Emergency (1/2)

The three ran as fast as they could. Minho led the way, cutting bushes and branches that were in their way with the sword he always carried around. Yuri stumbled at times over unexpected rocks and uneven ground but Taemin held her hand and kept her from falling. She in return helped encouraged him to keep going. Taemin had poor stamina due to severe sickness during his childhood and was finding it hard to continue running at top speed for such a long time.Once out of the forest the three were met by a path going downhill towards the pension house. However, Minho led them to the other side of the trail and into more trees and bushes.

‘Hyung! The trail leads right towards the pension house! And it’s quicker because there are no trees or bushes in the way,’ Taemin huffed, ‘and all the sticks and branches are cutting Yuri’s leg!’

‘The trail leaves us as an open target. In here we’re covered a little by nature. And I know it’s cutting Yuri’s legs, it’s cutting mine too. Just hang in there, I wouldn’t make you guys run like this if it wasn’t an emergency,’ Minho yelled over his shoulder.

The two behind him nodded and continued on, squeezing each other’s hands for support. In the distance they could hear the laughter of the others.

“Good, sounds like if not all then most of them are already there. Saves time,” Minho thought to himself.Soon they were running through the clearing behind the pension house and up the porch. Minho barged into the back room of the pension house and was glad to see that everyone was there. Yuri and Taemin entered soon after, holding onto each other for support while they huffed and puffed. Seohyun saw and quickly ran to the kitchen to get water for the two.

‘Minho, what’s wrong? Why’d you slam the door and look like you guys ran miles?’ Wooyoung asked.

‘No time to explain. It’s an emergency. Grab all the emergency packs and get everyone out of here and into the safe house,’ Minho said gruffly, heading to the cupboard and smashing the lock open.

It gave way and the door opened to shelves of bags and weapons hanging on the wall. He grabbed as much as he could and the others all followed. The girls didn’t know the bags were even there in the first place or what the safe house was but they carried as much bags as they could.As soon as the cupboard was cleaned out, the group piled out onto the back lawn.

‘We’re splitting into groups to get to the safe house, we’ll be too conspicuous if we go in a large group. Our aim is to get to the safe house as safely and quickly as possible,’ Minho instructed.

‘Before we came on this small holiday we organised escape routes and escape plans. We’ll go with plan A for now but if anything goes wrong, the guys all know about plan B and so on. So don’t get scared, Princesses, and stay calm at all times,’ Onew said.

The girls nodded solemnly.

‘Alright, Yuri, Taemin, Jonghyun, Jessica, Key and Sooyoung, come with me,’ Minho said.

They all followed him to the side of the house quickly and began running with all the bags into the forest.

‘Taeyeon, Wooyoung, Tiffany, Yoona and Nichkhun, we’re going down the back,’ Onew said, leading the group to the clearing at the back.

‘Come on, we don’t have time to lose,’ Eunhyuk told the others and they all followed him through to the front of the house and down a hidden track covered by trees.To get to the safe house, they had to go deep into the forest and uphill. It was tiring and nature was starting to get in the way. Minho made his group continue running despite complaining from Jessica who said princesses shouldn’t run and that the bushes were cutting her leg. They ran for what seemed like hours but soon arrived at an old mansion covered in vines and was barely noticeable. Jonghyun whipped the door open and ushered everyone inside. As soon as everyone was safely in the house, he slammed the door closed and locked the several locks on the door.

‘The locks aren’t going to keep anyone out if they really want to get in,’ Sooyoung pointed in.

‘We know but it doesn’t matter. We’ll explain as soon as we get downstairs, come on. Quick!’ Key cried.They briskly walked down the hallway and Minho opened the door to closet.

‘We’re not going to all fit in there,’ Jessica said.

Minho rolled his eyes and bent down. A sneakily hidden trap door was there and he pulled it open. A ladder led down to what seemed like the basement but as soon as they all got down there they saw that it looked like a basement converted into a small apartment. They dropped all the bags and weapons on a table and collapsed on the couches. Key pushed the trap door to the house closed and went to sit with the others.‘So what’s the big emergency?’ Jonghyun asked.

Minho sighed, rested his face in his hands before explaining.

‘While we were out on the mountains, an arrow flew at us with a note on it. We dodged it and I grabbed the note. It was from General Chan. He was warning us that there was an attack on the Kingdom. It’s a group of rebels from the Nada continent. They’re not part of the army that plans on attacking our continent but they are still a threat and their army could join them anytime soon now. And even though the King told the Generals to keep half of the army guarding the mountain, they couldn’t. The current monarch and the future monarch are at stake so they have half the military guarding the King even though he is objecting it. The other half are fighting and helping all of the Kingdom’s citizens. We’re completely unguarded. General Chan said that we’re completely surrounded and that our only escape is the safe house until the surrounding Kingdoms’ armies get here and defeat the rebels. We can’t take the tunnel to the outskirts of the Palace wall because they’re also surrounded so we have to stay here for now. They could attack the pension house any minute now so we’re lucky that General Chan managed to get close enough to the mountain to send us the message. Let’s hope he got back to the Palace safely. I wonder how he even managed to get out of the palace walls with all the rebels surrounding it…’ Minho explained while the others sat quietly.Finally, Sooyoung moved and asked, ‘could that mean our Kingdom could be overthrown? If… if… they get to… if they… h-hurt our parents?’

‘Yes, and if they hurt Prince Leeteuk and you girls, especially Taeyeon and Jessica,’ Minho answered.

‘Wait! Leeteuk oppa? Is he at the palace?!’ Yuri shouted, jumping to her feet.

Minho tugged on her down onto his lap, ‘yes, I did say the current monarch and future monarch. Prince Leeteuk is the future monarch. Apparently he got to the palace three days before the attack.’

‘How long has this been going on?’

‘About a week. General Chan apologised since he couldn’t escape earlier.’

Jonghyun sighed, ‘It was a mistake to take you girls out here. We’re so sorry.’

‘What are you talking about?!’ Sica cried.

‘Yeah! It’s not your fault!’ Yuri said.

‘But if anything happens… we’ll feel responsible…’ Taemin muttered.

‘Well don’t! Because I’m worrying about you,’ Yuri told Taemin.