The Rising Dawn

Chapter Thirty-One - Into the Fire

Nika held Aono up, his good arm looped around her shoulders. He seemed dazed, only half conscious, lost in a private world of pain and misery.

 The stump of his arm was swaddled in rags. Nika hoped it would suffice for now until somebody could make a better alternative. She hoped the bleeding would stop. She hoped she hadn’t killed him.

  Every second that passed since bringing down that knife had brought a fresh wave of guilt. The desperation was fading slightly, the fear that she would never release him evaporating. She was left with only her own actions in the harsh glow of the real world. They were bad actions.

  They staggered along a corridor, all too aware of the noise increasing, the thunder of footsteps and the scrape of weapons. Nika was exhausted, the high adrenalin of that brief flight long past. Her tired, beaten body was calling in its list of complaints.

 Fuya came charging down towards them, eyes wild and bloodshot. She was sobbing as she ran and she collided with Nika, throwing her arms around her and holding on for dear life. Nika let Aono slip to the ground to hold her back.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” Nika wracked her brains for comforting things to say. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?”

“Tricks…Tricks…oh, Nika, she…oh,” Fuya wept helplessly.

“Get a grip,” Nika said, not unkindly. “Think about where we are.”

Fuya gulped, pushing aside the gummy tears.

“Tricks,” she managed. “On the wall. I found a way out. She was on the wall. They shot her. They shot her.”

“I see.”

“I didn’t look away,” Fuya mumbled, as if that made it somehow better. “I didn’t look away.”

“It’s alright,” Nika tried for a soothing tone. “Where is this way out?”

“Can’t go there,” Fuya wiped her nose. “There are guards all along. Who do you think shot her?”

Nika winced. “Damn.”

“We’ll find another way,” Fuya nodded. “What’s…what’s wrong with Aono?”

“Beaten, imprisoned, chained to a wall, left to the torments of his own mind,” Nika’s voice was clipped and clinical. “He is also suffering from blood loss because I cut off his hand.”

Fuya blanched. “I….tell me later.”

Nika let her go and pulled Aono back upright, taking as much of his weight as she could across her shoulders.

“Come on,” she gritted her teeth. “We have to get out.”

It was slow going whilst Aono drifted between conscious and unconscious. Voices and footsteps drew nearer and nearer. Neither sister had the strength to move faster.

 They climbed stairs rhythmically, on the basis that somewhere above there had to be a door. After a while, Fuya took one of Aono’s arms around her neck and they carried him together, his head lolling, blood starting to stain the rag bandages.

“It’s a kitchen,” Fuya said, dully, as they entered a room.

“Thank god,” Nika sighed in relief.  “Get him off our shoulders, Fuya. We can get out of here.”

They carefully lowered Aono to the floor. He shifted slightly, moaning softly. His eyes fluttered like butterflies. Nika’s stomach twisted.

“Now,” she began to walk round the room, examining the walls and cupboards. “Where is it?”