(32) EXODUS

“We need to get him out of here- now!” Kris half screamed over the booming noise from outside.

The ceiling was starting to give way and the stone rubble slowly began to break, small little rocks and chips of concrete from above pelting the boys on the way to the floor. Seems that since the men outside wouldn’t be able to defeat them from the outside, they’d just blow the place up. Even if they had managed to stay alive until the explosions had stopped, they’d have a slim chance of making it out of there without being crushed under the thousand pounds of heavy rock foundation.

Kris fumbled with the metal restraints that held Tao to the chair, frantically yanking at the hinges. It slowly began to bend and wiggle around the more he pulled and twisted at it, but the loud exploding noises from outside were getting louder, and they didn’t have anymore time.

“Move!” Kyungsoo shouted over the noise.

He shoved Kris aside and began to pound at the metal with his fists, forcing himself to break a few more bones to be able to actually pry open the metal cuffs.

“Be careful with him!” Lay was still trying to keep Tao conscious while he used up the last bit of his energy to heal the weak boy, tumbling to the floor and still managing to let his powers heal.

“How are we going to do this, oh god…” Suho said while trying to figure out a plan.

Kai already knew that they wouldn’t be able to run with an injured person so he had taken the liberty to start stretching his arms and back for the strain he was about to feel for teleporting everyone out.

They were all tired, much too tired to outrun a bunch of men with guns. He didn’t want to have another rerun with what happened those long years ago either.

“Everyone grab hands, or arms... We’re all getting out of here in one swoop.”

Baekhyun turned to Kai and grabbed his shoulder, “are you crazy? You can barely teleport us all separately!”

“Well what else are we going to do then, huh?” Kai said exasperatedly. “We don’t have another choice!”

Sehun watched from behind as the two of them began to argue, forming a plan despite how precious time was right now.

“Guys… I have an idea.”

“That’s nice Sehun, but it can’t be anything risky.” Suho said, shaking his head almost immediately.

“But hyung! I can do this, you know I can.”

Sehun looked at Suho, who still wasn’t sure. He was still considered the youngest and although Sehun had successfully given them enough time to reach Tao, Suho wasn’t ready to let him go alone.

By the look of things, Sehun could see that Suho was already wasting enough time as it was.

“Hyung! I’m not a kid anymore!” He said angrily, already heading out to the door.

Before he could step foot outside, Suho’s shout made him stop, what he said striking all of their hearts.

“We just got Tao back Sehun…” Suho huffed, “I don’t want to lose another brother…”

The risk was great and of course Sehun knew that one false move could end his life. Walking up to Suho, Sehun put both of his hands on his shoulders before squeezing them slightly, as if to say that he was still going to disobey but that everything would be okay.

With that silently being said, Sehun looked at Kai before motioning for him to take off his jacket. He placed it on himself and looked back at Tao. The boy’s chest was steadily rising and falling as Lay worked hard to try and push some life into him, the sight giving him the strength he needed to go onward with his plan.

“If I fail, Kai teleports Tao and Lay out and the rest have to fight their way through. If not, we all run, together.”

Running out the door, Sehun left it as that and the others just stood unsure of what to do.

He might’ve been a little vague with instructions, but his own plan was playing through his head over and over like a mantra. Sehun would do the same thing he did to the guards as before, except this time, permanently leaving them immobile for a good twenty minutes or so for them to escape. Since he had taken Kai’s jacket and placed the hoodie over his face, he was hoping that they would think he was Kai, and change tactics according to his brother’s power.

“88 is running into range, I repeat, 88 is running. Tactics change to formation 45-Z.”

Sehun smirked as the numbers changed and strutted with a bit more speed, dancing, almost. He was excited. Eager. All the while, his smile was nervous and his hands were clammy, because a big amount of guards spread out in front of him in a half-circle, armed with assault rifles and-

Heavy metal riot shields.

He clicked his tongue and took a step back before analyzing the situation, a small grin appearing on his lips before he finally shot forward at the guards. No powers, and no white eyes either. Just him, running as fast as he could towards the line. He needed to get close for this to work.

Everyone on the other side was wondering why 94 was suddenly trying to charge them. Had it been 12, they would’ve really been screwed over, but they could feel the wind picking up the closer Sehun had gotten. They braced for impact.

