One day, there was a short hailstorm. It caused some damage to the crops, injured a few people who were trying to protect those crops and killed a couple of chickens. But the most serious damage was caused to the factory.

Thanks to the holes in the factory’s rooftop Taehyung had previously made and no one noticed since then, the hail loosened its structure and the workers in the factory had to quickly evacuate before most of the roof ended up falling inwards. Needless to say, the equipment and the products they were working on had been mostly ruined.

Taehyung wondered if weather was on his side or if weather was just the primordial troublemaker.

He also wondered if the leader would soon crack and do something drastic, reckless or stupid because lately a lot had piled up for him: most likely one of his drug shipments went very bad, his means of communication with the outside world was disrupted and now his drug production process had been halted indefinitely. Furthermore, Taehyung had messed with the generator during one of his nocturnal escapades and now the cameras or anything else than needed electrical power weren’t working.

The leader was obviously angry when he ordered the repairing of the factory and its equipment to be top priority and said that no one was allowed to go to sleep until it was finished. Also, the small fields originally dedicated to growing medicinal plants were to now be repurposed, so that more of the plant needed for the product made in the factory could be grown, and all resources had to now be invested to make this endeavor as quick as possible.

People who thought of the leader as a wise savior did not question these decisions and no one voiced any disagreement, but Taehyung could still see some dissatisfaction on a few faces. Because of this, the fact that the fridges weren’t working without the generator, which caused a great deal of trouble when it came to food, and because of the fire incident from not long ago, some people were starting to feel that something was wrong. If handled right, that dissatisfaction and that suspicion could represent the seeds of chaos that Taehyung yearned for.

After a few days, things were mostly back to normal and Taehyung was fulfilling his toilet duties by taking the excrements uphill to dump them in the hole. At one point, however, something seemed off to him and he looked around to see what gave him an unsettling feeling.

Jungkook was somewhere in the distance, gathering plants that were most likely potential substitutes for the ones Namjoon needed but no longer would have access to soon.

               T: Goody two shoes…

Taehyung looked at him with endearment, but then he noticed Jungkook’s body language become somewhat strange and, when Jungkook positioned himself in an upright position near a tree, Taehyung saw a lot of tension on his face as Jungkook quickly scanned his surroundings for something.

When Taehyung looked around more to try identifying what caused this reaction, his eyes landed upon a man, who was a member of the commune judging by his attire and who was hiding in a bush with an arrow held in a tensed bow pointed towards Jungkook. A hunter was aiming to shoot Jungkook.

When Jungkook attempted making a run for it, the hunter pulled on the arrow and directed it at him, then let out a horrible and loud scream of agony, which made Jungkook stop and turn towards him. Taehyung had crept up on the hunter from behind and hit his wrist with the sharp end of the shovel hard enough to fracture the hunter’s wrist and bury his hand halfway into the ground. Then Taehyung lifted the shovel and used it like a tennis racket to hit the hunter’s left side of the head, knocking him down.

G: “What’s going on?”

The two guards stationed at the upstream exit came shouting and running towards them and Jungkook panicked. Even though the faces of the hunters weren’t known to anyone below the guards in rank, the guards and the hunters knew each other and were basically on the same team, so Taehyung was now in a 3 against 1 situation and in a lot of danger. Jungkook ran towards them, but Taehyung started shouting:

T: “Intruder! This guy’s posing as one of us, but he just tried shooting one of our members. Tie him up. There may be other intruders around. We need to warn the community!”

Taehyung’s quick thinking and shouting created a chaotic atmosphere and, before anyone had a chance to properly process what he was saying, he ran towards Jungkook, grabbed his wrist and fled.

Luckily, one of the two guards that intervened was new, having taken the role only a few weeks ago when the previous guard “transferred”, and he wasn’t familiar with all the hunters yet. So he bought Taehyung’s story and quickly moved to hold the hunter down and a lot of time ended up being wasted till the other guard and the hunter clarified that they were all on the same side and an order had been given to kill Jungkook, who was a betrayer, when he would be away from the community and its eyes.

But that time had been useful for Taehyung and Jungkook who ran at high speed towards the community, Taehyung not letting go of Jungkook’s wrist at all in the process.

J: “You just made yourself a target!” Jungkook shouted.

T: “ that! At least you ain’t dead!” Taehyung shouted back.

J: “But…”

T: “When we get to the public square, you better cry wolf like your life depends on it! If you’re not so keen on keeping that, then think of it as my life also depending on it.”

