Chapter Ten

Spark 

Leeteuk had practically thrown Donghae over the fence, as his still bleeding ankle kept him from being able to run like the other two. The fence provided an obstacle for the Chosen, however they did not slow down, the older boys dragging the youngest behind them. The gun in the Chosen’s possession was what motivated them to continue. He was surprised that none of the neighbors had been disturbed by the piercing sound of the shot the man had fired. Leeteuk wondered if it was too much of a common occurrence, however pushed the thought away as he did not need anything to distract him from their escape.

He was thankful that they were at the end of the neighborhood, as all that stood in their way from leaving was a cinderblock wall that stood  over six feet tall. There was no security in the Slums, luckily, or they would have been in a lot of trouble. He had heard of the Chosen that guarded any of the richer places would have sent all of them to Seventh Circle, or taken them back to the Chosen they had run away from, if they were a bit more merciful. Only the Chosen man had any intentions of stopping them there.

“When I catch you, you’ll wish you were dead!” The man screamed, venom oozing out of his threat. He fired off several shots in the air as he fumbled with the lock on the gate out of the backyard.

They panted, however refused to let up even a bit in their full-out sprint. Eunhyuk tried to speak, his voice barely rising above a whisper as he strained to do so. “He’s trigger happy, but he has really crap aim.” He tried to comfort them as Donghae had looked pretty prepared to faint as the gunshots pierced through the air.

Reaching the wall, they both decided on helping Donghae over first as blood only continued to flow out of the open puncture marks from the dog’s sharp teeth. They heaved up the small boy by the waist, hoping he would not face plant once he reached the other side, however heard him land with a soft thud so they were sure he was alright. Leeteuk made a mental note that they would have to clean and bandage him up somehow. He was losing way too much blood.

Leeteuk helped up Eunhyuk, as well, having noticed his awkward movements and did not put it past the Chosen man that pursued them to have beaten him. As the hyung of the two of them, he found himself perfectly capable of getting himself over it. He dared to glance behind him and saw the man hot on his heels. They had perhaps sprinted a few yards ahead, although with the adrenaline that flowed inside of him he felt it had been miles. In reality, only a few minutes had passed, however it felt like hours.

He took a few steps back, not because he wanted to get any closer to the Chosen man, so that he could have a better start off as he ran and jumped. His hands gripped tightly at the wall’s edge, grunting as he began to pull himself up, scraping his body against the rough wall and breaking skin. Leeteuk ignored the slight pain, hearing the man’s footfall become gradually more apparent and he knew the man was going to catch up soon enough. The Chosen was very out of shape and looked to be in his late forties, which was lucky for the boy struggling up on the wall. He could hear the man coughing and sputtering, seeming to have to stop to catch his breath.

He propped his stomach on the wall, trying to slide down when he heard gunfire and screamed out when a bullet grazed against his back, ripping open the material and tore open the skin. Leeteuk tried to bite back any obscenities, however they flowed out of him easily.

His dongsaengs grabbed his arms, trying to pull him over to the other side. “Are you alright, hyung!? Leeteuk-hyung! Are you hurt?” Donghae immediately freaked out, while Eunhyuk tried to be a bit calmer about the situation. He put a hand gently over the boy’s lips, causing him to immediately silence.

“We need a bit more distance to cover,” He spoke seriously, “There’s plenty of other Slums around, but we want to head to somewhere… nicer. The Gates aren’t as high-scale as the City, but they’re not too far away and I’m sure they have a hospital there.”

“They would help humans?” Leeteuk asked, highly doubting such. Despite the stinging of his skin, he was sure that the youngest was in the most critical condition of the three of them.

“Not exactly…” Eunhyuk trailed off before smiling mischievously, “But do we really look much different than them?”

***

Leeteuk glanced at Eunhyuk, shooting him a look of warning. He supposed the younger had been right, there were not many visual differences between Chosen and humans, however they did not know much about them besides that. There was obviously something about them that had made them able to easily overwhelm the humans once all of the technology they had had been completely obliterated

“If push comes to shove,” Eunhyuk whispered as they walked through the sliding glass doors to reveal a sterile white entryway, “We’ll just act like we’re insane and hopefully they’ll be too taken aback to know what to do.” 

It had been a full forty eight hours since they had escaped the Slums where Eunhyuk had been kept. The make-shift bandage peeking out of Donghae’s shoe had been made from the shirt Leeteuk had had when he was shot. The skin still was wounded, however it did not bother him too much. His dongsaeng, however, had a hard time walking without having to wrap an arm around either – or both – of the boys.

“Act like we’re insane?” Leeteuk scoffed, gesturing down to the fresh, clean clothes that clung to his body, “Who was the one that came up with the idea to jump a group of Chosen and take their clothes?”