This looked almost too easy. Sehun let his powers arise out from their holdings and whipped his arm back as his body flew up slightly, heading straight towards two men in the center of the group. They had been pushing forward in hopes that Sehun would try to force his powers to push them back, but they were setting themselves up in that aspect. Sehun had pushed forward just as they were doing themselves, successfully pushing those few guards off balance and into the dirt. It created a gap that was just enough for him to float into, landing down on ground with his legs crossed as he gave them all a small smile.

Sehun brought his hands up to his ears and did what he did before, and just screamed his heart out.

Being this close to the enemy was a good thing in the case of his power, but since the rest of the men were still frozen in shock and had their metal riot shields up, it had amplified the noise that was coming from Sehun, increasing that by tenfold before sending it back to their fellow guardsmen. All of them had collapsed and were out cold before the boys had come stumbling out while trying to hold Tao up, each and every one of them with a look of surprise at what Sehun did.

“Well? Let’s go already!” He said, jumping up to his feet and motioning for them to follow.

While passing by the unconscious guards, the boys still couldn’t help but tread carefully over the bodies sprawled around. Kyungsoo and Kris looked at each other knowingly before picking up a large riot sheild each and moving out to the front of the group, standing in front in case something else had come out for a surprise. Luckily they had, because once they had stepped out of the elevator on the top floor, the boys were blasted by a wave of fire hot enough to melt skin instantly if it were to touch it.

Xiumin helped to push them forward and kept the heat around the handles at bay as they moved out slowly, cooling the metal just enough so that some of the others could help push. Once there was a space between their shields and the elevator, Sehun had gone out and pushed back the fire entirely with his wind.

It wasn’t a pretty sight on the way out, and everyone could hear Chanyeol mentally breaking down somewhere in the back, but with Tao still in such a weak state, they had no time to be crying. Even Chanyeol knew this, which is why he looked away from all of the charred victims and aided Lay in carrying Tao out.

They ran. Continuing to run until their lungs were on fire and their legs were about to snap off. Past guards that threatened to kill them or worse, if that was even possible.

Kris had thrown down his shield on a couple of guards that were chasing them before flying up to the sky, snapping branches and thick brush from the trees to try and obstruct their path. The more the men tried using fire to stop them, the more it caught fire to the trees in the forest, leaving them with a trap they had put on themselves.

The boys escaped, and had taken shelter in the place they’d call home for a while longer.

--

“He’s not waking up…” Sehun said while poking Tao’s cheek boredly.

They’ve all been waiting for Tao to regain consciousness and were sitting together on the floor of their rendezvous point back on the outskirts of the town. Nobody could really do anything besides wait for him to wake up, making small talk, but still not bothering to do anything else really. Hunger and sleep was replaced by anxiety and fear. None of them knew if the faction A guards were following them, or if they were even safe out here.

“Should I shock him awake?”

The boys just rolled their eyes at Chen’s suggestion, though one boy couldn’t help but jump at the sudden offer.

Chen stared at Tao and noticed how his eyes seemed to be moving. “Hey! If you want to sleep, you can do it later. Do you really want me to shock you?”

“Stop bothering him when he’s unconscious.” Kris muttered, unaware of the situation.

“And I thought I’d be able to sleep a little more…”

Heads turned at the raspy voice and Kyungsoo had run first to the kitchen to grab Tao a bottle of water, helping him drink it after his arms refused to move.

“Really? We were worried and you chose sleep over us?” Baekhyun grumbled.

“Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve slept like that, so of course I’d sleep.” Tao yawned, finding it hard to breathe now that he was sitting up. “You all look like .”

Hollow laughs and scoffs rang out in the room, everyone still concerned to see if Tao was really okay or not. He looked at each boy in the room with a small scrutinizing gaze, almost as if he were studying the faces.

“Thanks for concern, but I’m hungry. Where’s the food?” Tao said aloud, already beginning to search himself.

“Now he wants food over us.” Baekhyun huffed, crossing his arms fickly.

Tao let his head loll over to him before frowning, “I haven’t eaten real food in years Baek…”

Baekhyun watched as his eyes began to grow dark, turning away before he had seen anymore. “Let’s eat then, jeez.”

Just as quickly as Tao’s expression turned somber, it had perked up at the sound of food, gasping as something tumbled onto his lap. It was two rolls of rice, see through pack of chicken and some kind of fruit drink. He looked up to see Kai already munching on the chicken from his own pack before handing it out to the others.

“Where did you get this from?” Chanyeol said as he looked at the familiar packaging of the chicken.

“Do you even need to ask?”  Kai gave him a look before Chanyeol as well as the others understood.

Looks like someone still had his sticky fingers.

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