From the Darkness

2. The Sinkhole

Wooyoung roused from sleep in the middle of the night. He batted his sleepy eyes open, unsure what shooed off his dreams. Nestled against Yunho's chest, he felt his boyfriend's every breath. Yunho was deep asleep and their weapons untouched.

No chime alerted them of an intruder. The night lay tranquil.

Soothed, Wooyoung huddled into Yunho's loose embrace. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the wind scraping the sand against the walls. The eerie squeak of metal was haunting in the dark and coyotes called their hunger into the distance. If any fouls shuffled through the night in search of food, Wooyoung didn't have to hear their dragging feet this far up.

Sleep was just about to pull him back under when another creak fell to his ears. Wooyoung lifted his head from its spot of warmth, scanning the room with watchful eyes. It was swathed in darkness since no outside source brought light, but nothing moved. Was it worth clicking the lighter open for?

Wooyoung hesitated for long enough that his surroundings took his choice from him. He flinched in Yunho's arms when the empty can next to them toppled over, rolling against the wall. With a curse on his lips, Wooyoung looked after it. His eyes searched the ground but found nothing that could have knocked it over.

Too alerted now to lie back down, Wooyoung shifted from Yunho's hold to sit up. His fingers clicked the worn metal of his lighter open while the other hand wrapped around his knife. He shone the light as far as it would go, casting dancing shadows over the far walls. Nothing worth noticing passed his sight, but he picked up on something else.

Faster than his lighter could snap shut, Wooyoung dropped the knife to shake on Yunho's shoulder. The man startled right up, hand flying to his weapon. He found Wooyoung's hunched figure in the dark.

"Yunho," Wooyoung hissed, drawing his flickering attention. "Has the ground been this tilted earlier?"

Yunho jerked his eyes towards the corners, and his face paled. When he shook his head, their hands flew to their bundles at the same time.

"We can jump from the second floor, that saves us some time," Yunho huffed, mind sharp like a blade as they stormed to their feet. They left the empty cans behind and hastily unzipped the bell. Wooyoung just finished stuffing it into his bag when the entire building shuddered. The two fell on the stairs, clutching to the loose railing as the walls around them groaned. They were sinking.

"It won't hold out," Wooyoung hissed. Dust trickled from the ceiling and the concrete trembled under the weight of the sand, drawing it into its depths.

"Up, up!"

They changed direction and jumped up the tilted stairs. The building sunk diagonally into the collapsing ground, whirling up dust and noise. The fouls would come crawling within a few minutes, so Wooyoung and Yunho needed to get out of the walls' death trap.

Yunho shouldered the door leading to the rooftop open just when the lower part of the building gave in below them. With a deafening crunch, the lower two stories collapsed, and the impact broke up the upper part. Wooyoung held onto the railing for dear life as sand permeated the building and whirled dirt into the air. Once the quaking stopped, Wooyoung tugged himself to his feet and stormed outside with Yunho. They slammed the door shut, hoping it would catch some of their momentum. Heaving, they leaned against the entrance and took in the slanted rooftop.

"It's still too high to jump," Yunho calculated. Little figures meandered in the distance, foes attracted by the noise and the rumbling of the earth.

With gritted teeth, Wooyoung unhooked the rope from his belt.

"It's dangerous to climb down into the collapsing area, but it might give us enough time to wade out before the stone crushes us."

Since there was no other method, Yunho jumped to his side to help him. They only had one rope since they usually never needed to climb at the same time, but Wooyoung would hurry. They slung it around the leftover post of what once was a railing and Wooyoung swung himself over the ledge. Neither of them was safer. Below awaited the horde and the collapsing building might as well turn both of them into red splats.