Eunhyuk chuckled, “If we want to look like Chosen, we have to blend in. I don’t even know what you guys were wearing they were so filthy. Besides, they won’t know it was us.”

“That’d be awful to wake up to,” Donghae said softly, grimacing at the thought of his next statement, “Weren’t they ?”

“… They still had their boxers on.” Eunhyuk murmured defensively.

The other two boys simply looked at the anchovy awkwardly before heading to the ER unit of the building. They figured, that way, they would have to answer the least questions about who they were as possible. The three hoped that they would just be treated quickly and they could then leave.

They sat on a comfortable bench, waiting for a nurse to notice them and watched as one headed over while immersed in her clipboard. His heart beat painfully against his chest, hoping that when the girl looked up she wouldn’t immediately recognize them as different or something. Donghae seemed to be afraid too, as he leaned close to Leeteuk, needed someone to cling to like a puppy.

“Guys, don’t be so obvious.” Eunhyuk hissed quietly and the other two straightened up immediately.

The girl smiled kindly towards them. “What brings you in here?” She asked, inspecting them and noticing that nothing seemed exactly wrong about them.

The only one who seemed to know what he was doing was the one that had come up with the plan in the first place. “My dongsaeng here,” Eunhyuk pointed out Donghae, “Recently got a new dog and is having a hard time training him. Unfortunately, it seems to still think of him as its chew toy.”

“Oh,” The girl nodded empathetically, “I remember when our dog was like that. Let me take a look.” She bent down as the youngest pointed to his ankle. The girl slid off his shoe and unwrapped the bandage to look. Angry red, puncture wounds ran along his ankle and almost reached his shin.

After a few moments of contemplation, the girl stood up and gestured for the three of them to follow them, scribbling furiously on her clipboard as she provided them with an explanation. “It seems to be healing on its own, however we’ll still make sure it gets sterilized. There are no signs of any kind of infection and we would like it to stay that way.” She led them into a small room, and had Donghae climb up on the hospital bed. Leeteuk spotted a small bandage on one of the counters – a real one, not some kind of tattered shirt – and took it. He did not want to draw attention to his flesh wound, as he was unsure how they would explain that one, so he figured covering it would at least keep him from being exposed to infections as well.

She dabbed a cotton swab in alcohol and began to rub it gently over the affected skin. Donghae let out a slight whimper and the girl cooed to him, “Just a few more seconds, hon.” The other two boys exchanged a look, raising their eyebrows at each other. Back when they had been growing up, much before heading to the Ruins, Donghae had definitely been very popular amongst girls. Leeteuk and Eunhyuk had been as well, however they had always found their dongsaeng – sometimes known as “Fishy” because of his name – to be adorably irresistible.

The nurse then glanced towards the other two. “Are you three new here?” She asked, smiling flirtatiously, “This is a pretty small suburb, so… I tend to know almost everyone that comes through.”

“Oh,” Leeteuk decided to do some speaking, he was not as prepared for excuses as Eunhyuk, however he was a decent liar, “We were trying to surprise some friends that lived here... and our dongsaeng decided to take his dog along. I guess it didn’t really like being away from home…”

“Who are your friends?” The girl asked brightly, “I probably know them.”

“Er… you know. There’s so many of them…”

Donghae, trying to get the attention off of his stammering hyung, tapped the nurse lightly to get her attention. “Noona, my ankle still hurts!” He pouted, being dramatic enough to get the older boys to roll their eyes.

“We’ll take care of that.” She told him soothingly, seeming to completely forget what they had been speaking about earlier. The nurse returned to caring for him, immersed in her work when Eunhyuk was suddenly struck with an idea.

“Do you think you can help us with something?” He asked, causing her to turn to him, nodding as though she was open to the idea.

“You see… our car broke down and we really need to get home. Do you think you could drive us to… the City?” The other two stared at him incredulously, wondering where his words had come from. They had not discussed going to the City as part of their plan.

“What about your dog?” She asked, remembering their story while the three obviously had not.

“Er, we have a dog trainer-hyung who would agree to train him.” Donghae added in before trying to detract from the subject, “Won’t you help us?” His large, puppy eyes found their way to gaze into the girl’s.

“… I-I…” The girl faltered, “Okay, noona will take you.” 

Author's Note:

The longest chapter I've written so far for this story :3. Hope you enjoy it~ Some of my past stories have been ten plus pages per chapter but.. nah. I like them like they are right now^^~ Feedback please <333 Take care~ *blows kiss in EunJa fashion* (If you don't know who EunJa is, watch Intimate Note immediately. It is best for your health xD) 

~*Carissa*~