POV: Minhyun

I can still feel the touch of the skin of his chest against my cheek, while, gradually, my senses fade...

BU-BUM.

Bu-bum? Was that... a heartbeat? Did I imagine it?

BU-BUM.

No, I'm not imagining it. His heart is beating. I did it, I succeeded.

I notice how his chest rises and falls slowly. He's breathing. Without my help. He's alive. He's alive!

I'd jump and scream in happiness if I could move my body. But all I can do is close my eyes as my lips curve into a small smile and a few tears of joy drip down my face, right as I lose consciousness.

            POV: Baekho

The bangs against the door are growing stronger, closer. They're going to break it in.

JR, curled up against it, is still mumbling incoherently. He covers his face with hands and rocks back and forth. The girl is still crying. Ren is still screaming, now with pained tears streaming down his cheeks and, although seeing him breaks my heart, I know I can't do anything, and I can't despair now.

Aron dead. Minhyun has fainted. The little guy won't stop screaming at us to shut up. The girl bawls, Ren howls in pain, and JR continues on in his own dark and bloody world. He's the only one I can do something for at the moment.

"JR, do you hear me? You have to snap out of it; they need us." I speak to him gently, trying to make my voice sound calm and collected. Trying not to let the desperation, uselessness, grief, and panic I feel right now show. It's impossible to make my voice sound calm, but I sing to him, and it seems to wake him up.

He stares at me with foggy eyes, with smears of blood on his face, skin, from where his hands have rubbed. I help him pull on his gloves so he won't see the blood on his hands. He shakes his head and returns to himself.

Bam. Bam. Bam. The sounds repeat against the door. I can hear them above the screams, the sobs and wails. I approach Ren and grab his hand tightly. Can I do anything more?

Suddenly, the girl stops crying.

"Appa?" Huh? "Appa! Appa!" What's up with her now? She crawls to Aron and shakes his head. "Appa!" Don't start this.

I move closer to pull her away so she won't bother him. And I'm left staring intently.

He's breathing.

I see his chest rise and fall. His lips are parted slightly. He turns his head ever so slightly, frowning.

"He's alive."

My god. My god, my god, my god.

He's alive.

The room goes silent. All that is heard is the guards on the outside, attempting to knock down the door. No one says anything.

I let myself fall, kneeling next to him, holding up his head. He groans.

"Nngg..."

I can't believe it.

How...?

He wasn't breathing.

His heart wasn't beating...

I can't believe it, I don't understand it, but I send thanks to the heavens for giving him back to us. And to Minhyun, for whatever it is that he's done. I lean down and hug him. JR watches fixedly with glassy eyes, although he remains at a distance.

Ren seems to forget about his pain. He sits up to come closer, and the instant he moves his leg, his face twists again as he bites back a whimper. His expression darkens again.

"We're going to die anyway. It would've been better for him to have saved himself the trouble of seeing us in this state and dying like a cornered rat."

"Rennie..." I stand and approach him, worried. "Don't say—"

CRASH!

A gap opens in the metal door. It's barely a few centimeters wide, but it sets off all my alarms.

It's going to cave in.

We have to do something.

"Help me," I ask JR. We both get up to put ourselves at the task.

"What are you two doing? We're going to die. Don't try to hold it off any longer, we've lost..."

We pull everything off the shelving in the corner until it's empty and then push it, with the help of my voice, to place it in front of the door. We shove all of its previous contents back on it, tossing it, to make it heavier. We also push our bags against it. We lean back against them.

How long will it hold? Is there any other exit?

            POV: Aron

I breathe. I breathe? I don't choke? My back doesn't hurt anymore. And I'm not cold.

Am I dead? No, I can feel a warm body on my chest, one with a familiar and intoxicating scent. And, although it fascinates me, I know it's not the scent of paradise.

I'm alive. I don't understand how nor why, but I'm alive.

I hear banging and attempt to pry my eyes open. My vision is blurry but, bit by bit, it clears. I see the dirty ceiling. I try to look around. I see Baekho and JR pressed up against a door. On the other side, a teary-eyed Ren covered in blood. And Samuel, who has Shinhye in his arms while they both stare at me.

I don't understand anything. What's happened?

