chapter 6; breakout

unbetaed please excuse my horrible grammar and diction in the morning

The lights are off, unabiding from the last of the moons, lunar shades through the small tent. Kyungsoo’s holding the crossbow, aimed directly at one of the four guys, the one with the creepy mask on. Smiley face, derisive and oblivious to how he’s just perched outside, military precision on his elbows, dug into the dirt and dirt dug into the shoulder blades.

“What the hell do we do?” Baekhyun whispers, and he just looks until Kyungsoo pulls a gun out of his back pocket and just hands it to Baekhyun. “What the ?! You had this the whole time and you never gave it to me?!”

Kyungsoo determines to stay quiet, so he just hits Baekhyun, on the skull a little too hard and just pushes him back. Doesn’t say anything, doesn’t do anything, and certainly doesn’t move. Bones crack, bubblewrap pops and the ravens crow from above, capturing the attentions of purge-masker number one. He almost shoots, but catches himself before he does because that aim was horrible.

Drumming song in the background, timpanis untuned and too flat against how Baekhyun’s heart is just pounding. Louder than silence, sweeter than the blood that’s flowing in his mouth because he’s bit his mouth too forcibly.

-

“What do we do?!” Sehun asks Joonmyun, beats thump against the four by four measure, sixteenth notes from four batches, One-ti-te-ta. Repetitive, boring but nonetheless, active and working like how it’s supposed to be working. “Joonmyun?”

Joonmyun’s frozen against the edges of the tent. He pulls out the gun, reloads it and just throws it over to Sehun who catches it with a leaping hand. Obsessive disorder causes him to reload it again for safety measures and he just looks back out again.

Two figures in front of four, the weapons aimed directly at their heads. Or, well it seems like it does. His vision’s been more than less useful, almost fifteen by fifteen, or probably just five by five if he’s being more than modest.

Sehun turns around, looks at the apparent leader who’s shaking. Shaking so terribly, and he eventually crawls up over to where Sehun’s sitting, gun pointed near the bottoms and if shot, would just drag against the grass and hit a sole, blinding footwork.

“Are you okay, hyung?” Sehun asks, and Joonmyun doesn’t even nod. He just shakes his head, involuntarily and the bones are frozen, chattering like below freezing and mouth parched open. It’s louder than silence, more jagged than the rough landscapes of hell. Sehun’s panicking now, and Joonmyun’s panicking as well with both arms just shivering like the quake’s unleashed, magnitude above the scale and just out of this world.

“J-just d-don’t shoot them,” Joonmyun manages to say, stutters too obvious and the sudden intakes of his breath so jagged. Puzzles piece coming loose, no edges to start from and just the middle pieces. Impossible, but so valid.

Sehun’s surprised at how Joonmyun’s acting. So brash and so nervous, but then he just imagines to be in that spot.

They’re all in the same sort of hellish world.

-

“So where are they?” Tao asks, because it’s been a while since he’s seen Joonmyun, and the rest and he’s not the most excited for it.

“I have no idea. Someone should be watching--” Chanyeol begins, and then stops because something piercing goes through the air, and something a few meters away codas to it, explosive sounds banging from the ears and the ricochets of orange flames too alive.

“!” someone screams, and from behind Kris looks, and he sees what’s happened. Jongin, Kim Jongin, the one with the smiled mask, purge-like has a cut that stretches from where his right arm hung off, the left frames with bone sticking out. Arrow sticks against the trunk of a tree, but then they don’t even get enough time to evaluate that because three to five bullets shoot through the night, echoing and sounds like hitting plastic. His mask is off now, eyes widened at the horror because blood is just so mainstream, spewing and spluttering like the words are lost against adjectives to describe the view of it.

“Whoa,” Jongdae says, almost being hit by the sides because he’s on the ground now, rolling like a lost puppy but just crawling behind a tree.

Hell’s unleashed.

-

“Jongin!” Baekhyun screams from the tent, because that face is so recognizable from a few feet away. Mask off, identity gone and the royale begins. His legs kick off from the ground, and he almost slips but he manages to catch himself before being able to do so, and he just runs towards the fallen person.

“You ing idiot!” Kyungsoo damns to himself, mutters because he’s scared of hearing his own voice. Precision’s gone after the first shot, and the crossbow reloads too quickly so he presses the trigger accidentally, and a piece of skin comes off. Shrieks, he does and curses louder. “!” Because, oh, the arrow’s running through the air now, looking for someone to hurt.

It does, speeches through the night and cuts through something that’s like rubber, soles of the shoes and Baekhyun’s navy-blue converse that’s drenched at the soles, red and maroon pigments.

-

Baekhyun falls, no skin coming off but the thin fabrics of socks just saving him in time before he probably couldn’t walk. He turns around in plain surprise, looking at Kyungsoo with eyes that are so confused.

But in return, there’s just those doe-eyed deer eyes and they look like they’re roadkill, almost dead. Mouth in the shapes of ovals. Baekhyun should’ve been looking ahead, because there’s a few boulders and he falls again, scrapes on the knees cutting through his ripped jeans and something of the sound of cries being heard perfectly from the equidistance, Joonmyun’s tent, Kyungsoo’s lone tent, the Mask strangers, and Luhan’s tent.

-

“Stop shooting!” Joonmyun screams, and Sehun almost stops but he pulls the trigger a final time before he hears the warning and it just chills, chills while slumping forward because Joonmyun’s pulled him back.

“S-sorry! Who are they?!” Sehun yells, confused because Joonmyun’s promised that only Chanyeol and Kris