Deviated

Grave of Roses.

Won-Ah was lying down on ground, the sky hazy infront of his half closed eyes.

The stench from rotting dead bodies kept beside him, hitting his nostrils.

He has been resting for the past month, unlike the life he had lived since his father's death.

Past month, all he did was sleep on a bed of a laboratory, injections pushed into him daily. He had signed for it.

He worked as a cleaner in a restaurant and his wage could only put an one time meal on the plate of his mother and sister. He had to buy medicines for his mother and pay the school fees of his sister. He dropped out of university, after his father died in an accident last year, taking over the steer wheel of the family. His sister was just twelve years old while his mother, due to the grief of losing her loving husband - her health started to slowly deteriorate.

He thought signing up as a research subject could help him have an extra income for his family but now he couldn't even move his body - he had no energy left in him, not even a little just to get away from the rotting dead bodies. He was not dead, but close enough to be one of them.

He looked at his right side and found a man in black, digging into the ground - right where the garden of beautiful red roses ended. There was a shovel and three big jars, kept some feet away from him. The man stopped digging and kept the second shovel down, walking towards the dead bodies.  He bended infront of the first body and picked it up - an old lady, probably in her late sixties. He walked back to where he had digged the ground and threw the body in it. He came back for the second time, repeating the same process for the next dead body - a child.

He walked towards the jars , pulling out the brown gloves from the back pocket of his pant. He wore it above the white gloves. Picking up one of the jar, he walked back to where he had dumped the two bodies together.

He kept down the jar and covered his nostrils and his mouth with an extra covering of cloth over his mask. Then he opened the jar and splashed the liquid in, all over the dead body. The liquid reacted with the body immediately, giving rise to fumes. The man stepped back, letting the fumes rise and disappear in air.

A chill ran down Won-Ah's spine as he watched this horror unfold infront of him. His science lab classes from school days, without a doubt telling him what the liquid was.

Concentrated sulphuric acid.

That's it. He has to move. He has to run. For his sister. For his mother. And for his own self. He can't die like that.

He heard the man's phone ring while he was closing the jar of the acid.

Won-Ah moved his right leg, a sharp pain rising from the stiff muscle of his calf. He gritted his teeth and pushed up his body to stand on his feet, taking a deep breath to caln himself. He has to survive , at any cost.

He couldn't escape before. He was locked in a lab. But now he will.

He stumbled but continued walking towards the jar kept just some feet away. He tried to walk faster, tripping over a rock. Time clicking away against his life. He can't lose now. He picked himself up once again, his toe bleeding. He ran towards the jar and clutched on it's handle.

The sound of running over dried leaves had the man look back and he found Won-Ah standing infront of him, holding the jar of acid.

'What's happening ? ' the person from other side of call asked and before he could answer, Won-Ah spilled the acid on the man and ran, without wasting a second.

The man screamed in pain and fell over the two bodies which was melting away due to the acid too.

He screamed for help frantically, throwing his hands and trying to rub the acid off his body but it caused more harm to him, the pain intensifying thousand folds. And slowly he passed away.