They brought them to a camp because there was nowhere else to go.
Ji-hu figured that out sometime during the first morning, sitting on damp grass with Hana pressed against his side and thousands of strangers packed around them like cattle. His leg throbbed where the metal had pinned him. The medics had wrapped it, said nothing was broken, just deep bruising and torn muscle. He could walk. It just hurt with every step.
A television played on a folding table powered by a generator, and a crowd had gathered despite the static.
"—continuing coverage of what officials are now calling the Convergence. We're receiving reports from affected zones around the globe. In Tokyo, sections of the city have merged with what witnesses describe as an endless petrified forest inhabited by insectoid creatures. In Los Angeles, a desert of red sand now occupies what was once the downtown district, with reports of large serpentine monsters. In London, the Thames has been replaced by black water, and creatures resembling scaled wolves have been sighted along the embankment. In Seoul, multiple districts now overlap with what appears to be a volcanic region—"
The signal cut out. No one knew anything.
But everyone looked up.
The rift was still there. It hadn't moved since yesterday. It hung in the sky like a scar, visible even in daylight, even through clouds. Some people prayed to it. Some cursed it. Most just stared.
Man: They say it's not going away.
Woman: They say planes can't reach it. Just... stop working when they get close.
Man: What is it?
Woman: No one knows.
Ji-hu looked at the rift. At the colors bleeding through. At the wound that had taken his parents.
He looked away.
---
Hana: I want mom.
Ji-hu: I know.
Hana: Are they—
Ji-hu: I don't know.
She didn't ask again. She just pressed closer and he let her.
---
The day passed somehow.
Someone came by with a clipboard and took their names, where they'd been when it happened. They ate when food came. They drank when water came. Hana fell asleep against his shoulder as the sun went down.
Ji-hu watched the sky darken and tried not to think. His leg ached. He ignored it.
Then the screaming started.
---
Man: MONSTERS! THEY'RE IN THE CAMP!
People ran everywhere, no direction, just panic. Gunfire cracked from somewhere near the entrance. Tents collapsed as people crashed through them.
Ji-hu grabbed Hana and ran.
His leg screamed with every step but he didn't stop. He pulled her toward the back of the camp, away from the noise, away from the screaming. They pushed through the crowd. A child lost his mother and stood crying in the middle of the chaos. Ji-hu limped past him.
He told himself there was nothing he could do.
Then Hana stopped.
---
Ji-hu: What are you doing? GO!
She was staring behind them. He followed her gaze.
A wolf-creature had broken through. Same as the one in the water—scales instead of fur, yellow eyes glowing, jaws that opened too wide. It was running straight toward them.
Twenty meters. Fifteen. Ten.
Ji-hu: RUN!
He grabbed her arm and pulled, ignoring the pain in his leg. She didn't move.
Hana: You can't run. Your leg.
Ji-hu: I don't care. MOVE.
Hana: It's too fast.
She was right. He knew she was right. He was limping, slow, easy prey. They wouldn't make the trees. The creature would catch them in open ground.
Five meters.
Hana shoved him backward.
---
He fell hard, his leg exploding with pain as he hit the ground. The creature leaped over him, straight at Hana. She stood there, small and fourteen and completely in its path. Her hands were raised like that would do anything.
Ji-hu: HANA!
Time slowed.
He saw her face. Saw the terror. Saw something else too—desperation, the same desperation he'd felt in the water when he couldn't breathe and the metal wouldn't give. The same refusal.
She didn't know what would happen. She just knew she couldn't let it take him.
She screamed and pushed her hands forward.
---
Water exploded from her palms.
Not a trickle. Not a spray. A blast, thick and powerful, catching the creature mid-air and hurling it backward. It hit the ground and skidded, trying to rise, and she kept pushing. Water kept coming. The creature's neck snapped with a crack that echoed across the camp.
It went still.
Hana collapsed.
---
Ji-hu dragged himself to her, leg screaming, ignoring everything else.
She was burning hot, skin flushed red, breath coming in short gasps. Her eyes were half-open and rolling.
Ji-hu: Hana. Hana!
Nothing.
Ji-hu: Someone help! PLEASE!
People had stopped running. They were staring. At her. At the dead creature. At the girl who had done something impossible.
Man: What the hell was that?
Woman: Is she alive?
Child: Mommy, what's wrong with her?
No one helped. They just stared.
Ji-hu held his sister and felt her burn and watched her breathe too fast. She had stepped in front of him. She had saved him even though he was the older one, even though he was supposed to protect her. She had done something no one should be able to do because she couldn't bear to watch him die.
He couldn't protect her. Again.
She saved him. Again.
And he still had nothing.
---
END CHAPTER 2