~_____~

Inside was a dark as it looked from outside. The mere second the door closed on him he tried to focus his eyes amongst the dim darkness; the only light applicable to his surroundings were that of the low rays coming in from the scarred windows.

Before him were two rows of machinery; what they were used for, he couldn't make a clear guess. Perhaps some metal refinement back in the older days. 

Everything else visible to him seemed to have molted with nature, becoming one with it. He spotted signs of overgrowing plants that had crawled inside that should be blooming outside. It actually didn't smell as awful as he'd thought. There was a scent of fresh grown shrubs mixed along with rotting steel, wasting its life away. 

Kris only turned when he heard a soft thud behind him, but was too late to catch the face of the shadow stepping toward him from the darkness revolting in the corner. At once a buff arm locked around his neck, cutting his air supply off right off the bat. 

Raising his gun-held hand to shoot was a useless attempt. The man had already linked his arm through his, twisting it painfully toward his back. Kris was unable to let out a yell due to his depleting source of oxygen and felt the man ram him into the wall. His forehead crashed into it with full strength and that arm tightened around his throat even more. Kris' body immediately felt limp and weak. Once the man let go of him he slumped against the wall fighting for his breath, a sickly noise erupting from the back of his throat each time he breathed. 

When he thought he'd regained strength again, the man put him in another headlock; this time, slamming the gun he'd somehow lost into his shoulder. The pain was excruciating and was even worse when he barely had strength to moan the pain away. 

Dry coughing, he fought for a last attempt to fight back only to fail. It was no use. He was already losing his grasp on consciousness. The last thing he recalled was how lightheaded he'd felt. 

~_____~                        
                                                       
It was no use, she was getting rained on by bullets. Forced to abandon Kris, she turned to run. Failure soaked every part of her. This was the first time in history she'd had to abandon one of her men, unlike Donghae who always went back for them.

Victoria was furious and for the first time in her career, panicking. The trees turned into cuts and blurs around her. Barely sliding into the soil as a bullet charged into the bark nearby she nearly saved herself. 

"I need help!" She shouted into her ear piece, crouching down; clutching onto her gun tightly with eyes surveying for an opening to escape. 

"I can't find you," she heard Namjoo's breathless voice. "What's happened to Kris?" 

"They're driving me away from him. I think something happened. He's inside a building." Victoria explained without breathing in-between her words. 

There was no reply for about half a minute. Pelted by bullets from all sides, Victoria leaned out to finally catch sight of someone gluing himself to the tree fifteen yards east of her. Quickly pressing herself against the tree again, she counted down the seconds before quickly leaning out to shoot his way. After firing she resumed to sticking herself against the tree once more. A thud slammed against the ground and Victoria exhaled slowly. She was regaining her calm again. 

At this rate, she might be able to last under these circumstances and go back for Kris. Yet, her fate only lie on the two cartridges she'd brought with her. If she ran out of bullets, she was no better than dead. 

~_____~

"You're surrounded," Namjoo informed, her eyes furiously scanning the screens. Among the thickets she could see movement of men who were in camouflage, slowly trekking back and forth.

All of a sudden she didn't think she was able to sight any of her team mates in their places, as if they were all ambushed at the same time.  

Her mind was racing. 

Who was on and off screen? Who could she actually hear through her ear piece? 

Something had happened out there and a magnetic pull was telling her she needed to leave the van. While her eyes scanned the screens she imagined Kris getting abandoned. In her head she heard Victoria deliriously screaming for him to respond to her again and again. 

Pressing her lips to maintain herself she gripped her left hand into a fist, her nails scrapping at the desktop. There was an emotional debate ongoing; half of her fighting for duty, the other half screaming for her to save Kris. Not once in her career had she disobeyed orders, abandoning the rest of their men in favor of one. A tight knot was forming in the pit of her stomach. 

If Hyukjae's men were heavily armed and prepared for them, Kris could be dead.

The thought horrified her. Never again would she be able to be irritated because of him. She wouldn't ever be able to hear him laughing at her or purposely teasing her. Then very suddenly, the half of her staying for duty disappeared into dots disintegrating in the air.

