Before the Fall

Chapter Sixty-One - Free

Yoongi

Hoseok and I got Jin's message and we dodged into a small space between two buildings. I kept watch as Hoseok brought up the schematics and located the needed enclosure.

"Thankfully, we aren't far," he breathed, slapping his palm com closed. "Just down there in that large building."

"How do we get in there? They've got to be on alert now," I groused. This situation was just getting worse.

"There's a service entrance, see the door? Let's try that. If not, maybe there's a roof entrance."

Great. Just what I had in mind for the perfect day out. Scaling buildings and creeping around roofs. "Let's just go," I sighed angrily.

We took off, sticking close to the buildings. We were almost to the one in question when shots rang out and bullets begun whizzing past our heads. We kept running, keeping the end in sight.

I don't know who was watching out for us, but that service entrance was unlocked and we darted inside as a barrage of fresh shots hit the metal door, some piercing through the metal and others leaving huge dents.

We didn't stick around to examine the damage any more closely, choosing to continue on as fast as we could. A door to our left took us down a corridor that seemed to be a bunch of rear access doors to the various animal enclosures. A few small rabbit hybrids, probably caretakers, spotted us but I whipped out my gun and picked them off before they could get far. I felt no remorse. Rabbits were the easiest hybrids to make anyway. Probably hundreds of them hopping around here.

I also, as a general rule, hated rabbits.

Hoseok stopped outside a door and took a deep breath as he laid a hand on the handle. "Be alert, hyung," he whispered.

We had no idea what was on the other side of that door. My senses heightened and Hoseok slowly opened the door, greeted with a small barren area with no foliage.

We stepped in and I propped the door open with a small rock before we went further. We crouched and kept our eyes darting around us.

The enclosure was dim and shadows were everywhere, potentially hiding dangerous things.

Hoseok, either brave or stupid, I can't tell, yelled out into the dense brush, "Namjoon!"

We froze as we heard movement.

"Over here," came a weakened cry.

We both dropped our defenses and rushed to the sound of the voice. We skidded to a halt as we came upon Namjoon propped up against the trunk of a small tree, naked, covered in blood, whether his or the panther's, laying motionless across his lap, we weren't sure.

Hoseok hurried over to Namjoon and dropped to his knees. "What on earth..."

"It was...either him...or me," croaked Namjoon, eyes misty and revealing the pain he was in.

"Whose blood is all this?" I crouched down and tried to pull the dead panther from Namjoon's arms. It became clear to me who all the blood belonged to.

"I ripped out his throat," whispered Namjoon, his voice cracking with emotion. "I think he was special to Aster." It had obviously been a hard kill for him.

Hoseok and I looked at each other and sighed. "Namjoon, we have to go," I said softly. "We have Aster."

His eyes brightened and he sat up a bit more, licking his dry lips. "Is she okay? Did Li hurt her?"

"I don't know. Taehyung and Jin found her. They sent us to find you. We have to go though. They have cameras everywhere. We just need to stay out of their reach until we get back to the group."