THE DARKEST HOPE

Chapter 25 To find a friend

Chapter 25

Jungkook felt like suffocating, his shoulders were frantically rising and falling, while his lungs were fighting for air. That basement where vampires were groomed, where so many people lost their lives. It was terrifying and disgusting, it was a graveyard and a prison at the same time and Jungkook never saw a place that scary. He darted towards the exit, ran along the white corridor, passed the metal doors where the disturbed vampires still growled and clawed at the thick metal, up the stairs and half consciously scratched outside of the laboratory's entrance.

He made a few steps after the door and fell on his knees, his hands digging desperately inside the hard, frozen soil. Jungkook couldn't feel the cold lines his tears left on his cheeks nor could he hear his low anguished sobs that involuntarily escaped his lips. All his mind was a haze of confused thoughts and even more confused feelings.

"Jimin, what did you do..." he whispered miserably. The thought of the countless files of dead people was terrifying. And what about those vampires inside the cells? Did Jimin infect them with the virus himself or did they got infected some other way.

Oh, no! Jimin infects people with the virus! Jungkook remembered the entrance in his own file. An approval for contamination written with Jimin's pretty and orderly handwriting, a handwriting he saw so many times while Jimin was tutoring him.

"He wants to infect me with it! He wants to make me a vampire!"

Jungkook's stomach clenched at the thought and he couldn't hold back his nausea. He gagged and spilled his stomach's content on the dirt, shaken by hard convulsions. The bile left acidic taste on his tongue. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and unsteadily pulled up on his feet.

Oddly his vision was blurred. He looked around disoriented. What was going on?

"I have to get away from this house!" the thought was panicked and rushed but also somehow dispersed in his head. He rubbed his eyes and tried to blink away the unusual sleepiness and fatigue that had invaded him. He fell down on his knees. Disturbingly his body was refusing to follow his commands.

Jungkook crumbled on the ground completely. His head turned towards the halfway opened door of the basement. What was that? Some thin milky smoke was seeping out through the door threshold.

"Oh, smoke..." Jungkook thought with apathy. Somehow all that was happening seemed unreal and absurd. Why was he lying around when he had to escape? What was he doing, resting? The thought seemed so funny and absurd right now. Resting, yeaaah, as if he hadn't something more important to do. Like save his life.

A low hoarse giggle escaped his almost paralyzed lips. Something was definitely wrong. He could hardly move even his fingers. Damn. That was unexpected. He had lost complete understanding for the world around him.

Wait! Something was happening! Strong arms were helping him up. Who was that? Jungkook couldn't focus his gaze that well. Jimin? Yes, it had to be Jimin, who else... His head swam backwards as if his neck was unable to hold it upright.

The hands were supporting him firmly and were leading him somewhere, Jungkook's steps were small and uncertain, his knees buckling at every move. He felt the awful nausea again and dropped down for another jolt of vomiting. He couldn't understand why he felt so sick. He had his palms pressed against the ground but they lost their last power and he rolled t the side helpless.

The hands were pulling him up again and started pushing him urgently in some direction. He stumbled in the required way. Why not, he didn't know what he was doing anyway.

After a while someone was pressing him down. He collapsed onto something. What is that? A bed, the floor, did it matter anyway? Whatever the case, lying felt much better than walking. Jungkook's strength had come to an end, his eyes rolled back in his head and he lost consciousness.