05-15-2014, 08:57 PM
Ren came to. Again. His teeth hurt from grinding them down against the pain. His world was dark, street lights and flames glowing and streaking across his vision. He was on his back, and the back of his head throbbed with new pain. He must have fallen back against the cement as he was trying to pull himself free.
Free... of the rubble. He turned his eyes down along his chest. His arms lay limp at his sides and his torn and bleeding torso ended where a massive slab of concrete wall had fallen. He could no longer feel his legs - he wondered if they were still attached.
For a third time, he moved his right hand, and it shook with nerves frayed, muscles slashed, dragging across glass and ash and tattered clothes. He found his ear and manually pressed the small device tucked inside. He felt something sharp against his fingertip, and something slick coating his ear. He couldn't hear from that ear, but the other heard a dull fizz. Jun would not be coming.
He coughed, and blood sprayed the night air above him. Above. There was a gaping hole in the building above. It was dark, with flames billowing out, like the mouth of hell...
There had been a window there. The building blurred, and rolling, searing pain threatened to take him again. Ren squeezed his eyes closed, bared down, and wheezed through the worst of it. He could feel the blood in his lungs, filling them slowly.
Something cutting. Glass. More darkness.
Voices. Tears, or blood, rolling cold down his cheeks. Nikolai... silence.
Beth. Sobbing - his own. The woman, talking, not Beth.
"H..h..hhh..." he couldn't seem to do more than breathe. He looked up, through redness, ringed in black. The woman, and the man. That man. Ren coughed blood down his chin. Hot and sticky. They killed her. The woman. They left the apartment, Ren had climbed in. That smell. Gas. A tiny flame ...
Ren stared blearily up at the approaching figures. He wanted to go back to Beth. "Hhh..hh.h.." Help.
Free... of the rubble. He turned his eyes down along his chest. His arms lay limp at his sides and his torn and bleeding torso ended where a massive slab of concrete wall had fallen. He could no longer feel his legs - he wondered if they were still attached.
For a third time, he moved his right hand, and it shook with nerves frayed, muscles slashed, dragging across glass and ash and tattered clothes. He found his ear and manually pressed the small device tucked inside. He felt something sharp against his fingertip, and something slick coating his ear. He couldn't hear from that ear, but the other heard a dull fizz. Jun would not be coming.
He coughed, and blood sprayed the night air above him. Above. There was a gaping hole in the building above. It was dark, with flames billowing out, like the mouth of hell...
There had been a window there. The building blurred, and rolling, searing pain threatened to take him again. Ren squeezed his eyes closed, bared down, and wheezed through the worst of it. He could feel the blood in his lungs, filling them slowly.
Something cutting. Glass. More darkness.
Voices. Tears, or blood, rolling cold down his cheeks. Nikolai... silence.
Beth. Sobbing - his own. The woman, talking, not Beth.
"H..h..hhh..." he couldn't seem to do more than breathe. He looked up, through redness, ringed in black. The woman, and the man. That man. Ren coughed blood down his chin. Hot and sticky. They killed her. The woman. They left the apartment, Ren had climbed in. That smell. Gas. A tiny flame ...
Ren stared blearily up at the approaching figures. He wanted to go back to Beth. "Hhh..hh.h.." Help.