The Boy from the Bunker - Season 8

Episode Seven, Part 7:

Episode Seven, Part 7:
Life Support

I had a feeling so peculiar; 
this pain wouldn't be for evermore. 

Kodiak continued to wheel Elara on the bed down the hall, directing Alec on every turn he should make, mumbling some sort of prayer out loud that the wouldn't run into any Neptunum guards on their way. He knew he was the only one in possession of a weapon and didn't know if he'd be able to protect Alec and Elara if their lives were both resting on the line.

"Hold up, this is a stairway," Alec said, hesitating as he opened the doorway. "How are you gonna get her down? Is there another route?"

"I have to carry her," Kodiak said, already setting the brakes on the medic bed and beginning to carefully shift Elara off of the surface. He was almost too lost in the sensation of having her in his arms again to pay attention to the crumbling state of their world, but he managed to pull his thoughts into line.

"Go down two levels and take the door. That's the quickest path," Kodiak instructed, trying his best not to stumble down the stairs in his panic. He was relieved to finally clear the floor they were on, knowing that the passage to the vessel ships was just on the other side of the ship, and all they needed to do was make it through the level without being stopped.

They were running through the corridors, passing several bodies of Neptunum guards on the floor - no doubt the result of a savage attack from Basilisk, when all of a sudden the ship's floor began to shake beneath them. In the abruptness, Kodiak almost lost hold of Elara, completely unprepared for the solid ground that his feet were on, to tremble.

"What was that?" Alec asked, turning around to face him. Kodiak could see that there were years of fear built up inside of him but that he was trying his hardest to keep it all in, clearly realising that with the state Elara seemed to be in, Kodiak would have been just as afraid as him.

"An explosion probably," Kodiak said, taking a moment to catch his breath now that they had come to a stop. "There's all sorts of chemicals in this place from the trials to how we power the ship... If someone's firing up there, they could have hit the wrong thing; brought the entire ceiling down. It sounds like it was on one of the higher levels - maybe on the upper deck," he suggested, trying to alleviate Alec's immediate fear. "We're almost by the vessels. Just keep following the hall and we should be there in two minutes-"

"Kodiak-"

"Everyone's waiting for us there and once I get you and Elara on one of the vessels, I'll go back for Xander-"

"Kodiak!?"

"What?" Kodiak exhaled, wondering what could be more important than what he was saying.

"Your friend's starting to wake up."

Kodiak's eyes widened in recognition, immediately glancing down and adjusting his hold on Elara so he could see her face, but it was evident she didn't have enough strength to hold her head up. She was limp in his arms, her head falling back past his arms, but her eyes were open a little - seeming to flicker around with what energy she was holding onto, tying to make sense of what was happening.

"I've got you, Ell," Kodiak whispered, squeezing his fingers around her legs as they slumped over his arms. "I'm getting you out of this place."

"Keep running?" Alec spoke up, assuming that was still the plan.

"Yeah," he breathed out. "Run like hell."

Without a second thought, they continued their route through the ship, still flinching at every distant noise they could hear from above, neither allowing themselves to imagine how close the danger was growing to them. For all they knew, within a matter of minutes the entire ship could start to collapse and drag them all into the fiery flames or water's depths, and they sure hadn't made it to where they were only to end up perishing on the damned ship.