The Pale Cage

Chapter 9

Raeburn pulled away from the fire and sagged to the ground. The smoke cleared from his lungs, but the flames latched onto his arms. He cried, the fire swept across his flesh. His body and damaged muscles shivered in pain. The fire forced him upright. Then sound made it back to him, it pushed through the static of anguish.

 “Montmore, hang on, we've got you.”

 Upon opening his eyes, Raeburn was flooded with relief, it was not the fire that held him, but Roangy. She had taken his right side, while her brother held onto Raeburn's left arm. The movement and pain that blazed from his shoulder warred with his relief.

“Just hold on, we've got a lot of stairs to get up.” Roanby told him. Roanby and Roangy dragged Raeburn up the stairs, each step sent waves of pain and swirls of nausea.

“River--” He muttered. Roangy and Roanby didn't stop, they did not hesitate this time.

“What?” Roanby huffed.

“I can't leave without her.” Raeburn rasped.

“Oh yes you can.” Roanby disagreed.

Raeburn's eyes wandered aimlessly and out of control. He was impressed by Roangy and Roanby's strength as they took on all of his weight and pulled him up the stairs. The further up they made it, the more the smoke thinned out.

“I didn't do it, Roangy.” Raeburn whispered. “It wasn't me.”

“What...Wasn't?” Roangy was short of breath.

“I didn't start the fire.” Raeburn caught the faint smile that played on her lips. Raeburn's sense of time was missing, but it seemed to take forever to get up those god forsaken stairs. When they finally made it to the landing and through the exit door, Roangy produced a wheelchair from a cupboard. Raeburn slouched into the chair. He grimaced when he bumped his hip bone, where they had extracted a sample of his bone marrow. Roanby pushed Raeburn down a hall with Roangy running along side. The next set of doors they went through led to the outside world.

It was the dead of winter, in the middle of the night and Raeburn was in his pants. He knew he was running a fever, everything felt too hot. He had thought the fire was devouring him, when in fact it was the touch of Roangy and Roanby's hands, rescuing him. But now that he was out in the cold he shuddered. Flurries tangled in his sweat drenched hair. Roangy wrapped a blanket around him when they had put some distance between them and the facility. The soft cotton rubbed against his many open wounds and he moaned, but he was thankful for the blanket. Roangy pushed Raeburn into an alley way. Raeburn's teeth clattered in the cold and holding his head up was difficult. A blazing heat seared into his cheek and he found that he had closed his eyes. He opened them to see Roangy looking at him, her hand holding his face. Her sorrow was clear. Her eyes were filled with regret.

“I am so sorry, I know you hurt, but you have to hang on...”

Raeburn tried to nod, “Okay.” he whispered.

“We don't have a lot of time, but I need to dress your wounds.”

“Okay.” Raeburn breathed. He leaned back when Roangy moved her hand away, he was too weak to hold it up himself. Roangy went to work with bandaging him up and covering the many exposed gaps in his flesh. She had just managed to finish his torso when a vehicle pulled up. Raeburn's breath hitched. “Roangy–!” Roangy didn't bother to look up, she was working on a wound on his left leg. “Someone's-” He was beginning to panic, but out of the driver's seat appeared Roanby.

“Aiisha, we don't have time for that, they would have put it out by now, and they will notice...”

“We can't leave these exposed.” Roangy didn't look up from her work.