Then I glance down and a smile paints itself across my lips when I see my boy sleeping against my chest. Why is he sleeping? Have they hurt him? I move sluggishly, but I manage to lift a hand to his hair. He smiles instantly, and I'm reassured by knowing he's okay.

"Min..." I whisper with a hoarse voice. He doesn't respond. "Min..." I say again while I caress his cheek.

At last, he opens his eyes and looks at me. He smiles. He seems glad to see me. He struggles to sit up and I immediately miss the weight of his head against my chest.

"Aron, are you okay?"

His voice is one of exhaustion. I don't know what it is he's done, but I'm sure that I'm only alive thanks to him.

I nod. It's difficult to talk, but this seems to be enough for him. He rushes forward to kiss my mouth. He kisses me frantically, desperately, as if he's just gotten me back from the world of the dead. I suppose that, in a way, he has.

I find it hard to follow the rhythm of the kiss, I'm exhausted, but I don't care. With just the touch of his lips, of his tongue, I feel happy. I feel alive. Still mid kiss, I see a few betraying tears escape his eyes. Tears of happiness.

He pulls away from my lips by mere centimeters to whisper.

"You're alive... I'm so happy... you're alive..."

            POV: Ren

Minhyun hugs and kisses Aron. I have no idea how the hell he's saved him, but I honestly don't care. Have they not realized that it doesn't matter? We don't have any chance left. We're going to die, so why waste energy on blocking a door that will give in sooner or later? In recovering strength? In making plans? They have to open their eyes. Hope is useless.

"Great, you're alive, yeah, but what's the point? We're trapped. They'll kill us."

I open my eyes to see if anyone is paying me any damn attention. Judging by their faces, I'm guessing yes. They look scandalized. Why? I'm only saying the truth.

"Rennie, don't say that. Of course we'll succeed."

Baekho is the first to come closer and attempt to make me fall in this optimistic suicide with one of his dazzling smiles. But it's a lie. He knows we're finished too. He's only doing this so we don't despair.

"Don't say that, you know I'm right. I'm not a child. I can face my own death.

And since I'm going to die, it better be fast so this damn leg will stop hurting.

"Come on, blondie, don't be like that. If we've been able to save Aron, why is it so impossible to escape alive?"

"Because right now we're crippled. Two of us can't stand, two are little kids, and two are fighters in more or less good condition against... ten? Fifteen guards? And more to come. We're going to die, Min, face it."

Minhyun doesn't rely but this time Baekho pipes in. My tiger.

"Rennie, I promised that I'd get you out of here. I'm not going to give up until I do, until I've tried everything possible."

It hurts me to see him like this, to see the pain and worry in his eyes, to see how much he's suffering because of me, trying to give me that incredible optimism by holding my hand. But what hurts me the most is seeing him so convinced of something that is impossible, blindly believing that he can save me.

"I don't want to see you die fighting for a lost cause."

"Won't you let me even try it?" I don't answer, simply look at the floor. "You say that we're going to die. If it's true, I want to die thinking that I didn't give in. I don't want to die with the burden of knowing that I let you die. If I'm going to die, I want to die fighting to save you. Will you deny me that?"

I plan to deny you that so long as that still means you die.

"And I don't want to see you die uselessly trying to save me." Talking exhausts me. It makes me lower my guard and I fear that the pain will catch me by surprise, but I have to make him understand. "If you want to make me happy... then fight to save yourself and leave me behind..." He opens his mouth to interrupt but I make a last push. I haven't finished. "Live for both of us. I'm already dead."

This time he doesn't say anything. He doesn't respond. He cries silently, squeezing my hands tightly. Baekho... my man... don't cry, please. Don't suffer. Just... smile with that wide smile of yours. As long as you're smiling, everything will be okay. Everything will have been worth it. If you cry, I don't know what to do...

"You know I won't fight without you..."

"What the hell are you saying now?!" I nearly jump because of Minhyun's sudden scream. Thanks for making me move my ing leg, druggie... "You're the one who wanted us to get a move on, don't you remember?! You told us that we're better than them, that we can take them, that we should never give up!" That was when we still had a chance. "And you throw in the towel now? Because of a broken leg? Don't be a !"

"I'm not a !"

