Hey guys sorry bout the lack of updates...on this story anyway! I had a lovely case of 'okay...what do i do now!" but I'm good now, and I promise i will continue my updates quickly! This chap is short, and i'm sorry bout that, but I was meant to be in bed an hour ago, so...and once more, ignore any spelling mistakes!
Please read and review!
Oh, and by the way...I have to warn you, that this story will probably not have a happy ending...and sadly, you guys will not be able to sway me on that...when i get an idea for a story, I stick with it, no matter what anyone says...sorry! Please read and review!
I do not own friends/actors/characters...but...well, I dont know...something to do with Matt Perry!
Rachel stumbled.
She would have gone tumbling to the ground; would have landed alongside the dead bodies, but Chandler had a hold of her hand. She stared down at the man she had nearly fallen on. She had seen a couple of dead bodies before that day, but they had only been of her grandparents, who had died of old age. They had looked peaceful, as if they were only sleeping. The people that lay around their feet did not look peaceful. They did not look like they were only sleeping.
They looked like they had been slaughtered.
Like they had been running for their lives; trying to get away from an enemy that was relentless. Trying to run from the unstoppable.
The man she had nearly fallen on had no legs. Rachel was sure that if she looked around, she might have found his missing limbs, but she really didn't want to look. She didn't even want to look at the remaining part of him. Hell, she didn't want to look at any of it. All she wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed and never come out again.
But her home was gone. Her bed was gone. And she had to keep moving otherwise her life might leave as well. She didn't want to die. She didn't want her friends to die.
She didn't want anyone to die, but that had happened. The man at her feet had died, and she hated looking at his body.
She could have closed her eyes again; Chandler and Joey had suggested that the girls do that. They wanted to protect them; stop them from seeing the horrible sight that lay upon them. The girls had refused, insisting that the damage had already been done. That they had seen the damage already. They knew what it looked like, and there was no point in closing their eyes and pretending everything was okay.
Plus, Rachel didn't want the two boys to go through that by themselves. She didn't want them to have to worry about leading the girls along, making sure that they didn't trip over anything. It was better for everyone if they kept their eyes open. The boys – Chandler especially – had enough to worry about. Rachel was worried about Chandler, and she knew that if she was worried, then Monica must have been secretly panicking. Joey was probably overly concerned as well.
Chandler hadn't said anything, but he was tiring quickly. He was ready to crack; panic over the situation, and he was exhausted. Rachel could see all that by just looking at him. He had said that they wound on his shoulder was nothing; that they shouldn't be concerned about it, but Rachel knew that it was causing him a lot of pain. Not to mention the fact that she was sure he had lost a lot of blood. That was probably one of the reasons why he was tiring quickly; he wasn't just exhausted, he was being drained of his life force.
The man at her feet had already been depleted of his life force. Everyone who had been on the bridge during the attack had lost their life force. From the looks of it, everyone in the city had lost their life force. But Rachel couldn't see their bodies. She couldn't look at the other bodies on the bridge.
All she could look at was the man at her feet. The man had probably had a family. He was wearing a wedding ring, so he definitely had a wife. It was likely that he had also had children. Past that terrified expression, past the blood that covered his face, Rachel saw a man who had loved life; a man who had wanted to fulfil everything. A family man. She was sure that he would have had children.
But now he had nothing.
Not even his legs.
"Are you okay Rach?" Chandler's soft question pulled Rachel away from her thoughts of the man at her feet; pulled her away from the horror that lay in front of her. She slowly turned her head to face Chandler, desperate to look away from the man, but finding it almost impossible to do so.
