The darkness lies calm. The night will bring the harsh truth. You cannot escape.
Just as Aubrey's mind wandered further, this time to the gripping cold, the bright red signal light by the gates began to flash; they were opening.
Aubrey felt glad that they were returning, but then a pinprick of fear pierced her heart; they were early...40 minutes early...
That didn't bode well, but worse, Nithriel wasn't leading the group. Aubrey's heart skipped a beat, and her mind started racing to conclusions. Anything could have happened to them; Nithriel could be dead.
But just as she felt like she was on the brink of tears, a body was carried in by the medic, helped by another Watchman, and following them was Nithriel, battered and bruised, but safe.
Aubrey felt like jumping for joy, but nobody was happy to see that 3 people were missing and the wounded boy was nearly dead.
____________________________________________________________
Once the poor kid, barely older than Aubrey, was rolled on his back, Nithriel grabbed the rifle from his squirming back, revealing a deep claw wound, something like the doing of a kitchen knife, that seemed to have gone through the space between the trigger guard and the body of the hacked-together gun, cleaving through the thin piece of metal on it's way out.
Nithriel didn't flinch when he suddenly twitched and arched his back, sending a small spurt of lukewarm warm blood spraying her maroon clothes. She wiped herself off with her sleeve, then combed the bystanders with her eyes. She pointed at three Watchmen, who had just emerged from inside the wall after hearing the ruckus, motioning for tem to grab what they could and come back. After that, she looked around again, but the only other people who had gathered were either townspeople or...Aubrey.
She looked her over; a little short, scrawny, and weak-stomached, Aubrey was a bad pick, even ignoring attachment. But...there was no other choice.
Nithriel tossed the shoddy weapon to Aubrey. She looked it over, "Why are you taking me?"
Nithriel didn't even respond. Aubrey scanned the pipe with a shaky hand and a pair of bloodshot eyes, "Where's the safety? How...where do I even reload this thing?"
Nithriel sighed in defeat, she wasn't even rifle trained. "Oh god, okay. Just, uh, take this..." She grabbed the revolver from the boy's holster, even though he was on the ground now, where people were hopelessly checking his pulse and trying to stuff the huge wound.
As Aubrey felt the cool wood of the grip slide into her hand, Nithriel whispered something, "Please...don't...die."
YOU ARE READING
A Frozen Kiss
Romance(This is pretty much deprecated, take a look at Out of the Dark, its reboot/successor) It's been a long time since most ruins from the ancients were beaten to rubble and ground down to dust, but much like the people it sought to destroy, the weapon...
