Exoplanet

Chapter 1: The Fugitives

______________________________

Tao’s lungs burned as he sprinted through the undergrowth, head lowered to avoid the occasional bullet that would whiz by with a sinister whistle. Angry shouts came from behind him, along with the rustling of footsteps as a group of armed men pursued him. Ducking under a low branch, he reached up and pulled it back, letting go a split second later. There was a sharp crack, followed by a pained yell, as the branch found its mark.

Suddenly, another scream echoed throughout the forest, originating from Tao’s left. His blood ran cold when he recognized it to be one of his companion’s cries, but he couldn’t tell if it was out of pain. He immediately veered to the left, simultaneously noticing that the guards were no longer chasing him. They must have run out of bullets.

Slowing down to a fast jog, Tao kept an eye out behind him as he headed for the voice. It wasn’t long before he saw a tuft of black hair sticking out from behind a boulder. He dropped into a crouch, glancing around to check for any lingering guards before tentatively calling out.

“Sehun?”

The person shifted and peeked around the side of the stone. “It’s Jongin,” he said meekly and slowly crawled out from his hiding place.

“Are you hurt?” Tao asked, checking Jongin over for blood. He noticed a tear in Jongin’s sleeve and reached out.

“It only grazed my shirt.” Jongin brushed a hand over the tear, showing the unmarked skin underneath. “Did they get Sehun?”

The bushes a few feet away sounded, making the two of them whip around. Tao and Jongin shifted stances, ready to flee if it was one of their pursuers. The undergrowth shook again before a black-haired young adult carefully stepped out. He stopped a few paces away from Tao and Jongin and looked at them with a blank expression. “I’m here.”

Tao and Jongin relaxed slightly upon seeing Sehun’s uninjured state. Without wasting any more time, the three continued on their path to the southwest. They needed somewhere to hide.

It was supposed to be the four of them, but Baekhyun had refused to come with them. They couldn’t convince him no matter what, and when a few of the company’s officials arrived for Sehun, the three of them knew they couldn’t wait any longer. Tao, Jongin, and Sehun fled amidst confused yelling, blaring alarms, and resonating gunshots. They were only lucky enough to escape because the security in the facility was rather lax and because of their training while they were in the complex.

The three of them had planned their escape for weeks. It started when Sehun had somehow sent the traffic cones that were littering the training field flying to one side without even touching them. All three of them and Baekhyun were shocked, but the latter recovered quickly and pointed out that there was someone else who could do strange things like Sehun. When they asked him where the person was, Baekhyun explained that administration had moved him elsewhere, and he hasn’t been seen since.

Baekhyun’s revelation apparently spooked Sehun. They knew that Sehun didn’t want to be taken to some unfamiliar place without his friends, but Tao had a sneaking suspicion that something else was bothering Sehun. Sure enough, the youngest soon approached him and said there was something Tao needed to see.

When they arrived in Sehun’s room, Tao and Jongin – whom they picked up on the way – were surprised to see Sehun kneel in the middle of the floor and pry up a loose floorboard. Dropping the piece of wood beside him, the youngest proceeded to reach into the floor and pull out a dusty, blue bag. Sehun tugged open the bag and took out a folded sheet of paper. Tao and Jongin moved to stand behind Sehun so they could read the note.

Get out.

The note wasn’t the deciding factor in what made the trio flee, but Sehun was already nervous from what Baekhyun said, so it didn’t take long before both Tao and Jongin were following Sehun as the youngest blew security guards out of the way with his newfound power over wind. The three of them escaped into the forest, lost their pursuers, and were now headed to a small town to the southwest.

“I still don’t understand,” Jongin huffed as they followed an uneven road through the forest. “How did you get your power…thing?”

“I don’t know,” Sehun admitted.

Jongin looked like he wanted to say more but ultimately decided to keep his mouth shut. The three of them were tense enough, and he certainly didn’t want to spark a fight in their current position. Instead, he decided to just follow them as they continued their way down the mountain slope.

They walked in silence, carefully but swiftly moving among the trees. It was a while before Sehun suddenly spoke up, pointing dead ahead of the trio.

“I can see the town.”

Sure enough, the edge of the town was peeking at them through the edge of the woods. All three of them quickened their pace, stopping just past the line of trees. Tao turned to the other two and reminded them of their plans.

