We all held our breath as the sound of the footsteps rushed past us and I involuntarily jumped when I heard the next door being kicked down. The footsteps then started to fade away and when they were completely gone, I let out a sigh of relief. I turned to Tae and Jungkook who were grinning ear to ear at our accomplishment. "We are still alive guys!" I said excitedly. I pulled them into a group hug and they willingly accepted it. I'm pretty sure they were glad that they were even still physically able to give hugs at this point.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Jungkook said loudly. His voice echoed and bounced around the tunnel for what seemed like forever, making all our hearts stop briefly.
Taehyung slapped the back of Jungkook's head, making Jungkook frown and rub the back of his head to comfort himself. "Do you want them to know that we are down here?" Taehyung hissed at Jungkook quietly. Jungkook frowned and shook his head silently. "And plus... you was the one who brought us down here. I thought you had a plan?"
"Yeah I did have a plan" Jungkook replied, still frowning and rubbing the back of his head. "My plan was to escape immediate danger... so I brought us here"
I frowned and looked down to my feet. Both of my feet were completely engulfed by the running sewage that was travelling at a particular direction. I followed the water with my eyes and it just lead to further down the tunnel and into darkness.
My trail of thought was interrupted by Jungkook and Taehyung quarrelling as quietly as possible. "So you led us here to get lost in the sewer?" Taehyung exclaimed quietly.
"Not exactly..."
"But that's exactly what's gonna happen...."
"Look - if it wasn't for me, we would all be dead and full of holes right now" Jungkook snapped. True I thought in my head.
"Okay guys, listen up" I hissed loud enough to get their attention but hopefully not loud enough to get unwanted attention too. "The water seems to lead to a certain place so maybe if we follow the stream, it can eventually be our escape route" Jungkook and Tae's eyes followed the stream with their eyes and their eyes lit up when they saw that I could potentially be right.
"Instead of arguing like a couple of toddlers, you could have figured that out for yourselves" I snapped at them and they lowered their heads in shame. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
We all started dragging our feet along the sewage. The smell of human feces, and possibly rotting human flesh, filled my nostrils forcefully; covering my nose wasn't even able to keep the smell away. I tried my hardest not to look down and witness what I was actually stepping on. It didn't stop my imagination from going wild though: I unwillingly pictured my feet stomping on human waste and wading through dismembered body parts of whoever had died here before. Nausea rose up in my chest and I swallowed it quickly, desperate not to have anything else revolting to trod on.
It didn't seem like I was the only one: Tae had buried half his face in his bloody shirt to try and block out the smell, and Jungkook, who had no shirt on, looked as if he was going to collapse at any moment. Jungkook was continuously shivering from the cold which made me feel bad since I was using his shirt for my finger. I thought of giving his shirt back but I knew he wouldn't accept it back. Maybe I should distract them so they don't die from the stench? I thought.
Suddenly, my mind went to Tae who still looked like he was in a lot of pain. "So Taehyung" I said. His head turned to me and I saw that his face had gone pale. "How did you manage to rise from the dead?" I asked. We had still not gotten a decent answer to how he managed to save Jungkook and I's lives when he was just shot.
"Well maybe I wasn't actually dead" Taehyung scowled, rolling his eyes.
"But we saw you lying there and not moving whatsoever" Jungkook said in confusion.
"Did any of you even think of checking to see if I was actually dead before you just left me there? Did you check my pulse? Or even look to see if I was breathing?" Jungkook and I's guilty face must have gave him the answer because he scowled at us again. "I was shot in the arm and I must have passed out from the pain but I definitely wasn't dead..."
"You definitely looked dead: you was lying in a pool of blood, your face was pale and everything..." Jungkook said. I nudged his ribs hard and he rubbed it painfully.
"We are sorry Taehyung. We would have checked properly but we were scared Yoongi was going to rise from the dead and kill us so we wanted to get out of there as soon as possible... and we generally just thought you was dead so we didn't feel the need to check" I said, hoping he would accept my apology. I know if I was shot and was just left for dead like that, I would be very annoyed.
"Well thank you Y/N" Taehyung said, giving me a small smile. He then switched his gaze to Jungkook and glared at him intensely. Jungkook just shrugged his shoulders and we all carried on in silence.
