Super Junior {various pairings ; High Technology (17/20)}
Title: High Technology (17/20)
Fandom: Super Junior (AU, !cyberpunk)
Pairing: Siwon/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Henry/Amber, Jonghyun/Key
Word count: 4,782
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The micro-chips let the government keep tabs on your every move; the video cameras let the government know when they need to start paying attention. Get rid of the chip in the back of your brain and you can slip under the radar, and do whatever the hell you like. It's not like they're the bad guys, but it's not like they're the good guys, either.
A/N: I feel really bad for leaving you guys hanging, and I'm sorry for it, but I had some serious real life shit happen when I was supposed to update two weeks ago and then I had a school deadline last Monday that I was rushing because of the serious real life shit and THIS CHAPTER KILLED ME. SCREW IT. I'M NEVER WRITING ACTION EVER AGAIN. I'M GOING TO STICK TO HIGH SCHOOL AUS AND GENDERSWITCHES FROM NOW ON. this is the chapter in which Shit Happens. also: updated chapter number and pairing list. jecca_o9, don't say a word.
High Technology (17/20)
"What--" Shindong looked at where Henry had been, then at the door. Hankyung was closest to it, face caught in an expression of semi-confusion. "He was just there, I didn't even hear the door."
"He didn't go past," Hankyung said. "What the hell?" He leaned out of the door, looking up and down the hallway. He mouthed something, that much Shindong saw, then pulled back in and said, "Shit, he's disappeared."
"Fucking hell, we don't have time for this," Kangin said. "If he wants to break formation and run off, then it's on his own head, okay? We have less than fifteen minutes now, let's do what we came here to do."
Shindong and Sungmin exchanged looks, then looked at Kibum, who said, "No, absolutely not. Kangin-hyung's right. We don't have time to go looking for him. We have to leave now."
Sungmin sighed. "Fine, but I'm not happy about it."
"The kid knows where the exit is," Kangin said.
"Come on," said Hankyung, waving for them to follow him out of the room. Sungmin brought up the rear, one hand on his gun at all times. Things had gone too easy until then. Henry disappearing had thrown a spanner in the works. His mind was half running away with notions of some sort of invisible sniper, picking them off one by one, but it was far more likely that Henry had left of his own accord.
To what purpose then? Was it that Henry was their betrayer, the one who had sold Heechul out? This latest turn of affairs didn't seem to point to anything other than that, but Henry had no motive, other than that one argument with Heechul a month or so back. There had been nothing secretive about Henry that Sungmin had been able to see, but then Sungmin knew very little about him.
But Hankyung -- he knew a lot about Henry. They were close; after all, hadn't Henry been staying with Hankyung while they were all in self-imposed exile? Hankyung, however, wasn't showing any signs of worry about Henry. No doubt they'd all had the same thoughts that Sungmin was having, doubting Henry, but Hankyung was showing none of that. He was intently fixed on the task ahead.
Hankyung knew something.
Sungmin was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice that they'd stumbled across a guard before Hankyung had already broken the man's neck. He kicked the body aside, a disgusted look on his face, and leaned down to check on the girl that the man had been beating. Then he stood up again sharply. "She's breathing, just. She'll live. Come on."
As they passed, Kibum turned the girl into the recovery position, just for safety. Sungmin let out a shaking breath, choosing to bring up any doubts he had about Henry later, after they'd all survived this. It wasn't possible that Hankyung would still be friends with the younger boy if he had anything to do with what had happened with Heechul. It must be something else.
Not that it really mattered, however, if Henry was killed doing whatever he was currently doing.
By the time they reached the entrance to the basement, they had less than ten minutes remaining on the clock. Kibum kept checking the count down on his watch every ten seconds. There was no one guarding the door to the basement, presumably because you could only get inside that area with -- Kibum stared at the door. There were five different password systems and retina and fingerprint recognition technology.
"They're going to wish they just stuck with a good old lock and key," he said, as he easily pulled the door open. Kangin slapped him on the back.
"I was thinking that chip wasn't going to work," he said. "Nice going."
"Of course it was going to work," Kibum said, irritated, as they made their way slowly down the hallway. "Kyuhyun was the one who--"
Whatever Kyuhyun had done, they didn't know, because they were interrupted by a man in a long white lab coat walking straight in on them. He shouted out once, then Sungmin was on him, hand over his mouth and gun under his jaw. "Hi," he said sweetly. "Could you tell us where Kim Heechul is being held? Thanks."
The man said something muffled, then nodded, slowly. "Great!" said Sungmin, moving the gun to the back of the man's head. "Go on then."
The man led them through a stretch of empty hallways until they came to another nondescript door in a series of nondescript doors. The man, presumably a scientist, opened the door and motioned inside. Sungmin laughed, devoid of humour. "No, you go in first."
The man did, then Sungmin followed. He felt Hankyung close behind him. The room wasn't that big, and most of it was taken up by a chair which looked remarkably similar to the one that Kyuhyun used for taking the chips out. A thin body was strapped to the chair, leather restraints over his wrists, forearms, stomach, thighs, calves and ankles, pulled tight. A gag pulled his mouth open into a horrible grimace, and another strap lay across his eyes, blocking his sight. It didn't move an inch.
It was also wearing Heechul's clothing.
Kangin stopped dead as he came in. "Shit, is he still alive?"
"Jesus fucking Christ," Hankyung said, his voice breaking, and then the body did move, jerking suddenly, trying to twist his head from side to side, limbs pulling at the things keeping him down against the chair. "Fuck," choked Hankyung, "fuck, get him out of that thing."
Kibum kept a gun trained on the scientist who had led them there. Sungmin was at Heechul first, starting with the legs, Kangin joining on the other side. Shindong started on the right arm. Hankyung bent over Heechul's head, fingers fumbling with the buckles on the strap covering Heechul's eyes. "Chul," he murmured as his grip slipped off and he had to start again. "Heechul, it's us. Don't worry, we've come for you."
