Blaze

The Act of Abandonment

~_____~

Inside was a dark as it looked from outside. The mere second the door closed on him he tried to focus his eyes amongst the dim darkness; the only light applicable to his surroundings were that of the low rays coming in from the scarred windows.

Before him were two rows of machinery; what they were used for, he couldn't make a clear guess. Perhaps some metal refinement back in the older days.

Everything else visible to him seemed to have molted with nature, becoming one with it. He spotted signs of overgrowing plants that had crawled inside that should be blooming outside. It actually didn't smell as awful as he'd thought. There was a scent of fresh grown shrubs mixed along with rotting steel, wasting its life away.

Kris only turned when he heard a soft thud behind him, but was too late to catch the face of the shadow stepping toward him from the darkness revolting in the corner. At once a buff arm locked around his neck, cutting his air supply off right off the bat.

Raising his gun-held hand to shoot was a useless attempt. The man had already linked his arm through his, twisting it painfully toward his back. Kris was unable to let out a yell due to his depleting source of oxygen and felt the man ram him into the wall. His forehead crashed into it with full strength and that arm tightened around his throat even more. Kris' body immediately felt limp and weak. Once the man let go of him he slumped against the wall fighting for his breath, a sickly noise erupting from the back of his throat each time he breathed.

When he thought he'd regained strength again, the man put him in another headlock; this time, slamming the gun he'd somehow lost into his shoulder. The pain was excruciating and was even worse when he barely had strength to moan the pain away.

Dry coughing, he fought for a last attempt to fight back only to fail. It was no use. He was already losing his grasp on consciousness. The last thing he recalled was how lightheaded he'd felt.

~_____~

It was no use, she was getting rained on by bullets. Forced to abandon Kris, she turned to run. Failure soaked every part of her. This was the first time in history she'd had to abandon one of her men, unlike Donghae who always went back for them.

Victoria was furious and for the first time in her career, panicking. The trees turned into cuts and blurs around her. Barely sliding into the soil as a bullet charged into the bark nearby she nearly saved herself.

"I need help!" She shouted into her ear piece, crouching down; clutching onto her gun tightly with eyes surveying for an opening to escape.

"I can't find you," she heard Namjoo's breathless voice. "What's happened to Kris?"

"They're driving me away from him. I think something happened. He's inside a building." Victoria explained without breathing in-between her words.

There was no reply for about half a minute. Pelted by bullets from all sides, Victoria leaned out to finally catch sight of someone gluing himself to the tree fifteen yards east of her. Quickly pressing herself against the tree again, she counted down the seconds before quickly leaning out to shoot his way. After firing she resumed to sticking herself against the tree once more. A thud slammed against the ground and Victoria exhaled slowly. She was regaining her calm again.

At this rate, she might be able to last under these circumstances and go back for Kris. Yet, her fate only lie on the two cartridges she'd brought with her. If she ran out of bullets, she was no better than dead.

~_____~

"You're surrounded," Namjoo informed, her eyes furiously scanning the screens. Among the thickets she could see movement of men who were in camouflage, slowly trekking back and forth.