Virus ~ A Stray Kids ff

9

"Oh my God, he's probably broken a leg by now, or a wrist, or dislocated his shoulder or fractured his arm. No, he's most likely lost so many brain cells that he can't even function anymore - not that he was in the first place...NO CHAN, focus here, you have to—"

"Chan, calm down, would you?"Woojin exclaimed eventually, getting irritated by the younger's constant rambling to himself. Seungmin, Hyunjin, Changbin, Minho, Jeongin and Jisung trudged behind them, exchanging annoyed looks. They were worried for Felix too, but Chan was going hysterical. Besides, the younger of the two Australians had been on plenty of dangerous 'missions', and somehow came back unscathed. Most of the time anyways.

"I can't 'calm down', Woojin!" Chan cried, waving his arms around so wildly that Seungmin had to grab Jeongin out of the way before his head got knocked off. "How can you lot be so calm, what if he's in trouble?"

"Oh, shut it,"Woojin sighed with a wave of his hand. "He's never died before when he definitely didn't run off secretly in the middle of the night to not break into the main computer room to obviously do the complete opposite of playing Fortnite and he really didn't tell me that he wasn't going. And that definitely isn't just one example of the things that he hasn't done...Anyway, the point is that he's most likely still alive."

Chan stared at the eldest, utterly appalled. "So first of all, you didn't even try to stop hin. Secondly, you didn't tell me that this happens way more often than what I thought. And you don't even seem the slighest bit concerned. Woojin, what type of hyung are you?!"

Woojin rolled his eyes as the younger ones watched on eagerly. "Relax, Felix is more of a survivor than you expecte--"

At that exact moment, a blur of white tumbled out of a side path and raced past them, uttering a strangled "run" as it sprinted off.

"Was that Felix?"Jeongin mumbled, staring down the way which the figure had run. He, Jisung, Hyunjin and Seungmin exchanged confused glances, before the four older boys -excluding Changbin, who had already started sprinting off- grabbed them and dragged them along too.

"H-hyung, I can't breathe," Jisung choked, who had Chan's arm wrapped around his neck. "Also, w-what's going on?"

"Hyung,"Minho pointed out, holding onto Jeongin's arm, "I think he's dying. Oh well, die, you bi—"

Chan, who let go of the suffocating boy, motioned for them to run faster and said as quietly as possible whilst still trying to be heard over their footsteps, "Okay everyone, I want you all to stay calm, keep looking forward, try to keep as quiet as you can and focus on running. Everything's gonna be fine, now count with me - 1,2,3,1,2–"

The high scream that they all immediately recognised caused them to turn around, looking at their maknae as they rounded a corner. Jeongin was in the process of turning his head back around, a horrified look on his face. He'd obviously ignored Chan's explicit instructions and looked behind him. Changbin attempted to slap a hand across his mouth, but he'd already screamed.

Behind them, a crowd of armed guards - no less than twelve of them - skidded around the bend they had, probably being alerted by Jeongin screaming bloody murder. The group of eight boys dressed in white was easy to spot even though they were already far away, almost about to turn into another path. Not far behind, however, the guards were in hot pursuit.

"Oh my God, what do we do?"Changbin panicked, his short legs struggling to keep up with the others. Woojin grabbed his hand, dragging him along.

"Oh God, I don't have a plan for this one,"Chan panted as he pushed the others along. They were in a dark back path that he didn't recognise, so the most he could think of doing was making sure they didn't lose another one. Felix had, once again, disappeared. "RUN, kids, RUN! Ugh, what do I—"

"Follow me!"Jeongin called, his eyes lighting up in realisation as he sped up to take the lead whilst his hyungs watched in surprise. They exchanged perplexed glances before focusing their eyes back on the youngest who was rapidly leading them through a series of narrow, run-down, winding paths that the uninformed order of District 9 hadn't reached.

The hedges that formed the walls of each path in the outside area, much like a maze, were wild, taller and untrimmed here, twigs snagging at their hair and clothes. Although they were being chased, the sound of the guards' footsteps were strangely comforting in the eeriness of the alleyway. As they began to fade and a harrowing quietness settled over them with only the sound of rustling leaves, Changbin clung to Jeongin's arm, his eyes wide with, in a way, anticipation.

"I bet,"he mumbled shakily with a voice higher than usual, "that any goddamn second a freaking monster is gonna jump out of the freaking bushes and—"
Jeongin managed to, unlike Changbin had been, to slap a hand over his hyung's mouth before his scream could be heard. They halted abruptly as something - or someone - fell through a gap in the hedge, which turned out to be an archway.

"WHOA, GUYS STAY— wait, Felix, is that you?"

→

Chan, who had pushed past Jeongin and Changbin to get to the front, had his arms spread out to protect the others, but he slowly lowered them as his eyes met those of the boy in front of him.

The eight boys who had managed to quickly find each other had leaves in their hair and stains on their clothes from pushing through the closely situated hedges, but Felix was an entirely different story.

He was drenched from head to toe, brown hair turned black and plastered to his forehead and his white clothes darker from the water they had absorbed. There were tiny tears here and there in the fabric, as well as faint, muddy splotches and his skin was pale. It wasn't noticeable, but he was also shivering slightly.

"What happened to you?"Chan whisper-shouted, but Felix grabbed his arm and dragged him off through another archway the others hadn't even seen. Still stunned, the other seven boys eventually picked up that they should follow, whilst Chan struggled to pry Felix's damp fingers off his sleeve.

"Lix, what's wrong?"Chan breathed as they once again rushed through the dark paths, glancing over his shoulder to check if the others were following before he finally managed to free himself from Felix's grip.

"Just follow me!"he yelled, and the urgency evident in his tone prompted the boys to obey.

"Wait, but there was a manhole over there that we could've gone down, through the sewers, and it could have taken us back to the dorms,"Jeongin called to Felix, jogging forwards to join him at the front.

Felix looked at him with wild eyes. "No, no, that's where I just came from. I thought you guys were following and was planning to take you there but you weren't there. I just carried on though because going back was a bad choice. But turns out there were others already searching down there for anyone lagging behind and I almost got caught so I had to swim under the water. Thank God I found you guys because if you went there, you would've been done for."

"So, Manhole B?"Jeongin panted as he kept up with the drenched boy. The others watched in confusion.

Felix nodded. "B."