[ 20: HUMAN ]
[ CA-23 ]warning: this chapter had some pretty gruesome description of violence.
[18.03.2015]
"Looks like you only figured half of it out, Jisung."
Jisung coughed. It was extremely blurry, but moments before his eyesight started clearing out, he could make out a figure, pale, with a few straight black lines at their front.
"No." Jisung's stomach dropped. He had always seen it, almost always exactly like what his visions would've told him; they'd get Kim Rohee, and then the scene would always changes to a rising sun, with the eight a little hurt, but otherwise fine.
Not this. Absolutely not the tall, slender woman, her hair noticeably lighter than the time he'd seen them, tied up to a bun. She's wearing a lab coat, facing Jisung's back, but it's futile. Jisung knew her already.
"What did you do to us?" He said, hissing. Jisung's mind flashed to Rohee's sickly figure, and anger boiled on him. He lurched forward, only to hear a loud, clinging sound before he felt himself falling. His knees felt wobbly and weak, and his breath still went heavy.
"Don't expect yourself free in any cases," The woman snidely chuckled, very much mocking him. "you're trapped, just like the rest of you."
Jisung realized that the straight lines were jail bars, and he slowly looked up, only to see the dark grey ceiling. Jisung touched it, feeling the dust trickle down his hands and his face.
His heart sank deeper and deeper when he noticed the grey, metallic ringlets binding his limbs. It felt heavy, but so was Jisung's head.
When he'd seen his visions, he'd known well they would come by to get to Kim Rohee, and then it would always shift to her cuffs being broken by Sejoon. Then it would change to all of them coming up (or at least, Jisung would say most of his team), reunited and quite happy.
Not this.
Jisung turned to his right, and noticed three other figures, sitting upright with their hands at the back of the bars. The one with red hair and messy bun would be Hani, the one with short black hair would be Sejoon, and the one with light brown hair would be Hyerin.
He looked to his left, and there was another separate cage. The presence of light has greatly dimmed, but he could make out two black figures, also laid limp. But very slowly, one of them started moving, touching the other one. When the latter turned his head, his eyes met with Jisung, and the younger couldn't help but almost cry.
"Jookyung-hyung—" Jisung whispered, carefully turning his head to the left.
But Jookyung shook his head, and pointed to another figure on a standstill. Wooyoung-hyung. When they both made eye contact, Wooyoung shot him a wary smile. Behind him, there's a silvery blade, but it immediately disappeared under his back.
Slowly, guilt started creeping on him. All three had remained asleep, so Jisung's sure all of them got sedated, and the three should woke up really soon.
He hoped.
"Seulhee-ah." Jisung shivered. There's the light, raspy voice that called out her name; to ever think he would have ever done the same to the two sweetest people on Earth made his stomach sick.
"What, Eunchang?"
"The other two are still asleep, and so are these four. Which one should we—"
"Lee Jisung is now awake." Jisung slowly backed down, pulling himself to the same position as the three, but alas, the chains felt heavy, and Eunchang had been locking his eye on the boy. He looked on intently, as if shooting daggers at him, but facing Seulhee, he said nothing.
"The red haired seemed strong enough."
Jisung's eyes widened, and his hands grew cold. He frantically turned to the other three, who hadn't moved from their position, not even a single inch. He heard the door opened, and then, two figures in white protective suits came in with a stretcher, harshly pulling off her chains. Her body lifelessly got tied to the stretcher, and Jisung could only watch as she got taken away.
He tried to break free, but the struggle only started hurting his hands even more. The chains had gotten tighter, so at least much more than before. Jisung's chest felt tight, and desperation ate away. His stomach felt weak, even if his heart burned in anger.
"No!" Jisung yelled. But that yell only seemed to be taking off some steam from his chest, and he saw that they had disappeared off to a door at the right corner. The rest of the researchers followed, lastly by Han Seulhee herself.
Smiling. Jisung had never wanted to wipe of someone's smile so, so much in his life. He clenched his teeth, turning helplessly to his left side.
Yet when he did, the cage was empty.
"Huh?" Then, a loud bang. It took enough to make Jisung turn his head back to the right, and both Sejoon and Hyerin started moving.
"Jisung? What happened?" Sejoon asked, concerned. He looked at the shackles in disgust, and then back to the younger. Jisung shook his head, and pointed to the door, which then broke open, revealing a figure nearly clad in black except for the bright, green eyes.
"Hyosung? What's happening?"
Jisung would have almost cried.
♦
"Wha—how did you get here? How about Iseul? Where's Jookyung and Wooyoung?" Sejoon asked.
"Iseul is safe now. I had to run after all of you became unresponsive. But somehow Jookyung and Wooyoung got out, and now they're helping Hani," Hyosung said. "Sejoon, don't move."
Hyosung pulled out her semi-auto, and four loud shots were heard. The next moment, Sejoon immediately stood up, looking visibly relieved.
"You have another gun?" Without another word, Hyosung offered one before approaching a bewildered Hyerin. Meanwhile, Sejoon stepped closer to Jisung, who's still scared.
"Hey, it's going to be a bit loud, but bear with it for a little." Jisung heard the same few shots, and immediately stood up, along with Hyerin.