As soon as they reached the end of the woods, Taehyung started shouting at the top of his lungs:

T: “Intruder! We’re being attacked! Intruders in the woods! They’re trying to kills us!”

People started coming into the streets and getting agitated. Taehyung kept shouting and getting them even more agitated.

T: “They’re posing as hunters to infiltrate our community! The one we saw tried shooting Jungkook with an arrow! He’s in the hands of the upstream guards, but there might be many more of them lurking around! They may have already attacked those guards! They may be planning an ambush! We need to arm ourselves to fight and protect our community!”

C: “What’s going on here?” lieutenant Choi came yelling.

T: “Intruders in the woods!”

P1: “They’re attacking us to steal our resources again!”

P2: “It’s an ambush!”

P3: “They probably broke the generator for this occasion!”

P4: “We need to fight!”

Taehyung was relieved that panic was spreading among the people in the community and some of them were echoing what he had said before, some also adding details to the narrative, and he was glad that lieutenant Choi wasn’t doing anything due to confusion, but then lieutenant Yang intervened and firmly told people to calm down because that was the best thing to do. Taehyung was worried about the momentum dying out, but someone yelled:

P5: “Fire!”

Smoke and fire-generated light was coming from the field where the plant used for the drug was being grown. The plants and the earth had dried up enough after the hailstorm for them to catch on fire and let the fire spread slowly.

Namjoon had come out of his office when he heard the first signs of commotion and heard Taehyung shouting about intruders attacking. Namjoon knew it was highly unlikely for there to be any intruders, but apparently Taehyung needed that scenario for something, so Namjoon acted fast to make that scenario more believable.

He rushed back into his office, grabbed some things, went near the field with the plants used to make drugs, put on a glove, poured some sanitary alcohol over the small pile of bandages he held with the glove-covered hand, set the bandages on fire and threw the ball of flames as far away into the field as he could. He then quickly took off the glove that had also caught fire and threw that into the field as well. After that, he rushed towards the public square where he noticed his plan beginning to have its intended effect.

P5: “Fire!”

P6: “Ambush! They’re attacking!”

P7: “Everybody run and find a weapon!”

P8: “Put out the fire!”

P9: “Run!”

People shouted different things at the same time, panic spread and the chaos started. The lieutenants couldn’t control the crowd as they didn’t know what exactly was happening either and they did not expect this kind of situation. People started running in all directions with different purposes and the shouting continued. It had already gotten dark, the only sources of light being the moon and the fire that had started spreading in the field, so people were running into each other and tension was escalating.

Taehyung had not let go of Jungkook’s wrist at all during this time. He was even holding it tight enough for Jungkook to feel like it might break, but that really didn’t matter at the moment. Taehyung looked for Namjoon and Namjoon looked for Taehyung, so they found each other quickly. When they did, Taehyung made Jungkook grab Namjoon’s wrist and told them very seriously:

T: “10 minutes. Keep each other safe for 10 minutes and head to the road exit. I’ll meet you there.”

Taehyung quickly ran off somewhere and Namjoon wanted to yell something after him, but he felt his hand getting yanked then found himself being pulled with haste by Jungkook. They ran through areas where the crowd was thicker and also behind buildings and other places where they could hide. Jungkook pulled Namjoon towards the entrance of the commune in a way in which they avoided being seen by the lieutenants and by anyone at all as they approached the entrance.

N: “Are we just gonna escape like this?”

J: “You definitely have to escape. I don’t think I have any chance of redemption left, but there’s one person that I at least don’t want to disappoint so, no matter what, I’ll get you to the road exit safely.”

They stopped behind a shack that was near the entrance and Jungkook tried scanning their surroundings for any potential threat. From where they were, there was a 40 meter distance till the foot of the mountain where the woods started and, from there, a 20 or 30 meter distance till where the vehicles were parked, if there were any vehicles there at the moment. Jungkook figured that Taehyung wanted to use a car to escape and he must have gone to try stealing the keys for it while the community was in chaos and the L building was probably less occupied than usual.

Jungkook determined it was safe enough to make a run for it till the foot of the mountain so they did and hid behind the first thick trees to reevaluate the situation. But, just as they were about to move again, Jungkook’s senses picked up on something and pushed Namjoon back behind the tree before he also went back to hiding.