"Yeah…" she whispered, looking at Chandler's haggard face. He looked as though he had aged 10 years in the last day, which seemed possible. Not in appearance, but in spirit. Chandler, always the joker, always the fun guy, always the person to turn to when you felt down. He was like a kid at times, something that Rachel adored about him. Although having a low self esteem, he had a zest for life that was hard to find in most people these days. Happiness danced in his eyes, showed in his smile, shone through in his voice. His jokes kept the group on their toes, and kept them from being depressed all the time. He had held the group together at many times; when they thought that things were getting worse, when they thought that the fights would go on forever, Chandler had been there. He had been there, with his dancing eyes, his knowing smirk, his sarcastic jokes. Most of all, he had simply been there.
Rachel had always depended on Chandler to break the ice, to make any situation all the more bearable. She knew he was trying as hard as possible to do that during this situation, and Rachel was grateful, but he was fighting a losing battle.
There was no knowing smirk, no sarcastic joke. There especially were no dancing eyes, which worried Rachel the most. His blue eyes had always been alive with laughter, alive with happiness, alive with the zest for life that he possessed. During all the hard times in his life, the break-ups, the fights, the family issues, they had sparkled.
But that sparkle was gone now; disappeared with the death of so many, ran like the blood that trickled down his chest.
It worried Rachel, but she knew that Monica worried more; so much more. As did Joey. The fiancé, the best friend. Compare them to Rachel, and she had nothing. She worried simply as a friend, as a little sister, but they worried so much more. She hated to think what was going through their minds at that moment.
"You sure?" Chandler pressed, his dull blue eyes studying her critically.
"I'm fine Chandler," she insisted, sighing as she turned away. "I-I just…never mind."
"What?" Monica urged, her voice soft.
"I just can't stop thinking…about everything, you know?" Rachel murmured. Joey smiled sadly.
"Yeah…we know," he whispered.
"Do you need a break?" Chandler asked, still studying her.
"No, I'm okay…I'm a bit tired, but aren't we all?" she laughed humourlessly. "We have to keep moving right? We must be nearly at the end of the bridge…right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Joey reassured her. Rachel nodded, smiling grimly at Chandler.
"Okay…then we keep moving," she said firmly. Chandler nodded slightly, then turned to Monica.
"Are you okay sweetie?"
"I'm fine Chandler…don't worry about us, we have to keep moving," Monica said softly. Chandler bit his lip, then nodded again.
"Let's go man," Joey said after a moment. Chandler shook his head slightly, then smiled grimly.
"Okay," he said distantly. Rachel frowned at Monica, who let out a small sigh.
They began to walk once more, Rachel stepping over the man at her feet. A tear trickled down her cheek as she thought of what he had lost. His wife, his supposed children, his life. Just like so many people that day, he had lost everything and more.
"You sure you're okay?" Joey asked her, spotting the tear running down her face. Rachel smiled sadly.
"No, I'm not okay Joey," she said softly, shaking her head. "It's pretty hard to be okay at this moment…but I'm trying. Like Mon said, we have to be."
Joey nodded, smiling down at her. The smile was forced, but Rachel was glad to see it. She suspected that she would be seeing few Joey Tribbiani smiles in the near future. She doubted that she would be seeing few smiles at all in the near future. There wasn't much to smile about.
They continued to walk, the silence looming over them like a bird looming over its prey. It was eerie, the silence. Although it wasn't completely silent. Rachel could still hear crashes in the distance, growing closer and closer with each noise. She wasn't sure if the crashes were more buildings falling to the ground, or the supposed aliens creating destruction. She really didn't want to even think about it. All she knew was that they had to get away from the noises, and that was why they had to keep moving. If they stopped for too long, there was a chance the crashes would catch up to them. She didn't want that.
"Look!" Monica exclaimed suddenly. "The end of the bridge! We're almost there!"
Rachel heard the excitement in her voice, something she heard when Monica won something, or when she talked about the upcoming wedding. She was glad to hear the tone back, although she found it depressing that it had returned simply to exclaim about the bridge ending. She knew that they didn't have much to be excited about that that moment, but it still depressed her.
"Oh, thank god," Rachel muttered under her breath. Chandler and Joey remained silent, and she could see that they were deep in thought.