Except when he did eventually get the strap off, Heechul's eyes showed nothing but absolute fear, open wide and practically begging. Hankyung lay his forehead against his for a moment, then worked on the knot keeping the gag in place. Heechul's legs were free, Sungmin working at the one holding Heechul's stomach down, Kangin at the other arm.
The second the gag was off, Heechul took a breath like a man just saved from drowning and immediately gasped out, "It wasn't me, Hankyung. Some stupid bitch made me, they've got a fucking chip in me, they're controlling me--"
"Shh," said Hankyung. He leaned down and kissed him softly. "We know. Can you stand?"
The answer very soon turned out to be "no" because as soon as they lifted him to a sitting position to help him to his feet, he lost consciousness, slumping forward and almost off the chair. Hankyung caught him, pulling him to his chest, Heechul's legs hanging uselessly to the floor. "Shit," said Kangin in a long hiss, then he turned and punched the scientist that they'd taken hostage in the face. "You fucking bastards," he snarled, as the man reeled back, blood streaming from his nose.
"Leave it," Shindong said. "Kibum, how much time do we have?"
"Five minutes," said Kibum. "If we don't get out of the basement before then, we'll be stuck. The locks work both ways. It'll be a bottleneck so could you hurry up?"
"Here, hyung, I'll take him," said Sungmin, but Hankyung shook his head and started trying to pull Heechul onto his back, looping his arms around in neck and holding them there. Shindong lay a hand on his shoulder.
"Hankyung, you and Sungmin are our best. We need you two to get us out of here. I'll carry Heechul."
Hankyung hesitated, before putting Heechul back onto the chair, holding him up. Shindong copied Hankyung's motions until Heechul was safely on his back. Hankyung hauled the scientist up off the floor and pressed his gun to his temple. He snarled something in Chinese and everyone stared at him, including the guy whose life was in serious danger if Hankyung couldn't calm down. Hankyung took a deep breath and said, his accent stronger than ever, "Take us back to the doors. If we're too late out, then you're going to open the doors, okay?"
Except it was too late. As they began to leave the room, a man in a military uniform almost passed them shouting, "There's been a shooting on the third -- holy shit, breach in the basement, breach in the--" and then Kangin shot him in the chest.
"I guess we've been blown," he said. A few scientists stuck their heads out of doorways then retreated as Kangin waved his gun at them, then at the man dead on the floor. Sungmin rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. "Well, this can't be good."
"They'll be sending people over here right now," Kibum said. "Just keep going." Then he pulled his mouthpiece up so he could contact Kyuhyun. "We need the distraction now."
"What?" asked Kyuhyun. He'd been watching the building that Siwon and Donghae were holed up in. The men outside didn't really seem like they knew how to react to such a situation and most of them were just hanging around waiting for further orders. He'd lost sight of the others after they'd gone down into the basement and beyond the realm of his cameras.
"Kibum, it's far too early. Do you even have Heechul?"
There was a pause, an interference of static. "Yes," Kibum said eventually. "Can you hear me? Stupid fucking -- we've got him and we could really use a distraction right now."
"Right on it," said Kyuhyun, cutting that connection and opening the one he had to Eeteuk. Behind him, he almost imagined Zhou Mi doing a victory dance, hands flailing in the air, but in reality he was still asleep, curled on his side with one hand hiding his face.
"Eeteuk, can you hear me?"
"Yeah, I've got you," Eeteuk said, as loudly as he dared into his mouthpiece. Beside him, Ryeowook's head jerked up, staring up at Eeteuk from where he sat on the floor. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, they've got Heechul. They need a distraction."
Something must have shown on Eeteuk's face, because before he'd even reacted to that verbally, Ryeowook said, "What is it? Did they find Heechul-hyung?"
Eeteuk nodded at him, then said, "We're on it," to Kyuhyun.
The generator was held in the east building, taking up most of the structure. In a world where electricity was prone to going out simply because there weren't enough resources to keep the power stations going, it made sense that the detention center had its own generator, since most of the locking systems were electronically run. If the electricity went down, they could have been looking at some sort of a mass break out, which was only partly the reason why, while the entire compound had been distracted by the two men in the entrance building, Eeteuk and Ryeowook had sneaked into the generator room and attached a not inconsiderable amount of explosive devices to anything that they thought would make a rather large bang.
Now they were back outside of the compound, at the hole that they'd first come through, and had been waiting for their signal ever since. Now that it had come, Eeteuk took a deep breath and pressed the detonator that he'd been holding as gently as a new born baby all day.
There was a pause. Then the entire east building seemed to break apart in slow motion, an explosion that was far bigger than Eeteuk had ever expected it to be. He almost lost his balance as the ground juddered under his feet, nearly falling on top of Ryeowook. He watched with something akin to horror as chunks of the building seemed to fly, and flames licked the air. He realised as he smelled petrol in the air that they'd somehow managed to get one of the fuel tanks.
"Oh my god," whispered Ryeowook.
"I guess Kangin really does know about explosives," Eeteuk said weakly. His attention was so focused on the destruction he'd just caused -- and whether any of it had hurt any of his friends -- that he didn't notice Henry ducking through the hole next to them until Henry said his name.
"Holy crap," Donghae yelped as the explosion caused him to loose his footing, falling over a chair leg and onto his ass. Their hostage guard, who had come to a few minutes earlier, took advantage of one of his captors being distracted and jumped on top of him, wrestling for the gun.
Siwon, whose attention had been drawn by the sound of the explosion, his ears ringing with how loud it had been, reacted too slowly. By the time he crossed the room, Donghae was out cold, bleeding from a head wound, and the other man had his gun. He swung it up and pointed it at Siwon's chest. Siwon stopped dead. They stared in silence at each other for a long minute, then Siwon took one step forward, testing the waters.
The man lowered his angle and shot him on the foot.
The noise that Siwon made didn't feel human, just an inarticulate yell of pain, as he fell to the ground, curling in on himself as blood filled up his shoe and then began to seep through the hole that had been ripped into it. The girl that had been sitting so quietly in the corner that they'd almost forgotten about her screamed too, which only alerted attention to her.
