dig up any memories of anything they were talking of only for his hands to come up empty again.

"Deus qui devoravit lucem solis," Hyunjin pitched in to the conversation, the foreign words spilling easily from his tongue as smoothly as the first language they were speaking. When Felix could only send him a puzzled look without understanding what he was attempting to say (After all, how could he? Felix barely understood the language he spoke, much less what the second language the officers knew even was to start with), Hyunjin translated for him, "The god who devoured the light of the sun. Seungmin says in books, that's what the people from the old world called it, and they thought it was the thing that caused everything to turn to sand following the Great Collapse. It has a different name inside the Dreaming City."

"The World Eater. A living, breathing machine, made of metal, blood, and flesh of the Dreaming City and vestiges from the Great Collapse. A colossus. It is everything the Dreaming City is, and everything it will ever be," Jisung filled in. Finishing the last of the other officer's words as he nodded a silent agreement to the storytelling. Though he suddenly paused and locked up, a cluelessness causing his face to scrunch up, "Or... something like that...? I've never seen the thing, most people don't, and you barely hear about it, it's like, a bad omen to talk about the World Eater when you're inside of the Dreaming City. Did you ever see it, Changbin?"

The busy driver shook his head, "Only heard about it and it's decisions from the Council, never saw it though. Innie and I tried to sneak beneath the Inner Conflux one time to see what it looked like, but the entrances are too heavily guarded to get pass."

Felix simply nodded along to their explanations quietly, attempting to soak in their every words, to commit them to his memory in the case he would ever come to forget this world once more. The World Eater, the Council, the old world, the Dreaming City they were barreling towards moment by moment, growing closer as the shadow casted across the horizon spread wider and wider along the thin border, until there was nothing but that mark left to scar the world. Until there was nowhere else to go but forward, but to approach the incoming enigma, to watch the tension that began to build in the officer's expressions, to observe the rigidity that came to their bodies as that wall grew higher above their head in the sky.

And higher.

And higher.

And higher.

Until they could no longer see the top of the bleak wall that blocked them from continuing through the desert. Until they had all fallen silent underneath the shadow it casted across the sands in the midday sun. Until the Centaur drew close enough for the engine to be shut off. Until he could clearly see Changbin's knuckles gripping white against the wheel as his gaze fastened to the walls. Until there was nowhere else to go, but inside.

"Alright. Few things you should know, before we go inside. The obvious, yeah, don't take your mask off, don't leave us, blah, blah, blah, basic things you already know," Jisung started as he climbed out of the passenger seat, stamping down in the sand as Felix stood up from the flatbed to follow him as he walked around to the back. His fingers listing off each of his words as he lectured the outcast, "The big thing is we don't want to attract attention. First, the Wardens. Don't do anything that will make you stand out. Second, the Council. Don't do anything that will make you stand out. Third, the World Eater, DON'T DO ANYTHING THAT WILL MAKE YOU STAND OUT. Then, on top of all that there's... The real issue. The one we actually need to be worried about."

Behind him, as he flopped down on the edge of the flatbed, he heard Changbin twisting around the steel framing to slip onto the solid surface as well. The surface shaking beneath Felix as he felt the medic's footsteps.

However, Jisung and Hyunjin exchanged a fast look as the latter hopped off of the edge, joining his friend on the sand.

Jisung's eyes narrowed down into a scowl, "The Viper."

"The Viper is a robot," Hyunjin grumbled.

"He's not a robot. He's a human," Changbin commented quietly, his gaze not lifting up from the crate he was pushing.

"But he's a person that acts like a machine. A heartless, killing machine," The frontguard argued back to him, protesting in the slight raising of his voice, in the scowling of his eyes firm in his stand. Even if Hyunjin hummed in agreement, Changbin simply fell quiet as he busied himself with removing what they needed from the crate and handing it off to Hyunjin and Jisung. Clothes? They looked to be clothes, but Jisung didn't give Felix much time to wonder before he was dumping again, "Chief of Wardens has a son, father dies, the kid is told his Dad died honorably and 'to fulfil his purpose of serving the Dreaming City!', the son is taken as a replacement, bleached of all personality, thought, belief, taught how to kill, you know the drill, pretty classic stuff actually. Not an unusual story."

"The World Eater, the Council, if you live in the Dreaming City, you'll never see them. You'll feel their presence and their influence, but hardly will you see them. Especially if you're in the Outer Conflux," Hyunjin offered up to the conversation too. Quickly plucking up what Changbin set down at the edge of the flatbed to drape over his arm. Definitely clothes, a certain style to them that Felix could only identify as odd, and a familiar white mask that he gripped painfully in his hand. He held them both out to Felix, "But the Viper? You see him. You'll see him, often. And never for good reasons. He is a lifeless, heartless, merciless, monster. If he finds us, if he catches us, we will not make it back out. He's the reason Chan never made it outside."

Felix scooped the clothes and the mask into his arms, hugging them close to his body as he quivered softly, "H-How do I know we've found the Viper?"

