POV: Jin-BTS
Time: 15:02
"3"
"2"
"1"
"Start."
"Hyunjin is target!"
A split-second rush of adrenaline pumps into my body, making my spine twitch and making me let out an involuntary intake of air.
Thoughts rush through my brain.
What do I do?
Where will Hyunjin be?
Where's the wall?
If I don't get to him in time... I'll die.
Shoot.
I've wasted a couple of seconds already.
I spend no more time thinking and instead rush into action. I put my hands out in front of me waving them about while I take cautious steps around the place. I walk around a bit until my hand touches a hard, stone-cold surface.
I've located the wall.
Nice.
I place both of my hands on the wall, trying to do something, ANYTHING.
I have literally no idea what to do. I just stand there, touching the wall for a few seconds while taking a mental note of it's location.
After taking the note, I take a few steps away, estimating where I am in the room.
I can only hear shuffling of feet and heavy breathing. My heart is pumping so hard it makes my shirt bobble.
I stop moving backwards and decide to move to the right. I take a big step to the right.
That was good timing; a whish of wind brushes past me - someone else running past, us nearly colliding.
I need to be careful; I could seriously hurt myself.
I listen around.
Most of the feet shuffling is on my right. That means that most people were placed away from the wall. That could also mean that Hyunjin is to my right.
I cautiously shuffle my foot to the right, an inch at a time.
Very small, safe, tiny baby steps.
Sometime after, (actually, quite long after), my shoulder bumps into another thing. It's also stone-cold. I feel my hands around it. It's a surface.
It's the other side of the room - the other wall.
So, that means that I've found out about how much width there is to the room, no all I need to do is move forwards and back a few times until I hopefully tag Hyunjin.
I start to move forward, using the wall to guide me.
But I also notice that the amount of shuffling in the room has greatly decreased.
Have that many people already found out where Hyunjin is?
That means I need to hurry up.
I take larger, more dangerous strides forwards and backwards, going in a zigzag to save time. It won't be the most effective option, but I need to use it to save time.
The feet shuffling is very, very minimal now. I'm getting closer to becoming one of the unlucky few. I don't want to be them though.
I speed up even more. I'm going a very dangerous pace for someone blindfolded.
I rush forward, getting nothing but wind in my hands.
I start to panic. My heart races.
My legs start to hurt from how fast I'm moving.
I take a sharp backwards movement.
I hear a grunt of pain as my legs slam into something close to the floor, making my legs buckle as I start to tip backwards.
I take an involuntary gasp as I fully lose my footing, falling backwards, blindfolded and unready.
My arms flail helplessly as I do what I can to brace for impact.
My back hits something.
But it isn't the floor. It's too steep upwards.
I collapse into something. I hear a human grunt as they take my weight.
The arms saved me from falling, tucked under my arms. Someone's torso is holding up my back.
They saved me in perfect form; it's as if they saw me fall.
The person lifts me up, making me stand.
How did they know I was falling?
I reach my hand back towards the person, touching their shoulder.
"THAT'S GAME! THERE'S ONLY FOUR PEOPLE LEFT! TAKE OFF YOUR BLINDFOLDS EVERYONE!"
I'm so confused. Was I safe?
I rush to take my blindfold off, ripping it off with my hands.
I stare in shock.
My hand is on Hyunjin's shoulder.
I'm safe.
I let out a huge sigh.
Then a sudden thought looms over me.
Who wasn't safe?
I look around the room. Nearly everyone is packed into the back of the room, that means that they've tagged Hyunjin earlier.
The only people not in the corner are-
"Vernon, Chaeryeong, Momo and Han! You lose!!! Bring them outside." The man orders.
He has a psychotic smile stuck to his face. It seems to rise up and past his cheekbones and not come back down.
Some of the men emerge from the shadows and advance on the four people.
I look at Hyunjin. He has tears in his eyes.
"VERNON!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU MOVE! YOU COULD'VE SAVED YOURSELF!!! I WAS RIGHT HERE!!!" He screams, pointing at Vernon sitting on the ground behind me.
"I'd rather save someone else than myself. Seungkwan did the same. That's why I just sat here." Vernon says, avoiding eye contact with Hyunjin.
"What? What happened?!?" I ask frantically, watching one of the gang members approaching towards us.
Vernon looks up to me.
"Seokjin, it doesn't matter-"
"WHY DIDN'T YOU MOVE!!! YOU JUST SAT THERE THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE THING! YOU COULD'VE SAVED YOURSELF!" Hyunjin looks outraged, but not angry. He looks overwhelmingly pitiful.
Vernon just shrugs.
He knows that he's going to die. Why did he do that?!?!
Suddenly, a huge eruption of curses and shouts explode behind me.
"YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE THEM LIKE THAT!"
"GET OFF!!!"
"CHAERYEONG COULDN'T EVEN MOVE!"