The guard crossed the room and grabbed her by the arm before she could try running. He hauled her to her feet and pressed the gun to her temple. Even sitting a few metres away, Siwon could see that she was shaking, and not just because she was sobbing. "Right," said the guard. "If you don't want to see this girl get her brains blown out, you're going to stay still and quiet and not move, okay? Good."
Having no desire to see anyone's brains blown out, Siwon didn't move, until the guy moved the gun from the girl's temple and pressed to Siwon's forehead. He blinked, once, as the trigger was cocked, then braced himself as the man smirked, then the girl he was holding sunk her teeth into his arm.
His arm was jerked upwards even as he let the shot go, so Siwon felt the bullet graze the top of his head. He let out a shaking breath and then, focusing his attention so that he blocked all the pain from his foot out, he used his uninjured foot to kick the legs of the guard out so that he fell onto his back on the floor, hard.
While he was still trying to catch his breath, Siwon managed to crawl on top and brought his fist back and crunched it into the man's face, again and again and again, until the man lay still, his face a blood covered mess. Only then did Siwon let himself roll off and lie on his back. He must have passed out for a couple of moments, because the next thing he knew, the girl was shaking him awake.
"Are you okay?" she was asking in Chinese. Her eyes were puffy and red, tears in streaks down her cheeks. She was covered in blood too. "Are you awake, are you okay?"
Siwon moaned and fought back a wave of nausea. "Yes," he said eventually. "I'm okay." He tipped his head to the side to try to find Donghae, but he was still unconscious. The girl started saying something else but Siwon couldn't concentrate. He held up his hand and said softly, "Slowly, slowly."
"His breathing is shallow," she said, Siwon only just able to understand her Mandarin. "I put him in the recovery position but I don't know--"
"Siwon, can you hear me?"
It took most of Siwon's remaining energy to lift his hand and press it to his ear. "Yes, Kyuhyun. I can hear you."
"We've got Heechul, they're on their way out. Ryeowook and Eeteuk set off the detonations but it's burning faster than we expected."
As if on cue, something else exploded outside, possibly one of the cars that were kept in the open drive up. The floor shook again, the girl flinched, and pain raced through Siwon's body, starting with his foot.
"It's going to be on you in a matter of minutes, Siwon. You need to get out of there now."
Siwon laughed, feeling exhausted now. "No can do, Kyuhyun. Bastard shot me in the foot. I can't walk and Donghae's out cold. I've got some girl in here with me but she can't do anything, particularly not carry both of us."
There was a long pause, then Kyuhyun said, "What do you mean, Siwon?"
"I don't mean anything. I'm just saying that there's no way we're going to be able to get out of here."
"I'll sort it, Siwon."
The connection was cut off and Siwon tipped his head back, breathing heavily. The girl hovered over him, looking like she wanted to remove his shoe. "Hey," he said, grabbing her wrist. "I need you to get out of here. This whole place is probably on fire right now. This is your last chance to escape."
She shook her head and rubbed at her wet face. "What about you and your friend?"
Siwon smiled. "Something will get sorted out," he said. He didn't believe a word of it.
Underground, the explosion felt as though it had taken place right above their heads. The ceiling shook, plaster drifting down onto their heads, and in other rooms they could hear things falling from shelves and off desks as the after shocks pulsed through. Kangin pumped a fist in the air in victory. "Yeah, I've still got it," he crowed.
"You could have brought the ceiling down on us," Kibum said, punching him in the arm. Kangin socked him back.
"You think they're going to care about what's happening down here when there's shit exploding up there?"
"They probably will give some sort of a shit," Hankyung said. He lay a hand on Heechul's shoulder and continued, "We need to get out of here now, before anyone does arrive."
That one man in military uniform seemed to be the only one down there and so getting out of the basement wasn't as difficult as they'd been anticipating. Once on the ground floor level, it became easy to see why no one was coming to see what was happening in the basement. Outside a furious fire was raging, the entire east building a mass of flames, jumping from vehicle to vehicle outside, and quickly licking its way along to the other buildings.
In addition to that, some of the inmates had clearly realised that the locking systems on their cells were, somehow, switched off, and had taken advantage of this. Word had spread and the guards now had a full scale break out on their hands. They had no time for anything happening in the top secret basement that most of them didn't even know about.
"Look at that," Kangin said, pausing at the window and looking out at the fire burning outside. There was an open window along the hall and even at that distance it was possible to smell the petrol in the air. The fire seemed to light his face up red, almost like his skin was burnt already. "It's kind of beautiful."
"Here," said Hankyung, turning away from the window and towards Shindong. "I'll take him. They aren't going to care about us."
Silently Shindong handed Heechul over. He was so still that for a moment Sungmin had a horrible thought that he'd died in the short space of time between that room and then, but then he stirred, and muttered something, and turned into Hankyung's chest. After taking a deep breath and pressing his face into Heechul's hair, Hankyung said, "Let's get the fuck out of here."
"What about Henry?"
Hankyung looked at Sungmin, then shook his head, lowering his eyes. "He'll be fine. He'll hopefully be waiting for us."
"Hankyung, what's going on?"
"I don't have time to explain, Sungmin. Just leave it for now. You'll see when we meet the others."
The break out was almost at a full scale riot by then and they were forced to use their elbows, and more, liberally to force their way through. It was hard to work out which way they were supposed to go back since they had altered their course quite dramatically by their detour to the basement. By the time they managed to find the back entrance that they had come through, the fire outside was choking the air with smoke.
Coughing as they ran, they could still hear random explosions as the fire met other cars or fuel reserves. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting, the faint whine of the few fire engines that the city had in the distance. They paid it no attention and kept running until they came to the hole in the wall.
Like Hankyung had said, Henry was there. He was sitting on the ground with his arm around a girl with chin length hair. They couldn't make anything else out because she had her face hidden in his chest, his head lowered as he murmured things softly to her. He didn't even look up as Hankyung said, "You found her, then."
