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Rick stepped forward. "Here, I'll–"
Eric became a blur, pulling Rick's gun out of its holster and shooting him in the ribs, point blank. Rick let out a surprised huff and fell to the ground, his eyes wide and staring.
Eric, not caring that the sharpened air had sliced open his arm, turned and leveled the weapon at Tanrial. He was breathing heavily, gritting his teeth. "Let. Me. Go."
(aright gtg ^^)
“You’ll have to shoot me first.” Tanrial replied, even though she knew he would do so. Yet the air around him closed in, pressing against his skin harder and harder.
He didn't seem to care. His finger tightened on the trigger.
"Wait!"
Eric's head whipped around and he stared at the exit. Standing alone in the doorway, looking distraught, was Leila. At some point very recently, she'd been crying.
Eric's gun wavered. "Leila….?"
Slowly, she started walking across the room towards him. The air grew heavy as she approached, muting the sound of her hesitant footsteps. A single blue butterfly drifted out of the shadows above them.
"Leila?" Eric struggled to turn around. "What are you–"
She kept coming, her eyes glistening. "I'm sorry, Eric," she whispered.
Eric had just enough time to realize what was going on before the smell of lilies overpowered him and he lost consciousness, slumping to the floor.
Tanrial relaxed almost immediately, dropping the air and making them disappear. She dropped to her knees, trying to catch her breath, “Thanks Leila…”
She nodded, but looked like she was about to cry again. Turning, she ran back out of the room.
Meanwhile, Mike had limped over to Rick and knelt down next to him. "He's badly hurt. We gotta get him out of here and find a doctor. Tanrial, you okay?"
Tanrial nodded, standing slowly and walks over to Mike and Rick, “Yeah, just tired,” She swallowed, “What about you? You alright?”
"Not so great. I can't move my arm and it hurts like crazy. But I can walk fine." Mike peered at the exit. "Where'd Leila go? I thought she'd have the other kids with her."
Tanrial shrugged, “No clue. I didn’t see anyone else with her. Maybe they’re out in the hallway with Wren.” She put Rick’s arm around her shoulders to help him stand.
He was barely conscious, and Mike had to support his other side so he could stand properly. "Let's find them and then come back for Ryker and these two." He looked worried as they started towards the exit. "I haven't heard anything from Dane or the others on the surface for a while. This whole fight might have cost us too much time."
Tanrial nodded, limping slightly as they helped Rick out the room, “Hopefully everything has gone well. James should have finished planting the bombs by now.”
(Merry Christmas, by the way, hope you're doing well ^^)
"Yeah, and hopefully he's rounded up the staff and gotten them out like we asked."
They stepped out into the hall just in time to see a procession climbing the stairs. Wren was in the lead, carefully holding a baby in her arms. Behind her came the other children, all looking a little shell-shocked and teary. Behind them was a cluster of wary-looking teens and adults in prison clothes–the people from the containment ward.
Keith and a couple of the other kids ran into the office to retrieve Ryker and their older siblings. Wren made sure everyone was there, then gave Tanrial a nod. "We got everyone from the lower levels."
"Who's that?" Mike asked, nodding at the baby.
"Remember those tanks I showed you with embryos in them? Apparently their growth was accelerated somehow, because they're already a few months old. We got them too." She gestured to the other kids, some of whom were also carrying babies wrapped in blankets. "So, looks like you guys took a beating."
(Merry Christmas to you, too. Hope everything went well today)
Tanrial nodded with the very slight roll of her eyes, “We found Ryker and uh… Jackie and Eric weren’t so happy to see us,” She tried her best for a smile but it didn’t work too well.
(It did! ^^ We had no snow, but it was still a really good one)
Wren returned the nod. "I'm not surprised."
Mike adjusted his grip on Rick slightly. "I don't supposed any of you have medical training, or a first aid kit or something?"
"We've got something even better." Wren turned and beckoned to one of the boys. "Peter, c'mere."
Peter approached and, with a very serious expression, leaned forward to examine Rick's bullet wound. "Can you lay him down for a second?"
