GB: Taken

Ch 13: Together Always

All Ray was aware of was darkness. All he could feel was pain. He was completely unaware of his external surroundings. The engineer drifted through the darkness of his mind, occasionally coming across bits and pieces of memories. He drifted in confusion for a few minutes before he felt a jerk in his right leg which roused him somewhat back to the conscious world. He had remembered reading that when a human body is lying still, the body will sometimes think it's dead and send signals, mostly to the leg muscles, to make sure it's still alive.

Which meant Ray was still alive.

Still not being able to move his injured left arm, he tapped the fingers on his right hand on the ground. He was shocked to find it was pavement like on the road. Ray could feel a firm pressure on his back as if he were laying down. His head was pounding, and his forehead felt sticky as if it had been covered in blood. He also swore that he could hear a car engine running in the background.

The heart of the Ghostbusters tried to remember what had happened. He remembered he, Peter, Egon, and Winston had made it to that county road they'd been looking. They saw a house in the distance and started to walk towards it, hoping to find someone willing to help them. Ray then remembered hearing what had sounded like a car heading towards them and then bright lights shone at them. The last thing he remembered seeing was were the guys' horrified faces before everything went black.

Ray felt his heart stop. The guys. Were they ok? Were they still alive? The engineer couldn't bear the thought of him being the only one out of his friends to survive this. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring at the pitch, black night sky. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the vehicle that had hit them a few feet from them with the headlights still on. He turned his head a bit more and saw Egon lying next to him with Peter lying to the left of the physicist. Blood ran down Egon's face and a trail of blood dripped from his lips.

Ray then slowly turned his head to the left and saw Winston lying next to him. He too had blood on his face and the bruise on his face had only gotten worse. Ray himself felt like he was dying. Well, he, and the guys, were in some way.

"...Pete...Spengs...Z..." Ray weakly called out.

"Ray..." Egon replied just as weakly as he opened his good eye.

"...They found us..." Ray whispered before coughing up blood.

"...How...?" Peter asked.

"I...don't...know..." Winston slowly replied.

Dread began to well up in the injured men. No one had been able to find them in time. They were going to die here. Alone, injured, and in the middle of nowhere with only the two men who wanted them dead.

"This is it..." Peter said as realization took hold of him, "We're...gonna...die here..." A tear slipped down the psychologist's face and mixed with the blood on the pavement.

"...At least...we're...together..." Winston said as he gasped for air.

Ray slowly moved his left hand towards Winston's hand. The soul of the Ghostbusters understood what Ray was doing and moved his hand towards Ray's. The two grasped each other's hands and held on for dear life. Ray then moved his right hand towards Egon who then moved his hand towards the engineer and locked his bruised fingers with Ray's bandaged hand. Egon then moved his right hand towards Peter who quickly took hold of the physicist's.

"Well...I guess...I'll see you...guys...on the other...side..." Peter said with a slight smile.

"And...I guess...it's for real...this time..." Egon weakly commented.

"...I love you guys..." Winston said as his vision blurred, "You guys...are more...than my friends. You guys are...my brothers..."

"We love you...too Z..." Ray replied as he faced the Marine.