This was insane!

I was going to kill that little traitor!

No way would I act dumb! I knew from the moment I heard the buzz of the radio that it was him!

We’d removed the radios from the guards, taken precautions to remove the batteries from the devices or break them. But one person had not done that.

The members hadn’t seen how his hands had strayed behind his back. It would have been around the same time the radio could be tucked his shirt and clipped to the band of his trousers.

He’d fooled them but he hadn’t tricked me!

Now I was stuck in this bloody small room with barely enough space to breathe! How were we going to escape now?!

Glancing around I spotted the slot in the door which they could peep through. Going up to it I noticed that it was a decent size. On the down side it had to be shut from the outside and too small for my hand to push through.

Damn now what?

This room barely had anything which could be of help. Just a bit of string, the bed stuff, the bed itself and the drawers standing next to it. Going over I pulled out all the drawers. Empty, every single one of them empty.  

Great now what do we do?

I heard footsteps as someone went to the cell next to mine. Going to the wall I pressed an ear against to hear what I believed would be useful information.
“You’re to see the Scientists now.”

Who was seeing them? They were our enemies! They had tried to make us live in filth like rabbits!

No, it was obvious who it was. He was working with them. God knew why and I wasn’t going to wait around to find out. While I was still alone I had to come up with a simple plan.

I didn’t have a lot to use but there was one thing I did have. Brains and skills that would help me break out.

A guard came to check on me and deliver food. The wheels of the trolley squeaked down the hall. Grabbing the pillow I went in the side where the door would cover me the moment it opened.
 

I heard it open, the trolley wheeled in, the guard’s back turned to me. He saw no sign of me creeping up behind him.

Now

Pushing him on the floor I slipped the pillow between his face and the floor. He struggled as I held all my weight onto him while he fought for air. I took it away just as he passed out.

“Take that you pig.” I spat on the floor next to him. Seizing his radio I removed the batteries out and slipped it all into my pockets. I also discovered what looked to be a piece of paper.

Reading it I saw it was a list of codes to open all the cells. There was even one for all of them. Good I could take advantage of this. Taking money out of his wallet, the chopsticks they’d given me to eat with I high tailed it out. I went to the cell next to me and opened the door with the code. The keypad beeped before was given access.

Jongup looked up and then suddenly stood when he saw me. “Hyung w-what, h-how did you—“

“Come out quickly. Take whatever you can find.” Nodding he went and searched the drawers and then the bed. Underneath the mattress he’d found some stashed money and surprisingly a cell phone which looked like it may help.

We closed the door and went to the cell opposite his. Bang Yongguk’s cell.

“Hyung it’s us.” He lifted his head, blinking with surprise as we went in. “Take what you can and come with us.”

“How did you escape?” Yongguk said as he gathered his little stash of things.

“I just used my head. Well what do you think? Did I do well?”

Smirking he ruffled my hair. “Ah Himchannie did well.”

I removed his hand before he got carried away. “I’m the same age as you stop it!”

“Let’s free the others and then quickly hide somewhere.”

I paused when he said this. “Hold on, they’ve taken someone to see our resident evil scientists.”

“Hyung, who was it that went with them?” Jongup questioned.

“Who do you think?!”

Yongguk shot me a warning glare. “We’ll tell you when we’ve released Zelo. He’s in the cell next to mine.”

We went next door. However at that time we heard people walking. Without any hesitation we all bolted into the room, startling Zelo greatly.

“Emergency meeting,” Yongguk said to him. The kid just nodded obediently, probably thinking about aliens at this moment. All of us stood in a circle close to the door.

“We’re going to escape and make it official. This time there will be no more shortcuts. We’ll plan it straight to the very last detail. Before we can go back to the south we have to go to Youngjae and get him out while we can. But first there’s another problem.”

Zelo and Jongup turned to each other. “There’s a mole amongst us.”

Utterly disbelieving what we said Zelo asked, “who is it hyung?”

“Is it one of us?”

Damn I wanted to smack Jongup in the head. How could one be so stupid?

“I wasn’t sure before, however I think that it was—“

“—it is Daehyun!” I yelled. The two stood there, shocked by this answer. Unable to get a clear answer from us they faced each other in feeble hopes.
 

“Daehyun hyung…” Zelo began slowly. “H-he wouldn’t do that yeah? The aliens wouldn’t make him hyung.”

Yongguk drew in a breath. “He was taken away that one time when Youngjae got shot. There’s no other reason for why they would unless they were planning to share something only he could know or just use him.”

I agreed. “Yes it has something to do with his allegiance. And in return he’s going to inform them of our every move.”