"You want to give in? Fine, give up, but I'm going to get out of here. With or without you, because I know that I can do it. I know we can do it, you hear me? I've never fully believed in this. I thought it'd be better to give up, to live submissively, because we'd never succeed. But you showed me that we could, that we're strong and that we deserve it. Listen to me, blondie. We're going to get out of here, alright? If they kill us, we're going to die fighting, not crying. But we're never going to give up. Because we can make it."

I blink, trying to think of some response but I can't think of anything. , he might be right... At the very least I'm agreed with the spiel about dying fighting. After all this time, I'm not going to let them see me as some weak little girl now, right? I might not make it, but they're strong. There might still be some hope...

The problem is that I hate admitting that he's right.

"... Fine, I guess it's not completely impossible... Let's suppose that I decide to keep fighting... Any idea about how the hell we'll get out of this mousetrap?"

Min grins in satisfaction. Damn druggie, you win this time.

"Well to start, we have to set your leg right before it heals incorrectly."

What...? Definitely not that. A wave of pain spikes up my leg, as if to remind me of how much it hurts without anyone touching it. Like hell they're going to relocate my bone.

"Don't even think of touching my leg or I'll cut off your hand."

"Ren, if we don't do it and it heals like that, you're going to be crippled for the rest of your life. You'll never walk right ever again."

... that's not cool... But... I close my eyes to think clearly. Being left crippled means being exactly what I've been trying to avoid this whole time. Being someone useless and dependent... I look at Baekho who's observing me expectantly. I don't want to be a burden to him. I don't want to see him looking at me with pity for the rest of my life if we actually manage to survive.

"Fine, do it. I hope you know what you're doing..."

"I've seen it be done a few times and I'm the only one who's up to it, so you'll have to trust me."

Min says while he smiles in relief and comes to sit at my side. . How scary.

"Baekho, I need something for Ren to bite."

Yeah, that seems good... My man stands and brings a good piece of cloth from one of the bags.

"This?"

"It'll work. Give it to him."

He folds it a few times and hands it to me. I hope it's more or less clean since I have to put it in my mouth. I bite it hard and grab his hand. He squeezes back and smiles. I'm lucky to have him at my side...

I close my eyes and take a deep breath when I see that Minhyun seems to be ready. I don't want to see it.

"Ready? I'll try to be fast."

I nod quickly and breathe as deeply as I can. It's been so long since I've felt so afraid of pain.

I bite down even harder when Min grabs hold of my leg in a strong grasp, much too close to my wound. It ing hurts, it hurts a lot. I don't know if I'll be able to get through this.

I try to calm my breathing again but I barely have a chance to before Min makes an abrupt movement with all of his strength. It hurts like he's just broken my leg again but in the opposite direction. I can only cry out and bite tightly and suddenly... nothing. Only darkness.

            POV: Baekho

He's finally fainted. He's submitted to the pain. I hold him tightly. I kiss his forehead and touch his hair.

Do we honestly deserve so much pain? To go through all of this? Losing Aron – despite that he's returned – seeing Ren suffer like this, constantly hearing the hitting of the door to remind us that they'll  be on us at any moment. It's beyond me. I can't even think anymore. I feel shame, I feel scared, I feel exhausted, but it's like everything is far away. All I know is that I have to keep moving forward, that I have to keep doing something. Because if I stop, I'll crumble.

Aron sits up. He and Minhyun both look much better. Well, no. They're awake and on their feet, which is a lot. There's no time to recover any further. I search through the bags and pull out a few crackers to hand out, tossing them. There's no time. This'll break in at any moment.

The shelving is falling. It's a matter of seconds.

What do we do? What can we do...?

What if Ren is right? What if all hope is lost?

No, it doesn't matter. We have to keep fighting.

"Baekho," JR calls, "What's over there?"

I turn. He points to the back wall. I expand my mind.

"An office. Four people, tables, computers..."

He strides towards the wall, pulling off his gloves.

"Prepare yourselves to run."

He places both hands against the wall and closes his eyes, focusing.

I understand a mere second before it turns to dust. I grab Ren, swinging him up onto my back, and start running as well as I can. Minhyun and Aron clumsily chase after me, holding each other up. The kids are at my side. JR takes up the rear of the group, shooting at air.

            POV: JR

The people on the other side scream and run away. They're just office workers. They're not even armed. But we're slow, too slow. Guards will be here soon.

