Ha-neul holds on to Hye-jin's hand as they follow along. After eating her fill of granola bars, Ha-neul approaches one of the other women and asks, "Are you Korean?"

"Yes," the woman responds.

"How old are you?" Ha-neul asks.

"Twenty-five," the woman replies.

"I'm Ha-neul, this is my sister, Hye-jina," Ha-neul adds, discreetly omitting their surname.

"Na-ra," the woman says.

"Do you know where we're heading?" Ha-neul asks.

"I'm not too sure," Na-ra replies. "My brother paid the broker to take us to China, but they never said where we were going."

"Ah, so they're the brokers?" Ha-neul asks, motioning to the front of the group to the two men chit-chatting about a soccer match.

"No," Na-ra replies, "I never met the broker. I went from person to person, I guess they have their way of keeping the path into China a secret. Was it the same for you?"

Ha-neul thinks for a second before answering. She realizes she shouldn't reveal the fact that the North Korean authorities may be looking for them. "Yes, the same. We never met our broker."

"Mm," Na-ra nods in agreement, "Aigoo, it's so nerve-wracking."

"Nerve-wracking?" Ha-neul asks, genuinely wanting to know Na-ra's story.

"Well," Na-ra replies, "I have no way of knowing who's trustworthy or not. They tell me 'Go here,' and I do it. They say 'Go with them,' and I do. The broker didn't tell us any sign or signal. But they've taken us this far, so I have no choice but to trust them."

Ha-neul nods. Just then another woman joins the conversation. "Hey, I'm curious, how much did you pay?"

"500 thousand won," Na-ra replies. "Why, how much did you pay?"

Just then Hye-jin complains and wants to stop for a break. Ha-neul pleads with her to keep walking, but to no avail. Instead, Ha-neul picks up Hye-jin and carries her on her back. The first rays of the sun become visible in the sky as they continue on the journey.

They walk a few more hours until a road becomes visible in the distance. It is late in the morning, close to noon. Ha-neul sees neither the sea nor the river, so she figures they must have walked north. What looks like a military truck is parked by the side of the road. Sure enough, it is waiting for them, so they walk towards it. Another man jumps down from the driver's seat to greet them.

"Alright, everyone in," the man says in Korean, "We have a long drive ahead."

The eight or so women and two boys (they look younger than Ha-neul) file into the back of the truck onto two long benches lining each side of the truck bed. Ha-neul and Hye-jin are last. Ha-neul lifts up an exhausted Hye-jin into the truck, with Na-ra grabbing Hye-jin's hand and letting her sit beside her. Ha-neul jumps into the truck herself and sits at the end, with one of the men who led the group through their trek sitting directly opposite to her, guarding the exit. The other group leader follows the driver to the front cabin. The group is so fatigued, no one says a word, and as the truck pulls onto the road, nearly everyone falls asleep, except for the man guarding the exit.

Ha-neul wakes up a few hours later, the sun well above the horizon now in the clear afternoon sky. They're still quite a ways from civilization. Despite the bumpy road, the rest of the group - including Hye-jin - is still asleep. Ha-neul notices the man sitting across from her is looking out the back of the truck, seemingly tracing with his gaze the outline of the hills rising and falling gently on either side of the desolate, country road. She finds herself watching the same scene, too beautiful to be real, and resembling more of a painting.

She turns back to the man. He's not much older than she is, and is quite handsome. She coughs awkwardly and feels the need to look down first before looking out again at the scenery. He doesn't respond unfortunately, so she speaks up. "Nice out there, isn't it?" Ha-neul asks.

"I guess so," the man responds. "No different from Korea."

"You also fled?" Ha-neul asks.

"I guess so," the man replies.

"It must have been tough," Ha-neul remarks, trying to find some common ground.

After a long pause, "I guess so," the man replies.

The conversation seems to die. To fill the void, Ha-neul changes the subject. "So, do you know where we're headed?"

"I guess so," the man responds.

Ha-neul's face crumples in annoyance. "And where is that?" she asks.

"We're almost there," the man replies.

"Really?" Ha-neul says sarcastically before mumbling to herself, "I guess so."

Ha-neul feels the anxiety getting to her. Subconsciously, she is not sure whether or not to trust these people. She considers if it's safer to ask them to drop her and Hye-jin off once a town is in sight. But then again, if they have bad intentions, perhaps they won't let them go once they approach a town, so better to ask them now while they're still out in the wilderness. Better yet, perhaps they can jump off now and make a break for it. She noticed none of the men seemed to have guns, so the worst they could do is chase after them, but even then - assuming they have bad intentions, she thought to herself - they would still need to look after the group, which could scatter if left alone. It killed her that she couldn't tell if these people were really going to help them or not.

Shortly after, most of the group awakens. The man guarding the exit opens a box underneath his seat and starts distributing bread and water bottles. Ha-neul decides, once they fill up on food, to ask them to drop her and Hye-jin off out there in the wilderness. If they have bad intentions, they would not let them leave. Then would be the time to run, for there was only one man at the back of the truck, and if he left, the others could flee too.

Ha-neul finishes her bread and gets up to sit next to Na-ra and Hye-jin on the bench opposite her, furthest from the man at the exit. Ha-neul takes a sip of water before resting her head on Na-ra's shoulder. It is quite loud, as the road is bumpy and the truck itself is constantly rattling. Ha-neul decides it's safe, and whispers into Na-ra's ear, "Eonni, Hye-jina and I are leaving. If we run, and they chase us, promise, you'll run away too."

Na-ra's expression freezes - she doesn't move her head at all, waiting to see if the man at the exit reacts. He doesn't, so she slowly nods in acknowledgement. After what seems like an eternity, Ha-neul gets up with Hye-jin to return to her spot opposite the man, close to the exit. She then speaks to the man, "Uh, sir, I think my sister and I will get off here."

