The Death Test

An alarm went off at 3 a.m. that morning, reporting multiple intruders and a fire; unfortunately, he had been stationed away from the main house just before his test the next day. It didn't help that he was in a new environment, but he had to get out and help as much as possible. Through the blinking light, Daehuyn came across a door, probably his ticket out of there.

But when he kicked it open, the door flew back at him, sending him flying into the opposite wall. The fire was from this particular room and he had no way of putting it out. A little bit of smoke had managed to get into his lungs, but apart from that, it was relatively fine. The fire was so great but because the door was closed shut, it had that backfired reaction. Daehuyn tied his white shirt over his nose and carefully looked inside the fire-engulfed room to see if there was anyone inside. When he was sure no one was there, he moved to the next floor below.

Daehuyn jogged through the hall trying to save energy in case he needed it or if he came across the intruders, but he didn't have to go far to find them. Just as he turned the corner to the next hall, someone jumped out behind him, pushing him straight to the ground. Daehuyn felt a sharp pain behind his head, slowly shook that away, and tried to stand up. He looked at the three men in black in front of him, who were sure to be ready to fight him.

"Who are you people and how did you get in here?" Daehuyn asked as per protocol, but they didn't answer. Instead, they moved in on him slowly.

The smoke alarm went off like a bell in a boxing ring. Both Daehuyn and the intruder rushed towards each other, meeting in front of the staircase leading to the next floor. The first man swung a punch at Daehuyn, which he easily dodged. The other two went behind him, surrounding him on all sides.

The light above them swung over, then turned off and on. Daehuyn moved first, immediately after the light went off, attacking the two behind him. He punched the one on his right and when the other tried to react, he dodged, dropping to the ground and sweeping him off his feet.

The way he moved with speed between the three without allowing them to jump on him together, the fight seemed like it had lasted a good 30 minutes, but only 30 seconds had gone by. Daehuyn stood up, fixing his jacket, crossing over the three unconscious men on the floor. Just as he was about to advance, Daehuyn heard a spine-chilling scream that echoed down the entire building. It was coming from the opposite direction from where Daehuyn had fought the men. He dashed down the hall to where he heard the scream come from.

Getting into the corner Daehuyn found another knocked-down door. What if it was another faint? What if he could kick open the door and the room exploded again? Daehuyn considered this carefully, given that he had very little time to save whoever was in that room. Daehuyn hurriedly looked around him for something he could use to blow open the door slightly. Through the blinking lights, Daehuyn spotted an emergency ax. With his elbow, he broke through the glass and retrieved the ax.

He aimed at the door nob, creating a hole around it, and once he was sure there was no smoke in the room, he kicked the remaining part of the door open. Daehuyn stood by the door to first make sure that this wasn't a trap, and when he didn't notice anything out of place, he proceeded forward.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Daehuyn called out, carefully scouting the area. He heard a stifling from the only closet in the room, "Hello?" Daehuyn called coming closer, he pulled the door open and the one crying for help jumped out at him.

Daehyun held her hands as she struggled. He understood that she was scared and trying to defend herself, but the major question now was how did she ever get here in the first place? Was she a victim of kidnap? Or was she part of the plan with the intruders? But asking himself these questions wouldn't help anyone, so he decided to ask her instead.

Daehyun continued to push in front of him wearing only a revealing short gown torn in different places, heavy earrings and makeup, no shoes, and an expensive-looking bracelet. Daehyun looked down at the scared figure in front of him. He tried moving her back into the closet even as she struggled,

"Calm down please, I'm not here to hurt you," Daehyun said, but she kept on struggling. Daehuyn considered two opinions, which were: taking time to convince him of his good intentions or the second option, which was to make her go lights out because he couldn't carry her if she moved a lot, she would end up slowing him down and it would be difficult to escape the fire.

So Daehuyn chose the latter, and after a little more struggling, Daehuyn pinched between her collarbones, and in an instant, the lady was passed out on his shoulder. He threw his jacket over her and his back so he could move as fast as possible. He picked her up and started his descent down the stairs.

He tightened the white shirt around his face and shifted the lady properly against his back before using the last burst of energy he had to get them both out of the building. He also thought about the intruders he had left earlier. He needed to secure them too, but when he got to where the fight took place earlier, they were nowhere to be found. That was a mistake on his path.

He carried the girl down all the flights of stairs, keeping an ear out in case there was anyone else trapped in the building. The fire wasn't spreading much but the smoke was. Daehuyn adjusted the jacket over the girl's head so she wouldn't inhale too much smoke. It was a 4-story building and the fire was on the second floor, where he was posted. At 4:37 in the morning, Daehuyn sprung out of the building just before one of the rooms there exploded.

Daehuyn watched in horror He was not sure what to do, whether to go in and look for more survivors or to try and put out the fire, but first things first, he needed to get help. It was obvious he couldn't handle all this alone. No matter how he analyzed it, he needed help. He took the lady on his back a considerable distance before checking if she was still alive. There was a problem. She wasn't breathing.

He put his hand under her nose to make sure, then he checked her pulse. It was very slow, almost as if her body was about to give up. Daehuyn thought quickly, fire? fire? They must have covered something on the topic, Daehuyn thought. Then it came to him. He looked at the lady and knew exactly what to do. He wasn't sure if help was going to come or not, but he needed to at least put the lady out of danger.

He intertwined his left hand behind the right and placed it in the middle of her chest and then slowly began to push down. He remembered he had learned emergency CPR in case of a fire, but this was the first time he practiced on a human being. He pushed down about five times before pinching her nose and blowing air into her lungs. He did this repeatedly till the lady took a big breath of air. Daehuyn stumbled back, tired but relieved that at least she was out of danger.

As he sat there on the ground, there was an eruption of cheers and rounds of applause. He looked around, seeing the other guards chuckling and cheering at the same time. Daehuyn was confused till he saw Yeonseul and Soyoung coming out of the crowd together, both clapping and smiling proudly, and that was when it hit Daehuyn. He had just taken his test to be a guard.

Daehuyn lay on the ground flat, tired, exhausted, and sleep-deprived. He wasn't even up for a celebration or whatever the others had planned. All he wanted to do was take a nice warm bath and get a good rest. Besides, the way things are done here is so awkward, getting angry or pissed over it was just an utter waste of time.

Yeonseul stood over Daehuyn's panting body on the ground with a smile, "Welcome Kim Daehuyn. From this moment on, you are officially a member of the Moon House security team." Everyone cheered till they noticed something odd.

Daehuyn had fallen asleep.