I whir around.
I see Twice and the rest of Seventeen all latched on to Momo, not letting her go while two of the gang members try to pull her out the door.
Beside them is Itzy and Stray Kids defending Han and Chaeryeong from some other gang members with bats.
One of the gang members raises their bat, arching their shoulders and back up as if they're about to sprout wings. Wings of death.
I can't let that happen.
My feet veer into action. A strong sense of courage rushes up my spine as I slam into the guy, sending him head-first into the concrete floor, ending up in a heap on the floor at another guy's feet.
Many heads turn to me.
"WHAT 'CHU THINK YOU DOIN'?!?" The guy screams, looking down at his comrade sprawled at his feet.
He's got a huge physique, which makes me cower down as his height towers over me.
He takes the bat from the floor and advances onto me.
Then he's rammed by Bang Chan who throws his whole body into his torso.
He manages to keep his ground. He roars in anger and takes a swing at Bang Chan who springs backwards, dodging by just a tiny bit.
Hyunjin rears up and rushes up, ready to fight alongside his member.
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"
Hyunjin runs up and, instead of targeting the torso, kicks the man's shin.
It lets out a loud, clear sound of bone crunching as the man leans forward, his leg giving way.
He seems like he's in so much pain that he didn't even shout as he clutches his leg that's bent backwards at a 90-degree angle.
Hyunjin retreats back, limping on his foot as he does.
"Hyunjin? Is your foot ok?" I ask.
"I- I think it's broken... but I can manage. It isn't important right now." He says through clenched teeth.
I look at him in concern but don't say anything further, given the situation.
"LOOK OVER THERE!! THEY NEED HELP!" I hear Ryujin scream behind me.
I look behind me to see where she's pointing.
The points to the door.
Twice are still fighting off the men from Momo, but they look like they're struggling.
Only one member has her hands on Momo, the others are being kept back by the gang or are too scared to engage.
Hyunjin reacts first, limping as fast as he can over to the girls. Me and some other follow in hot pursuit, overtaking him as he slows down due to the pain.
I reach the people first, wrapping my hands around Momo's and anchoring my feet into the ground as I pull with all my might. Bang Chan pushes away some of the gang members from Twice.
I look over my shoulder. Nayeon has her face scrunched up in exhaustion from holding Momo. Beads of sweat appear on mine and her face as we play a dangerous tug-of-war.
A bat comes down on my arm, full force.
A huge spring of pain on my arm causes me to retract my hand. I wince and clutch my wrist, where it was hit.
Suddenly, Nayeon screams at me.
"SEOKJIN, MOVE!!!"
Without hesitation, she pushes me with one hand to the side and on to the floor as a bat comes whistling over my head. It was so close I could feel the wind from it.
However, she also loses her grip on Momo's arm, and Momo gets pulled through the door.
Nayeon tries to run after her, but the door gets slammed in her face, knocking her back.
A click is heard as the gang members lock the door.
"MOMO!!!" I scream, standing up and kicking at the door.
Sana and Wonwoo pound at the door, but it's no use.
They're going to take Momo to the cage.
"NOOOO!!!" Nayeon screams, tears flowing out of her eyes.
Sana stops pounding on the door, she knows that it's helpless. She turns to Nayeon who then stops too.
...
"Yeah, yeah... you guys should know to accept it. She'll be gone! Fed to our zombies!!!"
We all look up. The gang leader looks bored, as if our crying annoys him.
He rolls his eyes and walks over to a huge curtain.
"Unfortunately, this time, we were only able to get two people into the cage. Not four." He says, placing his hand on a rope next to the curtain.
"Two people?" I ask.
"Yes. Oh, my goodness. Did you forget about Vernon? At least HE was cooperative; we didn't even have to force him out the door! He just went!" The leader says, rolling his eyes.
Wonwoo balls up his fists but doesn't say anything. Joshua's face turns stone cold.
The man continues his speech.
"Anyways, back to our topic. You might be asking. 'How will we be able to see them from here?'.
Well, let me show you!"
He gives a hard tug on the rope, which sends the curtain whipping upwards, revealing a huge, thick window with a horrible view:
A huge cage, like a basketball court, littered with rotting corpses, dried blood and new blood and intestines all over the floor.
It makes me want to gag so bad even though I can't even smell it.
Multiple small figures appear in the window's view. They walk over to the cage and lock two figures inside it: Momo and Vernon.
Then the gang members walk over to the side of the basketball courts, where a huge makeshift black steel box sits, the only thing separating it from the basketball courts is a flimsy metal pull-gate.
The leader raps on the window with his hand multiple times, giving the gang members a sort of signal.
Then he turns to us and says,
"Enjoy the show~~~"
The gang members pull on the gate, and out come a horde of zombies, all hungry for meat.
All of them charge out of the cage and into the basketball courts, heading straight for Momo and Vernon.