Gone To Hell | Seventeen

XII.

"Do you think we should investigate?"

I sighed, putting my head in my hands.

"We could see what all Gyeongha knows before we make any huge decisions." I suggested.

Vernon and I were sitting around the fire, as we had been for about an hour. Everyone was asleep, of course other than us. It was probably going on 1 in the morning now.

"But we also need to keep things on the down low. Soyeon and Chan seem really paranoid lately." He mentioned. "It isn't like they know something's gonna happen, but it surely seems like it."

"We don't need them freaking out and putting even more people in panic." I added.

"Maybe we'll be okay." He mumbled. "It might be a good idea to just stay here and start preparing for the worst."

"And what's the worst? Someone probably followed our trucks back to see where we were. That group could up and kills some of us, if not all." I said, sighing again, "They have more weapons, more ammo. We might have more people, but that isn't going to matter if they come rolling through with all their guns."

"What are we gonna tell the group then? 'Oh, there's a group of maniacs killing random people for the hell of it, but no one panic'." Vernon seemed very concerned about people getting scared. I had to admit, our group being afraid wouldn't be an advantage.

"We can't keep everyone in the dark." I said, "A good bit of us know something's wrong already. If we'd say we have to leave for some random reason, they'd know we were lying. They'd know exactly why we have to leave."

"But we definitely have to leave." He pressed his lips together, chuckling, "I never would've guessed this would be why I'd leave this farm. I thought it would be college, or some part of growing up."

"Just think of this as our group growing up." I sadly smiled. "We're moving on to the next stage of our lives."

"Yea," He scoffed, "The stage where we narrowly avoid getting murdered by random ass people who think they're better than everyone else just because they have better guns."

It was clear he was upset by our decision. I would be too, if I had to leave my home out of fear of people, not even rotters. I would be angry. These Hellseekers, they were ruining Vernon's happiness, and all of ours for that matter.

"Will you be okay?" I asked.

He stood, "Yea. If it'll keep everyone safe, I'll live with having to leave."

I stood as well, approaching him. We hugged briefly, "I'm sorry, Vernon."

"Don't be. At least we didn't just brush this under the rug." He inhaled deeply, "I'm just relieved we actually thought about this."

I nodded. "Let's get some sleep so we can finish our plan tomorrow."

We started heading inside. It took a lot of careful footwork to avoid making an extreme amount of sound, but we did succeed in not waking the entire household. We planned to walk upstairs and go to bed, but I decided to check on the members in the living room, and Vernon followed.

I peeked my head around the corner and saw Chaeji, DK, and Joshua on the couches. They looked so calm, and I felt bad that tomorrow, it wouldn't be the same. Then my eyes landed on the Seo family, and I felt even worse. They didn't ask for any of this. They're father was crazy, and it had to hurt them.

My eyes flicked up to Vernon. He had a sad glaze in his eyes. It seemed to break him inside to look at this shattered family, too.

"Come on," he whispered, "We should go to sleep."