[CONTENTID1] CHAPTER FIFTY ONE - JUST LIKE THAT[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

Warning: feels ahead. Oh, and rants are welcome. I'm sorry ;-;

Also, IM SORRY FOR THE MINI HIATUS! I've just been busy and I keep starting new stories because when I get inspired to write, I HAVE to do it. I can't let it slide! XD 

Oh and remember, the more of you comment, the more likely I am to update very soon! Don't disappoint ;)

“JUNGKOOK!” Jiyong screeches as we skid around a corner. Julien places me down on the ground, ignoring the pungent stench of the vomit all over me and him as he slams the doors shut and barricades them. Jiyong falls to his knees, yanking his hair violently as he cries softly. Sehun kneels down in front of me and grabs my chin, forcing me to look up.

“You’ll be okay,” he tells me. I don’t say anything; I can’t. I have no words left to describe what I’m feeling. Jungkook was the last person connecting me to my past, to my family. First, Taemin. Then Jongin. And now, Jungkook was also gone. Three of the most influential men in my life, gone like dust in the wind. 

And it was so easy, too. They were taken from me so easily, it’s actually insulting. Jungkook went the same way as Taemin — with a grenade. Just one explosion and they were obliterated into mere chunks of flesh. Jongin drowned, just like that. No evidence, nothing to left to remember him by. 

The world truly is a cruel place. And us? We’re just expendable things inhabiting it. We’re just pawns. 

“Hyerim,” Sehun says, his voice taut. “You’ll be okay.” I simply nod in response, I don’t want to argue with him. I’m too tired for that. He looks me up and down and sighs. “We’ll get you cleaned up later. Right now, let’s get out of here alive.” I nod again. He looks up. “Julien, what’s the plan?”

My eyes follow his and I turn my face towards Julien. The hulking man has slumped shoulders and a hanging head. Deep breathing can be heard and he takes one final sharp inhalation before turning around and releasing it. His eyes are red, evidence that he’s trying hard not to cry. 

“They’ll be outside this door in moments,” he says, his voice hard and unwavering. He looks around the room and nods ahead. “There, that window. Let’s move.”

“Jay…”Jiyong croaks, looking at at Julien. “He’s still back there.”

“He’s dead, GD,” Julien replies, though his voice cracks at the second word. “He’s gone, we have to keep moving or we’ll be dead too.” I expect Jiyong to break down and refuse to leave but he doesn’t. He nods tersely and gets to his feet, his hands closing into tight fists. Julien marches to him and claps one hand down on his shoulder, squeezing it. “We have to be strong, GD. Jay’s death can’t be for nothing.” I know that they’re trying hard to keep it together because they’re no longer addressing each other by their real names.

“I understand, hyung,” Jiyong gulps. “CL and Taeyang’s deaths can’t be for nothing either.”

“Exactly, the others are also depending on us,” Julien adds. I look down, the looks on their faces too much to bear. They still don’t know about Jimin and I refuse to be the one to tell them. “Come on, let’s go back to our people…and make these ones pay.”

“Ne, OK!” Jiyong shouts obediently. Julien nods and squeezes his shoulder once more before striding to the window he pointed out earlier. Sehun picks me up and takes me over, Jiyong following closely behind. 

“Sehun, get her to the others safely. Jiyong, go with them. I’ll follow shortly after but I need to keep these guards off your backs for a while,” Julien informs us.

“I’m not leaving you here alone,” his friend scoffs. “And don’t try to convince me, hyung. I’m staying to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.” Julien rolls his eyes but smiles, nodding. He then opens the window for us and Sehun helps me through it. Since we’re on the ground floor, there aren’t any heights to worry about.

“You okay?” Sehun asks as I slid over to the other side. I nod and hold myself up against the wall as I wait for him to join me. He slips through the window and picks me up again. He turns to Julien and Jiyong. “Right behind us.”

“Right behind you,” Julien affirms.

Sehun starts running, my body bouncing in his arms. The smell of vomit is strong but I don’t react to it. After all, there are bigger and badder things in play. We’ve only gotten a dozen feet or so away when the sound of ceaseless gunshots ring behind us. Sehun swears under his breath, “.”

I hope they’re okay.

But at this point, hope is pretty useless. All there is to it is skill and one’s will to survive. Hope and luck are out the window, they’re no longer on our side. 

“YAH! STOP RIGHT THERE!”

A bullet slices through the air and connects with something. Sehun swears, louder this time, and we fall forward. I fly out of his arms and roll to a stop, pain rocketing through me — through my shot up legs, especially. I fight the pain and force myself to my feet. Sehun grunts and jumps up, wincing as he puts his weight on his bleeding left leg. 

“s,” he growls, moving to pick me up yet again. I step back and shake my head.