Mike frowned. "We're kind of in a hurry, kid…"
"This will save time, trust me," Wren put in. "Don't worry, Pete's very quick."
(That’s good to hear :)
Tanrial frowned a little but eventually nodded, resting Rick down on the floor with Mike’s help, “So… I’m guessing you can have healing powers of some sort?”
"Well, kinda," Peter explained. "Can I have a clean knife, please? Dad won't let me carry one."
Mike pulled out his second knife from its sheath and handed it over. Peter rolled up his sleeve, then carefully made a thin cut on his wrist. His blood welled up instantly, revealing itself to be flecked with white. Holding his arm just above Rick's injury, he allowed his blood to drip down and Mix with Rick's own.
Mike watched carefully. "How does that work?"
"It's pretty simple," Peter said calmly. "I have an O negative blood type, so it's compatible with anything. The white flecks are a genetic tag so I can tell my blood from my patient's. And my blood is special because it has–"
Just then Rick grunted and started to sit up. "Wow, that feels better. What's goin' on?"
Peter held him down firmly. "Don't move yet, it's just painkiller. Your wound hasn't healed enough yet, so just lie still. Anyway, like I was saying, my blood can naturally mute pain, destroy bacteria, and create fast scabs when it's exposed to the open air. It also hyper-activates cell regeneration for its first fifteen cycles through the body, which is roughly three minutes. With that jump-start, the wound should fully close in a half-hour or so. After that my blood starts to degenerate so that it doesn't, y'know, cause cancer tumors."
Rick took this in and blinked several times, gingerly touching his injury. By now it was completely covered in a scab that looked something like pink crystal. "Well, I'll be. Thanks, kid."
Peter smiled. "No problem. Does anyone else have major injuries I need to take care of?"
Tanrial glanced at her leg before shaking her head, “Nothing that needs to be taken care if now,” She looked to Mike, “You?”
Mike hesitated, staring at Peter with some of his old wariness. "How long does your blood stay in your patient's system? Are there side-effects?"
"The only side-effect is the higher risk of injury in the first few minutes because you can't feel pain anymore and might overextend yourself. Like I said, my blood has to be regenerated every few minutes or it all breaks down. The last traces of it should be gone in eight hours, or twelve if you're being particular about it."
"I am." Mike thought it over, then sighed. "Fine. I want this arm to heal right and I'll probably need it again tonight. Go ahead."
Peter nodded and gave him the same treatment as Rick. As he was finishing up, the retrieval group returned with Ryker, Eric and Jackie.
"We've got them," Keith said tersely. "Let's get out of here."
“Good idea,” Tanrial said, a,ready making a move towards the door, “This place is gonna blow at any minute.”
The group set off again, making their way up the stairs and through the medical floor. Rick seemed much better by now and was able to walk without help, although he still carried himself a bit gingerly. Mike led them through the corridors to the hallways they'd broken into and cautiously went ahead to investigate. "All clear," he called softly. "Sun's coming up. I think the battle's over, but it's hard to tell from here."
“Why don’t we go up a few at a time,” Tanrial said quietly, making her way over towards Mike, “Me you and Rick first, that way we can get rid of any stragglers from the other side if any, and then the others can follow.”
Mike nodded. "Are you up for that, Rick?"
"Think so," Rick replied, checking the ammo in his gun.
"Okay. Let's spread out when we're up there just in case." Turning, he started to climb out of the hole and over the motionless digging arm of the bulldozer.
Tanrial followed shortly after, heading in the opposite direction to where Mike went. She could just see James over the other side of the battlefield, caught up in some stressful conversation.
The immediate area was deserted, but the trees looked burnt and torn, and the bulldozer was pock-marked with bullet holes. Strangely, there were a few small drifts of snow here and there, as well as frost coating the rocks and dirt. A few straggling shapes could be seen in the distance, moving through the trees.
Mike scanned the area sharply and frowned when he saw James. "There's one of our guys….wonder where the others got to? The villagers were supposed to be here waiting to take the kids away, but I don't see them."
“Something must have gone wrong then,” Tanrial frowned herself, “Where’s Dane and all that? I don’t see them, either.”