They continued to walk, stepping over the bodies with the greatest of ease, none of them wanting to do any further damage to the deceased. Thankfully, there had been enough room to get past any car pileups that had followed the last, so there had been no more climbing for them. Only over the bodies. Rachel swallowed at the thought, but pushed it out of her mind.
They continued to walk, getting nearer and nearer to their goal with each step. She had no idea where they would go after getting off of the bridge, and at that moment she didn't care. Her only priority at that moment was her friend's safety and getting off of the bridge, the newly found graveyard. That, and the discovery of Ross and Phoebe. She worried about them like crazy, but also pushed that out of her mind. If she continued to think about them, she would start to think of all the bad things that could have happened to them. It was better to not think of them at all.
They continued to walk, and finally reached the last steps on the bridge, only mere feet away from being on actual land.
Rachel sensed what was about to happen, mere microseconds before it actually did. She felt the hand go limp in her own and saw his eyes flutter out the corner of her eye.
Chandler stumbled, but unlike Rachel's situation earlier, no one kept him from falling. His limp hand slipped easily from both Monica's and Rachel's grasp, and Rachel had barely enough time to cry out before he hit the ground, his body connecting to the asphalt with a heavy thud.
"Chandler!" Monica shrieked, dropping to the ground next to her fiancé. Rachel and Joey joined her, their faces showing their concern.
"Chan!" Joey yelled, grabbing his best friends arm.
"I'm okay," Chandler said drowsily, his eyes opening slightly. "I-I just…slipped…I guess."
"No you didn't, you collapsed," Rachel rebutted.
"Okay," Chandler murmured, his eyes sliding shut.
"No, no, no, sweetie, you have to stay awake," Monica insisted, panic overtaking her voice. Chandler let out a groan, but said nothing.
"It must be the blood loss," Rachel whispered, glancing at Monica's terrified face. She nodded, glancing at Chandler's injured shoulder.
"I-I just…need to rest for a second," Chandler insisted, finding his voice, although it was weak.
"Okay man, you rest for a minute, we'll just be over here," Joey soothed, then pulled the girls back, away from Chandler. "What are we going to do? We have to get out of here."
"I know," Rachel murmured. "Maybe…you could, like carry him to a car – one that goes of course, and we could just drive…and let him rest."
Joey nodded, then glanced at Monica. She ran a hand over her face, then nodded as well, her eyes teary.
"I-I should have checked his shoulder before," she whispered. Rachel shook her head.
"Don't say that Mon…this isn't your fault," she insisted.
"I should have checked it!" Monica exclaimed.
"He's going to be fine Mon, you can check it in the car…we just need to get out of here," Joey said softly. Monica nodded, glancing at her future husband. She opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by a gigantic crash, just like the ones that had been happening constantly. But this one was different. It wasn't far away, like the others.
This crash was so close to them that the group felt the ground shake. They stared at each other in horror.
"Yeah, we need to get out of here…now!" Joey yelled, jumping to his feet. He pulled the girls up then turned to his fallen friend.
"What was that?" Chandler asked drowsily as Joey grabbed him. He slung Chandler over his shoulders, causing his injured friend to cry out in pain.
"Sorry man, but we need to go…now," Joey gasped, glancing at the girls; checking to see if they were with them. Monica glanced up at Chandler, then sighed.
"We going?" Chandler murmured, his eyes fluttering once more. Monica nodded at him.
"Yeah sweetie, we're going," she whispered. There was an explosion, and Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight away the sense of impending doom. She grabbed Monica's hand and they moved forward, following Joey and Chandler.
They ran, towards the crashes. There was nothing behind them but bridge and bodies, so they ran; hoping that they wouldn't encounter whatever was creating the crashes. Rachel squeezed Monica's hand, and kept her eyes shut, trusting her friend to lead the way. She didn't want to see; didn't want to realise what was happening. All she wanted to do was go home, but that wasn't happening. None of them could go home.
They ran.