Escape - Stray Kids || completed

Sixteen

"Jeongin no" I say as I watch his body fall to the floor. We quickly rush to him and Seungmin rests Jeongin's head on his knees and feels for a pulse.

"He's still with us" he says quickly and the others stare at the poor boy and I realise I need to take control.

I quickly take off my jumper and put it at my side. I unbutton Jeongin's shirt so I can see the wound better. I'm met with a deep wound with the silver of a bullet a few centimetres into his shoulder. The bleeding is controllable but the bullet needs to come out and that's when he'll loose all his blood.

"Someone get me our medical supplies" I say calmly trying not to get emotional.

"But that's for emergencies only" Seungmin says.

"What the fuck does this look like? A paper cut?" Minho replies and runs to get it from one of the cases.

"Jeongin I'm going to take the bullet out and I'm going to try and sew the wound. It's going to hurt a lot okay? So hold onto Seungmin's hand and don't be afraid to scream" I say as I take the supplies from Minho's hands.

"Ash do you know how to do this?" Jisung says in a hushed tone. I look at him and take a deep breath.

"No but if I sit here and do nothing my friend is going to die and I couldn't live with myself if that happens" I get out a pair of tweezers from the kit and take another deep breath to steady myself.

I cautiously place the tweezers into the wound and feel them hit the metal bullet. I carefully adjust the tweezers so that I have a grip on the bullet. I look at Jeongin and he closes his eyes tightly bracing himself.

"Okay, 3, 2, 1" I say and slowly pull the bullet out gasping myself when I had successfully taken it out. The relief was only short lived as almost instantaneously blood began to escape from the wound in infinite amounts. Jeongin screamed in pain and Seungmin and Changbin tried their best to calm the scared boy.

I grabbed my jumper from beside me and placed it onto his wound applying a reasonable amount of pressure.

"Jisung hold this" I say to him and he places his hands onto the white hoodie pushing down as it slowly becomes stained crimson by the over whelming amount of blood.

I grab a needle and sterile thread which Chan stole from the hospital. I hold up the end of the thread to the eye of the needle and my shaky hands don't allow me to thread it successfully. I scream in frustration trying again and again with no success.

"Ash let us help" Minho says coming to my side.

"No I've got this" I say through gritted teeth and I once again fail to thread the needle. Felix reaches over Jeongin and holds my hands stopping me from doing anything else.

"Minho will thread the needle you need to breathe" he says calmly and I nod handing Minho the needle. I sit taking deep breaths as I look at Jeongin's face as colour drains from his youthful complexion.

Minho sterilises the needle by holding it over the flame of a lighter before handing it to me.

I nod to Jisung who takes the hoodie away and I quickly start at the top of the wound trying my best to sew it. It was definitely not the best and would probably need to be done again at a later date but it would do for now.

When I had finished I took the thread between my teeth and cut it, tying a firm knot at the end. We all sat for a moment as I wiped away the last of the blood and realised that at some point Jeongin had passed out. Most likely from the pain I must have been causing him.

"Hey guys, not to be inconvenient or anything but we're about to break through the barrier" Chan called from the front of the bus. I had been so focused I had forgotten where we were and I had even blocked out the gunshots that continued to fire behind us.

We all rushed to the seats lying Jeongin down on them and everyone went to their own seats but Minho and Changbin remained near Jeongin holding him in place.

"Okay here we go" chan shouts and the bus speeds up significantly. My knuckles go white as I strengthen my grip around the backrest of the seat in front. I see the barrier come closer and closer into view until I close my eyes and a deafening crash sound enters my ears along with a large force which throws me around in my seat.

When I look up all I see is barren land for miles on end. I look behind and the police have stopped just short of the barrier. Probably deciding we're as good as dead now.

For a moment we all smile. We made it. Reality soon sinks back in and I look straight to Jeongin and he's already looking better. The colour is returning to his cheeks and the others look after him protectively.

Seungmin walks up to me and doesn't say anything but hugs me. I hug back in relief gripping onto the back of his shirt in relief.

"You saved Jeongin's life" he says and all I do is nod not knowing how on Earth to respond.

"Go sit at the front with Chan try and sleep maybe, it's been a long day for you" he quickly pats my back and heads to the others.

I slowly walk to the front of the bus and sit next to Chan. The bus is slowing down now that we're a few miles from the city and I start to breathe normally again.

"How's Jeongin?" Chan asks not looking away from where he was driving.

"He's doing okay. We took the bullet out and sewed him up so hopefully he'll get better" I say as Chan finally stops the bus. He pulls the hand brake and cracks his knuckles and stretches his back.

I bring my knees to my chest and sit with my head resting against the window. I bring my hands up to eye level and look at how they are covered in blood. I look at my clothes and they are in a similar condition. Without realising I start to cry.

Chan notices straight away and hugs me and I let it all out. I cry onto his shoulder and he moves his hand up and down my back.

"Jeongin almost died" I sob onto his shoulder, my body shakes and I start to feel light headed as the tears cascade down my face.

"He's okay. It's okay. You saved his life don't worry" he says and he quickly pulls away to hand me a large brown hoodie.

"Thanks" I say sniffling and wiping my face with the back of my hand; probably wiping blood across my face in the process.

"We did it. We escaped" I say releasing a large sigh of relief and looking back at the others who were encouraging the now awake Jeongin to drink some water.

"This isn't it though. We still have a long way to go. But for now let's sleep. All of us. We need it." He says to both me and the others. He turns off the lights in the bus and everyone goes to a seat to lie down on. Chan and I decide to stay in the front. We don't say another word to each other but we all close our eyes under the real sky for the first time in our lives.