Lost in Tomorrow

Chapter 15 - Echoes of the Past

Joon's mind was still clouded with the weight of their recent escape. His footsteps echoed in the dimly lit corridor of their hideout, a repurposed underground bunker Sohyun had discovered. The air was thick with dust, the scent of rust and damp concrete lingering. It wasn't much, but for now, it was home.

Sitting against the cold wall, he let out a deep sigh. Rin sat across from him, sharpening a small knife with mechanical precision, her brows furrowed in deep thought. Daehyun stood near the entrance, arms crossed, his towering presence adding to the tension.

Minji, ever the peacekeeper, placed a bottle of water beside Joon and offered a soft smile. "You should rest."

"I can't," Joon muttered, rubbing his temples. His head ached from the overload of thoughts he had unwillingly picked up from his companions. Anxiety, exhaustion, doubt—everyone was on edge, and it was suffocating him.

His mind drifted back to Haneul's final moments, the look of quiet acceptance in his eyes before vanishing into the explosion. The pain in Joon's chest tightened.

"Still thinking about him?" Sohyun's voice cut through his thoughts. She leaned against the wall, her usual smirk absent.

Joon nodded. "I just... I feel like I failed him."

"You didn't," Daehyun spoke, his voice firm. "Haneul made his choice. He knew the risks."

"But we still don't know what he was trying to tell us before he—" Joon stopped himself, unable to finish the sentence.

Silence settled over them, each lost in their own grief. But they couldn't afford to dwell on it for long. They had to keep moving.

A Mysterious Signal

Sohyun, always the first to break uncomfortable silence, pulled out a small device she had been tinkering with. "I was scanning through old frequencies earlier, and I found something interesting. A transmission."

Joon looked up. "A transmission? From where?"

"From inside the city," she replied, her fingers tapping rapidly on the screen. "It's faint, almost like someone's trying to mask their signal, but it keeps repeating the same message: 'Find the ghost.'"

Rin stopped sharpening her knife, her expression unreadable. "The ghost?"

Joon felt a strange chill run down his spine. "What does that mean?"

Sohyun shrugged. "No clue. But it's coming from deep inside the controlled zones."

The controlled zones—the heart of the city, where the richest lived, completely isolated from the outside world. Breaking in would be suicidal.

Daehyun grunted. "Sounds like a trap."

"Maybe," Sohyun admitted. "But what if it's something more? What if there's someone else like us out there?"

The thought sent a jolt through Joon's chest. Haneul wasn't the only one with abilities. There had to be others. Could this "ghost" be one of them?

"What do you think, Joon?" Minji asked.

Joon exhaled slowly. His instinct screamed danger, but another part of him whispered that this could be the lead they needed. If they wanted answers, they had to take risks.

"We need to check it out," he finally said. "If there's even a small chance this could help us, we have to try."

Into the City

Getting inside the controlled zones was nearly impossible, but Sohyun had her ways.

Dressed in stolen uniforms, Joon, Rin, and Sohyun blended into a crowd of workers entering the city through one of the underground tunnels. Security was tight—armed drones hovered above, scanning every individual.

Joon kept his head down, his mind bracing against the flood of thoughts that rushed in from the hundreds of people around him. Hunger, exhaustion, fear. These people weren't living—they were surviving.

As they slipped past the final checkpoint, Sohyun whispered, "We're in."

The city was eerily quiet. Towering skyscrapers stretched endlessly into the sky, their neon lights blinking hypnotically. The streets were empty, the only movement coming from the massive holographic advertisements that flickered along the buildings.

It was a city of ghosts. People were here, but they weren't living.

"We need to move fast," Rin muttered. "Where's the signal coming from?"

Sohyun pulled up the tracker. "An abandoned building up ahead. If we follow this path, we should be able to get there without drawing attention."

They moved quickly, ducking into alleyways whenever a patrol drone passed overhead. The deeper they went, the more unsettling the city became. They passed apartments with windows glowing from the screens inside, but no one ever came out. It was as if they had been absorbed into the digital world, their bodies merely vessels.

Joon clenched his fists. Was this really the future? A world where people had given up on reality?

"We're here," Sohyun whispered, stopping in front of a crumbling building. The signal was strongest here.

The Encounter

They stepped inside cautiously. Dust swirled in the dim light, and the faint hum of old machinery filled the air.

"Hello?" Joon called out, his voice barely above a whisper.

No response.

They moved further in, their footsteps echoing. The air felt heavy, charged with something unfamiliar.

Then—movement.

A shadow flickered at the edge of Joon's vision. He turned sharply, but there was nothing there.

"Did you see that?" Rin whispered, her grip tightening on her knife.

Before Joon could respond, a gust of wind swept through the room, sending papers flying. And then—

A voice. Soft, yet strangely distorted.

"You shouldn't have come here."

Joon's heart pounded. "Who's there?"

A figure stepped into the faint light. A girl, no older than eighteen. She had short, silver-blue hair, her piercing violet eyes glowing in the dark. She wore a tattered black cloak, her presence almost ethereal.

Sohyun took a cautious step forward. "Are you the one who sent the signal?"

The girl tilted her head, studying them with an unreadable expression. "I was hoping someone would listen."

Joon swallowed. "Who are you?"

She hesitated, as if debating whether to answer. Then, she whispered—

"My name is Yuna."

The air around them seemed to shift. Joon could feel an immense power radiating from her, something different from Haneul.

"What... are you?" Rin asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Yuna's violet eyes met Joon's.

"I'm like you," she said. "But unlike you, I know why we're here."

Joon's breath caught. "You know how we got here?"

Yuna nodded. "And I know who's responsible."

The room fell into silence. The answers Joon had been searching for were finally within reach.

But something told him that with those answers, things would only get worse.

To Be Continued...

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