Further shocked from the surprise the papers dropped from Suho’s hands and landed on the floor. From beside him Namjoo pulled her gun out and shot at the gas lantern exterminating the light at once. Enveloped again in darkness Suho took the chance for their escape.

Grabbing Namjoo’s arm he made a dash in the direction of the door; that was if he remembered it correctly. Namjoo’s footsteps stumbled after him and he collided into someone by the foot of the door, his back immediately hitting the flat wall.

A low grunt escaped his lips and he heard Namjoo’s handgun slam into the wall. Dark figures traced by the glow of the moonlight allowed Suho to recognize three men in the storage shed with them. Or maybe there were four since it felt like someone was pinnig him prisoner to the wall.

Through the helpless ray of the moon he made out a swish of wind blowing into his face and realized Namjoo was trying to punch someone off him. All the while being restrained from movement his free hand sought for the touch of the doorknob. If he could get just that then escape wouldn’t be too far for them.

Quick muttering underneath the men’s breathing resonated in the background as they tried to light the room up with whatever it was they had. Perhaps they were trying to revive the gas lantern.

His hand slittered across a sticky web before he finally touched the smoothness of the door and felt the knob in his grasp. Twisting the doorknob to his left he pulled before realizing he should have twisted the knob to his right.

The door flung open and a fresh wind swiped into the room just as Namjoo slammed the of her gun into the man’s face. Without warning Suho continued pulling her after him marking safety as a first priority. He couldn’t forget that whenever he had someone with him, the two of them always ended up injured or either his partner was the one who suffered.

In order to keep from further suspicion of Victoria and her aid team he figured he and Namjoo should escape with the least scratches or if possible, without any scratches.

As they rushed toward the gate of trees and tall weeds they’d crossed earlier they could no doubt hear the men scrambling after them. There were even instances when he heard the men unlocking the safety of their guns so that if a bullet was needed time wouldn’t be wasted. A tall weed brushed against his legs as they ran through the gate and he thanked God when he saw his car sitting up ahead.

Clumsy as he was the tip of his foot dug into the grass upon his next step and he lost grasp of Namjoo’s arm while his body hurled forward for the fall. A bullet zoomed into the air when he regained balance and twisted around, a repetitious drum humming in his ears. Namjoo’s back was to him, her arms straightened out, and her gun in her hands.

“Just get to the car,” Namjoo quickly whispered with an edge of urgency to her voice.

Suho’s eyes went wide wasting the ticking seconds away. Responsibility and duty told him he couldn’t leave her to defend while he ran for safety. It didn’t work like that.

“I said go!” An emphasis of more urgency climbed into her voice as she pulled the trigger three times and very fast.

There was a loud grunt of pain as a thud sounded through the night air. Suho’s head wavered from Namjoo to the darkness behind them before finally pushing himself to head toward the car. More gunshots echoed behind him from both Namjoo’s gun and from the men’s.

Curiosity and worry about whether Namjoo would be able to hold up slowed him down until he stopped. His heart finally slammed against his chest when he turned around to see something of small build sharply fly through the air and at Namjoo. Her body was back and she landed on the ground.

“Namjoo!” He cried running back to her, but as soon as he arrived Namjoo sat up from the ground and clambered to her feet. Forcibly turning him around she urged him faster toward the car.

With hands flat against his back she continued forcing him to hurry his pace, but confused Suho kept turning around to make sure he wasn’t seeing the dead.

“Are you…what…” he couldn’t think straight.

“Unlock the door! Hurry!” Namjoo screamed.

When she jumped into her seat and slammed the door after her he watched her take her shirt off before rubbing the bullet proof vest around her torso. Suddenly understanding the situation Suho started the car switching the gear into reverse. Calm now, he fully absorbed himself into their escape.

“How many of those do you have?” Suho started before something thumped against the trunk of his car and he stepped on the brake.

The two of them turned back to see that he’d hit one of the men who’d tried coming after them. Turning back to the wheel Suho continued driving in reverse.

“What are you doing!?” Namjoo exclaimed.

“The jerk deserves it,” Suho muttered, “who told him to risk it.”

A baffled snort of disbelief dropped from Namjoo’s lips before she cowered at the noise of gunshots being shot into the back window. The glass shattered into a million disfigured pieces and Suho only focused on driving back before quickly braking to switch the gear into drive. Putting force onto the accelerator their bodies hurled forward once the car started down the steep hill they’d driven up.

This was the same routine of crazy, Suho thought, as they continued driving downhill.

“Looks like it’s fate,” Suho commented about the crazy that always happened and turned to look at Namjoo as trees scurried past them like the haunted woods. At the back of his head he thought he might even see someone in flowery white dress standing in the midst of the maze-like woods.

“You ok?”

“Never better,” Namjoo replied pulling the seatbelt around her.

