TW: Character's death

 

“This can’t be happening,” Seungwan growls, leaning against the ambulance’s metallic wall. Joohyun is bleeding, Chen is bleeding, everyone is bleeding so much that she thinks they’re all dead. She should be concerned about her friends, but it’s Joohyun who worries her more. She believes in Senator Bae’s goodness, but she doesn’t think he will be good if her daughter dies. She has heard stories about how ruthless he is when it comes to his family and she doesn’t want to be the one to experience it first hand.

 

“Joohyun, please wake up,” she crawls closer to the girl, quickly scanning Joohyun’s body. “Thanks, god, I think you’re fine.”

 

“, what happened?” Chen asks, supporting his weight against Jongin’s seat. “Is everyone okay? Kyungsoo?”

 

Seungwan spots Kyungsoo through the corner of her eyes and it dawns on her that he actually might be dead. His head is in a strange position like he is starring in The Exorcist movie. It doesn’t look good.

 

“Dude, wake up! Kyungsoo!”

 

Joohyun regains consciousness just a second, but it’s like she’s not there. She probably has a concussion, but their time runs out as a masked gang peeks through the windshield glass. Seulgi and Jongin are up now, but they are stuck between the seat and the car front that is now crushed.

 

“Chen, take Kyungsoo’s gun!” Seungwan commands, but Chen stays in place, frozen.

 

She takes the gun as fast as she can, preparing for the fight. The back door of the ambulance opens with a loud thud, and she opens fire without looking. She’s covering Joohyun’s body with her own, but she doesn’t care. She kills three of them before running out of bullets.

 

“Seulgi, give me your gun. Chen, help them, we need to get out of here.”

 

Chen finally moves, trying to release Seulgi’s seat belt first. Jongin frees himself from it, but it’s difficult to stand up since he’s laying over Seulgi.

 

What Seungwan assumes is a knife produces a scratchy sound against the side of the ambulance, announcing someone else's presence.

 

“Joohyun, please wake up,” she begs. “You can’t die on me.”

 

She turns around when the sound stops and shots again when she sees another masked man. However, a bullet catches her shoulder before she kills him.

 

“.”

 

Chen’s right by her side the next second, carrying her before she has time to protest.

 

“I can walk, get the Bae girl first.”

 

Jongin takes Joohyun on his shoulders, but he has to drag her first to the exit since he’s too tall to stand inside the ambulance. Seulgi grabs the guns and they walk in silence, securing themselves behind the ambulance.

 

“On three,” Seulgi whispers. She looks at the streets, shooting when necessary.

 

“Now, run, run!”

 

###

 

"Siwon? Where's Joohyun?”

 

Saying that Joy is terrified would be an understatement. She’s pretty sure that she will die if she stays with the Baes, but it’s her only choice for now. Going back to look for her sister alone would be a suicide and at least that Tiffany woman had some military training on hand, which she has not. It unsettles her, anyway. She can only hope Seungwan and her friends are fine.

 

“I—something crashed. I don’t know what happened, but it didn’t sound good.”

 

“,” Joy mutters. “If that was a crash, they are as good as dead.”

 

“Thanks for the optimism, young lady,” Yoona says. “Our daughter is strong, Siwon, she’ll make it back to us just as you taught her.”

 

“What if so much protection from me made her an easy target at the end?”

 

The question hangs in the air, unanswered. It’s better like that, Siwon thinks, since he can’t bear to think about losing his daughter. Maybe he should have pursued a safer career, but, again, that was supposed to be a safer one on every Annual Purge. Not so much anymore.

 

“I’m going after her,” Yoona turns around but is stopped by Tiffany.

 

“Look, I understand what you feel, but this isn’t the time to go back there. I need you to throw your phones away and look for any device that they could have hidden inside your pockets, on the clothes, everywhere.”

 

“And if Joohyun calls?”

 

“Do you think she would want her parents to die? Because that’s what gonna happen if you don’t throw that away,” Joy intercedes, “Besides, Wendy can call me. That rule applies only to you.”

 

Siwon knows it is the best, if he backs up now, there will always be a next time, and another, and another, and her daughter would never be safe. However, he can’t shake the feeling that he’s abandoning his daughter.

 

“Common, we need to keep going,” Tiffany says, noticing that she’s running out of ammunition.

 

“I think I know where we can go,” Joy says, balancing her options. “Yeah, Wen might be there, and your daughter too.”

 

###

 

Seungwan’s the first one painfully aware of Kyungsoo. She hadn’t needed to check him to know he was very dead. He was like her brother, even if they didn’t talk much. He was always there for them, and he didn’t need to. Just like that day he had decided to help the Sons to protect their store. If she thought about it, it was her fault after all.

 

Her shoulder is bleeding a lot, and it hurts, but she runs to Joohyun as soon as Chen puts her on the floor. She needs to focus on the girl, otherwise, the guilt will overcome her. Joohyun opens her eyes with certain parsimony, smiling until she remembers where she is at. Beside her hand, she is injured from what Seungwan can see. Her head bleeds but not too much to be concerning.

 

“Hey, babe, are you okay?” Seungwan asks, the infuriating nickname rolling out of her tongue.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. What happened?”

 

“We were ambushed.”

 

Joohyun squints her eyes, remembering something.

 

“Where’s my phone?”

 

“In the ambulance, I think,” Chen says, frowning. “But I don’t think we can go back, sorry.”

 

“,” Seungwan cries, “Chen, help me out here.”

 

They are behind a trash can in what looks like an open part, not covered enough to not be a target, but Joohyun can’t be sure. She doesn’t see well and every time she tries to focus her eyes, the left side of her head hurts. However, she doesn’t say anything after seeing Seungwan’s shoulder. It’s quite concerning how worried she is about the girl, but she’s her only salvation. There’s no way she will feel safe with three guys surrounding her.

 

“I’m sorry, I can’t take the bullet out here. You know the risk of it getting infected is too high,” Chen says. “We need to take you to a hospital.”

 

“And what do you propose then? Walking to the hospital?” Seungwan snaps, clenching her teeth due to the pain.

 

“Is she always this stubborn?” Joohyun tries to make it sound like a joke, but Seungwan’s look tells her it isn’t funny. “Can’t you steal a car or something?”

 

She doesn’t say it with malice, but her question is immediately answered with hostility.

 

“Being poor doesn’t make us criminals,” Seungwan’s gaze falls on her.

 

“I wasn’t—”

 

“Yeah, whatever.

 

It’s like every time she opens , Seungwan hates her more. She also notices Kyungsoo’s absence, but she doesn’t want to be the one to bring it up. Her hand has stopped bleeding, but it doesn’t look good. It’s probably infected, but she knows Seungwan is the priority, so she stands up and sneaks out from behind the trash can. She hears Seungwan’s muffled cries.

 

The National Capitol stands almost mockingly, covered with bodies and the word P-U-R-G-E written letter by letter in each column with red color (she assumes is blood). The way to the Capitol is empty, and she calculates that it would be a 5-minute walk on a normal day to the first body, but a 10-minute walk if she is being careful and a 3-minute if