A Gentle Touch [UNDER REVISION]

War

When Haley woke up a second time, she felt even worse. Every muscle, every bone, every joint - her body screamed for her not to move. Consequently, she woke quickly and with a full awareness of what happened before she blacked out. The pounding in her shoulder was all she needed to remember that Koba, her mate, had come to kill her and had shot her with one of the human weapons. Along with the pain, she felt a tightness wrapped around the area, which filled her with an unease when she saw not a single person looming over her to finish bandaging her up. Studying the patch up, the material was still lose, and the rest of the roll dangled over the side of the bed. Haley, for the life of her, could not think what stopped them, but with operation tools still full of blood on the bedside table and a needleless IV abandoned beside the bed, she knew it had to have been something urgent. Haley's loathing of doctors ran deep, so she didn't exactly mind them not being there, but as every inch of her frame vibrated with pain, she really wished they would have, at least, doused her with painkillers. Doctors - unexpectedly, Haley felt her mind turning a mile a minute again, her eyes growing wide as the memory of a loud crack rang in her ears. Ellie.

If the crack hadn't been a memory, Haley likely wouldn't have been able to hear it over the incessant ringing and screaming in her ears, and as the sound seemed to grow louder, it was a wonder how she could even think. However, she couldn't be bothered about the annoying sound as worry swelled inside of her. One of the last things that she remembers seeing was the sight of Ellie's small figure crashing against the wall before not moving at all.

What happened to her? Was she alright? Did she survive? - Haley's mind whirred with these questions as she slowly forced her body back up, biting into her cheek to try and distract her nerves from their protests. Blood thundered under the skin where Koba had budded her temple with the back of the gun and she did her best to ignore it when she moved her legs over the side of the withered mattress. Stiffly, she searched her surroundings. She looked for any sign or clue that Ellie had been there, tending to her wounds, but she couldn't find anything. She looked and looked and looked, but fear only festered.

Soon enough, with the pain, the pounding in her head, the lack of hope, and the loud noises in her ears, unbearable frustration begun to boil in Haley to the point where she couldn't help but snap.

"Damn it," Haley cursed, jiggling her pinky in her ear, "I'm trying to think."

With everything jumbled together, it felt as if her own body was against her having at least one shred of good news, and when Haley noticed that the crashes and yells of chaos weren't going away, the dread grew heavier inside of her. She was starting to realize the truth and she wished she hadn't. Desperate for it to work now, Haley tilted her head, hissing from compressing her burns in the crook of her neck, and hit herself upside the head, as if expecting the sound to fall out of her ear. Of course, it didn't. If anything, trying to clear up her ears, the roaring got worse. Unwillingly, Haley accepted the sound wasn't in her head at all. It had to have been real, she knew and felt her dark brown eyes shift to the exit at the other end of the room.

Haley barely registered the pain as she creaked to her feet and tied another white sheet around her chest. With all her focus and eyes glued to the doorknob, she slowly limped towards the door in complete silence. The exit loomed like the gates to hell, and yet she approached it willingly, and eventually, held its handle in her small hand.

It was completely different to when she opened the door before; the waft of outside air that hit her body was hot and filthy and smelled sickeningly of iron. The air itself seemed lit in an orange glow, flickering in the cornea of Haley's brown eyes. It was like fire itself was nipping at her skin in contrast to the freezing medical room behind her, and as if they had been frozen by the cold, Haley felt the warmth jolt pain back to every one of her nerve. She quickly locked her burnt arm to her side as a reflex, and just in time before she was thrown back by a fierce blow. Haley only realized she had been holding her breath when the wind was knocked out of her by an explosion down the hall, sending her crashing back onto the tiled floor as echoing screams echoed through the building. For a moment, it was like she had woken from another sleep, with the world spinning and her ears ringing, but she knew better thanks to the chilling voices cutting through the deafening noise.