What's Broken Can't Be Fixed

31

     Chris stares at him. Confused. "If you really do know then why not try to escape?"

     "Cause who would I tell?! This is the fucking government doing this so who can I tell that would be able to stop it? Plus, if I tried to leave... That would mean endangering my life." Keeho stops talking for a second and looks back at Soul. "And that would mean leaving him here alone."

     The two boys stare at each other in silence. "Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna take the blame for Daejung. They'll take me instead of you."

     "Keeho-"

     "LISTEN!" Keeho was nervous. He didn't want to lose anyone. "There is a certain part in a human's pituitary gland that when exposed to air emits a deadly gas. The gas is clear and smells foul at first, but the longer it's in the air, it turns thick and a beige color. The government thinks that releasing this gas will help with overpopulation. Animals are affected by it but instead of turning into something they just die. We can't immediately make all the gas go away. But if we can get rid of their source then the gas would slowly get weaker, and it would be replaced with our regular air."

     "When they take you... what are they going to do?" Chris asks, wary. And Keeho sighs.

     "They're gonna try to use me to make the gas stronger. Expose my brain to the air and release more gas into the world."

     "So..."

     "They're going to kill me, Chris."

     Chris' eyebrows furrow and he shakes his head. "No. No, they're gonna try to kill you. I'm not letting that happen."

     "Hyung-" Suddenly, 2 men come walking down the hall. Soul, Hyunjin, Chris, and Keeho watch anxiously as they get closer and closer. Then, they stop right in front of Chris. However, before they could do anything Keeho steps in front of him. "It was me!" He yells. "I beat the man. Not him."

     The two men look past Keeho and at Chris' bloodied knuckles, however, they grab Keeho, regardless of what they saw. Keeho doesn't make a sound, he just quietly gets taken away. Chris looks back at Soul who is now in Hyunjin's arms. He looked like he was panicking. His eyes were wide, tears were streaming down his face, and he was holding onto Hyunjin like his life depended on it.

     Chris was standing in the middle of everything, everyone staring at him. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. "Listen... everyone." Chris wanted to get their attention. All eyes were still on him. "We're getting out of here. Today." Saying this, Chris could see a mix of relief, confusion, and fear in everyone's expressions.

     "H...How?" There was a woman, she had a small girl in her arms. The girl looked at least six and she seemed more afraid than anything. "How do we get out of here?" She asks.

     "My friend... he's come up with a plan. The government, this lab... is using us to make this gas. If we get out of here... they won't have anything to make more gas with. We could end it all."

     "But there's so many of us. How do we sneak out of here without them noticing?" A man questions, and Chris sighs.

     "We're not gonna sneak."

     It was silent. Keeho was sat down and chained in a chair, the two men standing on either side of him. One had a syringe in his hands that was filled with something that looked like blood. Keeho's eyebrows furrow, what were they going to do? Then, the man sticks the syringe in his arm and injects the blood into him.

     Keeho didn't struggle, it wasn't going to help him anyway. Besides, it felt like nothing even happened. However, Keeho's lower back starts to burn. It felt so hot almost like someone was pouring lava on him.