Chapter Eleven
A touch. Light as a feather, whispering warm chills shiver through him. Soft skin against rough. Reaching up, ever so careful, pulling it to his cheek. Fingers intertwine, hear her gasp at the sensation.
"Shhhh..."
Twisting, pressing palm to palm, gaze locked with the glowing eyes behind the glass. Down her shoulder, caress the blade and the nape of her neck. Travel to her waist, pulling her tight against him, suit and uniform fabric rustle together.
"Garrus... I don't want this to end."
Naked fingers clasp, two and two, and two and two are everything.
Boom
Turn away from the window. It's easier that way. One step. The longest he will ever take. Feet don't want to move, takes every bit of strength to move an inch. Almost turn, almost look, almost…
Walk away.
BOOM
Take the shot finger starts to squeeze line up the no it can't it it's an illusion it can't be Shepard
BOOM
"Garrus... I don't want
BOOM
Garrus sits bolt upright, looking around franticly. Dust falls around him, he coughs and rubs his forehead. His hand comes away coated in blue. He coughs again. "Damn. Any survivors?"
"We're fine!" says Chakwas from the back of the Mako. "Open the doors!"
Garrus hits the door control and unbuckles, sliding out of his harness. The inside of the Mako seems more or less intact. Pausing to pick up his gun, he scrambles for the door behind Chakwas and Jacob.
Outside is pandemonium. Smoke and dust fill the air, with gunfire spluttering and echoing randomly throughout the room. Garrus pushes through the fug, searching for Shepard and the ground team. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Jacob and the doctor moving to secure the doorway. A stream of pebbles falls, and Garrus dives out of the way, narrowly avoiding a chunk of falling cement.
A shadowy form moves ahead of him. Garrus draws closer and sees it is Shepard. He calls out to him. "Commander! Are you alright?"
Shepard doesn't hear him. Garrus reaches out, grabbing the commander by the shoulder. "Shepard!"
The man spins around, eyes unseeing, and shoves him away. Garrus stumbles, flings out an arm to steady himself, and feels a bullet smash into his shields. His armored hand flies up, striking Shepard, and they both fall in a tangle. Garrus tries to get up, and is suddenly looking into the face of a Batarian. The alien levels his gun at Garrus.
Garrus's eyes widen, and in that fraction of a second time seems to slow down. A single thought swims through his head. Tali. I'm sorry.
There is a sudden yell and crack of bone, and doctor Chakwas appears behind the fallen Batarian, massaging her arm. She looks down at Garrus and offers him a hand. "Nasty brutes. I see you've found John."
Garrus takes the proffered hand and gets to his feet. "He's unconscious. Can you get him into the Mako?"
Chakwas is already bending down, lifting Shepard up under his armpits. "Not by myself I can't! Taylor!"
Jacob steps through the smoke with Jack in tow.
"Here," says Chakwas. "Help me get him up."
Jacob lends a shoulder, lifting Shepard between the two of them while Jack casts a biotic shield over the doorway. Shouts come from outside, and shots dissolve as they hit the barrier.
"Haul ass, people," yells Jack. "I'm getting sick of this!"
Garrus looks around, waving his arm to clear the smoke. Was that everybody? A glint of light catches his eye. Garrus steps towards it, pushing aside a fallen beam. Black metal, half covered by debris, shines through the dust. Garrus frowns, then his eyes widen in recognition. The geth!
He scrambles to the pile, pushes off chunks of concrete. A curved, flash-light shaped head appears, and with a grunt of exertion Garrus shifts the last of the rubble off the stricken machine. It raises an arm feebly, trying to push itself up, and Garrus's mind is suddenly full of the smell of burning, the sickening crunch of steel spikes through human bodies, the screams of civilians as they are gunned down by faceless murderers. He shrinks back unconsciously, drawing away from the wounded monster before him. How many worlds have the geth destroyed, how many lives have been lost to their emotionless conquests, innocent men and woman killed or worse, re-purposed into soulless husks…
And Garrus looks the geth straight in its glowing eye, and feels it see him, see through him to the revulsion and anger burning in his heart, and the geth slowly lowers its outstretched hand. It turns away, eye dimming, and Garrus hates himself, and hates the machine for making him, and he grabs its hand and pulls it to its feet.
"That everyone?" asks Jack from her spot by the doorway.
"Yeah," says Garrus as he and Legion stride out of the smoke. "Looks like Shepard was-"
"Do you see the words 'I care' written on my forehead?" she screams. "Now get in the fucking truck!"
Garrus gets in.
Jack raises her arms higher, trembling with exertion, and with a tremendous cry throws the barrier out past the doorway, knocking soldiers back like nine-pins. Without a look back, she dashes for the Mako.
Garrus buckles himself in again, the doors seal, and he guns the engines. The Mako shakes, wheels trying to get a grip on the uneven ground. Garrus twists around in his seat. "Jacob! There's still some wall left!"
Jacob nods, needing no further urging, and climbs into the turret. Garrus takes hold of the stick, rolls it in his hand, calculating. The tree tops will present a problem. They're how many feet up, forty? Fifty?
"Ready!" shouts Jacob from the turret.
Garrus closes his fingers around the stick. He closes his eyes and offers a brief prayer to Akiha, spirit of warriors, and then after consideration, another one to Sera, spirit of desperation. "Fire!"
The wall explodes. Garrus jams the throttle down to full. The engines roar. The tires throw up plumes of smoke. Batarian soldiers charge into the remains of the room. Shots ricochet off the Mako's armored chassis. Garrus flicks off the stabilization and hits the jump jets, and as the back tires lift the front tires make contact, and pull.
With a scream of rubber and tormented engines, the Mako flies out of the destroyed room. Everything seems to slow down. The Mako hangs in midair for the briefest millisecond, wheels turning lazily over nothing. Garrus catches a glimpse of green leaves below, feels weightlessness as the vehicle begins to fall, then time snaps back.
The building behind the Mako blossoms in a giant fireball. The back of Garrus's seat slams into him, knocking him breathless as the vehicle shoots forward on the shockwave, tail end rising, and the forest is gone into a streak of black. The front tires hit something, the back flies up, falls, and the Mako skids sideways in a wide arc. Through the windscreen Garrus sees a framed rectangle of forest speeding by, shrinking closed, and the Mako crashes to a stop against something hard. There's a kind of muffled slam, and the view of the forest is gone. Garrus sits still, waiting for the world to stop spinning and make sense. In the back of the Mako, someone retches.
"Oh, gross!" says Jack in a disgusted tone.
"Srry," mumbles Jacob.
Garrus touches his face carefully, checking to make sure everything's where it should be. The world seems to have gotten itself under control, but no sense is forthcoming.
Then the speaker on the dashboard crackles. All eyes in the cabin are instantly trained on it.
"Hellooo?" it says.
"Joker?" says Garrus tentatively.
"You're in there? I got you?"
Garrus peers out the window. The familiar shapes of the Normandy's hangar surround them. "Yes," he says. "Yes, it seems that you do."
There's silence for a moment.
"Garrus?" says Joker's voice.
"Yes?"
"That. Was FUCKING AWESOME!"