Namjoo was going to abandon orders. 

"You won't be able to make it out of there yourself. I'm coming out there." She indicated, standing up from her seat on impulse.

Grabbing two cartridges from the box at the side she began to turn, but swiveled back when Tao grabbed her wrist. He stared up at her with intensified eyes, knowing well why she was rushed. His eyes were alighted with scrutiny, quietly telling her not to cause trouble in favor of Donghae, him, and Suho who needed aid.  

A heated silence filled the van. A voice outside was calling her. Subconsciously, her feet made a turn for the back door, but Tao withheld her in spot. 

"Namjoo, don't you leave the van," Donghae ordered, his voice deep and thick. "Namjoo! Do you hear me?!"

Ignoring the order, she pulled her hand back only to have Tao grip onto it with much more strength. Their eyes burned into the other; she intent on leaving and Tao determined to hold her back. He shook his head; concern expressing itself on his face. It looked like he was pleading with her.    

With a final surge of strength she managed to haul herself away from him, pushed the back doors open, and escaped. 

While tucking the cartridges into her pocket as she crossed the empty four-lane road she heard Donghae, "Tao! What's going on?" 

No reply. 

"Tao!" Donghae screamed.

"She left." Tao's voice was very quiet. 

Groaning, Donghae demanded, "Get back to the van, Namjoo! Don't you do dare do this! I said get back to the van!" 

There was a sound of something cracking within the signals received through the ear piece. 

"We're getting ganged up on! Donghae!" Suho's voice came in. 

"I can't go back, there's too many men holding me back from getting to Kris," Victoria breathed. 

"Victoria, stay where you are!" Donghae barked. "Tao, look for Suho! Lay, where are you?" Then, "Namjoo! Get back to the van! Namjoo! Namjoo!!" 

Irritated, Namjoo pulled the ear piece from her ear and continued to dash through the thickets. 

~_____~

"Damn it!" Donghae swore underneath his breath. 

Before he could even get into position, chaos was already happening. 

"Lay, Suho; withdraw from your locations," he commanded, "we're all heading west! Victoria, don't go too far from where you are. I'm coming!" 

Running his way down the incline with feet moving much faster than he could control them, he fought for control of gravity. He was too far from Victoria to go to her aid, but as of yet she was in the worst possible predicament. 

Cutting through the wild trees, tightly clutching onto the sniper gun his eyes sought his surroundings for suspicion. Every once in a few seconds he'd raise the gun and scourge the environment before continuing. 

The wind switched direction after a five minute run. Racing too far ahead, Donghae immediately halted and hid behind a tree when he spotted the movement of a shadow up ahead. He wished he'd tucked a Glock into his pants when he had the time for it.

Locking his hand over the trigger he stepped out from behind the tree, got down on one knee, situated the gun onto his other knee, and made the shot. The shadow belonging to the man collapsed along with him. At the sound of a stick snapping Donghae turned to his right to see more men appearing from out of nowhere.  

Disregarding the scope he should be using for accurate aim, because he felt short on time surrounded by so many, he took to making various shots. 

After shooting another man down Donghae found himself colliding into the ground when someone knocked into him from behind. He couldn't tell whether this man had come from above or had actually crept up behind him. Struggling, moans echoed out from his throat as his lips became smeared with dirt. This person's weight was too much for him to take. His whole waist was totally pinned to the ground. Flinging his legs around remained a useless attempt. All Donghae managed to do was clutch tightly onto his M24 so that it wouldn't be taken from him.  

Barely stuffed from eating the dirt, Donghae fought to fling back his elbow. When he finally felt an opening in the man's hold, forced them both over. Slamming the tip of the gun into the perpetrator's face, Donghae pulled himself up immediately lowering his aim. Without hesitating he pulled the trigger. Droplets of the man's blood shot up like a fountain in effect, splattering his face.  

With no time to lose, he shifted around and felt a forceful tug as someone grabbed the body of the rifle. Soft footsteps approached behind and he knew that if he didn’t do something he'd more or less likely die. 

Gripping onto the gun with even more strength, Donghae tugged the gun back. Grounding his feet into the ground he forced them both to turn around while he pulled the trigger relentlessly. The men coming from behind him dodged and shot out of the way.  

