Leaving the office and heading out into the main tunnels I lead my group to the right. The way to the central shaft is relatively short, but judging by her appearance, the new girl may have a bit of trouble with it. The ground is uneven with loose stone littering the tunnels and those of us who live down here may have learned to pick our feet up, but this girl looks like she would get blown away just by breathing on her. Regardless, I keep everyone at a good pace. A great deal of the people in my mines are either Matoki or working together with us, but that doesn't mean that everyone is safe for us to talk to. Just because I run the people down here, doesn't mean I know everyone, and the fact that we had Rats down here recently makes me nervous. They aren't known to go undercover but, considering they were willing to risk wandering through the mines unassisted, I'm not willing to put anything past them anymore. I look over my shoulder to make sure the others are following me closely and I start laughing to myself. I know I said not to look at anything, but I didn't mean it literally. Walking between Ravi and N is Taylor, her eyes focused determinedly on the ground – I can't help but wonder if this will keep her from falling or cause it. Leaving it alone, I turn a sharp left, snapping at someone stupid enough to get in my way. I'm not usually so openly aggressive to anyone aside from my family, but the whole situation has me on edge.

I turn another left and just ahead the wall disappears, opening up into a sheer drop, each wall having a metre-wide steel ladder that runs over the tunnel openings all the way down to the bottom-most tunnels. I can hear people moving around and I'm about to swing around when I remember that the people from VIXX might not be able to constantly leap from ladder to ladder.

"Ravi."

"What's up?" Ravi walked over with some difficulty, his overalls fisted up in Taylor's hand as he essentially dragged her along with him.

"I'm assuming Taylor couldn't jump a good three metres across, yeah? Do you think you'd be able to jump across with her on your back? You're going to have to twist in mid-air to catch yourself on the opposite ladder."

Ravi looked out into the shaft and his expression went blank, calculating the three metre leap. "Yeah, I think I could do it."

I heard Taylor whispering something but I ignored it and continued on.

"Perfect. I'll climb down first because I'm not having you jump without backup. Hyuk, Leo." The two men snapped to attention. "I want you two to follow me down. Keep an eye on me to know when you need to jump, and when you get to the landing, stay on either side of the ladder. I want the two of you to grab Ravi and Taylor as soon as his hands touch the steel. Got it?"

There are no replies – the men standing around me understand that down here, what I say goes. No arguments. With eyes adjusted to the low light, I can see the people who are rushing up and down the ladders, constantly leaping through open air to avoid running into one another as they continue on their way. Taylor comes to stand beside me and I put a hand out to keep her safe; she's trying to avoid looking everywhere at once, but I can see the curiosity in her eyes. I hear loose stone crunching under boot and Ravi has come up behind us. Like a big brother, he kneels down to help Taylor onto his back before hauling her up higher, making double sure she has her legs and arms locked around his waist and shoulders. I grab hold of the ladder and lean out into the seemingly bottomless shaft.

"Pick an exit, people! Newbies learning the ropes coming down from the top!" I holler down at the top of my lungs. I hear people scrambling and I swing around the ladder with ease. "We've got to go about thirty meters straight down before the jump. Hang on tight, because if you fall you'll take out everyone else below you and I can't help you. Don't up."

I start climbing down followed silently by Leo and Hyuk, and I look off to my left. I can see the people standing in the openings and many of them touch or scratch at their right ears, and I find myself smiling. My heart swells with pride knowing that the salute is not meant for me and my family. They may not know what's happening precisely, but the only reason I ever call down that there are newbies with me is to clear the way for outsiders; they can't leave to help, but they damn well want to show their respect for the men with me.

The cool metal under my hands and the smell of stone is calming to me as we make our way down slowly towards the third level. This is always a dangerous operation, sending recruits out, and usually we don't take the central shaft, but I'm still paranoid about Rats. I'm not willing to take round-about side routes that would take half a day to navigate, parading outsiders around and increasing the risk of being seen by the government's spies. I can hear whispering coming from my boys who are bringing up the rear followed by snickering and I conclude that it's probably Youngjae and Daehyun laughing at Yongguk again. I snarl incoherently and they shut up instantly, but somehow I know that up there in the darkness Daehyun is probably mocking me. I know it's a boring run but I need everyone to have their head on straight.

The shaft remains dead silent for the rest of the descent until I call out for everyone to stop. Winding my legs through the rungs and locking my ankles together, I let go with both hands so that I can lean out for everyone to look down and see me.

"Floor three opposite, clear the landing!" I turn to look back up. I stretch to point out the tunnel waiting just across from me. "Do you see that opening there? That's where we're jumping to. I know it doesn't look like much, but don't relax; the tunnel is just over three meters wide and we're more than a hundred meters from the bottom. Listen carefully and jump exactly as I tell you because if you screw this up, you will die. Kick off the rung with both feet, twisting your upper body around as you let go. Jump up and out. Do not jump straight across. As soon as your feet clear the ladder, twist your hips and bend your legs. You want to land hands first and bending your knees to absorb the shock of hitting the ladder. Got it? Now watch and learn."

Pulling myself back to the ladder, I untangle my legs from the ladder and take a deep breath. With a soft hup I throw myself up and away, enjoying the stomach-flipping feel of the fleeting fear that grips me every time I'm twisting around mid-jump. Steel touches my palms and my hands grip the rung like a vice only a second before my boots hit a lower rung with a clang, bending my knees to absorb the impact. I give myself a second before I swing around the ladder and out into the tunnel.