"He won't tell us who she is," Ryeowook said.
Kangin reached down, as if to touch the girl on the shoulder, but Henry jerked her away. She fell back a little, saw Kangin reaching down for her, and in a moment her expression changed to sheer terror, and she cried out a little, trying to pull back away. Kangin quickly retracted his hand, looking uncomfortable and freaked out, and Henry took her face in his hands.
"Amber," he said, smiling softly at her. "Amber, it's okay." Then he started speaking in English, pulling her closer towards him, until her face was in his chest again and her shaking was down to a minimum.
Eeteuk lay a hand against Heechul's cheek and said, "You got him, then."
"Yes," said Hankyung. He wasn't looking at Eeteuk, he was looking at the building that was spewing smoke into the air. "I hope that place burns to the fucking ground."
"I don't," said Ryeowook in a wavering voice. "There are still too many people left in."
There was a brief pause, then Kangin shook his head and said, "We should get back to Kyuhyun. We don't want to get caught at this stage in the game."
Sungmin nodded, and leaned down to see if Henry needed any help. Almost as if she could sense that he was near, the girl flinched and Henry gave Sungmin a look that seemed to apologise for the girl's behaviour. Sungmin asked, "Has she been in the center?"
"Yeah," said Henry, looking around at them pleadingly. "She was -- we were coming here and I couldn't bear the thought of just leaving her here, guys, she's--"
"Henry, you can explain this stuff later," Hankyung said. "We should leave."
Henry climbed to his feet, helping the girl up with him. Her legs seemed pretty unstable, so that she stumbled into him. "Do you want some help?" Shindong asked, but Henry shook his head.
"It'll be better if you don't," he said. "Thanks, though." He asked her something in English, motioning to his back as he did so, so Sungmin assumed that he was asking if she wanted to be carried. She shook her head, hair covering her face, and Henry nodded and pulled her close to him, halfway to holding her up. "Come on," he said, face determined. "Let's go."
They'd only take a few steps when Kibum said, out of the blue, "What? Oh, Kyuhyun, it's--" Then he stopped, looking confused. "Okay? Hey, guys, just wait a second." They stopped again and this time, Heechul's eyes moved, then opened.
"Hankyung?"
"Yeah." Hankyung bent his head, closing his eyes as their foreheads touched.
"What are you doing here? Where am I?"
"Don't you remember? We just rescued you."
"No, I--" Heechul frowned, closing his eyes. "I can't remember that." Hankyung didn't say anything, too busy thinking about how badly he had missed this. "Someday you won't need to come get me from whichever hell hole place I've ended up in."
"I thought life was the hell hole," Hankyung said. Heechul didn't smile at that. He just twisted his fingers in Hankyung's collar.
Behind them, the confused expression on Kibum's face had fallen away into raw fear, as he slumped back against the wall. "What," he said, lips pale, "are you trying to tell me, Kyuhyun?"
"What's wrong?" asked Shindong.
"So there's, Kyuhyun, there must be something we can do. We can't just leave them there."
"What the fuck is happening?" Kangin asked, and Eeteuk hissed at him. "Hyung, is this really the time?"
"It's Donghae," Kibum said, letting his hand fall to his side. "And Siwon too. They're...trapped."
Sungmin's mouth twitched, like he wanted to smile; like he thought that Kibum was just kidding with him. "What do you mean, trapped?"
"Siwon says that Donghae's got some sort of head wound, and Siwon's been shot in the foot," Kibum said. Sungmin pressed a hand to his mouth, shaking his head. "They haven't been able to escape from the fire. They're...trapped."
Almost like he didn't even have a second thought about it, Sungmin turned and took off in a sprint for the hole that they had just come through. Shindong reached out and grabbed his arm, yanking him back. "Sungmin, where the hell are you going?"
"I'm going to get Siwon," Sungmin said, glaring at him. "Where the hell do you think I'm going?"
"You heard what Kibum said, they're trapped."
"Kyuhyun's not always right," Sungmin said. He threw Shindong off and started running, disappearing through the gap before anyone else could do anything to stop him. Shindong cursed and ran after him.
"What's happening?" Heechul murmured, eyes closed again, seeming like he was on the verge of falling back asleep.
"Nothing," said Hankyung, trying to make his voice as calm as possible.
There was another silence, then Kibum turned and started running back as well. "Christ," said Kangin. "What do we do now?"
"We need to get Heechul back to the surgery," Eeteuk said firmly, though he kept glancing back at the fire. "That's our priority now. That's what we came for, nothing else. We have to get him checked out."
"And Henry's friend," Ryeowook said. "I don't think she's, well."
"I want her to get checked out too," Henry said. "But Siwon-hyung and Donghae-hyung--"
"They'll take care of it," Hankyung said heavily. "We should go."
Kyuhyun sighed and pillowed his head in his hands, A tension headache had started up not long ago and the conversation he'd just had with Kibum hadn't helped it at all. He should have contacted Eeteuk; he'd known how Kibum felt about Donghae. He was just glad that he hadn't had to break the news to Sungmin himself. Not that he didn't fully expect Sungmin to go running back in there like some sort of hero. This was Siwon they were talking about.
He turned in his chair and lay a hand on Zhou Mi's sleeping shoulder. "I wish you were awake," he said wistfully. "I need you to tell me when I've done the right thing. I don't have enough morals without you."
There was no reply. He hadn't been expecting one anyway. He turned back to his computers, scanning the screens in the hope of seeing someone, anyone, that he recognised. The fire was right up against the building now, but no one was paying attention to that when they were too busy trying to save their own skins.
The back door of the van banged open. His hand jumped to his gun automatically, though he thought that it was only going to be the ones who hadn't gone back for Siwon and Donghae coming back. He turned his head and saw a tall man climbing in the back of the van, a gun pointed at him. "Hello, Kyuhyun," he said.