No matter what happened, he couldn't lose the gun.  

~_____~

Suho hadn't even had the chance to approach the building in sight before he was suddenly crouching low. His ears twitched upon catching the faintest sound of footsteps. Within moments he was having a standoff, one against who knew how many.  

His heart rammed crazily against his chest and Suho couldn't tell if his breathing was giving him away. Wherever he crawled, the men seemed to find him.  

Now he couldn't tell how far he was from where he'd started. in some air to provide his brain with oxygen, he fought to steady his shaky hands. Tightly holding onto his gun for dear life didn't seem to be appeasing his nerves.  

Suho was huddled against the fat tree with sweat trickling down the back of his neck. So far all his shots had been narrow misses. He was unable to focus under extreme anxiety or stress, this moment being one of them. A hissing bullet rammed into the side of the tree chipping part of the bark, which was sent flying toward Suho's face. Luckily, he shut his eyes before any of it could touch his eye. 

Dashing out from behind it after another hissing bullet was aimed at him, Suho found himself running through the woods in search of a new hiding spot. He would have called out for help, but he was afraid that making noise would further give his position away. He didn't want to welcome more gunmen. Besides, Tao had already ditched him. There was no use in calling back for aid. 

A bullet ran into the dirt just as he stepped out of spot. Leaping farther away he panted heavily while trying to figure out what to do. They were all supposed to be heading west now, but Suho truly didn't know which direction was west. 

He needed assistance desperately. 

His shoulders shot up when another bullet flew past him and into a nearby tree. Catching sight of a thick tall bushes wildly bunched together he rushed toward it, zipping through its leaves. Small, sharp thorns on the branches scratched him as he fought his way through. Once out on the other side he dropped to his knees, crawling toward a tree in order to be blocked from view. 

How many had he seen chasing him? Abled-bodies of eight was it? 

Gulping down the saliva crowding in his mouth he gripped his hand on his gun again. This time he'd definitely get rid of a few of them. 

Carefully leaning out he sought for sight of them then quickly pressed himself against the tree again, inhaling and exhaling repeatedly. On the count of three, Suho threw himself out of place aiming for as many as his fingers would pull the trigger.  

Two, three, five down.  

Picking himself up he started for another round of escape. He could feel the humming of his heart all throughout his body, the blood rushing madly. 

A minute passed before he slid to a stop, falling back onto his when someone swung down from the branch above. A horrific cry belted out of Suho's lips. The only thing flying through his mind was that he was done for.             
  
~_____~

Lay could barely hear anything the others were saying over all the shooting around him. Glued to the mass of an Oak tree he had barely budged for the last ten minutes. He had already used up one full cartridge and now had two remaining ones left to use. He prayed that it'd last his journey here. 

Another bullet spiraled through the air, landing somewhere he couldn't see. He was barely deaf now from all the shooting made. Pain echoed from the very depth of his eardrums. They'd trapped him well. Lay could neither seek an escape route or crawl elsewhere. 

Through his angle he couldn't make place of any persons. All he saw were shadows lingering from place to place. Lay was no longer opted to make random shots for sake of conserving his ammunition. Darting his eyes toward the left he saw four to five trees randomly displaced from each other. There wasn't much space that allowed for hiding, which meant at least four or a minimum of two men were using the area as sanctuary, the rest coming from his right. 

Narrowing his eyes to improve his focus he felt a smile at once when he finally caught sight of a figure. Holding out his gun he made a discrete shot and waited for the fall. If he cleared his left, he'd be able to seek an escape route with the men running after him. Even under that circumstance it'd still be better than being trapped in one area. Lay was willing to give it a try. 

Another figure showed itself very slightly, his leg becoming visible through his blind spot. Fixating his aim, Lay pulled the trigger. Carefully observing for more figures he ran out from spot upon becoming certain he'd rid of his obstacles.  

Shifting around to make a round of three more shots he then increased his pace toward the west - the only word he'd caught from Donghae's demand.   

***Turning point for Namjoo! She finally chooses Kris out of everyone else! 0.0

***Their mission is backfiring on them