Suho should have known escape wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be. The second he turned away from his friend a shock triggered through him when he spotted the car parked in front of them. They were just a few seconds away from it and wouldn’t be able to avoid a head on collision, possibly the worst type of crash there was.

Stepping as hard as he could on the brakes didn’t serve as much of a save. Their bodies rocked back and forth in their seats upon the impact as the noise of the metals colliding triggered a never ending echo into their ears. His car would have been able to avoid less damage if it weren’t for the hill they’d come down.

Suho’s neck arched forward, the top of his head barely inches away from the wheel. A loud breath heaved itself out of him at the near death experience.

“Are you ok?” Suho whispered still shaken by what had just happened.

“Yea,” Namjoo moaned, “I’m fine.”

Leaning forward to peer through the windshield at the car that had been parked on the side of the road in front of him, he saw that the car was empty.

“It was probably their car,” Suho assumed leaning back into his seat.

The crash had swerved the car somewhat crookedly into the road, its bumper jutting out of the lane at the side.

“We might be able to get out of here,” Suho said reswitching the gear into reverse.

Namjoo twisted around to look back before turning to him.

“Are you crazy?”

“Unless you want to walk all the way back to the city,” Suho spoke through half closed lips, “we gotta take a chance.”

“Since when does it ever get old with you?” Namjoo droned on in helplessness.

Suho shot her a side smile before stepping on the accelerator. As the car inclined back up the hill very slowly their bodies slid forward in their seats due to gravity. It felt like he was on a roller coaster if it weren’t for the fact that he was the one maneuvering the machine.

Starting the car forward again and very carefully he turned the wheel to edge past the car in the street. He was aware that he’d get his car scratched, but that didn’t matter so much to him at the moment. And again, he should have expected that luck wasn’t very much on his side at all.

A few seconds later something rammed into them from the back and a whirl of cold wind whooshed into the car. Namjoo flung forward in her seat, but was choked back by the seatbelt around her. Suho slid forward as well and hit the wheel as another crash resonated through the dark forest. Their helpless cries resonated through the car as they clamped their eyes shut.

Headlights blinded him from behind while the car uselessly scurried forward, the wheels churning against the dirt then concrete. His bumper rammed into the car in front as the car behind shoved them forward and during this slow moment he and Namjoo could only hang on for dear life as their bodies swung back and forth uncontrollably.

Finally on level ground he listened to the car in front tumble onto its side and his car entered the freeway. While this was happening Suho made sure his foot remained on the brakes in order to stop his car from advancing further. If they were forced forward they’d crash into the railing that served as a protection from the open ended road. On the other side was no road, but a deep fall to the extending roads below.

The car finally stopped in motion and his car ended up halfway outside of the painted road dividing the two lanes. No cars appeared from either side of the road, but the second he deemed them safe the car that had appeared out of nowhere rammed into them from behind again. Shouts echoed from their lips as their bodies flung forward like lifeless dolls.

Switching his foot from the brake to the accelerator he turned the wheel with all the strength he had and sped down the road. One look into the rearview mirror showed that their pursuers were right on their tail.  

Heaving an agitated grunt Namjoo scrolled the window down.

“What are you doing?” Suho questioned alarmed.

“Keep driving,” Namjoo ordered, “I’m going to shoot out their tires.”

He watched Namjoo stick her body halfway out the window and made a round of shots. The echoes of the car’s brakes screeched against the concrete like the wails of a banshee. Namjoo’s defense didn’t seem to be working and the car sped up to them; its headlights blinding them head on. Suho ended up shutting his eyes for the sake of becoming dazed by it. The car rammed into his trunk again and Namjoo was thrown from the far side of the window toward the side mirror. The force threw his head forward causing a muscle to stretch in his neck painfully.

“Those ing bastards,” Namjoo swore and before realizing the gun had dropped from her hand.

“Namjoo be careful!” Suho shouted.

A split second later something cracked into the windshield and Namjoo fell back into her seat at last.

“Where is it? Where’s your gun?” Namjoo asked at once, her eyes settling on the bullet stuck in the windshield.

“What do you want it for?”

“I told you! To shoot out their tires!” Namjoo raised her voice impatient. “They’re going to kill us, Suho!”

Suho sent her a short glare before having no choice, but to oblige under her violent eyes. Taking the gun from him Namjoo stuck her body back out the window. She was like a child curious about how the wind tasted, not taking care about how far out the window she was. Suho felt like her father gutted by the urge to reach a hand out in order to hold her shirt to make certain she didn’t fall out.

The window whished back and forth unfazed by the situation they were in. His eyes darted simultaneously from the road to Namjoo. It didn’t take long for the bullets soaring through the air to become similar to darts and arrows travelling at high speed in a hunt. Whenever Namjoo accurately shot at the car Suho would feel his heart race at the bolt.

