The Garden of Heathen

Blame

Gally slowly came to, feeling a cool, damp cloth on this forehead and neck. There was a pillow under his head but he felt like he was still laying on the floor. His eyes finally fluttered open and he saw Gertie bent over him with a look of mild concern that cleared up when she saw he was awake.

"Hey! Our super hero lives!" She cheered.

He looked at her, confused at what she said and confused why Aussie wasn't there. He tried to sit up to look for her but Gertie firmly pressed her hand to his sternum, halting his movement. His muscles shook and ached but he didn't relax, he had to see she was ok.

"Just chill for a second, you're dehydrated," Gertie pushed on him to no avail, he continued to get up.

"If you're worried about Aussie, don't be," Gertie told him, grunting with the effort of trying to contain him.

He was on his feet now and they screamed in pain, something in the back of his right leg was tight and painful. He stepped toward the door even with Gertie using all her weight to push against his chest. Once he had the door open she grabbed his elbow and leaned back, but he just kept moving, dragging the girl along with him like she was nothing. He wouldn't lay a hand on her to stop her, she probably had a job to do and felt it was necessary to try and stop him, but he wasn't sure what he was doing was necessary.

He drug Gertie down the entire hallway despite her hushed protests that he should lie down and Aussie was fine. He got to the top of the stairs and went to take a step down, voices trailing up from the first level, and that's when Gertie braced herself with a foot on the banister and gave him a firm tug. It threw his balance off and the sharp pain up his leg caused him to stumble to the floor.

"Just sit here for a second, you stubborn snit," Gertie flicked his ear as she sat beside him on the top stair. "And be quiet."

He sighed and leaned against the wall, his head pounding, annoyed with everything at the moment. Gertie lightly hit his arm and pointed through the banister. He looked down and could see a large room completely crowded with girls. In the center was Aussie, her arms wrapped around a girl who was quietly sobbing. She stroked her hair and gently rocked her.

"That's the girl who saw it," Gertie whispered to him.

He flashed her a disbelieving look.
"She's alive?" He whispered back.

"You see her don't you?" Gertie came back sarcastically. "She came out completely hysterical and needed Aussie a little more than you did at the moment."

"Is she ok?" Gally asked after giving the little girl a sideways glare.

"She's hysterical-" she began to repeat but Gally cut in.

"I mean Aussie," he clarified.

She turned and gave him a funny look.
"Physically she's fine, thanks to you. Emotionally, not so much, also thanks to you and your dramatic arse. She was on top of you crying when I finally caught up to you- you should have seen yourself leaping up the stairs, it was downright inhuman. I had no clue what you were doing with Aussie over your shoulder screaming your name, everyone else panicking-"

Gertie kept rambling on but Gally couldn't follow her anymore, his head hurt too much. He rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his throbbing head in hands. What had he been thinking?

"Hey," Gertie was nudging him with her knee, ignoring the rule as much as he and Aussie did. "So what happened out there?"
He stared straight ahead for a moment, eyes squinting as he tried to remember it clearly.

"They were showing me the sign, World in catastrophe - killzone experiment whatever," he started in a hushed tone. His deep voice still carried and a few girls near the stairs looked up at them. "And then there was a scream- a terrible scream. And then there was an even worse scream. Joan told us to run... Aussie took the rope off her hand and told me run."