The Calling (Audiobook) (A Gundam Wing Fanfic Novel)

The Calling - Chapter 12

"Fumio!" gasped Wufei in a shocked tone, hastily crouching down and grabbing the boy's shoulder, "Fumio, are you alright?"

There was no response, Wufei called again, shaking his shoulder, but still with no success. "Heero! over here," he called, feeling his heart quicken.

The young fighting monk was kneeling on the ground, just staring blankly ahead, shivering feverishly, a combination of the cold and shock. Fumio's rain-soaked face was smeared with blood and dirt, as were his clothes; the white cotton pyjamas he'd been wearing in bed before his sudden compulsion to flee. His breathing was panicked; panting and trembling, and the look in his wide-open staring eyes was that of complete terror.

The boy was soaked through to the skin. Wufei, now feeling a mild sense of relief, quickly scanned the torch over Fumio's body to search for injuries.

"The blood had to come from somewhere," he thought to himself.

He didn't search for long before he noticed the sleeve of Fumio's left arm was red with blood. The thick liquid was trickling down his arm and dripping off his hand, forming a dark red puddle beneath him on the earthy forest floor. It looked serious.

Heero appeared and urgently, almost violently snapped away some of the intruding foliage.

"Fumio!" he gasped, dropping to his knees in front of the terrified boy. He quickly reached forwards and hugged him firmly, "it's okay, you're safe now, everything's going to be fine," he reassured him.

Oh hearing his brother's voice, Fumio seemed to snap out of his trance-like state. He looked straight at Heero as if suddenly waking from a nightmare. The look of terror increased on his face as he began to feel a huge sense of disorientation and panic.

"Heer, Heer! Heero!" he stammered, desperately needing to communicate, but he was shaking and trembling to the point where it was affecting his breathing too much, and it just made him start coughing.

"Shhh!" replied Heero, still holding him reassuringly, "Don't try to speak, just try to calm down, he reassured, trying to muster the most soothing voice he could.

Wufei stood up and pulled off his jersey. He gave it to Heero, instructing him to wrap it around the wound on Fumio's arm.  Heero complied as Wufei called it in on the radio.

"This is Wufei and Heero. We've found him!" 

When Heero had roughly bandaged the wound on Fumio's arm, he scooped him up in his arms and stood up, carrying the injured boy.

"Tell them we're heading back right now," he informed Wufei as he began carefully negotiating his way back through the undergrowth towards the road. "Tell Sally we could use the stretcher and we'll meet her on the way."

Within a few minutes, they'd arrived back at the mansion in the kitchen area. Fumio was quickly wrapped in a blanket and had been sat on the table where Sally proceeded to check the large wound on his right arm. Despite there being a huge sense of relief he'd been found, the rest of the group stood nearby, looking-on anxiously.

He was still panting and shivering badly, still feeling very disoriented and panicked, but he was putting on a brave face. As Sally unwrapped Wufei's blood-soaked jumper from the cut arm, she knew it wasn't going to be a pretty site. She got Noin to sit beside Fumio on the table and cradle his head against her shoulder, encouraging him to look away.

After examining and cleaning the wound up a little, Sally seemed to sigh with relief. "Well, it's a big cut, but thankfully you've missed the main artery and nerves," she reassured him loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Looks like you're going to be just fine Fumio," she smiled him one of her compassionate smiles. "I've got some special skin-stitching tape that will take good care of this. A couple of bandages and a warm bath, you'll be as good as new."