“I can walk,” I say through gritted teeth. I glance over his shoulder. “Guards. We need to run.” He nods and grabs my hand, tugging me along. I feel intense, concentrated agony all over my body but I try my hardest to ignore it. The way I see it, the only person who can fix me up is Youngjae. And where is Youngjae?

At the barn.

“Hurry,” I hiss and Sehun picks up the pace, dragging me after him. Bullets start flying through the air and we manoeuvre in zigzags, making it harder for the guards coming after us to get a good shot at us.

Ha, ers. We’re not going down that easily.

“There!” Sehun shouts and I look ahead. We’re in another courtyard, bigger than the other one and not all concrete. There’s grass everywhere and the barn is a few hundred feet away from the entrance. There are slaves and patients sitting, resting and working on the land. Guards are nowhere to be seen — except behind us, of course — since they’ve all most likely been summoned.

“Hyerim! Sehun!” Hyoyeon hollers and I growl under my breath. Why the hell is she still here? More people appear at her side and I scream inside my head at their stupidity. They were supposed to leave and we’d catch up — not wait for us. “Ándele, ándele! Hurry those asses up!”

“Shut the up!” I shout back and hear her cackle in response. Sehun’s hand leaves mine as someone rams into him, tackling him to the ground. “What the—” The same happens to me and my head connects with the ground. Thankfully, the grass serves as a thin cushion. 

“Hold them down!” I hear Hyorin shout and look up. I try to get up but the man on top of me has his hands on my shoulders, his weight pinning me to the ground. “I want the satisfaction of killing them myself.”

“In your dreams, ,” I spit, earning myself a slap across the face from the guard. I grin and he tilts his head in confusion. “Your hand is still raised, .” And just like that, I reach up and snatch the gun resting on his hip and hold it up under his chin. “Get up.” He does as he’s told and I will myself to stand. I keep the gun aimed at him and look at Hyorin. “Tell your baboon to get off my friend.”

“Or what? You’ll shoot him?” Hyorin scoffs, nodding at the guard I’m threatening her with. “Go ahead, see if I care.” I smile and shrug, pulling the trigger. Blood splatters across my cheek and the male slumps to the ground. Hyorin’s own smile falters and anger flashes in her eyes. “You crazy !”

“Mwoya~ You told me to do it,” I pout, tilting my head at her as I aim at the guard on top of Sehun. “Tell him to get off.” Hyorin grits her teeth together. I let out a sigh. “One…two…”

“Kane, get off him,” she bites out. The guard begrudgingly pushes himself off Sehun and walks back to her side. “You think you’ve won? You’re still in my home. You’re going to die here.” 

I scrunch my nose up. “Uh…I don’t think so. I think we’ll get going now.”

“Really? You’d leave your friends behind?” she asks with a smirk. I freeze, eyeing her coldly. Behind her men, Jiyong and Julien appear. They’re shoved forward then pushed down to their knees. “I’m going to kill them. Want to watch?”

“Nah, I think we’re good,” a new voice replies. The guards whip around, their guns pointed at the intruder. 

Except, it’s not just one intruder.

“TAO!” I exclaim. His silver eyes light up and he smiles crookedly, flashing me a wink. Then, his arm shoots out and goes through a guard’s chest. He yanks it back, removing his heart. Hakyeon grabs another one of them and crushes their skull with his barehands.

“WHAT THE— SOMEONE STOP THEM!” Hyorin shrieks. Julien and Jiyong leap to their feet and attack two more guards, battling for their weapons. I muster up some strength and lunge at the woman, taking her to the ground.

In seconds, chaos breaks out. The rest of her guards file into the courtyard like an army of ants, except a hundred times bigger and a thousand times angrier. It seems for whatever reason, they’re all hellbent on protecting this crazy of a ‘Boss’. It’s more pathetic than admirable. 

Someone grabs me and I twist my body to hit them in the face. “Yah, Song Minho. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Saving your ,” he replies cheekily, then casts a look over my shoulder. “We need to kill them. They won’t let us leave otherwise.”

“The kids—”

“DaeJae and those men you sent are escorting them out as we speak,” he informs me. His eyes widen and he spins us around, jutting his leg out and kicking a guard in the throat. The guard coughs and gargles before collapsing. “That blind girl, the twins, Bora, Kyuhyun and Jackson are with them. Oh, and the scientist. There's a few others but we don't know them.”

Slaves?

“Okay,” I breathe out, “Good. Let’s fight.”

He snort, “Excuse you. Hyerim-ah, you’re in no—” He stops and releases me.  I manage to stabilise myself and watch as he dodges a punch from another guard and pulls him into a chokehold, snapping his neck with some effort. “—You’re in no position to fight. I’m getting you to that barn.”

“Yah,” I eye him up and down. “I