SELCOUTH

9: trip to lab

4am

We're off the road at 3;30. Jungkook is driving the car. Namjoon embarrassingly admitted earlier that he knows how to make a car, not maneuver one.

The road is empty and the sky is still bottomless dark. There's an echo of sound as we drive past the trees. This kind of silence I consider a rarity in the city I grew up in. In the future, days and nights will collapse. The buzz of life will never skip an hour , and in every margin is a soul.

The absence of jets in the sky provides little reassurance. Whether that is because of unfamiliarity or ominous, I do not know why. But the smell of life in this world is something I didn't know I've  been missing all my life, it is vivid and vital, what science could never fake with it's technology. What can never be revived.

We stumble past the ghostly forestry. Green, dusky, cavernous...It's tranquility macabre and fetching.  It's the same place I was born to, but not. The world has gone a century old, but it's not time that styled it blight.

Yesterday until night, we constructed a plan and sang through it many times, until any possible loopholes were prevised. Namjoon had provided me with a map overseeing the whole structure of the building.

I would have to go to the inventory room where I will be getting the missing components. But there were two inventory rooms. One situated underground-closer to the exit, less surveillance, fewer people -and the other situated on the 5th floor- has a longer route, less military forces, crowded. Namjoon stole from the underground inventory last time, so we have to assume that there was an upgrade done with the surveillance and security. And while the 5th floor inventory is the riskier option- both by theory and practice- as long as I could blend in with the crowd successfully, I can confirm an easier return.

We also calculated the amount of time it would take me to do this, all possible issues considered. At most, it would take me 20 minutes for the basement inventory , and 35 minutes at most to survive back from the 5th floor. I suggested that if I hadn't come back by that time, they would have to leave me- only because I can't have two men dead because of me, I'll never place myself in a situation where I have to endure that guilt. Both just looked at each other. I guess I just took that as a yes.

We spend an hour debating on that, measuring every pros and cons. Jungkook, had suggested, no, actually, forced  me to go to the basement, arguing that they are already familiar with it, so in case of any delay with my return, maybe they could even help me out, and that would be impossible if I were to come from the 5th floor. I didn't miss his innuendo. Somewhere in his tone, had suggested that he took note of my threat earlier that day.

I tried to reject it, going the other way is more feasible. Is smarter. But Namjoon convinced me that if I choose that, he won't be able to give me the full floor plan, it was just previously upgraded and redesigned and he doesn't have a new map. I had my doubts on that but didn't argue. I was trying to be confident that while Jungkook has reason to sabotage me, Namjoon has none. They need this more than I do, I have to remind myself

I didn't wanna cave in, I always stuck to my belief and I've reached this far because I've always followed my instincts. But without the floor plan, I might just go to China and get lost without a language translator. Eventually we all agreed and arrived at a final plan. And here's the plan:

1. Dressed in uniform, enter the emergency exit of the 2nd floor.
2. I will go down. Under any circumstance, I will avoid eye contact, avoid conversation, avoid any possible interaction.
3. The elevator is just in front of the stairs. I show my fake id and access slip to the military officer assigned there.
4. Down in the inventory, I must walk past all the stationed sentry. Walk Fluidly, like everything's normal. Go unnoticed.
5. I will scan the ID and it's supposed to let me in.
6. Once in, I get everything we need in the metal basket.
7. Get out of the basement. Take the same routine. Transfer all material in bag. Come back to the car. Mission done