Nightshift 35: General Store - Ruins

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

(From here.)


Bridget managed to get through the doorway and over to a wall before his legs finally gave out. He felt cold, and knew that shock was setting in. Sliding down the wall, the staff falling to the floor with a clatter, he had enough presense of mind to sheild Kagura as best he could from his fall.

Back to the wall, breath sharp and shallow, he reached up and fumbled with the buttons on his coat, managing enough that the small pig would be able to escape. "Sorry... Miss Sohma." He'dlost too much blood now... All he had to do though was hold on until daylight. He could do that... right?

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[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

Bridget blinked open his eyes and looked up at an unfamilair face. He tried to pull his thoughts together into something resembling order before speaking.

"D...dog," he managed between chattering teeth and shallow breaths. "S-sev...ered a..artery." He knew the name of the artery, but it just wouldn't come. Radial. That was it. He couldremember from all the lessons and all the drill from Roger.

"Sohma..." His right hand twtiched in the direction of the door. He couldn't worry about himself now... right. Kagura was still out there.

If only he could think.

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/476479.html)]]

Kagura hurried all the way back from the church, ignoring the pain in her feet as she stepped on rocks and old branches and limped on her bad leg. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and that scary old church as she could.

She thundered back into the broken down store, only to promptly drop the cardboard box of blankets when she saw another person in the room. Taking her staff firmly in hand, she pointed it at the offender, a frown crossing her usually sweet features. "You... you get away from him!" she shouted, trying to look as fierce as she could in only an over-sized, half-buttoned dress shirt and brandishing what had once been a broom stick.

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

The injured one's response had confirmed his initial suspicions. He was about to ask more questions when he heard loud footsteps, heavy breathing, and something being dropped to the floor. Bourne turned towards the intruder, a half-naked teenage girl wielding some sort of stick and looking very angry.

It would be almost comical if it wasn't so depressing. He could have easily - easily! - gotten the stick from the girl and proceeded to incapacitate her, if he had felt threatened. Luckily for her, he had no desire to fight a child. Memories of that night aboard Wombosi's boat sprang unbidden to his mind, and he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ward off a headache. He didn't need to have a fit, not right now. It probably wouldn't endear him to the injured one's caretaker.

Him. So the teenager propped up against the wall was a boy. "Relax," he said to the staff-wielding girl, but did as he was bidden, rising from his crouch and raising his hands. "He says a dog severed an artery. Do you have any medical supplies in that box?" Usually, he wouldn't be bothered with trying to help out, but if these two had escaped from the Institute as well, maybe they could help each other.

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

When Kagura ran in, Bridget had to take a moment to process what,exactly, he was seeing. ... He gave up after a few brief moments and tried instead to sit up a bit.

Bad idea. His vision whited out for a moment and he couldn't get any air into his lungs at all. It seemed like he was going to just die right there... but then it cleared again and his breathing kicked back in.

Bad. Moving bad. "M..Mi-iss S-sohmm....a..."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Kagura did relax when she saw that one, the person was human and not some gross monster, and two, that he was trying to help them. Her tough facade began to crack almost instantly, replaced by the quiet, shy, and helpless girl she tried to be. "I... We did get attacked. I tried to sew up the wounds, to stop the bleeding, but I don't know if I did it right."

There were still a couple rolls of bandages left after she'd wrapped up Bridget's arms and her own leg. "They're over there," she pointed, picking up the box again and carrying it over, though she was still wary of the new person. "I found some blankets, and some alcohol, I thought might be good for cleaning out the wound. I saw it in a movie once."

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

"It'll help to disinfect the wound, if nothing else," Bourne said, rifling through the box to find the alcohol. It wasn't the most sterile stuff in the world - God only knew how long it had been sitting out - but it was what they had to work with, and he wasn't about to complain. After all, he'd had to make do with worse.

At the girl's comment about seeing it in a movie once, he almost smirked, and almost reprimanded her. This was real life, not some Hollywood fantasy. Of course she knew that - it was why she was so scared, after all. She didn't know if her friend was going to be all right. But at least this time the moviemakers had gotten it right. "Looks like you didn't do a bad job," he said as he inspected the hasty suturing. He'd definitely seen worse, and it would probably make her feel better, hearing praise for her handiwork. Under any other circumstances, he wasn't too concerned with others' feelings, but the girl couldn't be more than twenty, and scared half to death by what had happened to her and her companion. "Start disinfecting," he said, taking a small wad of bandages and pouring alcohol on it, making a rudimentary cleaning pad. "Then we can start to get him wrapped up in the blankets."

The key here was moving quickly. He didn't want some dogs to be the end of these two, and damned if he was just going to leave them here.

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

He couldn't get enough air. He didn't know how long he would be able to even stay in the half-consious state before drifting off into that void that wanted to swallow him whole.

And he was so cold.

Bridget was only partially aware of what was going on at this point. The bandages on his arm had started to soak through, seeping past the sutures faster once the cloth was removed. His face, pale naturally, had gone ashen. He wondered in a distant way what would happen to him if he died here. Would he wake up at home? Wake up in the hospital again? Or would he die for real?

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Kagura glanced worriedly between Bridget and the new person, watching as Bridget's condition seemed to grow worse and worse. When the man told her she'd done an alright job of helping Bridget, her face broke into a haphazard smile and tears dotted the edge of her vision. Really? She'd helped him?

When she was assigned to the new task, she went about it with diligence, carefully dabbing at the boy's wounds with her makeshift disinfectant. It didn't look like the bleeding had stopped yet though, which seemed cause for worry. "Is.. is he going to be okay?" she asked in a tiny, shy voice.

[brokenweapon.livejournal.com]

Bourne had his doubts about the boy's condition. If they were back in the hospital, then maybe he could help more...! But the hospital was exactly what they were trying to escape. It was ironic that the only place nearby that could help save the boy was the one place they'd all run from.

"I don't know," he said to the girl, and took a few of the blankets from the box. "We need to get him warmed up." Their patient looked to be slipping into an even worse state. If he could survive the night, odds were he would recover. But were they going to wait for days while he got better, hiding out in the ruins? When their escape was discovered, this would likely be one of the first places the staff searched. God knew what they would do to him then. He'd already stolen a car, and escape on top of that would likely get him drugged up to the moon and stuck in some sort of solitary confinement for far too long.

If he stayed, he would be caught. If he left...he'd be leaving them both to the mercy of the elements. Perhaps Jason Bourne, Treadstone asset, would have abandoned them. But Jason Bourne, fugitive, had some humanity left to him. He made his decision, and began to tuck the blankets around the boy. If the staff came for them, he would fight to give the other two a chance to get away.

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

"B-be f-f-f-ine." Bridget fought to open eyes that didn't seem to want to work. "D-da-ay s-soon-n."

How funny it would be if they'd managed to get outside the doctor's influence and he woke up out here. He'd have to tell Kagura to leave him, as much as he didn't want to. With this other man here, she could still get out. "Y-you s-s-should g-g-go."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Warmed up? Kagura finished cleaning the wounds and helped re-wrap his arms, but when it came to warming Bridget up, she couldn't do much to help. She was getting pretty cold herself. At least she'd managed to find some of those blankets. She pulled them from her box and handed them to the man, looking a bit unsure of herself.

"I... I can't pick him up," she shook her head, afraid to get too close to him again. All she needed was another person to find out about her secret.

When Bridget spoke, she immediately objected. "You're not fine! I'm not going to leave you!" After the last two nights, she fully expected to wind up in her own bed in the morning and she wasn't going to risk Bridget's life just to test that theory.