A guard came rolling on the not so steep slope of the mountain and groaned when he stopped at the foot of the mountain. One other guard slowly climbed down the mountain towards him and, slurring his words, asked him what the hell he was doing.

N: “Are they drunk?” Namjoon asked in a whispered voice before they actually saw the flask in the second guard’s hand.

Normally, water would be delivered inside such flasks, along with containers of food, to guards and hunters by someone from the cooking house whenever the whole community was being served a meal and also two times during the night for those that fulfilled their roles during the night. Jungkook knew guards had access to alcohol, but he found it strange that someone had delivered alcohol to the guards while they were on duty. It also wasn’t likely for the guards to have taken the alcohol with them from their building because they knew they would get in trouble if they were caught drinking during work.

The third guard then appeared from another side of the woods, dragging the fourth guard behind him and angrily yelling:

G: “Of all the idiotic things you can do, you get drunk when there’s some kind of commotion happening inside the commune... Hey, you two!” the guard yelled to get the attention of the other two guards, but realized with shock that they were in the same state as his partner. “Are you kidding me?! What if the leader finds out about this? What if someone escapes during this time, huh?!”

But someone was trying to escape, so Jungkook crept up on the only sober guard and, with a blow to the back of his head, managed to knock him out. Then he knocked out the other 3 guards and, together with Namjoon, dragged all 4 unconscious guards to a more hidden tree where they used the rope the guards had on them to tie them all up with their backs against the tree trunk. It didn’t matter that they would be able to make noise, at least they weren’t going to be able to physically interfere with their escape for a while.

N: “Over 15 minutes have passed…” Namjoon remarked and Jungkook instantly started sharing the sickening feeling that something had happened to Taehyung and he might not make it where they were.

Just as Jungkook had thought, Taehyung went to the L building to steal all the keys to all the vehicles in hopes of being able to start one and escape with it. Lieutenant Choi was clearly occupied with what was going on in the public square and he was the one who was usually in charge of the trips of the recruiters, so Taehyung went to look for the keys inside his room first and foremost.

It felt like it took forever to find his room and then to find the keys in one of the drawers, but eventually he did. He didn’t want to waste any more time looking for anything else potentially useful, aside from a plastic bag in which to carry everything, so he just climbed down the drainage for a bit and jumped from the first floor to the ground. There he ran into lieutenant Wonsuk.

A hundred scenarios went through Taehyung’s mind as he and the lieutenant just stared each other down for several moments. But, in the end, Taehyung decided to just run and he noticed later on that it didn’t seem like he was followed.

He took a risk and went to his room to grab a few things from there, then ran towards the road exit, glad that the chaos was still going on and praying that Namjoon and Jungkook had reached the exit safely.

Taehyung snuck around behind trees to get to the place where the vehicles were usually parked and, right when he noticed the four guards tied to a tree on the other side of the road, he felt someone come up from the darkness in front of him with the intention to attack, so he got ready to attack as well.

Taehyung had his knife up and ready to stick it into his attacker and Jungkook had the baton he had taken from the guards ready to strike, but they recognized each other on time and froze in the attacking position with hanging mouths. Then Jungkook suddenly grabbed Taehyung’s forearm and ran with him to the spot where Namjoon was and two small cars were parked. Taehyung gave Jungkook the knife and told him to get ready to cut the brake lines of the other car while Taehyung’s hands moved at lightning speed as he tried every key to open the car that seemed like it would be faster.

As he did that, the car’s alarm went off and, while that could create more panic and chaos within the commune, it also alerted everyone that someone beside the guards was at the road exit.

T: “Okay! Cut them and both of you get in the car!” Taehyung said when one key finally worked.

Namjoon got in the back seat and, after he cut the brake lines, Jungkook got on the passenger’s seat just as Taehyung had started the engine. Jungkook didn’t even get to close the door properly before the car was set in motion.

N: “Why were you late? Did something happen?”

T: “I had a hard time searching for these keys in the dark, I bumped into Wonsuk and I also went to get some stuff from my room. Sorry for being reckless and making you wait.”

J: “You bumped into Wonsuk?”

T: “As I was leaving the L building. But he didn’t say anything. He saved my once cause he owes you two his life, but that doesn’t mean he’s gonna be on our side this time as well.”

J: “Luckily, he let you go. He’s strong enough to wipe the floor with all three of us without breaking a sweat.”

N: “And luckily the guards happened to get drunk tonight of all nights.”

T: “Luckily, I decided to experiment today of all days by putting some Harry into their water flasks before they were delivered to them.”

