As soon as they realized that a confrontation with the kidnappers might be inevitable, the group of people that would go back to the truck changed. Taehyung was assured he wouldn't be stepping outside the front door of the house, which made him pout, but he didn't argue. Jeongguk was a different case. When he was told he wouldn't be going on their little adventure, he looked downright betrayed.
Remy couldn't understand what was being said at the time, but Hoseok was polite enough to translate for her later.
"You're not letting me come along?" Jeongguk yelled. "Why the hell not?" (This, Remy had been told, was a rough translation. He had used slang that didn't translate well.)
"Well you did randomly walk out of the house and almost immediately pass out last night," Taehyung pointed out from his place on the couch. He withered when Jeongguk sent him a murderous glare that could make a flower die.
"Who told you that?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Taehyung pointed at Jimin, who also received the death glare.
"Anyway," Namjoon said, trying to diffuse the situation and reduce the number of strangulations that was about to occur, "You're obviously not feeling well."
"But I'm the strongest one here!" the boy protested.
"Excuse me?" Seokjin said, crossing his arms over his chest. This line was said in English, allowing Remy to understand, but she probably could have understood it even if it were in Korean. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. If these boys didn't shut up soon, she'd either be leaving on her own or they would never get out of here.
"Hoseok, you should stay too," Remy said quickly. Everyone looked at her.
"Why?" Hoseok asked. He also looked slightly offended. Was everyone in this group a dramatic?
"Somebody needs to make sure JK doesn't come after us and make sure Taehyung doesn't see a roadrunner or something and go chasing after it into the desert."
"It's weird that you know so much about us," Namjoon said.
Remy took in a breath to retort, then thought twice. It was weird. "I guess. Would it be less weird if you knew more about me?" Actually, just asking that question was weird. She was so out of her element here. Not that she really knew what her element was. Shooting a crossbow at targets, riding a horse, or reading a book? None of those things really involved other people. Before anyone could answer her question, she asked another one. "Can we go now?"
"We don't have a very good plan," Yoongi pointed out.
Another Captain Obvious for the books.
"Look, for all we know, the two of them busted their way out of there with the wir- with the guy's gun and they've already left. We'll just go see if anything has happened."
The storm had her worried. It had cleared out for now, which was good and bad. It was good because it allowed them to make their move. But it was bad because it meant that maybe the two kidnappers had also made their move. And while it was possible that the two could have decided to give up and just leave, Remy found it unlikely. Not for that kind of money. She had a feeling that they would be seeing them again.
That was the real reason she wanted Hoseok to stay. If the two men showed up at the farmhouse while the rest of them were all gone, there would be serious issues. Taehyung and Jeongguk were in no condition to fight off two huge men on their own. Taehyung couldn't even run if he needed to. Hoseok, however, was in about the best physical condition a person could be. He could fight if need be, but he could also run. In fact...
"Actually, Jimin, would you mind staying too?"
Jimin looked puzzled for just a moment, and it looked as if he were going to ask what her intentions were. But once again, whatever magic was happening that allowed Remy to be on the same wavelength as some of the boys came through, Jimin seemed to understand and he nodded.
"Absolutely," he said.
"We don't need a caretaker," Jeongguk said bitterly. Yoongi slapped him on the back of the head.
"You're an idiot," he said.
The rest of the group left soon after. Seokjin had insisted they all drink a lot of water before they left, which was a legitimate idea. After all, the storm had stopped and taken all the clouds with it. While the temperature wasn't overwhelming, the midmorning sun of the California desert is not something to be underestimated. Remy was glad she had changed out of her blue dress into something a bit more athletic, a long off-white T-shirt that was definitely meant for a man and jogging shorts that were three sizes too small. She didn't look her greatest. But then again, she hadn't been looking her greatest since someone kidnapped her.
The run back to the truck seemed longer than it had to get to the house. Maybe it had just been because they had been so scared and anxious that first time. Now they were still scared and anxious, but they weren't frightened that one of their friends was going to die. Now, it was just running to figure out what the hell to do next. No pressure or anything like that.
As they approached the treeline, Remy felt her heart begin to race in her chest. She clutched the gun harder in her right hand, and brought it so it was secure in both hands. A gentle touch surprised her, though. She turned and saw Seokjin holding her arm steady. He gave her a reassuring smile.
"You okay?" he mouthed.
She nodded half-heartedly and took in a deep breath. This was her stupid idea, after all.
The truck was exactly where they had last seen it. It hadn't moved an inch. As they got closer, they saw that the lock and rope on the back of the truck were still there. Which meant the men were still in the back.
Remy wouldn't admit it aloud, but she was actually disappointed. She had been really hoping that the two of them had driven off, never to be seen again.
"What now?" Seokjin asked.
Yoongi answered him by just continuing to walk ahead. The others called out to him to try to come back to the treeline, but he just kept walking.
"I guess we're doing this, then," Remy muttered and followed him. The other boys looked at each other in bewilderment before they too begrudgingly followed.
"I thought we were just going to see if the truck was here," Namjoon said.
Remy shrugged, turning off the safety on the gun. "I guess Mint Yoongi thought that it wasn't worth the effort only doing recon."
Namjoon laughed. "I like the nickname."
"You should hear the ones the fans have for you, Joonbug."
Seokjin snorted.
By the time they got to the truck, Yoongi had already opened the door to the cab and was scrounging around. "The keys aren't in the ignition," he said.
