It's Laia who wakes first. The girl has been shielded by the sturdy right side of the bunk and by Quinn's body. She can barely breathe, the smoke and dust in the air so thick she starts to cough. She can't move, she can't see, she can't breathe.
Laia tries to squirm, to move, out of Quinn's lack grasp. Quinn's eyes are shut and her head is tucked under John's arm. Laia manages to free her arm and snakes it up to the nurse's shoulder. She shakes it as much as she can manage.
"Quinn… Quinn wake up please," she chokes out. Tears are streaming down her face now, clearing a path through the dirt caked on her cheeks.
Quinn isn't responsive so Laia tries again, and again. Each time, her voice rises in volume. "Quinn! Please wake up!"
Another deep rumble is heard, followed by a crack. Laia catches her breath and waits for the rest of the ceiling to crumble in and crush them, but nothing happens. Maybe it's all done? All the damage is done?
But oh is she wrong.
Another crack brings down the wall on the opposite side of them. The grey stone comes crashing down to the floor in a deafening explosion. Laia tries to scream, but her throat is so raw no noise comes out. She practically folds herself back into Quinn's side, praying the dust will settle, the noise will end and she's not lying beside two dead bodies.
Laia loses track of how long she stays huddled silently beside Quinn. She only dares peek out when the dust eventually settles and the pieces of the concrete wall have stopped raining down on them. She can barely see the woman at this point, but she tries one more desperate time to wake up Quinn. She clears her throat then shouts as loudly as she can.
"QUINN!"
It works that time. Quinn's eyelid flutter open and she coughs before she reaches forward and touches Laia's forehead.
"Are you okay?" she murmurs. Laia nods in response and Quinn cradles the girl's cheek in her hand before starting to look around their surroundings. The sirens have stopped, but the red lights still gleam. There's dust and rubble surrounding the bunk, but the bunk has not collapse on them yet- amazingly. Quinn tries to move, but her body is pinned and the movement makes her head spin. Her head is hazy and heavy and she can barely think straight. She remembers a few things. Laia, the ceiling crumbling in on them… John…
"John," she breathes. She manages to turn on her back and look over at him. His arm was still covering her head, while the other was over her waist. She looks at him but his eyes are closed and there's blood running down his forehead and down his scar. He's breathing heavily, but still breathing. That's all that matters. He's still alive.
She has to get them out of here. The smoke is horrible for Laia's delicate lungs and John could be seriously injured. She manages to turn back on her stomach, and examines the rubble surrounding the bunk. There's rocks everywhere, but then she notices one little opening. It's at the foot of bed. It's about three feet, jagged edges with pieces of metal sticking out of the corners. She can manage; she has to.
"Laia, I need you to listen. I'm going to try and get out. I'll get you out after. Trust me, okay, honey?" she says. Laia nods and then Quinn starts pushing herself down. She has to maneuverer herself out of John's arms, then carefully slide through his and Laia's bodies.
"Quinn..." Laia groans. She's trembling, Quinn can feel her leg hitting against her own shoulder. Quinn looks up, offers as best a smile as she can manage, and reaches forward to clutch the girl's leg.
"It's okay, Laia. Just trust me, I'll get you out." She says as she slides herself further down. She's reached the hole now, and carefully slips her feet out. She manages to do that without getting it caught on anything, so she then pulls herself forward using a rusty piece of metal as a handle. She's half way out. Her head is spinning, but she forces herself to get out. The room is still red, with dust making the air so thick she has trouble seeing and her eyes burn. The walls have been knocked down in most of the living quarters. She's amazed the one stayed up for them; John must be the luckiest man in the world. He's cheated death so many times.
Quinn turns around and reaches forward in the hole, reaching for Laia. The girl understands and takes her hand instantly. Quinn slides her through, careful of the metal and sharp edges. She's so thankful that this hole was big enough for them to fit through. But she knows John couldn't fit and he has yet to wake up. Once Laia is out, Quinn sits her on a rock and instructs her to stay still. Then she turns her attention to the rocks surrounding the bunk. She begins pulling at the smaller ones first. Luckily, most of the rocks are small as they shattered from their fall. She desperately grabs them, throwing them behind her.
Eventually she pulls enough away to see his face. His scarred, dirty and bloodied face. She holds her finger under his nose to check for breath and nearly cries with relief when she feels it.
"Hold on, hold on for me okay?" she whispers as she continues pushing the rocks away. She knows he can't hear her, but perhaps she did it to comfort herself more than him.
As she pushes and pulls on the rocks, blood is smeared across the stone. Her hands are torn and bleeding at this point. It takes one, two, three more shoves before she finally manages to clear the rocks away to make a hole big enough for John to fit through. She's heaving and gasping, her head still spinning and her body feels like it's on fire. But she has to get him out. The air raid has stopped, and she can hear voices starting to surface from the opening bunkers. Thank God.