N: “Harry?”

T: “The drug we’ve been producing. It seemed similar to heroine and I wasn’t sure how it would work if it’s ingested, but I thought the guards would make the best experiment subjects.”

N: “But you could’ve killed them!”

T: “So? You would’ve had one less trouble to deal with tonight.”

J: “You really have no remorse towards anything you do…”

T: “I said I was sorry for making you wait, didn’t I?”

N: “We’re being followed!”

Jungkook looked back and Taehyung looked through the rearview mirror. The other car that had been parked in the spot at the foot of the mountain was following them. Lieutenant Choi and two other people were inside it, most likely two hunters.

T: “Joon! Jungkook! Keep your heads lowered! As low as you can! Now!”

Namjoon and Jungkook barely managed to execute that command when an arrow pierced through the rear window, breaking it, and ended up with the pointy end near Taehyung’s ear.

T: “Jungkook! Take the wheel!”

Jungkook grabbed the wheel to keep the car steady on the road as Taehyung took out a rock from the plastic bag he had been carrying with him, opened the window on his side of the car, stuck his torso out of it, aimed and threw the rock towards the windshield of the car following him. The rock hit its target, broke the windshield and made the car slightly lose control and slow down.

N: “You could’ve killed them!”

J: “They could’ve killed us!”

Taehyung side-eyed Jungkook, as he didn’t expect the latter to be at all morally flexible or so keen on surviving, then he smiled and said:

T: “I may have found myself a life partner…”

J: “This is not the time for jokes, Taehyung! They’re gonna aim for our wheels next!”

T: “Let them try.”

Taehyung picked up speed as they were now finally on an asphalted road. The car behind them was further away, but they were still on their tail and they were also picking up speed. Taehyung watched through the rearview mirror and, when he saw a hunter getting into position to shoot an arrow again, started making short and abrupt turns to not let the hunter get a proper aim and to make him miss whenever he tried shooting an arrow. The downside to this was that it was reducing their speed and the car behind them was catching up.

T: “…”

J: “Curve! There’s a steep curve in 5 or 6 kilometers from here!”

Taehyung pushed the acceleration peddle and their car pulled ahead. But, at that speed, he barely had any control of the car so, when he made a short and abrupt turn to avoid an arrow, he almost completely lost control over it. For once, he decided against being reckless and, when they approached the steep curve in the road, he took his foot off the acceleration and pressed the brake just enough to steer through the curve without letting the car skid.

The car behind them tried to do the same, but the brakes weren’t working at all. In the darkness of the woods near the commune, they didn’t notice the brake lines had been cut and that they had been losing brake fluid even before starting their car. So, with their brakes not working, the driver of the other car tried steering through the curve at the speed they had been going with, but the car skid off the road and fell over the cliff, stopping after it had hit several trees.

T: “Whoo-hoo!” Taehyung let out as Jungkook and Namjoon could barely take air into their tensed chests and breathe a sigh of relief.

However, that relief was short-lived. A van of recruiters were returning from a field work trip and the driver recognized the car approaching as one of their own. But, since no one left the commune in the flax plant attire except in the case of an escape attempt, the driver reacted fast and recklessly, suddenly turning the van to the left and blocking the path of the car Taehyung, Namjoon and Jungkook were in.

With no time to react in any other way, Taehyung abruptly turned to the right, because turning to the left would put Jungkook on the passenger’s seat at too high of a risk, and their car ended up going down the slope until it crashed into some trees with a lot of force.

Since the crash jolted them towards their right and Taehyung held onto the steering wheel, his head didn’t end up hitting anything and the shock he experienced was minimum.

T: “Guys? Are you…”

Taehyung didn’t finish what he wanted to ask as he saw that Jungkook’s head had hit the window on his side of the car, breaking it and leaving traces of blood on it as Jungkook tried bringing himself into upright position again without opening his eyes. In the backseat, it seemed like Namjoon had also hit his head against the door and looked really dazed as he groaned.

Taehyung then looked behind them and saw that over three people were hurriedly climbing down the slope to get to them. It was most likely the people in the van that had interfered with their escape. Taehyung had to think fast, because Namjoon and Jungkook weren’t capable of reacting fast enough in the state they were in and there was no way for Taehyung to handle three or more people by himself while also keeping the other two safe.

When Jungkook opened his eyes, he saw Taehyung exit the car and run into the darkness.