"Pray. And hope the end isn't waiting behind you," Hyunjin hummed.

Oh.

Felix glanced down at the blank mask in his hands.

Something about it...

It wasn't familiar to him...?

"Bottom line? We're not a rebellion, there's no reason for us to be stirring trouble and drawing attention to ourselves," Jisung comforted him, the edge of his lips tipping up into a reassuring smile as he patted Felix's knee a few times. Clapping down to draw his attention back off of the mask and onto the two officers as they started pulling their cloaks off of themselves. Changing into the clothes they were given, "We'll go in, get a few supplies, show you around a little, then be out. We'll be okay."

Again, not knowing what else to say to offer anything else to the conversation, Felix simply nodded and followed after their example. Hoping off the flatbed to switch into the different outfits they were given, which weren't all that unusual from what he wore before.

Similar to what they wore on their day to day inside the desert, the only differences existing in the shirt being made of a lighter material and the pants not as heavy as the typical ones he wore to protect himself from the whipping dust, rather than a cloak, fitting a jacket over him that neatly hugged against his frame. And, rather than the collection of dust that colored their clothes unique, bright hues, these clothes were cleaner. Darker. More monotonous. The dangerous absorption of pitch black in the heavy patched jacket he wore already soaking up the unbearable heat of the sun to his back, the thinner pants feeling every bite of sand that kicked up with the steps he took, and he suddenly, he was thankful he didn't have to wear this outfit normally (That's not to say Hyunjin didn't say he looked "Really fucking hot", even if all he was able to do was blink back a silent confusion).

That wasn't beginning to mention the discomfort that followed as soon as he tried to fasten the mask onto his face. The heavy material, how it smashed into his nose and restricted his breathing to poor inhales that could only detect the strange scent clinging to the back; The strap that wouldn't fix around his head until Hyunjin helped him to adjust the stiff material that squeezed down into his forehead, temples, and crown of his head to hold on, the mild headache it began to cause within minutes; Itchy, uncomfortable, it didn't sit well, with every blink, his eyes scraped against the bottom of the carved eyeholes; And worst of all, he could see the other's faces. He couldn't see them past the covering they put on. Only their eyes, where their eyes were looking, only their muffled voices that came through behind the masks, he didn't...

No, he couldn't read their expressions well to start with, but at least he could see them. At least he could see Jisung's smile scrunching his face up, he could see Hyunjin's features as they became sour with indignant irritation, he could see the gentleness of Changbin's squishy features, he could see them. Like this, he... He couldn't. He couldn't try what they were conveying behind their masks, he couldn't understand their intentions. Only their eyes. Their gazes.

Inside of his chest, his heart began to pulse hard, a crawl of a distress surfacing at the bottom of his throat as he swallowed it back down. He wobbled after the three officers as they grew unusually quiet, their gazes fixed as they walked along the walls. Finding a particular spot that was blocked off with a metal sheet. With a groan from the rust collected on the hinges of the bolted surface, Changbin gripped the edge and strained to tug it back long enough. Hyunjin first, he laid his stomach flush on the slightly muddy ground and crawled along with his forearms until he slipped into the shadows on the other side. Jisung following next, sliding underneath on his spine.

I said I wanted to see the Dreaming City.

Felix shoved his hesitation, the gradually budding anxiety back down to the farthest corner of his mind. He lowered himself too, the veins in his wrists coursing with trembles as he pulled himself along into the narrow entrance. As soon as he was on the other side-

He couldn't see anything.

He could feel someone grabbing onto his shoulder, their fist tangling up in the jacket and on his wrist as they helped him stand up on his shaking legs, Felix immediately grabbing onto them and tangling his hand in theirs to hold on. Fingers that sunk between his, tugging him away from the hidden entrance as Changbin slipped through too, and the faint light coursing through disappeared. Enclosing them into a complete darkness. As if someone put a blindfold over his eyes, or removed his sight entirely. Only the pounding of his heartbeat reverberating in his ears. His strained breath as he felt the hand laced in his tugging him along an unseen pathway. The footsteps, his, the three others, tapping on solid concrete floors around him.

After a moment, a light flickered alive. A lighter, the same Jisung had when he found Felix in the pits of the walls, glowed. Illuminating the narrow pathway around them. Solid concrete. Wide enough for them to walk with their arms wide. A draft that breezed through around them. The faint illumination, offering them enough of something to see where they were going. And for Felix to realize he was clutching onto Hyunjin's hand hard enough for his knuckles to ache with the pressure he was squeezing down, his fist bundled up against the quartermaster's bare arm and the sleeveless shirt that exposed him, and how Hyunjin didn't seem to mind him nearly stepping on his heels as they walked along. Just squeezing their hands tighter together for reassurance. Just tugging him a little closer.

Probably, Hyunjin could hear the thundering of his heartbeat. Probably, he understood just how terrified Felix suddenly felt; How his mind couldn't remember why, but his heart knew he should be afraid.