Kyuhyun forced himself to be still and calm. "Hey, Dad."
Fandom: Super Junior (AU, !cyberpunk)
Pairing: Siwon/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Henry/Amber, Jonghyun/Key
Word count: 4,782
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The micro-chips let the government keep tabs on your every move; the video cameras let the government know when they need to start paying attention. Get rid of the chip in the back of your brain and you can slip under the radar, and do whatever the hell you like. It's not like they're the bad guys, but it's not like they're the good guys, either.
A/N: I feel really bad for leaving you guys hanging, and I'm sorry for it, but I had some serious real life shit happen when I was supposed to update two weeks ago and then I had a school deadline last Monday that I was rushing because of the serious real life shit and THIS CHAPTER KILLED ME. SCREW IT. I'M NEVER WRITING ACTION EVER AGAIN. I'M GOING TO STICK TO HIGH SCHOOL AUS AND GENDERSWITCHES FROM NOW ON. this is the chapter in which Shit Happens. also: updated chapter number and pairing list. jecca_o9, don't say a word.
High Technology (17/20)
"What--" Shindong looked at where Henry had been, then at the door. Hankyung was closest to it, face caught in an expression of semi-confusion. "He was just there, I didn't even hear the door."
"He didn't go past," Hankyung said. "What the hell?" He leaned out of the door, looking up and down the hallway. He mouthed something, that much Shindong saw, then pulled back in and said, "Shit, he's disappeared."
"Fucking hell, we don't have time for this," Kangin said. "If he wants to break formation and run off, then it's on his own head, okay? We have less than fifteen minutes now, let's do what we came here to do."
Shindong and Sungmin exchanged looks, then looked at Kibum, who said, "No, absolutely not. Kangin-hyung's right. We don't have time to go looking for him. We have to leave now."
Sungmin sighed. "Fine, but I'm not happy about it."
"The kid knows where the exit is," Kangin said.
"Come on," said Hankyung, waving for them to follow him out of the room. Sungmin brought up the rear, one hand on his gun at all times. Things had gone too easy until then. Henry disappearing had thrown a spanner in the works. His mind was half running away with notions of some sort of invisible sniper, picking them off one by one, but it was far more likely that Henry had left of his own accord.
To what purpose then? Was it that Henry was their betrayer, the one who had sold Heechul out? This latest turn of affairs didn't seem to point to anything other than that, but Henry had no motive, other than that one argument with Heechul a month or so back. There had been nothing secretive about Henry that Sungmin had been able to see, but then Sungmin knew very little about him.
But Hankyung -- he knew a lot about Henry. They were close; after all, hadn't Henry been staying with Hankyung while they were all in self-imposed exile? Hankyung, however, wasn't showing any signs of worry about Henry. No doubt they'd all had the same thoughts that Sungmin was having, doubting Henry, but Hankyung was showing none of that. He was intently fixed on the task ahead.
Hankyung knew something.
Sungmin was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice that they'd stumbled across a guard before Hankyung had already broken the man's neck. He kicked the body aside, a disgusted look on his face, and leaned down to check on the girl that the man had been beating. Then he stood up again sharply. "She's breathing, just. She'll live. Come on."
As they passed, Kibum turned the girl into the recovery position, just for safety. Sungmin let out a shaking breath, choosing to bring up any doubts he had about Henry later, after they'd all survived this. It wasn't possible that Hankyung would still be friends with the younger boy if he had anything to do with what had happened with Heechul. It must be something else.
Not that it really mattered, however, if Henry was killed doing whatever he was currently doing.
By the time they reached the entrance to the basement, they had less than ten minutes remaining on the clock. Kibum kept checking the count down on his watch every ten seconds. There was no one guarding the door to the basement, presumably because you could only get inside that area with -- Kibum stared at the door. There were five different password systems and retina and fingerprint recognition technology.
"They're going to wish they just stuck with a good old lock and key," he said, as he easily pulled the door open. Kangin slapped him on the back.
"I was thinking that chip wasn't going to work," he said. "Nice going."
"Of course it was going to work," Kibum said, irritated, as they made their way slowly down the hallway. "Kyuhyun was the one who--"
Whatever Kyuhyun had done, they didn't know, because they were interrupted by a man in a long white lab coat walking straight in on them. He shouted out once, then Sungmin was on him, hand over his mouth and gun under his jaw. "Hi," he said sweetly. "Could you tell us where Kim Heechul is being held? Thanks."
The man said something muffled, then nodded, slowly. "Great!" said Sungmin, moving the gun to the back of the man's head. "Go on then."
The man led them through a stretch of empty hallways until they came to another nondescript door in a series of nondescript doors. The man, presumably a scientist, opened the door and motioned inside. Sungmin laughed, devoid of humour. "No, you go in first."
The man did, then Sungmin followed. He felt Hankyung close behind him. The room wasn't that big, and most of it was taken up by a chair which looked remarkably similar to the one that Kyuhyun used for taking the chips out. A thin body was strapped to the chair, leather restraints over his wrists, forearms, stomach, thighs, calves and ankles, pulled tight. A gag pulled his mouth open into a horrible grimace, and another strap lay across his eyes, blocking his sight. It didn't move an inch.
It was also wearing Heechul's clothing.
Kangin stopped dead as he came in. "Shit, is he still alive?"
"Jesus fucking Christ," Hankyung said, his voice breaking, and then the body did move, jerking suddenly, trying to twist his head from side to side, limbs pulling at the things keeping him down against the chair. "Fuck," choked Hankyung, "fuck, get him out of that thing."
Kibum kept a gun trained on the scientist who had led them there. Sungmin was at Heechul first, starting with the legs, Kangin joining on the other side. Shindong started on the right arm. Hankyung bent over Heechul's head, fingers fumbling with the buckles on the strap covering Heechul's eyes. "Chul," he murmured as his grip slipped off and he had to start again. "Heechul, it's us. Don't worry, we've come for you."
