Answers - Minho Book III

Chapter 7

Someone pounds on the metal door to my room, jolting me awake as my heart rate spikes in alarm. They move on, and I hear them banging on all the doors down the hallway. 

I glance at the digital clock sitting on the table. It's five in the morning sharp. Grumbling under my breath, I hurriedly get dressed, moving towards the door as I try to peek out of the little window and figure out what's going on. 

I jump backward as a W.C.K.D guard suddenly steps out, barely inches apart with just the flimsy clear screen between us. He opens the door and steps back, jerking his head at me in an order to move.

Moving out into the hallway, I fall into a line with other kids of varying ages, all with their heads down in fear at the sudden change in routine. If Lynn hadn't said anything yesterday, perhaps I would have been one of them, but that didn't stop me from being apprehensive. 

Closely guarded by the W.C.K.D patrols, our line was led further and further from the usual places we'd grown accustomed to until we were marching past the cafeteria, to new corridors we'd never been down. We went down flights of stairs at one point, and by this time I had completely lost my sense of direction. I shook my head mentally at this, feeling like I had gotten sloppy and distracted. 

The corridors gradually faded away into larger walkways, the walls no longer the pristine, glowing white, instead changing into rough concrete. The bright overhead lights embedded into the ceilings started flickering more often the further away we got from the central hub of W.C.K.D activity. 

Other lines of kids joined us one at a time until eventually we were all in what looked like the inside of a huge warehouse. Soon enough, we had formed a large group. Keeping my head low, I tried to inconspicuously look around for Minho, my eyes darting through the crowd from face to face, desperately seeking him out. 

Suddenly, I heard a shuffle behind me and felt a familiar presence. My breath hitched, but I didn't dare to look behind me. A finger poked me in my side, and I resisted the urge to smile. He had found me first. 

"(Y/n)," Minho whispered, reaching out to hold my hand in his warm one. I swiped my thumb over the back of his hand softly, basking in the feeling of being close to him and having contact with him again after too many months apart. 

"Alright everyone, listen closely." Minho squeezed my hand quickly before dropping it. Janson was standing at the front, eyeing us all with a gleam in his eye. 

"Today we are taking you all somewhere else, somewhere where we will all be..." He trailed off, seemingly choosing his words carefully. I raised an eyebrow in question. Was something happening outside, compromising this W.C.K.D location?

My first thought was that perhaps the Right Arm had discovered our location, and was planning an attack. A moment later I crushed my desperate hopes and dreams, reminding myself that the last I had seen of them, their forces had been devastated by W.C.K.D, and lacked the numbers to even try and raid the W.C.K.D base. 

Were they sending us to die then? No, that couldn't be right either, they had invested too much time and too many resources to just kill us off. We were still valuable test subjects in their eyes. 

So, that left two options. This base was no longer safe for W.C.K.D to proceed with their experiments, or they needed us more elsewhere. A chill ran down my spine when I realised what this meant. 

The situation outside was getting worse. The flare must be spreading at unprecedented rates, infecting more and more. The fall of humanity would be inevitable unless they found a cure. 

A loud cranking sound interrupts my spiralling thoughts, and I snap my head up to see the vast wall of the warehouse sliding upwards, revealing the outside world. Given that it's still quite early in the morning, the sky outside is still relatively dark, save for the few streaks of light from the sunrise beginning to break through.