There was a loud roar of victorious scream from Namjoo when she finally blew out one of the tires, but the laugh didn’t last long. Suho didn’t know why. Namjoo dropped into her seat as if moping that her favorite baseball star had failed to make a homerun. Worried about her he turned to glance at her suddenly bleak eyes and mouth gone quiet.

“Why?” Suho questioned. “What is it?”

Namjoo’s lips made a movement and her fingers reached for the button to close the window, but the wind continued to escape into the car from the back. Shivers from the chill of it at their faces striking goosebumps on their skin.

“Eun…Hyukjae,” Namjoo whispered sounding as if she’d seen death, “he was in that car…”

~_____~

The sun was nearly due for its appointment to the sky when Victoria woke. A rude patter dropped against the window and the sky growled before a spark shot through the sky. The room was a little dim with a weak glow of light coming from somewhere. Erroded by nauseous sleep her lids closed on her and she woke up a few seconds later when the droplets of rain ceased to stop.

It almost sounded like someone was knocking on the window with effort to keep her awake and then she heard the drip, drip, drip. Images appeared vaguely in her mind and she saw the blurred sight of black boots turning to walk out. It skipped, blurred again, and felt like she was listening to a scratched CD.

The silence passed on through before the image flattened itself inside her memory scattering into a thousand broken shards of glass. Quickly falling back into a fixed puzzle she saw hot blood pouring out onto the floor paining her eyes as they rolled to the back of her head.

Drowned by the anesthesia she didn’t realize that she couldn’t even put together her thoughts into logical order. With lazy lids halfway down her eyes she peered out of the corner of her lids toward the window. The curtains had been left open allowing her to see spontaneous puffy gray clouds, but she couldn’t depict the raindrops on the window. Instead she saw the outline of a hand and then a gun appeared, becoming very surreal.

Victoria felt her heart race at the struck of lighting and her hand jumped around on the blanket before she grabbed something. Shocked she let out a weak shout which sounded like nothing, but a gasp for air. A black figure shot up from her side causing her heart to beat even faster and she almost couldn’t find the strength to breathe.

Her chest felt heavy and her arms restrained. She didn’t know what was wrong. Images of black boots turning to walk away slurred inside her mind and she saw blood. The continued pattering of droplets didn’t help to comfort her and she felt more scared about what was happening.

Someone leaned over her, but she couldn’t recognize the face right away. That person was saying something to her, but nothing when into her ears. Then suddenly she felt a hand touch her forehead and the warmth there dispersed the images she kept seeing. Her heart continued racing, colliding, and tripping. It wasn’t for the earlier reasons of panic and confusion.

Victoria couldn’t tell what it was.

“Are you cold?” Donghae’s voice became clear to her ears. “Your fever went up.”

Her lips made movement, but no voice escaped.

“I’m going to notify the nurse, hang in there,” he assured before reaching to the side and pressed a buzzer.

A voice she didn’t recognize answered Donghae. In a few minutes’ time the lights to the room came on and footsteps walked in dozens through the door. Her eyes trained on Donghae saw him step back to allow the strangers to crowd around her. They asked her questions, touched her wrist, and shone a bright light into her eyes. It was disturbing, somewhat discomforting. Then Victoria thought she didn’t want to see the strangers.

The man in the white coat turned to talk to the woman beside her who scribbled something into a clipboard. As this went on Victoria felt her eyes swerve over to Donghae who was watching attentively. A short moment later he turned away and pressed something to his ear.

Once again Victoria had to make sense of what was going on. That was right. Something was going on outside. There were gray puffy clouds and something tapping against the window. What was it she had seen just moments ago? Was she thinking about the black boots or the hand on the window?

By now Victoria was feeling sleepy again. Weak to her heavy lids she felt helpless to them closing in on her. A darkness enveloped her into a tunnel with no light. Had she been there before? This place looked familiar…

She almost slept, but awoke when the doctor turned to speak with Donghae. Her eyes slid to the corner of her lids and she only saw Donghae in her line of vision. It was comforting to have him there and she felt like she was very warm. The doctor moved and his shoulder edged into Donghae’s face. She wanted to know what he was saying, wanted to know what was going on.

Donghae nodded accordingly and bowed to the doctor before watching him walk off. Victoria felt her lids lift up when Donghae walked toward her, but he didn’t reach his hand out to touch her forehead. She had been waiting for him to do so.

He only gazed down at her before looking at the door.

“I’ll be back in a while,” Donghae told, “go back to sleep.”

She thought he would touch her forehead again this time when his arms outstretched toward her. In the end, Donghae only readjusted the blanket and his jacket over her before turning to leave. Victoroia waited a few seconds for his return, but felt her eyes close on her locking her back into that familiar tunnel. 

***Victoria almost died, Suho & Namjoo had a near death experience, who's next? 

***Gahh!! Victoria and her emotions have started!!