Acceleration [Book 1]

04: Punishment

⊱⋅ ─ 04: PUNISHMENT

"Lock them up there until tomorrow evening," the red haired man said before fading into the darkness.

Felix felt dread, thinking of thousands and thousands of images of how he will be punished for the night, just the thought made him worry about a lot of things.

What if he can't walk tomorrow?

What will he tell his family if they see him in a state like this?

Who will look after Chaewon for the night?

The freckled lad stood there, in a daze to do nothing for that moment, he turned his head to every direction to look for help, for the others ─ for Chan ─ yet when he did, Chan gave him a look of disappointment and rage.

Felix doesn't want to be blown up like how Minho got blown up to a pulp. The freckled lad thought that it might be crazy, but he already trusts Chan, even though the guy changes his personality from time to time. It was only a matter of time before a Dispatcher comes to fetch Felix, and before Felix even knew it, he went running for Chan, he doesn't want to get beaten up harshly, he doesn't want to experience another painful moment, let alone get beaten up within the whole evening.

Elbowing his way to Chan through the throng, other guys, who were laughing at the scared face Felix was making, pushed him back as he attempted to elbow his way through it. The freckled lad did his best, and again, he was forced back to where he was. Felix was held back by the crowd on the arms.

"Let go of me!" Demand Felix with a growl.

"Poor little fresh meat is scared." One of the boys from the crowd cooed mockingly, "Don't worry, Dispatcher Yukhei will punish you gently." He added.

Felix yanked his arms away, making another attempt to run away, "Chan!" The freckled boy called out, "Please─" and just as he reached out his hand, he felt a striking pain, he looked down to see he got a tranquilizing bullet on his right leg, "h-help..." the boy pleaded softly as his eyelids felt heavy, the effect of the tranquilizer started to kick in quicker than he realized, and he doubted anyone would hear his plea for help.

Felix lost all energy, slowly getting dizzy and his eyesight getting blurred, and before he even knew it, he had already fallen to the ground.

"They always try to run away when they are new to things," he heard a male laugh out as if it was the funniest thing, the crowd laughing along, and before his eyes could completely shut, he saw a pair of two black combat boots before his face, only seeing the owner's torso to below when he crouched down, "How about we get you geared up, eh, fresh meat?"

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Felix woke up to see his wrists in locks on a metal chair. He tried prying them off by twisting his arms, shaking, moving randomly, but to no avail, it all did not have any effect at all.

"Stop moving around or I'll beat you up until you can't walk before your stupid leader could," Felix heard the same voice, that he heard before passing out, grumble in the darkness.

Felix gulped, "W-Who are you?" the freckled lad asked, his voice trembling as he did and he winced for doing something so stupidly.

"Name's Wong Yukhei," the person said, stepping into the light, his face was covered in a mask, a mask that covered the upper half of his face, leaving his lower half exposed, the mask was designed with intricate lines, as if a sign of royalty, the mix of gold and silver looked like poison to the eyes, deadly, with the small dots of dried up blood on the material, "my friends call me Lucas or Xuxi..." he removed his mask and grinned at Felix, "and you're Felix, correct? To us, you're the fresh meat." He added, getting a glare from the younger male.