POV: Jin-BTS
Time: 14:24
I start to lose consciousness.
My eyes start to blur and close.
The last thing I see is the man throwing me into the van and closing the door.
Hours later...
I start to regain my consciousness.
My eyes flutter open. Everything is pitch black. I try to rub my eyes with my hands but I can't. My hands are tied.
I realise that I'm blindfolded and that I'm tied up on a chair. I struggle against my bonds.
Where am I?
"There's no point trying to escape, Seokjin." someone says.
"Who- who are you??? Where am I? WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS?!?" I shout.
"Relax~~~ I'll show you, here-"
My blindfold is taken off. I blink my eyes, trying to adjust to the light.
I look around. I'm in a dark room lit by just a row of dim ceiling lights. All my friends are here too, tied up on separate chairs and all unconscious and blindfolded.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"Does that really concern you? But if you're dying to know, you're in our headquarters or base or zombie shelter or whatever people call it." He says.
"Why are we here?" I ask.
"You DO ask a lot of questions. Anyways, I won't answer that because you'll find out soon enough. Also, your friends should be up soon. I'll tell you when everyone's up. So in the meantime, just chillax there, yeah?~~~" He says.
"You're a psycho." I spit out.
His face perks up.
"It took you long enough to notice that~~~"
He starts to chuckle and walks up to me. He grabs my chin to face him.
"So what? Everything is working out for me. Maybe not as much for you or your friends." He tells me in a deep voice.
"You look ugly without a mask." I say, spitting in his face.
He retracts his hand and puts it to his face, wiping it. He looks at me with rage and slaps me across the face.
"Look here, Seokjin. You dare taunt me again, you'll be the dinner of your friends. And they'll never know what they're eating." He whispers to me.
...
Multiple groans from my friends fill the room. The leader notices and steps away from me, his face happy again.
"You're all awake! Cool... Uhm... take off their blindfolds please." He says, his men rushing to the blindfolds off.
"Where are we?" Yeji asks.
"Heard that one before. Seokjin why don't you tell her~~~" The man says, looking at me.
"Their base." I say, it's a short sentence, but enough for Yeji.
The man smiles.
"Goooood job, Seokjin..." He mocks.
He clasps his hands together, as if preparing for a presentation.
"So! As you may or may not know, we all love our entertainment. When I mean we, I mean me and my gang here. Some of you may have met us already, but if you haven't, that's ok." He says.
"So? What does that have to do with us?" Ryujin butts in.
"I was getting right into that. Our love for entertainment is so huge that we try and find the best ways of entertaining ourselves. One way we've found during this time was a sort of... well... you can call it a survival game."
His smile nearly reaches his eyes once he says the last few words:
"Our 'Survival Game' is spectacular! We put people in a cage, and they fight off zombies until they drop! It's amazing! You should've seen the last one!!! We had a group of about twelve girls trying to fight off our zombies! They were sacrificing their lives for each other until the very last person! It's just like that movie... but I don't know the name..."
He smiles and looks around the room. His eyes widen as they land on Chaeryeong. He points at her for a few seconds, his smile widening.
"You!!! Yes!!! Uhm... one of the girls looked a whole lot like you!!! She was impressive, I mean, it's no surprise that she was the last one standing. She fought longer than anyone else!!! It was amazing on how many zombies she held off before she died."
He laughs, recalling the memory.
Wait... 12 girls? One looking like Chaeryeong? I can only think of one girl group.
Iz*one.
All of Iz*one are dead. Including Chaeryeong's sister.
Chaeryeong tears up, finding out the demise of her sister. The man looks at her. His face twists into a rageful face.
"HEY!!! NO CRYING! WE WANT COURAGE, NOT CRYING BABIES LIKE YOU!!! STOP CRYING! TAKE HER OUTSIDE!!!" He screams.
The men forcefully put the blindfold back on Chaeryeong and start to lift her out her seat.
"STOP!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Yeji screams.
"TAKE YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER!!! I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Ryujin yells.
Chaeryeon struggles all she can in the grasp of two powerfuly built men, but it's no use: she's blindfolded and tied by the hands. They lift her up and out of her seat and drag her out the room, locking the door behind them.