I call the boy over. I don't even know his name. Guards are getting closer. They shoot at us, right as we skid around a corner for a breath of safety.

"Do you know how to shoot?" I ask him, offering him a gun.

He releases the girl – she floats up into the air, following us – and shakes his head but grabs the weapon anyway.

In the end, I don't know either.

Between the two of us, we cover their backs. People scream with our passing. They run to hide. More than anything, we shoot into the air to scare them away.

We reach a huge room. From the balcony, we can see the lower floor and, at the other end, the doors, locked and bolted shut. We run along the balcony. A few guards shoot from the halls. Ren is conscious again, trying to shoot back. But he's trembling and the gun tumbles out of his hands. He bites his lips hard enough to draw blood.

Minhyun falls. For a second, I fear that they've hit him. But no, he's just exhausted. Aron stops, panting. I pass by them and pull them along to get them running again. We can't stop.

A bullet brushes against Baekho's leg. It opens a gap in his pants and starts to bleed. He doesn't even stop, not until we've reached our destination.

The control room.

It's surrounded by files of guards and other armed workers. There's at least fifty. It's impossible to get through.

We pause at the corner, hidden, gasping. I take advantage of the moment to change the supply of bullets in my gun again. It's only a few instances. Someone screams.

"AH!"

We've been seen.

We move out, ready to force a path through bullets and shoves, or be killed. There are no more options.

But no one shoots. Not at us.

The guard beside the one that saw us has shot him, and a second later it's not one but twenty guards that turn against their coworkers.

And then starts the massacre.

They're defending us? They're fighting for us? Who? They're all exactly the same. They're all wearing the same uniforms, the same masks. I don't know who to attack. I don't know who to kill. They're murdering within themselves without even knowing if they're on their own side or not.

Why is this happening? Is it our fault?

The bodies fall. Red spreads across the tiling and their screams reverberate through the halls. Reinforcements arrive and join the killing.

No one knows who's side anyone is on. And we, the instigators of this cruelty, stay on the sidelines. Motionless.

Is this because of us? Is it our fault? Is this the price of trying to be free?

            POV: Minhyun

What is this? Why are they killing within themselves?

The spectacle is true carnage. I'm unable to follow the battle with my eyes. Each body exploding in bullets. Each broken bone. Each river of blood. The screams of pain, of shock, fill my ears.

It's horrible.

I recognize that I've seen a lot of unsavory scenes in my life, but never anything like this.

I don't know what to do. Not one of us knows what to do. Fixed to the spot with weapons in our hands, we wait for this insanity to end somehow.

JR covers his face with his hands and shakes while he mumbles "blood, blood..." The rest of us are incapable of taking our eyes off this.

Two guards pull away from the crowd and approach us.

, I have to be prepared to defend us. I try to get into a fighting position but my body is weak. I don't think I can use my powers. I raise a gun in a tight grip and flick off the safety.

The others also get into defensive modes. Samuel, behind me, trembles with a gun in his hand. Baekho prepares himself to yell. Ren makes an effort to keep himself conscious and glares at the guards defiantly. Aron threatens to go running to attack them at any moment, although I now he's too weak to do it.

When the two guards are close, with their weapons lowered, they pull off their blood-soaked masks. I hold my breath and squeeze the gun in my fingers.

One of them is a redheaded man with short hair. The other is a woman. I'm sure I've seen her somewhere...

"Nara!"

Baekho's yell snaps things into place for me. Nara, the woman who helped us escape. The one who didn't betray us. I sigh in relief.

The blond moves towards her with a large smile and hugs her as well as he can with Ren on his back.

"Nara, what's going on?"

She smiles kindly.

"I told you that there are a lot of guards on your side. We're going to help you."

"Go down the stairs and run for the door. Hurry! We'll take care of opening the doors." The man adds.

No one questions whether or not we should trust them, not even blondie. We nod and decide to listen to them.

"Thank you, Nara."

She grins. Until something impacts with her back. A stray bullet, or maybe a bullet that knew where it was headed. Because it hits in such a precise place that the girl dies before her body even falls to the floor. She doesn't even get the chance to scream.

            POV: Baekho

No.

No, no, no, no. Not Nara. Please, not her. I fall to my knees with her. Ren slips off my back and I lean over her to hug her.

"Nara!"

