26

Chapter 26

As his gaze fell upon the objects which had begun falling from above, Yuuri couldn't help but wonder what exactly were they falling for. From the looks of it, they didn't seem to be any ordinary items either, as they appeared almost to be metallic in nature. They definitely appeared heavy, judging by the weight and shape of them. Perhaps they were weapons of some sort. After all, why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of bringing down several objects from the very roof directly overhead and placing them atop the ground in the middle of the building?

As his thoughts raced through his head, Yuuri suddenly became aware of Victor who, who had taken hold of his elbow, was pulling him gently forward, silently urging him to start walking. After looking around and seeing that nobody was paying him much attention, the young Thai began to walk in the indicated direction, following in Victor's footsteps. The latter, however, didn't release his grip on his arm and Yuuri was forced to stop and turn around.

"Where are we going?", he asked softly.

"I don't know yet. But let us hurry, we cannot stay here much longer".

"But-"

Victor stopped him from speaking by putting a finger up to his lips and giving him a meaningful glance before nodding towards the corridor leading outside of the building. After understanding his meaning, the young blonde understood what he wanted to say and hurried along behind him, making their way through the corridors without meeting anybody. Once they reached the hallway outside the room, Victor pulled him into a side passageway and carefully pressed their backs against the wall. Without warning, a second later, they heard footsteps echoing loudly throughout the hallway. Yuuri stared warily at the person whose footsteps they had clearly heard moments ago, but as soon as he realised that it was merely the two guards they had encountered earlier on, he released a relieved breath, allowing Victor to lead him out of the hallway and through another doorway.

The group proceeded to walk through the passage and into a dark room in total silence. After waiting for a short while, Victor spoke up again, "We need to wait a little longer. We don't have time to run away." He paused for a second and continued. "But do be careful. That guy seemed pretty pissed off when he was chasing after us earlier on. Just keep your guard up." Yuuri nodded in response. While he was aware of Victor's warning, he didn't think that he would be overly scared of that man who appeared to be an officer of sorts. However, he also knew that the older man was still worried about him and thus decided not to make him worry any further.

As the group continued walking towards the centre of the building, Victor looked around the entire place and noticed how quiet and eerily peaceful everything seemed. It almost felt as if they were alone in this world. In the distance, however, he could hear shouts of pain, and after listening closely for a bit, he realised that it was probably meant for him and his friends, so he immediately stopped, gesturing for them to do the same. Everyone followed suit, until only Chris, Yuri, Minako and Phichit were left. When Yuuri glanced over at Yuri, however, he discovered that he too was completely silent; not a word had passed between his lips.

Glancing up in front of himself, Victor spotted a series of pipes which ran down both walls. Following along the pipes, he eventually found a metal ladder running along the wall on the right, leading up to what appeared to be the upper level of the building. With an encouraging smile, Victor nodded at Yuuri, signalling that he was ready to proceed up the ladder. Yuuri nodded back and smiled at the Russian before taking a step forward and lifting his leg, stepping onto the first rung of the ladder, but his movement was interrupted when he heard Yuri's loud voice ringing out across the room. "Hey!"

Yuuri turned around to face Yuri