Multiple screams from Chaeryeong and thumps from boots and hands erupt from the other side of the door.
"Don't worry. My men will take care of her. She'll be back with us in a bit, when she's disciplined." He says.
"STOP THEM!!! STOP HURTING HER!!!" Yeji yells at the man.
He looks down at Yeji and smiles.
"I knew you'd be an amazing addition in the cage. I'll save you for last." He says.
Yeji looks up at him and spits in his face as well.
He wipes his face for the second time, clearly annoyed.
"I know I said that I like reliving memories, but I meant the good memories. That wasn't a good memory." he says, looking at me.
He slaps Yeji's face just like he did to me.
"But THAT memory was a good memory." he says staring at his hand.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Ryujin screams.
He looks at Ryujin and chuckles.
"You mean like this?"
He kicks Yeji in the stomach.
"Like this?"
He punches her across the face.
Yeji grunts in pain and slumps down in her chair, looking at Ryujin, trying to signal for her to stay quiet.
Ryujin stays quiet.
The man rolls his eyes and resumes his speech.
"Uhm... our 'Survival Game' is like the one from... AH YES!!! 'Train to Seoul'! But the second movie!!!
Anyways, we'll be doing just that, but with you guys! I'll send some small groups at a time, maybe three or four at a time, into the cage! And we'll all watch! Including you guys! You'll all watch your friends in the cage fighting the zombies!
It's AMAZING, isn't it?" He asks, a smile spreading past his cheekbones.
We all sit in silence, horror-struck at the thought that we may have to watch our friends die.
Many eyes widen across the room. The man seems to relish the looks on our faces.
All of a sudden, the door bursts open, the men walking in with a beaten-up Chaeryeong in their grasp. Her blindfold is missing and her nose drips with blood, the swelling of a purple eye starting to appear on her face.
They push her back onto her chair, not even bothering with her as she immediately falls off and collapses to the ground, too tired to do anything anymore.
The man just rolls his eyes at her as if she's a nuisance. Ryujin and Yeji look like they're about to burst with rage.
"Well! Enough of the waiting. Let's play a game." He says.
A game?!? Right now?
"What do you mean? "A game"? And why now? There's no point in playing-"
"But, but, but... There's a REASON we're playing this game, you see. This game is going to determine the first team inside the cage!" He squeals, like a 5-year-old.
"What?!? We're NOT going to play this game! We don't want anyone going inside!" Nayeon yells.
"Yeah... How can you expect us to play some game to determine who dies first? We're not playing." Sana adds.
The man chuckles.
"You don't even know what the game IS yet! So, without further ado, let me tell you:
You will all stand in different spaces around the room. You'll be blindfolded as well. I will call out a random person's name, taking their blindfold off. All you have to do is blindly identify that person and tag them. The last four people to tag the un-blindfolded person will be sent into the cage. There're no redemptions."
We all sit there with disgusted faces.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS? MORBID TAG FOR OUR LIVES?" Hyunjin yells.
"Yep. And you WILL play it. There's no choice." The man replies.
He says it so calmly, as if he's done it every day for the past decade. I can't imagine how many people have been killed under his sight.
He rolls his eyes, as if turning impatient.
"OK! We'll set you guys up. We'll put you in your spot. Remember, no chatting to each other during the game. Let's get the blindfolds on."
Him and the men start putting on the blindfolds on the others. They then untie the people and stand them up.
My blindfold gets put on my eyes and my hand restraints are taken off. I'm dragged out of my seat to a random spot. I don't know where in the room I'm at.
I hear many of my friends breathing heavily in fear. The very one next to me sounds like it's mixed with pain - It sounds like Chaeryeong.
It takes a few minutes to get everybody in place, lots of feet shuffling is heard.
...
"Finally, it's time to start! Remember the rules: no such communication by sounds or touch. Your only goal as a blindfolded person is to find the unblindfolded person. Oh! And the blindfolded person should stay in their place, no moving around the room.
Once you tag the target, you'll be guided to the side of the room, out of the way.
However, if you are part of the last four people, you'll be dragged out to the cage.
Got it?"
I don't know where the man is, so I just shake my head vigorously.
"Ok then. Let's play this game."
"3"
"2"
"1"
"Start."