"Hyuk. You first."

I closely watch the two men following behind me as they make each make the leap in turn, but upon their landing I'm impressed. There wouldn't really be anything I could do if they missed, but a slip upon landing is caught easily enough. As Ravi steps down a few rungs to where I call out for him to stop for the jump I can see him hesitate, second guessing himself, and now I'm nervous. The best thing you can do when you jump is to trust your body. I panic as I see his knees straighten as he twists around.

"Catch him. Catch him, he's going to fall!"

Everything seems to happen in slow motion as Ravi lands hard and Taylor's legs drop from his waist from the impact. She slips back, her wrists still locked, jerking him backwards suddenly and his grip on the bar is broken. Before Taylor can fall further Leo has leaned around the ladder and wrapped an arm around her, dragging her to safety, but Hyuk isn't so lucky. He can't get an arm around him and only has him by the shoulder of his overalls.

Ravi is still falling.

I leap forward, striking my face on the steel with splitting force as I over-reach through the rungs to grab the collar of his overalls and heave him up against the ladder.

"Got the ladder?" I ask, not letting go.

He only nods in response. His team-mates keep a close eye on him as I slowly release my death grip on his overalls, also watching him carefully as he steps in to the tunnel; I clap a hand on his shoulder and quietly suggest sitting down until the others come down. He just nods again and moves back, but opts to stay standing. Taylor walks over to stand next to him, her small frame trembling. I'm not surprised – almost dying does tend to take its toll on a person. She's shaken by her brush with death but she'll be fine eventually. I hear them talking but I'm not paying attention anymore. That was too close a call and I'm not willing to risk standing back for the rest of VIXX, just in case; I stay standing behind the ladder to catch anyone else who might fall, but as Jongup made the first jump of my men I turned and started walking again. Winding down through the mine, we make our way further into the south-eastern tunnels and towards the "cave-in zone" we had designated earlier this month.

As we keep going, all the people working stopped to touch their ears as we walked by. We have been walking for almost an hour and a half after crossing through the central shaft, but we are very nearly there. Turning a corner, we hit what most would assume is a dead end but hidden in the shadows at the floor is another tunnel – the entrance to our rabbit hole.

"All right people, here we go. Everyone hop down. Yongguk, you first." He nods sharply and practically leaps in head first. I can't help but smile at his enthusiasm but as the others follow him down, I look up and am shocked at what I see.

There in front of me, blending almost perfectly into the darkest corner, is the moving tunnel.

Zelo, bringing up the rear, stops and follows my gaze. "You're not going to follow it, are you?"

I shake my head slowly. "No… but it seems to be showing up a lot lately. And in important places. I'm going to talk to Yongguk later though, because I'm starting to feel like these aren't coincidences anymore."

Without another word, Zelo hops down and I follow suit. The others are all standing grouped together, waiting patiently for me to show up. N is standing farthest from me, talking with Yongguk and the two recruits.

"N," I call out. He turns to look over at me and smiles.

I begin walking towards them when I find Taylor is in my way; I don't know what they're talking about, but she and Daehyun seem to be rather involved in their conversation. It's nice to see Daehyun speaking so much that I feel it would be rude to disrupt them. Without saying a word I grip Taylor's shoulders, pick her up right off her feet, and place her off to the side; I hear Daehyun killing himself laughing and clapping as I walk up to N and Yongguk.

"Took you long enough," Yongguk grumped.

"I saw the moving tunnel."

"So? We see it around a lot."

"It's right outside. Yongguk, we need to talk about this later because there's no way that's a coincidence."

"A moving tunnel?" N interjects, obviously curious.

"That's right. You don't know about it."

"Time is not our friend right now," Yongguk says from over my right shoulder, interrupting my thoughts as I debate telling him. "We need to separate. Bree?"

I nod and reach into a large pocket on the left leg of my overalls, pulling out what looks like a steel box. Handing the detonator to him, he takes it, hefting it in his hand a bit.

"I suppose I should probably apologize for being such a hardass on all of you. Honestly, I'm quite glad to have met you finally. You're very different in person – far more amusing and… cute? More of a person rather than just a leader. I hope we will have the chance to meet again."

I hold out my hand to him with my usual crooked half-smile, expecting that we would part on a friendly handshake; I don't know how to react when he grabs my hand and pulls me into a hug.

"I'm sure we will," he chuckles, letting me go.

Standing there for a moment, I'm not sure what just happened but I snap back to my senses as Yongguk roughly grabs my elbow and pulls me to the side, getting me out of everyone's way as they follow N. My back hits his chest lightly and I turn to give him a look.

"There are four charges," Yongguk half shouts as they head out. "They're marked on the floor. Make sure you're about twenty-five meters from the last charge when you hit the detonator. As soon as you do, you have two minutes to book it to make sure you're well out of range of anything that may come down."

N waves over his shoulder before they begin to disappear into the darkness.

"Let's get going guys," I sigh.

Twenty minutes later, everyone has headed back to their respective jobs, Yongguk and I checking in with the level's foreman, when several people run by us followed by shouting about a dead end tunnel collapsing. The foreman touches his ear with a nod and takes off running. Suddenly all the stress of the day leaves me and I'm exhausted. We've been in hiding all our lives but our room to move is getting smaller and smaller, and I don't know how much more of this I can take.

"Yongguk?"

"Hm."

"Let's go back, please. I need to crash."

He makes an over-exaggerated yawn and bumps my shoulder with a light punch. "Going to sleep early sounds like a good plan to me…"