“We’re just going to grab some food and water, and we’ll leave and find a place to camp. The company shouldn’t have been able to put up alerts for us yet, but we never know when they’ll get here,” he spoke hurriedly and in a hushed tone, despite no one else being nearby.

Sehun and Jongin nodded obediently, and the three of them continued their way to town, each of them silently praying that things wouldn’t suddenly go terribly wrong. Walking beside Sehun, Tao could feel a light breeze circling the younger man’s hand, betraying the latter’s nervousness when Sehun kept his face schooled in a neutral expression.

When they arrived in town, they watched the large electric bulletin in the town square, hoping that their faces wouldn’t pop up. To their relief, the company hadn’t alerted the public of their escape. The only people listed in the ‘wanted’ section were the same six men who had been there for the past few years: gentle features here, angled eyebrows there, and a kind smile on another. Tao was just happy that those six were still the only ones being displayed. It left him, Jongin, and Sehun to do their shopping in peace.

The three of them bought food and water with the money they managed to bring and hurried out of the town before soldiers would arrive and catch them. Luckily for them, the town was surrounded by woods, and it was easy to slip into the trees immediately after they left the dirt road. After traipsing a few miles through the woods, the trio found a cave entrance embedded into the side of a rocky hill. They examined the cave and found no indication that there was something already living there, so they decided to camp there until they figured out a place to go.

They were found only a day later. Tao had gone out into the forest to scout, leaving Sehun and Jongin in the cave. The Chinese ex-soldier climbed up one of the tallest trees he could find and scanned the forest, but the trees were so dense that he couldn’t spot anything or anyone moving among them.

He was on his way back to their hideout when he heard faint shouts echoing through the trees. Tao did not recognize them to be Jongin or Sehun, so he ducked down behind the undergrowth and inched forward, trying to get a look as to what was going on. Three soldiers appeared through the trees, and Tao quickly slid behind a tree, using its trunk as cover as he watched the soldiers.

Tao stayed crouched behind the tree trunk, watching as the trio of soldiers made their way closer to his hiding place. He could probably try and sneak away without any of the soldiers noticing, but that was unlikely. However, he would be found if he stayed put, so Tao knew he had to try.

As quietly as he could, Tao edged out from behind the tree, heading towards a bush that was a couple feet away. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.

“There he is!”

“!” Tao swore as he turned tail and ran deeper into the trees. He couldn’t afford to search for Jongin and Sehun now, not with the three soldiers on his heels. Ducking as low as he could, Tao was once again assaulted by the sound of gunshots.

He needed to loop back around to where Sehun and Jongin were, so Tao weaved his way through the trees, effectively turning around so that he was running back to the cave. A sudden bang followed by a sharp pain in his left leg told Tao that he had been shot, but he refused to stop, only stumbling a few paces before gritting his teeth and continuing to push himself forward.

Soon, the cave entrance was in sight, but Tao’s breath froze in his chest when he saw the soldiers surrounding a terrified Jongin and Sehun. The latter was trying his best to shield his friend, sending a few threatening gusts of wind at the approaching soldiers, but he didn’t have the strength to whip up anything stronger. Jongin had his knife out, but Tao knew that a soldier would shoot him down before Jongin even got close enough to attack.

Tao was caught off-guard when one of the soldiers turned and pointed a gun at him, but he recovered quickly and knocked the barrel away. Twisting around, Tao grabbed the soldier and lifted him over his shoulder before throwing the man back to the ground, effectively knocking the breath out of the other. However, a stabbing pain from his wound brought Tao to his knees, and one of the soldiers who had pursued him saw the chance to drive the heel of his boot into Tao’s ribs. With a gasp, the fugitive fell onto his side, and when he looked up, he was faced with the barrel of a military rifle.

“Tao!” Sehun and Jongin cried out in fear just as they were wrestled to the ground as well.

The soldier’s finger tightened on the trigger, and Tao squeezed his eyes shut.

A/N: Hi, guys! I know it's been a while since I last updated you guys on this, but the first chapter is finally here (although it's rather short). I had a lot of stuff going on for the past few weeks like midterms and stuff, but everything's calming down for a few weeks, so I should be able to get some stuff done.

On another note, I want to ask if you guys would like a map to go with this story like I had done with the old version. I wasn't really planning to, but I thought that a map might be able to help you guys orient yourselves with the two different worlds we're going to be working with. Please let me know if you would like maps!

'Til next chapter <3