Amnesia

VI.

Remy's throat felt ragged as she screamed. Taehyung screamed too, along with almost everybody else. The big man dropped the gun to the ground, his eyes wide with something that almost looked like fear. Jimin and Seokjin dropped their own fake ties and fell to their knees around Taehyung, horror etched onto their faces. Everyone else stood there, horror-shocked for just a moment. Then, they came to their senses, and it seemed as if they all understood exactly what to do at the same time.

It was probably by some random stroke of luck that the door to the truck was still wide open, but low enough that Namjoon could grab it. It was also a stroke of luck that the wiry man happened to be just behind the frozen TB&U, so the collective group of Hoseok, Jeongguk, Yoongi, Remy, and Namjoon could shove the big man and the two kidnappers went toppling into the cargo area. But just before they fell, two things happened. Remy saw that the wiry man had a gun in a holster strapped around his waist. And then, the wiry man yelled something interesting to TB&U.

"We can't kill them, you idiot!"

Namjoon slammed the truck door shut, and Hoseok used his dancer agility to grab the discarded lock on the ground and put it in place. For good measure, or just out of spite, Yoongi also knotted one of the ropes around the lock.

"Let's get out of here!" Seokjin screamed as he and Jimin started to lift the crying and bleeding Taehyung off the pavement. That sounded like a great idea, and one Remy could get behind. But before she followed the boys, she scooped the gun off the dusty pavement. The silver metal was hot on her hand.

Then they ran. Time seemed to blend together in streaks of paint colors as they ran. Remy didn't even have time to question her entering the forest before she found herself surrounded by blurs of deep greens and thick pine needles were piercing the soles of her bare feet. She almost wanted to start hyperventilating, but she pushed her thoughts of anxiety away by running faster. They eventually got out of the forest and then Remy saw the desert she had been expecting. Sprawling hills of bland orange and yellow rock going for miles, a few dry desert plants scattering the landscape.

Then, in the hazy distance, Remy saw an old farmhouse with a red barn with a gravel road. Remy almost started to cry in relief, but then remembered that the desert had a habit of playing tricks on the mind. That house would be anywhere from half a mile away to six miles. Still, it was the only lead they had, so they continued. They were walking now, Remy realized, with the people in the back constantly looking behind them.

Remy couldn't get the image of the wiry man's holstered gun out of her mind. She looked at Taehyung, who was mostly incoherent and mumbling random phrases at this point. Seokjin, Jeongguk, and Jimin were all carrying him, with Namjoon pressing his hands on the wound. With his own blood still staining his face and his arms and hands covered in Taehyung's blood, he looked like a murderer from a B-list horror film.

Remy was thinking a lot about horror films as of late. That probably wasn't a good sign.

And so they walked, the bottoms of their feet browning with dirt. Remy tried to ignore the almost quaint trail of small red dots that was following them. Initially, she tried to cover up the spots with dust, but then she eventually realized that her efforts were unneeded: the wind was covering up the tracks for them.

Wait. the thought struck her so suddenly she stopped walking and Yoongi plowed right into her.

"Sorry," he said, spitting strands of her hair out of his mouth.

Remy frantically looked at the sky and realized the sunlight was no longer blinding her because the sky was filling with dark clouds.

"We need to get inside!" she yelled, making half of the boys jump.