************
It had seemed like hours and we were still trying to find our way out of the sewer. The further we dragged ourselves deeper and deeper into the tunnel, the darker and darker it became. It was beginning to get to the point where I could only really make out the silhouettes of Jungkook and Tae beside me and I could not see the walls of the tunnel at all. All I could hear was very heathy breathing and occasional coughs coming from Jungkook.
Jungkook sighed and turned to me. "We have been walking for ages now and we still haven't found anything useful and my legs are aching me" He blindly found his way to a wall and leaned against it in a huff. Taehyung joined him without hesitating. I sighed sadly. I really thought I had it covered and it turns out we are just lost in a tunnel. The sight of Jungkook and Tae giving up on our mission to get out of here really tore me apart. I walked over to Jungkook and took his head into my arms. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. His bare skin was cold and damp against my hand and he shivered uncontrollably in my arms.
I frowned and kissed the top of Jungkook's head. I temporarily removed my arms around his body to unwrap his shirt around my broken finger. As soon as Jungkook saw what I was doing, he gasped and slapped my hand away from my broken one. "Jungkook you are going to make yourself ill and you can't have that, especially not now"
"I am more concerned about you than me baby girl" Jungkook said. His eyes grew soft and he tried to lower my arms down, only to be stopped by my stubbornness.
"There is no way I am risking your health just because I stupidly broke my finger" I intervened confidently. I removed Jungkook's grip on me and quickly unwrapped the shirt off my finger before he could stop me again. I gave the shirt to Jungkook, who took it hesitantly. The shirt was full of my blood splotched in unusual places and every other part of it had brown stains on it.
"Sorry" I said meekly as I watched Jungkook stare at it in disgust. He just smiled and put the shirt on which hugged his cold skin comfortingly. "Look, anyways, it's a bit weird to be shirtless at 16 in front of a grown man with a wife and kids, don't you think?" Jungkook and I looked over to Taehyung, who had left our side and was on the opposite end from us. He seemed to be looking up observantly and was in deep thought.
Jungkook and I immediately made our towards him to see what he was looking at. "What are you looking at?" Jungkook asked curiously.
"I was thinking of how to get out of here and then suddenly I saw this tiny light shining from above" Taehyung said. Jungkook and I, both looked up and, like Tae had said, there was a small light, that was barely noticeable, right above our heads. "Above us must therefore be open ground... we are not in the building anymore"
I squinted carefully at the light above me. It looked as if something was blocking it and it wasn't the tunnel. I proceeded to stand on my tip toes, reach both my arms up and feel the top of the tunnel. Instead of feeling the dampness of the sewer tunnel, a cold metallic material touched my fingers.
My heart skipped a beat as I realised what it may be. "Jungkook lift me up quickly"
"Why?"
"Just do it, you'll see"
Jungkook lifted me up steadily and I pushed the metal object up. It was heavy and stiff, making a screeching sound which deafened my ears painfully. Eventually though, I managed to slide it off onto the side of the supposed top of the tunnel. I popped my head up above the hole to see what I had just discovered. A bright light shone on my face unexpectedly, blinding me temporarily. After my eyes had adjusted to the light, the familiar smell of nature filled my lungs welcomingly, eradicating the stench of the tunnel.
"What do you see?" Taehyung and Jungkook said in unison.
I peered around my surroundings and my eyes glowed excitedly: my head was level with a road. I squinted my eyes past the road and saw the silhouettes of the 5 dorms we were supposed to be safe in. "I see the dorms and we are above a road right now" I said with my voice slightly shaky. Have we really found our escape or was this too good to be true?
"You mean... we are outside?" Jungkook asked with a high pitch tone. His hands had started to shake with excitement whilst he continued to hold me.
"Well what the fuck are we waiting for? Let's get out of this shit hole!!" Taehyung exclaimed and I nodded in agreement. Jungkook pushed me further up inside the hole, allowing me to reach my arms out through the hold and push myself out of the tunnel and onto the road. Taehyung then lifted Jungkook through the hole, allowing him to come out the same way I did. Jungkook and I wasted no time assisting Taehyung out of the hole afterwards.
I stood up slowly and tried to take in what had just happened. We were really outside. There were no tricks, no tasks, no games, no Yoongi, no soldiers coming to shot at us... we were finally safe. And we were gonna get the fuck out of here.