71

Chapter 86

Now that's all fine and dandy, but again, it's more like a long-term goal. So, and I don't mean to be repetitive by this, but, seriously, what now?
For about an hour I wander aimlessly about the destroyed path, trying to block out the mournful, heart-wrenching sobs and cries of the survivors as they pull lifeless family members from the wreckage. Normally I would hang with Coal, but he's over there with Glass, who, having been generally accepted as not a traitor, is being 'healed'. Glass used up the last of his actual medical supplies long ago, so he's ripped up his coat to make a make-shift bandage- or at least to stem the bleeding. Where we're going, hopefully there will be medicinal aids. Of course I'm not gonna spoil all the fun and tell you where we're headed, 'cause god knows something will go wrong.
There's another reason I avoid Coal, though. I'm amazed no one has noticed the red stain growing in my gut, how I can barely walk without wincing- Then again, maybe not so surprising. After all, they have their own problems. But I know Coal will notice the second I get near him, even while I constantly keep my hand pressed to the wound- That is, the hand that he didn't puncture with his claws, which I also keep hidden.
I hear the deafening, guttural roar behind me, followed by multiple screams. It goes a little something like this. "BLLLARRRRRRRRGGGGG!"
"Oh, good!" I say brightly, looking over to Coal to make sure he's noticed. "Ride's here!"
I dart to the giant hairy Beast (I really need a name for him- her... it...) and wave my hands at the gathering mob of survivors to stop screaming and prodding it with sticks like primitive beings making a discovery.
"It's good! He- It's safe! It won't hurt us!" I duck when a- Is that a sock?- Shoots over my head and smacks the Beast in the nose. It grumbles in annoyance and shakes the dirty article from it's snout.
"OY!" I spin to see Coal tackle a young man to the ground, a club clattering off the path. They grapple, each searching for the upper hand, then Coal gets his foot between him and the man's chest, forcing them apart. I blink, and he's pinned the man to the ground, calmly gripping both the latter's hands in his own, looking at me, politely waiting for me to continue. C'mon, you gotta love him.
I look back to the mob, as I've fondly grown to calling our friends, while they're looking expectantly between me and the Beast, like, 'what now!?'
"It's cool," I say persuasively, trying to act as calm as possible. I hear the click of a latch, and Glass hoists his medical case in the crook of his arm, joining the cluster. "Trust me."
I wait for the predictable to happen. 'Why should we trust you?' You know, the stereotypical reaction. Instead-
"Whatever." The guard whose hand I punctured shrugs away from the cluster, looking at me like he's wondering whether to eat me or put up with me.
"Seriously?" I raise an eyebrow, but decide I'll take what I get, then turn and leap twenty feet up onto the back of the crouching Beast.
The Beast rumbles in impatience, and, in one fluid lithe movement, Coal releases the young man, ducks away from the swipe of the fist, runs vertically up the front leg of the animal, leaping up when he loses momentum, flipping in the air and landing in a straddle on the creature's back behind me.
He groans in pain at the landing, and I crane my neck to look back at him, face drawn, taking deep, controlled breaths with his eyes closed, swinging one leg over and clenching his knees together.
"Mr. Smooth," I smirk, and he glares at me, so I find myself turning back to the audience.
Since they all seemed to be awed by Mr. Fantastic's acrobatic show (Come on, it wasn't that great) I feel I need to take things back into my own clawed hands.
"Well, if you're all waiting for a ladder, I hate to tell you- It ain't gonna happen, so you better get moving if you want to save the world."