I glanced at Jungkook, turning my head slowly as I tried to digest what Boris had just said. Jungkook jaw hung open in shock and he stood there frozen like a statue. I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest; it was as if I could hear it loud and clear. Boris is behind all this? I thought, hoping that it was all a lie. I would have pinched myself to see if I was fully awake but my body was completely unable to move.
Yoongi was right: we never expected this to happen and we were never going to get out of here alive. Boris brought fucking soldiers just for a couple of teens, just so that to make sure that we die swiftly and smoothly and with no chance of escape. I had thought we had eliminated all our enemies but I was painfully wrong; I have never felt so hopeless in my life. All I could do is stare at the ghastly triumph in Boris' eyes as he still smiled at us happily.
My whole body went numb as Jungkook's voice filled in the menacing silence. "Why are you doing this?" he asked. His voice was shaky, making me want to grab his hand and comfort him. However, I didn't want to take any chances, especially with men pointing guns at me. Boris smirked at Jungkook and rolled his eyes. To be honest, I would have done the same if I wasn't so frozen in shock. What a cliché question I thought instead. You know you're gonna die when that question is asked... especially in the horror movies, and trust me; this whole experience would make one hell of a movie.
"Why am I doing this?... let's see..." Boris mockingly stroked his chin and stared high into the sky as if he was a cartoon character in a deep thought bubble. He then scoffed and turned back to us. "We are engaging in a psychological study on fear in humans and obviously needed humans to carry it out on so..."
"The fuck?" Jungkook asked. I quickly glanced at Jungkook who had a look of pure disgust on his face. "So we are like lab rats?" His face was turning red from fury and his hands were clenched so hard that his fingernails were digging into his palm. I quickly took his wrist and he loosened his hand immediately from my touch.
"Uh uh, before you get all feisty on me..."
"You haven't seen feisty yet bitch" I spat. My mind was slowly but surely digesting the fact that not only was Yoongi broken out of prison to kill people, but he was broken out by my own government and so we can be experimented on too. I was even surprised I was even able to speak after what I had just heard.
"Look I could just kill you both now and get on with the rest of my experiment or you can stop being a bunch of moody teens and listen to what I have to say" I rolled my eyes and turned to face him properly, still holding Jungkook's wrist. Boris grinned, satisfied at the response. "That's what I thought. So where would you like me to start?"
"How about why the fuck we are actually here? And with no bullshit" I said as calmly as possible, trying to keep my eyes on the guns and Boris at the same time. I didn't make it all the way here just to be shot down by a crazy scientist but at the same time, it was hopeless thinking that they won't just shoot me anyways no matter what I did.
"This whole camp was a set up. The government made the papers and leaflets, informing your parents about this camp. Technically, we didn't kidnap you or anything; you decided to come" Yeah, what a clever way to put it I thought, rolling my eyes. I didn't even wanna be here in the first place. "I broke Yoongi out of prison to help me create the experiment. I chose him because he was a dangerous psychopath and nobody gave a shit about him so he was perfect. Murdering someone and making sure your own cousin and friends came down with you? That was exactly what I needed"
Boris chuckled as if he was a proud father congratulating his son for being the child he had always wanted. "He was also a clever chap. He put the traps in place, placed the cameras where necessary and even had Taehyung rig your watches whilst you were sleeping to fit the experiment" I gasped as I felt my thoughts click into place. No wonder I felt like time was going so quickly; my watch had been tampered with. We must have completed the game in about two or three hours, rather than twelve. No wonder it looked like it was about to become dawn when I looked up into the sky. I frowned in deep annoyance; I couldn't believe I had fallen for that. I had a hitch but I trusted the game instead of my heart and look where that has gotten me.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Jungkook familiarly furrowing his eyebrows. He must have been realising the same thing I was. My attention was turned back to Boris when I heard his familiar laugh. "He is a genius right?" he said. Jungkook and I glanced at each other wondering if it was a rhetorical question or not. "Jin played a very important role in fitting in with the teens and assigning the tasks to all of you, which I assume you know already, and Yoongi was behind the cameras making sure everything was going as planned. The game worked perfectly for the first group and we collected our data..."
"Look yeah" Jungkook started. His bravery radiated off him like the sun sending out heatwaves. "We just want to know why the fuck you are doing this. We got the details about the game like you said already" Jungkook's bravery gave me the courage to finally regain control of the rest of my frozen body. I took a step closer to Boris, watching his eyes widen with surprise from my actions. The soldiers readied their guns but Boris waved at them to stop with his eyes still locked into mine.
"What is this experiment for?" I growled, no longer afraid of what was going to happen to me. I had faced worse than a few guns pointing my way.
"I see" Boris said quietly. He continued to stare at me, hoping that I would be smart enough to back down but I didn't dare relieve my bold stature or step back. He sighed and gave me a soft smile. "I will tell you everything. It's not like you will make it for much longer anyways" I rolled my eyes, breaking the eye contact between us. "The world is always changing right? We are always under constant threat from other countries and we need troops who are more mentally developed to fight for their country. One way we can achieve that is by exposing them to high levels of fear, anxiety and death threats so that their minds can adapt quickly. Ultimately conquering the fear of death would be the best thing that could be done. The more exposed you are to your worst fear, the quicker you will conquer it. It was like our own exposure therapy. With people that could rid themselves of typical human fears, we could become the most powerful country in the world"
My anger started to boil rapidly in my chest as my mind finally digested what was happening: I was part of a social experiment. My friends and others were murdered by the people we were supposed to rely on the most to keep us safe because England wants be fucking 'strong'. Yoongi's words echoed inside my head uncontrollably; you don't know half the story... I looked back at Jungkook sadly, whose jaw was dropped in shock. He locked eyes with me and I could tell that he couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. His sad eyes gazed into mine, filling mine with angry tears as I thought about how he would have been dead if he didn't figure out even a fifth of what was going on.
I turned back to Boris slowly. His eyes reflected the pain he had put Jungkook and I through, the death of my best friends and the future deaths of the rest of the dorms. A roleplay of all the deaths that had happened in the last few hours flicked through my head. Lisa, then Namjoon, then Jisoo, then Jimin... "So you're telling me that you did all of this - ruined our lives all because you want power?" I growled.
"Well if you put it that way, it sounds fucked up" Boris said, shrugging his shoulders. "But think of it like this: you are serving your country and making your fellow citizens proud"
"YOU KILLED MY FUCKING FRIENDS YOU DICK" I screamed.
"It's a small price to pay for a bigger picture" Boris replied. I tried to run towards Boris but was yanked back by Jungkook back to the door we had come from. "Ah ah don't go anywhere. I'm sorry to have to do this, you were a great asset to this experiment" Boris gestured to the soldiers who raised their guns. The click of the bullets in place radiated in my ears. I took hold of Jungkook's hand and he squeezed it whilst staring deep into my eyes. His eyes were full of defeat and hopelessness but still clearly read 'I love you'. I smiled at him comfortingly but we both knew how it was going to end.
"I hope you know how much you have helped me" Boris said. He turned around to the soldiers and nodded. Suddenly the door was swung open, my body was yanked inside and the door was closed again, just as my eardrums were attacked with the sound of hundreds of gunshots hitting the door.
"What in the fu-" Jungkook suddenly stopped and his eyes widened when he turned round, causing me to turn around too. There standing behind me was my saviour, Taehyung.
Author's Note
I am so sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I have been super busy with work and school and it's going to be even harder to update because I have started sixth form and I have triple the times more work to do :'(
I will still try to update as much as possible but I am warning you that it may take a long time. Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book!!!