Except when he did eventually get the strap off, Heechul's eyes showed nothing but absolute fear, open wide and practically begging. Hankyung lay his forehead against his for a moment, then worked on the knot keeping the gag in place. Heechul's legs were free, Sungmin working at the one holding Heechul's stomach down, Kangin at the other arm.
The second the gag was off, Heechul took a breath like a man just saved from drowning and immediately gasped out, "It wasn't me, Hankyung. Some stupid bitch made me, they've got a fucking chip in me, they're controlling me--"
"Shh," said Hankyung. He leaned down and kissed him softly. "We know. Can you stand?"
The answer very soon turned out to be "no" because as soon as they lifted him to a sitting position to help him to his feet, he lost consciousness, slumping forward and almost off the chair. Hankyung caught him, pulling him to his chest, Heechul's legs hanging uselessly to the floor. "Shit," said Kangin in a long hiss, then he turned and punched the scientist that they'd taken hostage in the face. "You fucking bastards," he snarled, as the man reeled back, blood streaming from his nose.
"Leave it," Shindong said. "Kibum, how much time do we have?"
"Five minutes," said Kibum. "If we don't get out of the basement before then, we'll be stuck. The locks work both ways. It'll be a bottleneck so could you hurry up?"
"Here, hyung, I'll take him," said Sungmin, but Hankyung shook his head and started trying to pull Heechul onto his back, looping his arms around in neck and holding them there. Shindong lay a hand on his shoulder.
"Hankyung, you and Sungmin are our best. We need you two to get us out of here. I'll carry Heechul."
Hankyung hesitated, before putting Heechul back onto the chair, holding him up. Shindong copied Hankyung's motions until Heechul was safely on his back. Hankyung hauled the scientist up off the floor and pressed his gun to his temple. He snarled something in Chinese and everyone stared at him, including the guy whose life was in serious danger if Hankyung couldn't calm down. Hankyung took a deep breath and said, his accent stronger than ever, "Take us back to the doors. If we're too late out, then you're going to open the doors, okay?"
Except it was too late. As they began to leave the room, a man in a military uniform almost passed them shouting, "There's been a shooting on the third -- holy shit, breach in the basement, breach in the--" and then Kangin shot him in the chest.
"I guess we've been blown," he said. A few scientists stuck their heads out of doorways then retreated as Kangin waved his gun at them, then at the man dead on the floor. Sungmin rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. "Well, this can't be good."
"They'll be sending people over here right now," Kibum said. "Just keep going." Then he pulled his mouthpiece up so he could contact Kyuhyun. "We need the distraction now."
"What?" asked Kyuhyun. He'd been watching the building that Siwon and Donghae were holed up in. The men outside didn't really seem like they knew how to react to such a situation and most of them were just hanging around waiting for further orders. He'd lost sight of the others after they'd gone down into the basement and beyond the realm of his cameras.
"Kibum, it's far too early. Do you even have Heechul?"
There was a pause, an interference of static. "Yes," Kibum said eventually. "Can you hear me? Stupid fucking -- we've got him and we could really use a distraction right now."
"Right on it," said Kyuhyun, cutting that connection and opening the one he had to Eeteuk. Behind him, he almost imagined Zhou Mi doing a victory dance, hands flailing in the air, but in reality he was still asleep, curled on his side with one hand hiding his face.
"Eeteuk, can you hear me?"
"Yeah, I've got you," Eeteuk said, as loudly as he dared into his mouthpiece. Beside him, Ryeowook's head jerked up, staring up at Eeteuk from where he sat on the floor. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, they've got Heechul. They need a distraction."
Something must have shown on Eeteuk's face, because before he'd even reacted to that verbally, Ryeowook said, "What is it? Did they find Heechul-hyung?"
Eeteuk nodded at him, then said, "We're on it," to Kyuhyun.
The generator was held in the east building, taking up most of the structure. In a world where electricity was prone to going out simply because there weren't enough resources to keep the power stations going, it made sense that the detention center had its own generator, since most of the locking systems were electronically run. If the electricity went down, they could have been looking at some sort of a mass break out, which was only partly the reason why, while the entire compound had been distracted by the two men in the entrance building, Eeteuk and Ryeowook had sneaked into the generator room and attached a not inconsiderable amount of explosive devices to anything that they thought would make a rather large bang.
Now they were back outside of the compound, at the hole that they'd first come through, and had been waiting for their signal ever since. Now that it had come, Eeteuk took a deep breath and pressed the detonator that he'd been holding as gently as a new born baby all day.
There was a pause. Then the entire east building seemed to break apart in slow motion, an explosion that was far bigger than Eeteuk had ever expected it to be. He almost lost his balance as the ground juddered under his feet, nearly falling on top of Ryeowook. He watched with something akin to horror as chunks of the building seemed to fly, and flames licked the air. He realised as he smelled petrol in the air that they'd somehow managed to get one of the fuel tanks.
"Oh my god," whispered Ryeowook.
"I guess Kangin really does know about explosives," Eeteuk said weakly. His attention was so focused on the destruction he'd just caused -- and whether any of it had hurt any of his friends -- that he didn't notice Henry ducking through the hole next to them until Henry said his name.
"Holy crap," Donghae yelped as the explosion caused him to loose his footing, falling over a chair leg and onto his ass. Their hostage guard, who had come to a few minutes earlier, took advantage of one of his captors being distracted and jumped on top of him, wrestling for the gun.
Siwon, whose attention had been drawn by the sound of the explosion, his ears ringing with how loud it had been, reacted too slowly. By the time he crossed the room, Donghae was out cold, bleeding from a head wound, and the other man had his gun. He swung it up and pointed it at Siwon's chest. Siwon stopped dead. They stared in silence at each other for a long minute, then Siwon took one step forward, testing the waters.
The man lowered his angle and shot him on the foot.
The noise that Siwon made didn't feel human, just an inarticulate yell of pain, as he fell to the ground, curling in on himself as blood filled up his shoe and then began to seep through the hole that had been ripped into it. The girl that had been sitting so quietly in the corner that they'd almost forgotten about her screamed too, which only alerted attention to her.
