Monster's Labyrinth ~ Hyunlix

>41<

(Alien Blues • Vundabar)

The group fell silent in horror.
"What?" Felix whispered. "Pull it out?" He gulped. His face turned into an even more disgusted grimace at the thought of it, his imagination going wild.

He thought about the blood spurting out. Maybe even some black goo, since they had seen that in or on pretty much every monster they met. He even had an image in his head of them accidentally pulling out his spine along with the chip, or whatever it was in the man's neck.

"Turn around so I can see the chip." He told Chan. The man nodded and turned around, pulling Minho in front of him by his arm, pretending to examine him as well. Seungmin and Jeongin looked in their direction, but didn't see anything suspicious.

Felix had to stop himself from retching when he saw the metal thing in the man's neck. It almost looked like one of those inputs.

Have you ever seen the Matrix? You know those plugs they have in their necks? Imagine that, except that it was sticking out a little more.

"What will happen if we pull it out?" Jisung whispered. Chan just continued smiling and went over to 'examine' Jisung.
"I'll try to fight back, it's the defense mechanism of the chip. And it'll bleed, but that's all." He said. The group looked at him suspiciously for a moment, but alongside Chan's painfully strained smile there was nothing to see. They nodded.

Chanbin gulped. "So we just-?"
"Yes. You just pull it out." Chan said. The whole group fell silent, all contemplating their choices. For all they knew this man was trying to trick them into something. But maybe this was a chance that could help them escape.

"Please... you need to hurry." His voice sounded more strained and fuller of pain by the second, and the group noticed that he was starting to sweat as well.

But nobody dared to do it. They were all much too scared of the unknown. Chan just stood there, in the middle of the group, pretending to be interested in the state of Changbin's body.

Seconds passed where nobody did anything. They didn't move. All of them were asking themselves the same question:
'Will we help him, or not?'

They all heard Minho take a deep breath before he jumped behind Chan. Without any hesitation he slammed the man against the empty metal table they were standing next to.

The man grunted and immediately tried to fight back, although every time he tried to kick Minho he looked like he stopped himself, ending up with almost gentle stomps on Minho's leg.

Jeongin and Seungmin both saw it happen in a flash. Hyunjin looked in their direction, and he saw something new in their eyes, something he didn't expect.

Panic. And fear.

Minho tried to bury his nails under the metal device as he and the group held the man down, which was actually harder than they ha expected.
He stuck his elbow in the man's back, right where his spine was, to distract him for a moment. He felt the weird metal plug shift under his touch. Chan kicked Minho's shin hard, but he didn't back off. The man screamed in agony.

He took a deep breath, and with a long, quick jerk he pulled the metal chip out.

Oh god, the horror in their faces. The horror they witnessed.

As Minho pulled out the metal device with a surprising necessity of strength. But blood wasn't all that came out of the now open wound.

Attached to the metal chip long, black and slimy strings followed. Minho actually had to step back to make sure all of them were out of Chan's body before he practically smashed it on the ground in disgust. And on top of that the strings started moving. Squirming like dying parasites on the ground.