The man looks at her with a blank expression. Ha-neul cannot read what he's thinking. She asks, "Is that okay?"

"Sure," the man says, as he reaches under his seat again. He opens the box and grabs a couple pieces of bread and two more water bottles and hands them to Ha-neul to put in her backpack. "Take these then," the man says, adding, "Let's see, it's been about four hours already, so we're probably about an hour and a half still from the nearest town. It might take you a while but you can follow the road in the direction we're headed and you can't miss it. Or, if you want to head someplace else ..." he looks out of the truck to get his bearings, "You could perhaps head east. There's a village up there that's secluded, kind of a hike to get there though."

Ha-neul packs the bread and water bottles into her bag, then looks out of the truck, hesitating.

"You can just hop out," the man says, "We're not going that fast. Or, I can stop the truck?"

Ha-neul changes her mind. "Well, we can ride until we're closer to town then," she says. "We can go on our own then, right?" she asks.

"Sure," the man replies, "I guess so."

After about an hour and a half the truck finally approaches a town. They had been driving all day. It's a decent-sized town, with plenty of concrete apartment complexes and long buildings that look like warehouses. There are a few restaurants here and there.

"I'll pick up some hot food," one of the men in the front of the truck calls out. "We'll stop here for a while."

The man guarding the exit addresses the group. "Anyone need to go to the bathroom? Okay, we'll take turns, but you need to go with me. Listen, everyone, carefully. You can and will be repatriated back to the DPRK if you are reported, so I don't suggest you go out wandering and making it obvious that you're a defector. If you do end up out there on your own, do not mention us - if you put us out of business, then you're ruining it for our fellow comrades who never got the chance to escape that you got right now. Alright, let's go."

Several of the women head towards the back of the truck to exit. The man hops down from the truck, then speaks to Ha-neul sitting on the end of the bench. "If you want to leave," the man says, "Now's the time. Good luck!"

He proceeds to lead several of the women into a restaurant. Ha-neul sits with Hye-jin in the back of the truck. The town seems quite desolate. There are no high rise buildings, but rather concrete apartments and neatly planned streets in a grid stretching out for miles. She is unsure where to go.

After a few minutes the driver returns with bags of food in to-go boxes. "Here," he hands it to Ha-neul. "Pass it around."

Ha-neul is intoxicated by the smell, which is seemingly a meal in itself. She opens the bags and finds just enough boxes for each one in the group, even the two boys. She passes them down along with chopsticks and napkins, and she and Hye-jin open their own boxes to reveal stir-fried noodles. They dig in, as they haven't had a hot meal for almost four days. The food warms their souls.

The "I guess so" man and the other women return to the truck. Ha-neul hands them their food.

"You decided to stay?" the man asks Ha-neul, as she hands him a box of noodles and some chopsticks.

"Mm," Ha-neul nods.

"Good," the man says, following the women back into the truck. He takes up his seat at the end of the bench and eats his noodles.

After a few minutes, the driver appears at the back of the truck and addresses everyone. "Okay, last stop," he says, adding, "Only thirty more minutes."

The truck makes its way deeper into town. It is more of the same homogeneous concrete buildings lining the streets. They finally pull into one of the long warehouses, which has a liftable garage door and a high ceiling. The warehouse can fit probably four of the trucks width-wise, the length going on for blocks.

The driver appears at the back of the truck again. "Okay, everyone out."

The "I guess so" man hops down from the truck and asks Ha-neul frankly, "Did you still want to leave?"

The driver looks surprised. By now it is getting dark as the sun slowly retreats into the west, the streets appearing rather desolate with the islands of streetlights surrounded by huge swaths of darkness.

Ha-neul answers, "I think we'll stay the night at least."

"Good, good," the driver replies. "We can talk it over in the morning."

The group follows the two men into the warehouse. The third man stays behind with the truck at the garage entrance. Inside the warehouse are several subrooms. The men divide up the group and assign rooms for each of them. Quite tired, everyone files in to find sleeping bags and blankets already in the subrooms. Each room has a solitary lightbulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling. Ha-neul finds a sleeping bag for Hye-jin next to Na-ra, and they all quickly fall asleep with the light still on.

Ha-neul awakes the next morning at the sound of the garage door opening. She hears a truck drive in and stop, and another group of people entering the warehouse. Too tired and lazy to go see, she falls back asleep. A few minutes later, she suddenly feels the urge to pee, so she gets up and approaches the door. She is stopped by the "I guess so" man from their truck the day before. He now has a gun, an assault rifle with a high capacity magazine.

"I have to use the toilet," Ha-neul says, half-asleep still.

"Hold it in," the man replies sternly.

Suddenly, Ha-neul feels her heart sink. "But ..."

The man suddenly slaps her across the cheek. "Go back, bitch!"

Ha-neul freezes, until the man raises his gun at her. She quickly retreats back into the room. The rest of the group is startled and realizes the reality of the situation. Shortly after, several other men with guns funnel another group of people into the room. It is suddenly cramped. Just then the armed men throw to the ground a scrawny teenage boy, not much older than Ha-neul, his face bloody and his shirt torn with holes revealing the bruises where he was beaten. This causes all of the young women to exclaim in fear.

"Watch out for these ones," one of the men with an assault rifle says. "Some of them decided to fight back. Especially that kid," pointing at the bloody teenage boy, adding, "He tried to bash my head in with a rock."

The rest of the men exit the room, leaving one behind in a chair by the door to guard it. By this time most of the women and the young boys are crying fearfully. The teenage boy coughs some blood as he lies on his side on the floor. All the others scatter to avoid him. He writhes a bit, then gets up to look around before finally retreating to the corner of the room and curling up by himself in pain.