The guard crossed the room and grabbed her by the arm before she could try running. He hauled her to her feet and pressed the gun to her temple. Even sitting a few metres away, Siwon could see that she was shaking, and not just because she was sobbing. "Right," said the guard. "If you don't want to see this girl get her brains blown out, you're going to stay still and quiet and not move, okay? Good."
Having no desire to see anyone's brains blown out, Siwon didn't move, until the guy moved the gun from the girl's temple and pressed to Siwon's forehead. He blinked, once, as the trigger was cocked, then braced himself as the man smirked, then the girl he was holding sunk her teeth into his arm.
His arm was jerked upwards even as he let the shot go, so Siwon felt the bullet graze the top of his head. He let out a shaking breath and then, focusing his attention so that he blocked all the pain from his foot out, he used his uninjured foot to kick the legs of the guard out so that he fell onto his back on the floor, hard.
While he was still trying to catch his breath, Siwon managed to crawl on top and brought his fist back and crunched it into the man's face, again and again and again, until the man lay still, his face a blood covered mess. Only then did Siwon let himself roll off and lie on his back. He must have passed out for a couple of moments, because the next thing he knew, the girl was shaking him awake.
"Are you okay?" she was asking in Chinese. Her eyes were puffy and red, tears in streaks down her cheeks. She was covered in blood too. "Are you awake, are you okay?"
Siwon moaned and fought back a wave of nausea. "Yes," he said eventually. "I'm okay." He tipped his head to the side to try to find Donghae, but he was still unconscious. The girl started saying something else but Siwon couldn't concentrate. He held up his hand and said softly, "Slowly, slowly."
"His breathing is shallow," she said, Siwon only just able to understand her Mandarin. "I put him in the recovery position but I don't know--"
"Siwon, can you hear me?"
It took most of Siwon's remaining energy to lift his hand and press it to his ear. "Yes, Kyuhyun. I can hear you."
"We've got Heechul, they're on their way out. Ryeowook and Eeteuk set off the detonations but it's burning faster than we expected."
As if on cue, something else exploded outside, possibly one of the cars that were kept in the open drive up. The floor shook again, the girl flinched, and pain raced through Siwon's body, starting with his foot.
"It's going to be on you in a matter of minutes, Siwon. You need to get out of there now."
Siwon laughed, feeling exhausted now. "No can do, Kyuhyun. Bastard shot me in the foot. I can't walk and Donghae's out cold. I've got some girl in here with me but she can't do anything, particularly not carry both of us."
There was a long pause, then Kyuhyun said, "What do you mean, Siwon?"
"I don't mean anything. I'm just saying that there's no way we're going to be able to get out of here."
"I'll sort it, Siwon."
The connection was cut off and Siwon tipped his head back, breathing heavily. The girl hovered over him, looking like she wanted to remove his shoe. "Hey," he said, grabbing her wrist. "I need you to get out of here. This whole place is probably on fire right now. This is your last chance to escape."
She shook her head and rubbed at her wet face. "What about you and your friend?"
Siwon smiled. "Something will get sorted out," he said. He didn't believe a word of it.
Underground, the explosion felt as though it had taken place right above their heads. The ceiling shook, plaster drifting down onto their heads, and in other rooms they could hear things falling from shelves and off desks as the after shocks pulsed through. Kangin pumped a fist in the air in victory. "Yeah, I've still got it," he crowed.
"You could have brought the ceiling down on us," Kibum said, punching him in the arm. Kangin socked him back.
"You think they're going to care about what's happening down here when there's shit exploding up there?"
"They probably will give some sort of a shit," Hankyung said. He lay a hand on Heechul's shoulder and continued, "We need to get out of here now, before anyone does arrive."
That one man in military uniform seemed to be the only one down there and so getting out of the basement wasn't as difficult as they'd been anticipating. Once on the ground floor level, it became easy to see why no one was coming to see what was happening in the basement. Outside a furious fire was raging, the entire east building a mass of flames, jumping from vehicle to vehicle outside, and quickly licking its way along to the other buildings.
In addition to that, some of the inmates had clearly realised that the locking systems on their cells were, somehow, switched off, and had taken advantage of this. Word had spread and the guards now had a full scale break out on their hands. They had no time for anything happening in the top secret basement that most of them didn't even know about.
"Look at that," Kangin said, pausing at the window and looking out at the fire burning outside. There was an open window along the hall and even at that distance it was possible to smell the petrol in the air. The fire seemed to light his face up red, almost like his skin was burnt already. "It's kind of beautiful."
"Here," said Hankyung, turning away from the window and towards Shindong. "I'll take him. They aren't going to care about us."
Silently Shindong handed Heechul over. He was so still that for a moment Sungmin had a horrible thought that he'd died in the short space of time between that room and then, but then he stirred, and muttered something, and turned into Hankyung's chest. After taking a deep breath and pressing his face into Heechul's hair, Hankyung said, "Let's get the fuck out of here."
"What about Henry?"
Hankyung looked at Sungmin, then shook his head, lowering his eyes. "He'll be fine. He'll hopefully be waiting for us."
"Hankyung, what's going on?"
"I don't have time to explain, Sungmin. Just leave it for now. You'll see when we meet the others."
The break out was almost at a full scale riot by then and they were forced to use their elbows, and more, liberally to force their way through. It was hard to work out which way they were supposed to go back since they had altered their course quite dramatically by their detour to the basement. By the time they managed to find the back entrance that they had come through, the fire outside was choking the air with smoke.
Coughing as they ran, they could still hear random explosions as the fire met other cars or fuel reserves. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting, the faint whine of the few fire engines that the city had in the distance. They paid it no attention and kept running until they came to the hole in the wall.
Like Hankyung had said, Henry was there. He was sitting on the ground with his arm around a girl with chin length hair. They couldn't make anything else out because she had her face hidden in his chest, his head lowered as he murmured things softly to her. He didn't even look up as Hankyung said, "You found her, then."
