Resist

28

Hurrying up the hill away from the river, we kept a constant watch out for more of our unnamed enemy. Jack seemed to have a twitch because of how often he checked over his shoulder and my neck would be cramped later for checking above, making sure no one was descending upon us from the air. No one could fly in the city above the rooftops except The X for fear of being shot out of the sky but we still didn't know if it was them or someone else after us.

Will's energy was leaving him quickly as the blood seeped through the bandages. He was wilting like a flower in the summer drought of the city, slowly relying more and more on James' help as we hurried along.

"Jack, can you help Will for a bit?" James asked, turning to look over his shoulder.

Jack complied and moved ahead to support the wounded boy and James dropped back by me to continue watching our backs.

The half hour walk down to the river was only twenty minutes on the way back as we half power walked and half jogged, trying to make ourselves scarce and out of sight along the way.

"Almost there," Jack told Will who seemed to have lost some form of his consciousness, groggily moving along. All our walking and running had not allowed the slash in his leg to begin scab at all and the blood loss was beginning to be too much for his body.

Sweeping around the corner into the back alley of the hotel, James ran ahead, holding the door for Jack and Will to go through.

I swept my gaze around the alley, making sure we had not been followed but we had not seen any evidence of our attackers since Jack and James had fought those men off in the street by the river.

"C'mon Essie," James called, still waiting at the door for me to go through too. I turned to him and smiled, reassured that we had come home alone, and walked through the held door.

Inside, Jack and Will had already moved past the kitchen and into the dining room, hurriedly moving towards the hall and then assumably the infirmary afterwards. James and I traipsed after them, shocking the few women who still occupied the kitchen after lunch.

"What happened?" someone exclaimed, seeing the four of us go past. Then Sicily was at my shoulder, flour on her shirt and her arms wet up to the elbows from dishes.

"We were attacked," James explained quickly, stopping to face his girlfriend and recount the story. I kept moving, wanting to know if Will was okay and knowing that Eden could possibly use my help in the infirmary.

When I pushed through the large door into the hospital wing, Jack was already settling Will into a bed. His teeth were gritted in pain as Jack gently lifted his hurt leg onto the bed, sliding a pillow beneath it. Eden rushed over with a bowl of warm water and rag, setting them on the bed side table before settling next to Will. She removed my hasty bandage and then used the cloth to wipe away the dripping and smeared blood in order to properly see the wound.

Jack stepped away, knowing our friend was safe in Eden's hands. That's when he spotted me by the door and he moved to me quickly. Holding me at arms length, he surveyed my again like on the street. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, stooping to peer into my eyes for honesty.

"Yes Jack, I'm fine. They only got Will with the crossbow." He pulled me into a rough hug then, resting his cheek on my hair.

We stood like that for a moment and then I pulled away, running a thumb over the split skin of his cheek. "You're okay too, right?" I seemed to just assume Jack would be fine in a fight, his skill with a sword was immense, but I also needed to double check to settle my own mind.

"Yes, just battered and bruised," he told me.

The door clicked open behind us then and we both turned to see James come in, followed by Sicily who seemed to be insistent on getting him to come in. "Come here you, Eden needs to look at that."