The redheaded man also shakes her. It becomes increasingly obvious that she's not going to react. I don't want to accept it.

She can't be...

The redhead turns and shoots two times. He yells at us to run and jumps back into the multitude of guards.

I can't take my eyes off of Nara. Of her eyes, wide open and staring at nothing. I can't accept it, I can't believe it.

But maybe it's not too late.

I turn towards Minhyun. He saved Aron, he can do it with her.

He knows what I'm asking him and shakes his head.

"You did it to him."

"I don't know what I did."

"But you did it."

"I can't. She's already dead."

"Aron was too!"

Tears fall down my face and he continues to refuse.

No, it can't be...

Lost, forever. I don't want to... I can't...

Nara, she's been my only contact with reality in the last three years. My only friend.

I can't believe it.

Just a week ago, she'd been telling me of how her boyfriend had asked her to live with him. Have they already started the move? She told me, excitedly, that she had bought her brother tickets to a concert he wanted to go to. Will he receive them? Will he go to the concert?

And then I remember all of the guards I've killed. They also had brothers, boyfriends and girlfriends and mothers waiting for them at home. A life. And I feel horrible, miserable. I want to cry, to vomit.

Because I've lost Nara.

"Baek." Somehow, Ren's muffled voice finds a way past my despair. "We need you."

I know he's right. If I crumble, we're all finished.

I close my eyes, take a deep breath and get to my feet. JR is still sobbing, scared. I turn to him, slapping the palm of my hand across his cheek.

"NOT NOW!"

I scream, and his clothes pull him right up to his feet. I grab the collar of his jacket and stare right into his fogged over eyes.

"Not now, Kim Jonghyun. Not now."

His eyes become focused. He trembles. I don't wait. I kneel down and let Ren climb onto my back carefully. It costs me hell to stand back up, but I do it and start moving towards the stairs.

They follow me.

            POV: Aron

I lean against Min to walk. It's difficult to breathe. I'm at a lack of air, but I continue forward. It feels like my lungs aren't able to fill completely, they're not like before. But I have to keep going.

Min supports my weight and carries Shinhye with an arm. He stumbles. He's also struggling to walk, but we manage to advance.

We follow Baekho, who's moving as quickly as he can with Ren on his back. Two guards appear in the hall. A scream from the blond plasters them against the wall. Another one comes out, JR shoots, he falls bathed in blood.

We continue walking.

JR and Samuel run around us with their guns, defending us as best they can. They shoot at the air, hitting something or someone every now and then. Samuel has two bruises on his head from the recoil of the gun.

We continue walking.

To our luck, the guards are still killing within themselves and we find few attackers. Five come running out from the hall towards us. There are a lot and we can't defend ourselves. But two more guards intercept them. One of them doesn't have a mask – it's the redheaded man. They confront the five guards, catching them by surprise. We continue.

A few seconds later, I see that the two guards that had defended us are following us.

"Keep going! We'll cover you!"

We're lucky that they're helping us.

We continue walking.

            POV: Ren

We finally arrive at the spiraling staircase. Baekho pauses for a few moments. Will he be able to make it with my weight? It'd be very sad to fall down the stairs but if I have to go down them with my lame leg... We won't make it even in a joke.

"Hold on tight."

I nod and try to hold on without bothering him too much. This is going to hurt. Each step is going to be damn hell for my leg... I lost the rag I'd been biting a long time ago so I look for something to use as a substitute. Baekho's hood could work. I don't think he'll care, right?

I bite onto it just as Baekho starts to descend. Slowly, grabbing onto the railing so he won't lose his balance under my weight. It ing hurts but a bit less than before. I suppose that not having the bone out of place is an important point.

My man nearly loses his balance a few times but, at last, we make it to the bottom. It's a huge room made of marble, like a receptionist lobby but the only thing that matters to me is found right in front of us. On the other side.

The doors. The exit. Freedom.

At last.

Although they're bolted off, like all the windows, I know what's behind it and in that moment everything has been worth it. I don't know how we're going to open them but it hardly matters. We're here, we've succeeded.

And suddenly, a miracle.

I hear a loud mechanic sound and all of the blinds and bars begin to rise slowly, allowing rays of sunlight to illuminate the room.

The sun, after two years. The sun. In barely half a minute, the whole room is bathed in light and I feel like I could cry. At last.