At a certain part of the pathway, they turned toward the wall. A crack separated the two halves, chipped away large enough for a body to slip through. Hyunjin let go of Felix's hand, turning his body sidewise to scoot himself through the first half before holding his hand out for him to silently take up again. Tugging him through the tight squeeze stabbing into his chest. Guiding him through to the other side, a step down that splashed a filthy rust-colored liquid around Felix's boots, a wider pathway with lengthy walls that trapped them inside. He took a second to reorient himself to the familiar surroundings, before Hyunjin was tugging him along again.

This is where they found me?

Traversing through the waiting darkness, until an angled slope pulled them from the strange liquid that pooled at the bottom. Continuing farther, and father, while Felix's memories began to ache gently, where the officers found metal pipes that were rooted into the walls. A maintenance ladder. Where he grabbed on and began to pull himself off, his hands barely managing to hold on, the soles of his boots slipping out with the liquid clinging to him, at the top, the third crack in the wall they slipped underneath, and the massive corridor that stretched out in front of him when they emerged from the other side. Large enough to fit the buildings of the Sanctuary inside, the plain concrete they began to glow with a faint light hung from the top of the corridor. How far they kept walking, their footsteps tapping down as they didn't seem to make progress in that massive hallway regardless.

Again, another door they quietly pressed open.

Again, another ladder that Changbin quietly held his hips to help him up the first few steps.

And again, another accessway that fell quiet with the echos of their footsteps.

How much farther do we have to go?

Felix squeezed down on Hyunjin's hand, his heartbeat growing louder and louder in his ears as they walked down the empty accessway. A faint glow hovered in the narrow strait, hazy hues that consumed them the farther they trudged through.

He let go of Felix's hand as they approached, not a ladder, but simply a wall. How he slowly dug his fingers into the narrow, shallow cracks, and used the leverage to lift himself up ever so slightly to touch a particular spot in the low ceiling. Pushing a few times as Changbin and Jisung hustled to support him, until a chunk of the concrete lifted and moved to the side with his fingers. A breeze immediately sinking into the hallway, coursing shivers through his body despite the jacket that covered him up.

Hyunjin pulled himself through the new opening first, his hand reaching down once he was stabilized above.

Beneath him, Changbin slumped himself back against the wall, angling his thigh as he gestured to Felix, "You're going next, step up."

Hesitantly,

He followed that command.

Holding onto Changbin's shoulders as he stepped up onto his thigh, reaching for Hyunjin's arms as they grabbed on and supported him the rest of the way up, hauling him until his boots touched down onto the new surface.

It's cold.

And it's dark.

The only two things he could process through the throbbing in his head. A ringing in his ears muffling vertigo shaking his trembling body as he tried to press himself off the hard ground and up to his feet, Hyunjin's hand helping him from falling forward entirely off the edge in front of them. The walls breathed around him, groaning loudly as a haze settled with faint embers. An unnatural glow, illuminating the darkness around them, reflecting skylight blues in Hyunjin's eyes as the officer let go of him.

It's cold.

It's dark.

And his breath hitched inside of his throat as he saw the world stretched in front of him.

Buildings in strange shapes, raised high to a ceiling that never stopped their growth, borne ceaselessly, carelessly, like astroids that blazed across the midnight light. Windows that spotted the darkened shapes lit up in the illuminating haze that settled as neon around the structures. Shimmering. Blues, purples, pinks, swimming through the gentle wind. The atmosphere as a the clean and refreshing scent that settled into his inhales, luminous of the movements of a civilization beneath them, an opulent divinity in the holographic screens plastered to the sides of the endless rows of buildings, their signage moving faster than his eyes could intake the hazy light, the raising meadow, gone on and on forever as a concrete jungle of those dazzling lights and never-ending skyscrapers as far as the haze would allow him to see.

Celestial in the lights that shined endlessly like the stars in the night sky. Ethereal, as if the city was home for a sleeping god that rested beneath it's haze with every breath.

Felix started softly, trying to find the words within the locking of his throat, "It's..."

"Big," Jisung completed with a faint nod, the unnatural lights illuminating his mask as he took his place alongside Felix and gaze scanned down along the city skyline, "Beautiful, too?"

Behind them, Hyunjin grumbled, "Yeah, the income taxes are egregious though."

The other officers just turned, and stared at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that- I'm not wrong!"

╭ ─┉─ • ─┉─ ╮

Felix's Log #10

The Dreaming City: A city sheltered away inside walls that protect it from the outside wastes, comprised of two parts, the Inner Conflux (Aristocrats) and Outer Conflux (Commoners). The power structure is confusing, but I think I'm starting to understand it.

World Eater (A machine of some sort?)

↳Chief of Wardens/The Viper (Leader directly under the World Eater)

↓

Council (The ones in control?)

↓

Wardens (Enforcement) and Aristocracy (Rich people)

↓

Commoners (Me)

The Dreaming City confuses me greatly. Hopefully I'll understand more as I see it... Maybe I'll remember more about myself too.

╰ ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─ ╯

Most dystopian part of this story is the dreaming city having super high taxes