Put back together

54. May Humanity drown in Heaven's Tears

Warning: Blood, Injury and Dead Bodies

Roman was pretty sure that he was going to murder the next person who made a sound. The sound of his own footsteps on the muddy path was pissing him off and if anybody tried to talk to him he would lose it.

It was getting dark.

It was evening.

It was fucking evening and they had been walking through ice cold rain for hours without a pause because where could they make a pause?
Everywhere was fucking flooded!

Patton sneezed and Roman nearly snapped at him.

The bandages around his arm were soaked and scrubbed against the stitches. He tried to keep the arm as still as possible.
If the wound ripped open out here in the middle of nowhere he'd might as well just cut the stupid fucking thing off.

Logan stopped abruptly and Roman crashed into his back.

"Don't fucking do that!" he snapped.

Logan ignored him.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Roman yelled. At the same time, he felt like bursting out in tears.

"There's a house," Logan said numbly. "I can see lights down there. Fire lights."

"Really?" Patton asked with what would probably have been excitement if he wasn't as exhausted as he was.

"How far?" Emile asked, squinting in the direction Logan was looking in but not able to make out anything.

"Maybe a kilometer? Not far," Logan started walking again and the other three followed him, desperate for rest.

Patton sneezed again.

Roman's legs burned but somehow he had gotten to a point where standing still hurt worse than walking. And now he even had an actual goal to head towards.

He just hoped that the bread wasn't completely soaked in his bag. At least the soup was probably fine.

His foot slipped on some wet leaves and he barely caught himself before landing face first in the dirt.

After a while he could finally see the lights Logan had mentioned.

"Are we sure those aren't fairy lights?" Emile asked, clearly out of breath. "Or something else like that?"

Roman cursed under his breath. He hadn't even thought about that but it was more than likely.

Logan shook his head.

"It's a house. I'm sure of it."

"Thank the gods," Roman heard Patton mutter and silently agreed.

The house was big and dark. The overgrown garden framed by a fence of metal spikes.

Usually it would have probably creeped Roman out and he'd stayed away but right now he couldn't really bring himself to care all that much.
The roof looked waterproof and there was light inside and that was all that mattered.

The four of them stumbled through the garden gate and up the few steps to the door.

Logan knocked twice.

The small canopy shielded them off mostly and Roman tried to wipe down his face. It didn't work since both his face and his hand were slick with water but at least he succeeded in pushing the wet hair out of his eyes.

The door opened slightly to a small old woman, with long white hair framing her face.
There were small wrinkles around her eyes from smiling.

"Well, that's an unusual site at this time of day," she commented letting her deep blue eyes wander over the men. "What brings you to my door?"