Before the Fall

Chapter Forty-Nine - The Eye of The Storm

Jin

I watched my leader crumble to the ground, screaming out his pain and frustration and anger until his voice was hoarse.

We all stood there, quietly lending our support as he grieved. We also wanted to grieve, but as the leader, on whose shoulders everything rises and falls, he deserved the right to have his moment first.

After a few moments, I walked up to Namjoon and knelt beside of him, silently being a steady show of comfort to him. He was sobbing and my heart broke so much for him. I had promised to always take care of him and protect him when we were children. But somewhere along the line, I failed in my promise as I could not protect him from this horrible situation we now found ourselves in.

"Joon-ah," I whispered, looking at him from the corner of my eye. "We need to take care of them before the scavengers do. It won't take them long, you know."

I hated being the bearer of such grotesque news but someone had to snap him out of his grief. When we saved those people from the Extinction, we had taken on the responsibility of their entire lives until we could let them go out and live in the world again. Now, we had to give them as proper a burial as we could.

A mass grave hardly seemed appropriate, but at least they would all be together.

Namjoon nodded, wiping away his tears and his face hardening against the task at hand. "Let's get to work. Separate the bodies according to families. We need to make sure loved ones stay together," he whispered, choking on his words.

We both rose to our feet and looked at our brothers. Yoongi was seething in anger, Hoseok seemed completely unable to process the event, Jungkook was weeping onto Hoseok's shoulder, and Taehyung looked absolutely lost. Jimin was shaking as he approached Namjoon and I.

"Taehyung is no use to us right now. He needs to rest and heal so he can shift and get back to us sooner. I'll take him back to the clinic and return to help bury the dead. Do I have your permission, General?"

Namjoon looked at Jimin and nodded sadly. "Yes, Doctor Park, you have my permission. Keep a hand on him, though. I'm worried he might lash out." His last words were whispered and we all looked at Taehyung, still in his tiger form, eyes wide, and tail dropped. His leg still bandaged and splinted.

"Will do. If I have to sedate him to keep him in the clinic, I will." Jimin kept his jaw clenched and it looked painfully tight.

As the oldest of this entire group, I wanted to wrap every one of my brothers in my arms and let them sob their hearts out; help them process this in any way I could. I purposed to pay close attention to each and every one once this was over. They needed an outlet to keep from going insane and I would make sure they had it.

"Hyung," rasped Namjoon, his voice coarse and raw, "stay with me? Please?"

Since we were children together in Li's mock nursery, I had never heard or seen Namjoon look and sound so weak. It angered me that Li did this to him, to all of us, but especially Namjoon. He had been a loyal "son", a dutiful soldier, and a submissive test subject. Li had no right to flesh out his psychopathic desires on Namjoon.

"Of course, Joon. You never even have to ask," I said, placing a hand on the back of his neck and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "We will all stay by your side."

Namjoon walked over to his broken men, what was left of them, and breathed in deeply. "We can grieve later," he said calmly. "But for now, treat this like any other mission we've done. Shut off your mind. Can't risk you having a breakdown out there and getting us killed by one of Li's thugs."

My eyes drifted to the top of a nearby hill were Xander stood watching us. If he decided to attack us for some reason, we would be defenseless. Li had taken all of our weapons that we had raided from Jimin's private stash in the clinic and left us with nothing but our bare hands. Even in our hybrid forms, we were never a match for Xander. So we had to play it safe and just do our duty, quietly.