Road to Utopia - NCT

42 - Final Plans

"Shotaro?" They collectively asked in disbelief as they saw the smiling otter-like boy perched on one of the sofas inside EXO's base. It didn't look like their definition of a base though, no weapons room or training room or even an elevator in sight. It looked...normal.

Sungchan rushed towards the boy and engulfed him in one of the tightest hugs possible. Shotaro obviously hugged back with equal strength. "I thought you were dead! How did you make it out alive?"

He shrugged. "I was going to go out of the back exit but Jisung was too close and so I went through an underground passageway in the kitchen. I got out and went straight here."

"Why here? It's much further away than our bunker?" Chenle asked.

"We have a bunker?"

Yuta sighed and facepalmed. "We forgot to tell the new recruits about the backup bases. But wait, how did you know about EXO?"

"Before I joined NCT, I found this place thinking it was uninhabited but then I found EXO. I didn't know who they were, but they said I could come back anytime I liked. So, when I escaped, I came back here." He explained. "But how did you know about EXO?"

"They were Sooman's previously funded group, and we were hoping that they could help us out," Winwin answered.

"We can't do much." One of the EXO members said. "I'm Chen, by the way. You've met Suho and Chanyeol. Baekhyun and Sehun are doing a grocery run and Kai and Xiumin are getting visas. D.O is in the bathroom."

"Visas?" Jeno asked.

"Yeah, our other member, Lay, got caught freeing a bunch of cats from a breeding ground and was put in prison. We gotta go break him free."

"So you're not going to help us rebel against the corrupt government?" Chenle asked. "Or save my best friend?"

"The best friend that tried to kill you?" Yuta muttered under his breath.

Chenle glared at him in response. "He's being manipulated by them. He can't control his actions."

"And for how long? How do you know if he was ever your friend in the first place? Maybe he approached you in order to infiltrate our group!"

"Calm down, Yuta. We're going to save him, and Mark and Jaemin."

"We're a neutral group, by the way." Suho interrupted their quarrel. "We can't help you actively fight, but we can supply you with arms."

He grinned and approached a blank wall. He placed his right hand onto a section and the wall opened up to reveal a weapons room, mainly filled with pistols and a few rifles. There were also a few smoke grenades decorating the wall.

"You can use anything in here to fight for your case. We were also just like you, fighting against the injustice of the government but we've sworn to normalcy and peace a few years back after our previous members got fatally wounded and died." Suho explained. "We'll be gone by tomorrow, but you can use our home as your makeshift base."

Suho, Chanyeol and Chen left the room after that, leaving NCT to create a new plan on how they were going to rescue their final members. D.O decided that now would be a suitable time to exit the bathroom and saw the remaining NCT members in his living room.

"You do know that the Utopia Party are making an announcement in two days, right?"

~~

The day after, Ten had started to elaborately plan out how to stop whatever bad thing that the government were planning to do. He wasn't sure if it would be a new drug release or something even more sinister. However, he had a duty as NCT's new leader to stop it and prevent any of their current members from facing the same fate their previous members had.

"So, if this is where the leader will be, we'll be here," Ten pointed at his rushed diagram, "ready to jump onstage and take him down."

"And Winwin and I will be on top of this roof," Yuta pointed at another section of the paper, "and we'll shoot once commanded, right?"

"Actually, I think we need more people on the ground for this with one person staying behind to relay any events. Any volunteers?"

"Me!" Chenle waved his hand around excitedly. "I'll do it!"

"OK, Chenle can do it. But, if we need you at the event, you'll have to come. You're a decent marksman and we may need that."

"So why not let me or Renjun stay behind since we're not the best?" Yangyang asked.

"Do you want to stay behind?" Their new leader gave them a pointed look.

"Not really."

"Then Chenle stays behind. The announcement starts at midday exactly and we'll be there ten minutes before. Are we clear on the rest of the plan?"

"Shoot down as many government officials as possible?" Shotaro grinned.

"Exactly."

END

I loved the part where I planned out for this to take 3-4 chapters and end up ruining my plans because I write too many actions in my plans that can't be executed in 950-1200 words.

I'm expecting 1 normal chapter left, 3 endings and my story notes and then I'm done with this book (except for editing the first few chapters back into 3rd person).

I was contemplating whether to enter The Wattys for both this and Quilate, but I decided against it since I couldn't be bothered editing it to a consistent narrative. Nothing is certain in the future, but I'm hoping I'll have more time during uni to do so.