"He won't tell us who she is," Ryeowook said.
Kangin reached down, as if to touch the girl on the shoulder, but Henry jerked her away. She fell back a little, saw Kangin reaching down for her, and in a moment her expression changed to sheer terror, and she cried out a little, trying to pull back away. Kangin quickly retracted his hand, looking uncomfortable and freaked out, and Henry took her face in his hands.
"Amber," he said, smiling softly at her. "Amber, it's okay." Then he started speaking in English, pulling her closer towards him, until her face was in his chest again and her shaking was down to a minimum.
Eeteuk lay a hand against Heechul's cheek and said, "You got him, then."
"Yes," said Hankyung. He wasn't looking at Eeteuk, he was looking at the building that was spewing smoke into the air. "I hope that place burns to the fucking ground."
"I don't," said Ryeowook in a wavering voice. "There are still too many people left in."
There was a brief pause, then Kangin shook his head and said, "We should get back to Kyuhyun. We don't want to get caught at this stage in the game."
Sungmin nodded, and leaned down to see if Henry needed any help. Almost as if she could sense that he was near, the girl flinched and Henry gave Sungmin a look that seemed to apologise for the girl's behaviour. Sungmin asked, "Has she been in the center?"
"Yeah," said Henry, looking around at them pleadingly. "She was -- we were coming here and I couldn't bear the thought of just leaving her here, guys, she's--"
"Henry, you can explain this stuff later," Hankyung said. "We should leave."
Henry climbed to his feet, helping the girl up with him. Her legs seemed pretty unstable, so that she stumbled into him. "Do you want some help?" Shindong asked, but Henry shook his head.
"It'll be better if you don't," he said. "Thanks, though." He asked her something in English, motioning to his back as he did so, so Sungmin assumed that he was asking if she wanted to be carried. She shook her head, hair covering her face, and Henry nodded and pulled her close to him, halfway to holding her up. "Come on," he said, face determined. "Let's go."
They'd only take a few steps when Kibum said, out of the blue, "What? Oh, Kyuhyun, it's--" Then he stopped, looking confused. "Okay? Hey, guys, just wait a second." They stopped again and this time, Heechul's eyes moved, then opened.
"Hankyung?"
"Yeah." Hankyung bent his head, closing his eyes as their foreheads touched.
"What are you doing here? Where am I?"
"Don't you remember? We just rescued you."
"No, I--" Heechul frowned, closing his eyes. "I can't remember that." Hankyung didn't say anything, too busy thinking about how badly he had missed this. "Someday you won't need to come get me from whichever hell hole place I've ended up in."
"I thought life was the hell hole," Hankyung said. Heechul didn't smile at that. He just twisted his fingers in Hankyung's collar.
Behind them, the confused expression on Kibum's face had fallen away into raw fear, as he slumped back against the wall. "What," he said, lips pale, "are you trying to tell me, Kyuhyun?"
"What's wrong?" asked Shindong.
"So there's, Kyuhyun, there must be something we can do. We can't just leave them there."
"What the fuck is happening?" Kangin asked, and Eeteuk hissed at him. "Hyung, is this really the time?"
"It's Donghae," Kibum said, letting his hand fall to his side. "And Siwon too. They're...trapped."
Sungmin's mouth twitched, like he wanted to smile; like he thought that Kibum was just kidding with him. "What do you mean, trapped?"
"Siwon says that Donghae's got some sort of head wound, and Siwon's been shot in the foot," Kibum said. Sungmin pressed a hand to his mouth, shaking his head. "They haven't been able to escape from the fire. They're...trapped."
Almost like he didn't even have a second thought about it, Sungmin turned and took off in a sprint for the hole that they had just come through. Shindong reached out and grabbed his arm, yanking him back. "Sungmin, where the hell are you going?"
"I'm going to get Siwon," Sungmin said, glaring at him. "Where the hell do you think I'm going?"
"You heard what Kibum said, they're trapped."
"Kyuhyun's not always right," Sungmin said. He threw Shindong off and started running, disappearing through the gap before anyone else could do anything to stop him. Shindong cursed and ran after him.
"What's happening?" Heechul murmured, eyes closed again, seeming like he was on the verge of falling back asleep.
"Nothing," said Hankyung, trying to make his voice as calm as possible.
There was another silence, then Kibum turned and started running back as well. "Christ," said Kangin. "What do we do now?"
"We need to get Heechul back to the surgery," Eeteuk said firmly, though he kept glancing back at the fire. "That's our priority now. That's what we came for, nothing else. We have to get him checked out."
"And Henry's friend," Ryeowook said. "I don't think she's, well."
"I want her to get checked out too," Henry said. "But Siwon-hyung and Donghae-hyung--"
"They'll take care of it," Hankyung said heavily. "We should go."
Kyuhyun sighed and pillowed his head in his hands, A tension headache had started up not long ago and the conversation he'd just had with Kibum hadn't helped it at all. He should have contacted Eeteuk; he'd known how Kibum felt about Donghae. He was just glad that he hadn't had to break the news to Sungmin himself. Not that he didn't fully expect Sungmin to go running back in there like some sort of hero. This was Siwon they were talking about.
He turned in his chair and lay a hand on Zhou Mi's sleeping shoulder. "I wish you were awake," he said wistfully. "I need you to tell me when I've done the right thing. I don't have enough morals without you."
There was no reply. He hadn't been expecting one anyway. He turned back to his computers, scanning the screens in the hope of seeing someone, anyone, that he recognised. The fire was right up against the building now, but no one was paying attention to that when they were too busy trying to save their own skins.
The back door of the van banged open. His hand jumped to his gun automatically, though he thought that it was only going to be the ones who hadn't gone back for Siwon and Donghae coming back. He turned his head and saw a tall man climbing in the back of the van, a gun pointed at him. "Hello, Kyuhyun," he said.
Kyuhyun forced himself to be still and calm. "Hey, Dad."