She reaches in and grabs his shoulders. She breathes in and out slowly, trying to steady her spinning head; but to no avail- the spinning is relentless. But she has to bring him out. She braces one foot against a large rock, then with a big heave she wretches John's body through the hole. She manages to get his head and up to his shoulders out. Before trying pulling the rest of him out, she checks his head. The blood is flowing freely down his face and she checks the wound on his head. A rock, with a pipe sticking out of it, had fallen during the cave in and smashed his head. His skull isn't deformed, there's no sunken areas or bone exposed. She's praying it's only a minor injury but she knows she needs to stop the bleeding. She needs some sort of fabric to use for a bandage, but she sees none. So she does the only thing she can think of, she rips off her shirt and rolls it tightly, making a slender column shape.
"Laia, come here, I need your help," she says as she begins cleaning the gash. There's a few pieces of debris in his skin, and she's too nervous to dig them out without a sterile environment. She carefully sponges away the blood and Laia has crawled over and is looking at her curiously with her large hazel eyes. Quinn hands the child the rolled shirt and carefully turns John's head to the side. "I need you to press the shirt against his cut, okay? And push hard on it. I'm going to try and get him out, but I need you to keep pushing hard on his cut no matter what." Quinn instructs. Laia nods and does as she's told, applying as much pressure as her little body can manage on the man's gash. Quinn grabs his shoulders and pulls once, twice, three times. She manages to heave the large man out of the hole and she, Laia and John go tumbling backwards into a pile of rocks.
Quinn can feel her head collide with the sharp edge of a jagged pipe, and darkness explodes across her vision and ringing begins in her ears. And she can feel something warm spreading across her scalp. She reaches up with shaking fingers and touches her head, and when she draws them back she sees the dark liquid on her fingertips.
"Fuck," she mumbles. The wound appears to be quite shallow but it's going to bleed and hurt like a bitch, but she'll survive. She's got John out and Laia's safe and she's praying the med bay is still standing.
Shit.
The med bay… Aaron. Is he okay? Did he make it to a bunker? What if he was crushed like they almost were? However, her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps and yells from the hallway.
"Is there anyone here!?" A worried voice yells. She knows that voice, it's the sound of young eighteen year old Zackery Laker. Zackery, the young gentle giant. He's 6'7 and still holding on to his innocent, childlike mind.
"Zackery! Over here!" she shouts in response. She hears the footsteps break into a run and moments later the 6'7 boy comes skidding to a stop in the doorway. He looks at John then at Quinn, his mouth hanging open and looking like he desperately needs an explanation.
"You're going to need help me carry him out, okay? Just keep your calm. He's fine, the bleeding will stop-"
"You're bleeding too!" Zackery screeches and points at her head.
"Calm down! Head wounds always bleed. We'll be okay, just help me." She says calmly. Zackery nods and carefully steps over the rocks until he's beside them. He takes one of John's arms, Quinn takes the other and then they scramble to their feet with the large man draped over them.
"Laia, hold on to my waist." Quinn instructs. The small girl nods and scurries over to her and wraps her arm around Quinn's waist. But the girl's foot catches on a rock and she almost falls, but uses Quinn to steady herself. In turn, Quinn stumbles in to a stop ad before she can say anything to the girl, John makes a croaking noise. She looks down and uses her other hand to lift his chin up. His eyes are open and unfocused, but he's awake. His eyes finally lock on to hers and his forehead falls against hers.
"Quinn…" he sighs.
"You're okay, John. You're okay now," She whispers. Laia is still holding on to her waist tightly and Zackery looks relieved to see his leader awake. John picks up his feet and steadies himself for a moment. "Can you walk?" Quinn asks him.
"Of course," he answers gruffly. He stands, shakes off Zackery's hand and begins walking- albeit very wobbly- down the hallway. Quinn swings around and scoops up Laia, who immediately buries her head in the crook of Quinn's neck. She runs her hand through her hair and kisses her head. She hurries and catches up with Zackery and pulls him to a stop.
"Zackery, do you know if we lost anyone?" she whispers. She doesn't want Laia to hear his response.
The boy looks at her, tears forming in his eyes, and nods. "Bunker 302, on this floor. It caved in. We haven't been able to get in yet." he whispers in response. Quinn feels her breath catch in her throat.
Bunker 302; where Laia's mother, brother and sister were hiding.
Quinn looks at Laia, then Zackery and then finally John, who has stopped and is looking back at her too.
He's the leader, Zackery is the gentle giant, she's the nurse and Laia… The little orphan.
Hello everyone! Big thanks to all of you who have been reading so far x hope you guys are enjoying it :) so I guess I got the air raid idea from the Mockingjay movie, the soundtrack for the air raid scene is so good! Let me know what you guys think of the chapter :)