Well, Remy hadn't been expecting it to be that simple, but it was still a little disappointing. Nothing in life ain't ever easy. She climbed into the cab as well. It smelled musty and she could taste the cigarette smoke in the air.
Together, they throughly searched the entire cab of the truck for the keys. They even looked in places where they all knew the keys would never be. After all, what idiot would put the keys on the floor under the passenger's seat?
"They're not here," Seokjin said eventually, and there was a collective sigh. They all looked behind them to the back of the truck where the two men still were and were probably listening to them.
Remy banged her hand against the metal wall. "You guys in there?" she shouted.
There was absolutely no response. That was maybe even creepier than actually hearing the two of them.
"What the hell," Yoongi muttered.
"What if they're dead in there?" Namjoon asked.
Seokjin scoffed. "Why would they be dead?"
"Wouldn't it smell if they were dead?" Yoongi deadpanned.
"Not necessarily," Remy said. "Rigor mortis usually lasts up to 72 hours. Then everything decays like crazy."
"It's weird that you know that," Namjoon said, jumping out of the truck.
Remy smiled and jumped out after him. "You think that me knowing all sorts of things is weird. Besides, I only know that because my parents have always dreamed of me being the next millionaire doctor. They had me take all sorts ofBioMed classes through high school and starting college."
"It sounds like it was never a dream of yours," Yoongi half-shouted from the driver's side of the truck.
Remy sighed. "I thought it was at the time. It wasn't until I started my Gen Ed- General Education classes that I realized I wanted to do other things and learn different things. I was scared to tell them, to be honest. Everyone on my dad's side of the family is either a lawyer or a doctor. I'm not cut out to be a lawyer, so everyone just assumed I was a future doctor."
They reached the back of the truck, and Remy covered up her nerves by talking more. "They're letting me major in something else in undergrad, but I know the both of them are hoping I'm going to have some sort of epiphany and still go to med school."
"Hey, I know that word," Seokjin said.
They were staring at the giant metal door. Yoongi was holding the key to the lock in his hand. Remy knocked on the door again. "Are you dead?" she asked loudly. Once again, no answer.
"You're the weirdest person," Namjoon said. His hands were shaking, Remy noticed. Her hands were shaking too, which was not something you wanted when you were holding a gun in your hands. Get it together, she told herself and bit her lip until she tasted iron.
"Jin, Joon, you guys should get out of sight," she whispered as she walked a few steps back and positioned her body so she would be ready to shoot if need be. "Go by the sides of the truck and stay out of their sight. Yoongi, you can undo the lock and the knot and then-"
"Then I'll stand in front of you," he cut her off.
Remy froze. "What?" She was expecting there to be gunshots coming from the other side if the two men were in fact alive. Being in front of the person who would return fire seemed like probably the worst possible place someone could be.
"They won't shoot someone that's on their list. We're worth too much to them for that."
"Yeah, because that worked so well for Tae," Seokjin said, but he was nodding in agreement. "Still, he's right. You're not risking yourself for us. Not alone, anyway."
"That was supposed to be my line," Namjoon muttered. "Whatever. They're right, Remy."
Remy's heart did a weird flip at the nickname coming from him. "Uh. 'Kay," she said, still a little dumbstruck at the strange turn of events. She was actually half a second unprepared for when Yoongi undid the lock on the door, and with a nod from the other three, yanked off the rope and pulled the door open.
"What the fuck?" Seokjin whispered under his breath.
The truck was completely empty. No men, no bodies, no guns in holsters. Absolutely nothing was in the back of the truck except that small piece of metal that Yoongi and Remy had pulled off the wall before.
"They got out?" Yoongi cursed. "How did they get out?"
Remy didn't loosen her grip on the gun, but she did take one good look around before relaxing her shoulders and walking closer to the truck. She jumped back into the truck and looked more closely before she made her final assessment. "I don't think they did."
"That doesn't make any sense," Yoongi said, as if it wasn't obvious that what Remy had said didn't make any sense. Still, the lock and knot had been untouched on the door. They hadn't gotten out that way, and there was no damage to the truck itself. It was as if they just disappeared.
When Remy stepped out of the truck, she heard a very faint but familiar sound. A quiet roar of something in the distance. The others seemed to have noticed it too.
"Is that...?" Namjoon trailed off.
"I think that's the sound of waves," Remy finished.
But that made little sense either. They were in the middle of the desert. There couldn't be any lakes big enough to have large waves. Remy jumped out of the vehicle and started walking towards the noise. She had to know what that sound was. She had to know at least one thing for certain in this confusing situation. The boys seemed to think this too, because they didn't protest and just walked with her.
The sound became louder and louder as they approached the source of the sound. A damp coolness started to settle on Remy's skin, and she resisted the urge to shiver. No way, she thought. The sound was undeniably waves crashing onto rocks. The temperature was dropping the closer and closer they got. And Remy could taste salt.
She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she jumped when someone grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her back. She was glad for it, though, because she had almost just walked off a rocky cliff and into violent gray water.
Another huge wave smashed into the high rock wall, and Remy was hit with another blast of cold salty water. Some sea foam remained on the cliff when the water fell back.
The water stretched out forever beyond the horizon.
An ocean. They were standing at the edge of the ocean. In the middle of the California desert.
The sea seemed to laugh at their confusion, throwing another large wave directly where they were standing. The ground shook below their feet, and Remy gasped with the imbalance. The strong arm holding her pulled her back, and she allowed it.
None of this made any sense.