"Hah... ah... hah…" short breaths echoed from the cold walls and bounced back to enter Yana's ears that buzzed with noises and rustles clouding her mind.
Tremendous pain seeped through her wound into her body as she pulled herself forward, using the walls as support. A desperate attempt to escape yet the trail of blood left behind betrayed and gave her away.
"So, do you understand?" Paul's voice came from far but hammered loudly against Yana's eardrums. His footsteps were light yet heavy enough to let Yana know he was taking his time catching up to her.
Everything has been so meticulously planned that it made Yana's preparation seem like a joke. Yana stopped at a corner when she heard that Paul stopped to take a phone call.
Yana took out the pocket knife and stabbed it in her wound to remove the bullet. With a clang, the bullet fell out. Then a second later, a ripping sound appeared. Yana grit her teeth and finally managed to bandage her wound before she quickly moved on again.
She has been through a lot of beatings but a gunshot was definitely something else. The pain was unbearable and the blood loss made her head dizzy. She might've managed to block the wound for a while before the whole cloth was soaked wet. Yana didn't anticipate that Paul had a perverted side to play cat and mouse with her.
A few minutes prior just when Paul shot her, all senses of Yana's were for a second focused on the pain until her brain registered Paul's words. If she stayed here, she was going to die, Paul wasn't fooling around.
He wanted her dead. This whole kidnapping scenario using Mik to lure her, letting her see the fabric, all of this might've been a scheme started by Paul to give her hope before crushing her when he lured her to him. No, when Paul said Yana has ruined his plans, so using only Mik to get her, was Paul's plan regarding her.
"If you don't-'' in an instant Yana charged at Paul and closed the distance between them. Paul's surprised eyes didn't last long before he had to block himself with his arms from Yana's knife attack.
Although the pain in her leg was unbearable, the wound heavily immobilised her and shortened her movements, Yana still had enough will force to bear through this to land an attack and escape through the doors.
Five years she has suffered through Roy's training. Although she hasn't been stabbed or shot by him, she has experienced different types of pain and went through several training sessions to suppress the pain and bring out the body's strength even while injured. Roy really wanted to prepare her for anything.
"This is more fun, isn't it?" Yana heard Paul's voice as she dashed out of the door and found herself in a narrow hallway.
The more she ran down, the more hallways appeared and the more Yana realised what nightmare this was.
A maze. She was literally trapped in a maze. This fucking lunatic. The walls were two meters high but had no end, as in no ceiling. The ceiling was at least five metres above them. With her injury, Yana couldn't climb the walls. She cursed until she heard Paul trailing after her.
"Hah..." Yana caught her breath and had to slow down her pace.
The adrenaline surge disappeared, "Do you really have time to play this sick game with me? Don't you have other things to do?"
Yana questioned why exactly Paul was doing this. What was his purpose? Was this important? Yana was just a simple agent of the EF. She wasn't a captain nor the head like Roy or her parents, the founders. There was nothing special about her that should make Paul go to this length. Well, she destroyed his plans barely but didn't he say it didn't matter?
"This I just how I do things," Paul answered.
Psychopath. Yana ran and ran until she came to this corner where she was able to finally bandage herself while Paul was distracted.
She took the opportunity to escape further. Yana didn't know where she was. Either she went further in or hopefully neared the exit.
Paul's words still ran in her head. Using the influence of the media. Paul was right. The media was the best way to brainwash the public and made them believe a fantasy that was far away from reality.
If the organisation manipulated the media, they had everything under control. The public believed the other countries were all well but what if it wasn't true? What if their situation was worse? Apart from a few wars in the third world, the first world might actually look the same.
Then what happened to the people who travelled to the other countries and witnessed the truth? Why didn't Roy tell Yana about it? Did Paul lie or was the organisation so thorough with their work that even the citizens in the other countries didn't realise they were doomed just like this country?
"Fucking hell," it was like this. For the first time, true hopelessness started to seep into Yana's body and numbed her.
If the organisation was this capable, if all the governments were with the organisation, then how could they be stopped?
How could the EF stop them? Against the whole world, the EF was only a small fly pesking the organisation.
Wild thoughts swirled in Yana's mind before even her feet carried her towards a dead end filled with only desperation. At the end of the hallway, a large open room, as big as half a football field opened up.
In the middle of the round room where seemingly all hallways led in, was a large hole. An abyss that seemed to go down to hell. Black and void of any hope. And behind Yana, the heavy footsteps came to an end.
"We've arrived. At the end."
Yana turned around and stared death in the face.