Jongup and Zelo started to see the truth as it was. Seeing the trust they had in him crumble was remorseful but none of us could trust him. Not now and we didn’t know when again.

Yongguk pulled me aside for a moment. “We have to take him with us.”

“Why, can’t we let him rot in this hell for the rest of his life?!” I snapped which got him grabbing my hair and pulling it near the roots.

“Whether he’s a friend or foe doesn’t matter now! He’s registered under this team as one of the members. If we leave him, Head Quarters will ask questions. Beside he may have no choice in the matter. He’s coming so get over it!”

Releasing my hair I mulled over what had happened. Daehyun could have had good reason I guessed. However until I was certain of it then I wouldn’t believe anything he could say or would say.

“So how do we get him to come with us?” Jongup asked. “He’ll find a way to try and tell them again of what we’re doing.”

I had a great idea. “We’ll gag him so he can’t talk and then bind his hands behind him. He can walk along like someone kidnapped.”

“Himchan, he’s a team member. Not our prisoner!”

“But he’ll try to release himself and repeat the event if we give him the chance!”

Yongguk and I would only heads over this. In the end he sighed, turning to the others. He reluctantly agreed to something I’d never imagined he would. “Ok you can do… You can do your ‘talk’ with him, just this once.”

Jongup and Zelo stared at me and then at Yongguk. “Hyung, you can’t—“

“—it’ll be only this time and we’ll be in the room to watch in case he gets out of line.”

I was just happy to be given permission and mess with the punk’s head. We all went to the door and peered through the slot. Daehyun was being walked back to his cell with the guards. However we’d forgotten to close the door to Yongguk’s.

They placed him in his room and began to leave. The moment they saw the thing amiss they suddenly ran out down the hall calling into their radios. Now was a good time to get the truth. We hurried from one room to the other, entering his cell.

“Hyung what are you—“

Yongguk grabbed Daehyun and held his arms behind his back. He winced from the force. “Yah, w-why are you doing this?!”

“Because we have something to discuss,” Yongguk stated firmly. The other two were sent to stand behind me. I stared him down.

“You are a piece of dirt.”

“Hyung I had no choice!”

I resisted the urge to punch him. Lowering my fist I held it down with my other hand. “Was it for money, health, a better life huh?!”

“I’m not going to give in to this.” He protested, “do you think I don’t know your tricks hyung?!”

Raising my eyebrows up in question I kept on talking. Keeping calm was important.

“You know my techniques but you don’t know who your real friends are.”

“No that isn’t—“

“—Then why would you do that? We want to escape but all you are keeping us in here. Would a friend keep another friend trapped?”

“Hyung I didn’t do it because I wanted—“

“—Shut up and stop making excuses!”

With all his remaining strength he moved free from Yongguk’s grasp. The hurt in his eyes at the accusations had dimmed.

“If I didn’t do it… Youngjae would have died!”

Someone behind me gasped. Yongguk swallowed, watching Daehyun. With his confession his timid, scared shell cracked open. He stared at the ground, breathing out slowly.

“The agreement was… They would let him live and me go if I told them what happened.” Covering his mouth with a hand I found it hard to read his face. When he did speak his voice was broken.

“I didn’t want to at first, but they told me of what would happen if I refused. Youngjae he… He likes me I know that. But I don’t like him in that way. How could I just let him die without him knowing how I feel? Wouldn’t that be cruel thing to do?”

We weighed his words in our heads. This wasn’t a twisted criminal wanting to betray his team mates for greed or personal gain. Here sat a broken, troubled boy who wanted the same as the team but couldn’t just leave a friend to die.

Yongguk sat next to him on the bed. “Daehyun…” We’d forgotten the two were a little awkward. “Before they got to you, you were one of us. Don’t think for a moment that because of some lies they spoon fed your loyalty changed.”

“It hasn’t?!”

Ok I didn’t intend to put it like that.

“We want to escape. You want to escape. You sold us out once and maybe we can forgive you later on. Now that you’ve managed to succeed you won’t have to do it again. You both got what they wanted so it’s a win-win situation.”
 

He nodded, sniffing miserably. “Help us Daehyun, help us so we can all go home to see our family and friends again, to see Secret once more.” He paused for effect before adding, “We’re going to have to abandon mission.”

I didn’t believe it. How could he say that? We’d worked so hard to get into the North of the country and now we were just going to run home?

This was crazy. “Yongguk we can’t just—“

“—we have no choice.” He interrupted me. I closed my mouth.

“Right now we have a new mission called; ‘Escape the Rabbits Asylum.”

*********************************************************************

Whoa probably more jam packed than before right? There is reason to it which I will reveal in the next chapter.