"Should we go to the others? We don't have weapons or any communication system either." Hyerin asked.
"Here. Wait for a while, and once you heard Iseul's directions, start running." Hyosung said, offering the three earpieces.
"How about them? We could be captured again if we get caught like this." Sejoon said.
"They would follow you later. Iseul's gotten the location of the main security room, so she should be able to pinpoint out the exact place she's in." Hyosung said, but then glanced at Jisung with a guilty expression. It was only a moment, but it made felt Jisung worse.
The three waited for a moment, and immediately, they heard a buzz.
"Testing, testing one, two, three. Agent Lupin, Nigma, and Archer, please proceed to Exit B right now."
"Where's Exit B?" Hyerin asked.
"Look at that air vent just above the next cage. Climb, and turn left until you see an opening. Climb down, and proceed to the nearest exit. Your time is in three minutes."
"Great. Come on." Sejoon said, running up to the cage. Hyerin and Jisung followed suit, and when they turned back, Hyosung had disappeared.
"That gun's real, right?" Hyerin asked.
"Pretty likely."
♦
"Hoy. There's just too many of them here!" Those voices snapped Hani out of the darkness, and the moment she knew it, she saw things rapidly moving past her, and three figures just above her. She tried to move, but when she looked down, she saw the tight black bands tying her hands and limbs.
"Uh? Help me?" One of the figures immediately snapped to look at her, and noticing the green eyes, Hani sighed in relief, but questions rose in her heart.
"Hyosung?" She nodded, and pulled a knife. Her grip was shaky, so the man just at her back grabbed it from her.
"You're exhausted." Soon Jookyung. Hyosung shook her head weakly.
"I can make it until we get to Kim Rohee. Hani, don't move." Hyosung said. Hani felt the strained bands immediately loosen, and the mapper rubbed the red marks all over her arms.
"Jookyung's right. You can stop your illusions now." Wooyoung. Normally the voice would have made her a little fluttery, but now, there's a huge relief. Hyosung mirrored the same expression, sighing. The only thing more impressive was that they're still running all through this.
"Han Seulhee still with us?" Wooyoung asked.
"No," Hyosung said. "soon."
"Wait... how did you boys get out of here? And how did Hyosung do that to?" Hani asked, turning to them.
"Short answer; you're put on sleeping agent, we almost did but Wooyoung got this weird green shield so we just pretended to sleep anyway, Hyosung saw that no one was responding after 20 minutes, so she came and distracted the weird creatures. And then we're free and you almost got dissected." Hani's eyes nearly twitched when she heard Jookyung, partly because she's still confused, partly because nothing makes sense.
"Last one!" Wooyoung shouted. He glanced at Hani softly, and they made a mad dash towards a particular door...
"Hey?"
"We're back here, again?" Hyerin asked, disgruntled. She waited while Jisung shifted away; they noticed well her words, and looked upon the door.
"She's last seen there and I have the evidence for that."
"I don't need the evidence—now, anyway. How can we go in?" Hyerin asked, shaking her head. The distant roaring started getting closer again.
"They just opened it, if I'm not mistaken."
"Hyosung's double is stalling them, but not for long either." Sejoon said. He turned the doorknob, but immediately pulled away from it.
"It's not, Peserphone."
Sejoon bit his lips, covering his mouth. There was an immediate unpleasant smell; the roars stopped, but the smell had gotten worse. Jisung and Hyerin mirrored his gestures, moving away from the door.
"Pretty sure there's some witchcraft password related thing on it. Peserphone?" Sejoon groaned. But after a while, the clarity dissolved into a loud, buzzing noise. He immediately took it off, feeling the loud, cutting high-pitched noise all over.
"Nam Sejoon, still trying?"
Sejoon nearly yelped, hearing the raspy voice replacing the noise. He's assured the others haven't heard it (although Hyerin started gving out strange looks), so he kept mum, covering his mouth.
"What makes you come here? You sounded like... something." Sejoon whispered.
"Me? To come here? That's just laughable." The voice chuckled. It immediately flickered in Sejoon; the tonality sounded almost like the very being that attacked Hani.
"Hey? Who are you and mind if you explain why you're doing this?" Sejoon said. Hyerin glanced at him for a minute, and then turned away. There's the enduring silence; not a sound of gunshot or humanely shouts. Only void.
"All of you have been shaped for a fate that's inevitable. And in that inevitability lies unpredictability, hidden from you. And so with that, I..."
"We just wanted to enter this door." Sejoon almost rolled his eyes. There's still the tinging sense of fear, but Hyerin now actually stared at his eyes, through and through, while he had to hear the longest rambling possible of a new identity he probably wouldn't like.
There was a pause. "I could open this door."
"No nasty surprises?" Sejoon said, biting his lips.
"One condition."
Then, Sejoon felt like the weight of his holster became lighter, and two loud gunshots were heard.
"Hyerin?"
notes: Remember when I said this is going to be the last chapter of phase one (i didn't. the more you know)? i'm totally wearing down all of your patience right now, but this is the penultimate.
can anyone guess the meaning of the sentence?
also, i'm still accepting the questions
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