Blood: 15

Junon

As soon as the chopper landed Evan marched Rose to Junon branch medical bay. He had to stop himself hurling abuse at her for being so stupid and stubborn, insisting on using her own leg to get there when it would have been far more sensible to call for assistance. Stupid girl. Ultimately it was up to her, he supposed. She didn't complain when he took her arm to help her up the stairs out of the lobby.

He found it hard to keep a straight head, the whirlwind of things he had seen walking down the street from the airport enough to churn his stomach into burning knots. The people had gone berserk, smashing cars and looting stores. Low level materia had been strewn across the street outside the bar, and crates of fruit had been dragged outside and overturned. He thanked his lucky stars nobody had tried to take him and Rose on.

Junon branch was almost as much of a mess, the statue in the lobby plastered in paint and bullet holes. SOLDIER had cleared out and the employees were nowhere to be seen. "Evan." Rose collapsed to her knees, holding onto the metal banister, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"That's pain, Rose." He told her. "If you need to be sick, let it go. It'll do you good." She said nothing further, her hand over her mouth as she stared at the floor, just waiting. Evan glanced up the stairs, drumming his fingers against the guard rail. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Hurry back. I don't want to be on my own too long."

Upstairs the corridor walls were covered in profanity and pro AVALANCHE slogans. Somebody had been over enthusiastic with their spray paint. None of that bothered Evan, nothing more than a passing observation of its being there to be made. His problem lay with the office doors. They had been closed and locked. Thankfully his access code worked. That meant the remaining executives back at Midgar had yet to instigate operation "Clean Sweep". Once they did nothing would work properly.

He had to look at it in a positive light. Either Scarlet, Heidegger, Reeve, Hojo and Palmer were all dead, or the situation at Midgar HQ wasn't as bad as it had appeared. For the executives' sake, it had better be the latter.

Inside, the office was intact. All the computers were untouched, a few of them still on, the screens flickering in the darkness. All in all it was quite eerie. Evan set his mind on the task at hand. Rose needed attention. He made for the medical bay.

Thankfully his code worked there also, the door sliding open with an inviting ping. At last, something familiar. He stepped inside. "Freeze!" He snapped round, reflexively going for his Winchester, amending that action, slowly raising his hands into the air. A woman stood at one of the examination tables, blood smeared up her bare arms and all over her apron, a man lying unconscious on the table in front of her, a pair of forceps jutting out of the hole in his chest. She held a shotgun, aimed directly at Evan's head. "What are you doing here?"

As calmly as he could, Evan assessed the situation. She was about his age, her hands trembling as she held the gun. Even so, she seemed quite calm; more angry than anything else, possibly because he had interrupted a life saving operation she appeared to be in the middle of. He frowned, seeing that she wore standard Shinra nurse's uniform.

"My name is Evan Reilly." He introduced himself, "I'm with the Turks." Slowly but surely, he brought one of his arms down and reached inside his jacket, pulling out his ID card and sliding it across the floor to her feet. She picked it up, examining it closely for what seemed like an age, one eye and a shotgun on him.

"All right." She said at last, lowering her gun, "I believe you. I'm nurse Shirley Brann, you can call me Miss or nurse Brann."

"Thank you."

Shirley said nothing more on the subject, tossing her gun onto the nearest chair and getting back to work. "What's the situation?" She asked suddenly, looking up and fixing Evan with her sharp blue eyes.

"Looting and general madness."

"Nothing's changed then."

Evan rubbed his arm, tearing his eyes away from her patient and grounding them on the blood spotted white floor tiles. "I have one of my colleagues with me. We came here after the Weapon attack on Midgar-"

"There was a Weapon attack on Midgar?" She butted in, snapping a piece of cotton between her teeth and threading it through a needle, "That's news to me."

Evan frowned, not convinced that cotton would really work as an internal stitch, but she knew best. "My colleague was injured. I brought her here for treatment."

"Join the queue."

"She needs attention as soon as possible." He pressed, "She has lost a lot of blood and is going into shock."

"Is she walking wounded?"

"Yes."

"Then she can wait." Evan's all too audible sigh annoyed Shirley, the woman looking up at him and barking, "I'm busy. If she's not half dead then she's all right."

"That's ridiculous-"

"Welcome to Junon. There's antiseptic and thread in that cabinet over there. Now bring her up and see what you can do."

---------

He found Rose where he had left her, the poor girl having lost her battle with her guts. "I'm sorry, Evan." She apologised as he helped her up. "I made a mess."

"Sick cleans up, Rose." He assured her, ducking under her arm and supporting her up the stairs.

"Is anybody alive in here?"

"A few people."

She stumbled, Evan shaking his head and picking her up. She had been hopping on one leg, it was about time it gave out. The blood coming from her boot worried him, what could only be described as strange smelling juice accompanying it.

"How many's a few?"

"You, me and a bad tempered nurse."

"That's it?"

He shook his head. "I think there's some bed ridden people too, I didn't really make it priority to count. There was a shotgun pointed at my head." Rose said nothing in response, falling unconscious, her head lolling against his shoulder. "Please God, let Tessi be all right."

Rose was getting heavy by the time he made it to the medical bay. Shirley was still working on her chest wound patient when he walked in, Rose in his arms. She looked up briefly, a needle in her teeth, "That her?" Evan nodded his answer. The nurse looked at her a moment, raising her eyebrows and going back to work. "Shame. She would have been pretty."

"She was." Evan tore his eyes away from the gaping wound on Rose's face, taking her over to one of the beds and lying her down. Straightening, he rubbed the small of his back, looking along the line of beds. There were only four in total, two of them already occupied. One was a mess, the sheets stained with blood, the man lying in it almost completely bandaged from his head down. "Knife attack." Shirley informed him, glancing up to see him gawking. "Nasty business."

He said nothing, his attention grabbed by the man in the farthest bed. There was no mistaking him, the smooth, dark hair, the birthmark on his forehead. "Tseng." He said aloud, standing there and staring dumbly at the unconscious male Turk. Why should he be surprised? Tseng had been brought to Junon because it was quieter, better for him to recuperate. Midgar was so busy, it would do him no good where there was little time for personal attention.

"He's sedated." Shirley explained. "Sleep helps healing and blocks out pain."

"Right."

"Are you going to help this girl?" Shirley walked past him, apparently finished operating and closing up her own patient. She rooted through the cabinet, Evan watching her with a vacant expression. For some reason he didn't feel much like doing anything. "Do me a favour and put that man to bed. Carefully. I've been working on him for four hours. I don't want him dying on me now and wasting my time."

Evan did as he was told, picking up the unconscious man and struggling under his weight, but managing to get him over to the bed beside Rose and put him under the covers. "I think I just put my back out for good." He muttered, rubbing it tenderly. "Where are all the crash trolleys?"

"Where are all everything? I'm running so low on supplies that I have to use cotton for stitches. I'm the only one left here, and even with that cattle blaster I'm only one woman."

She took a bottle of iodine and some cotton wool out of the cabinet, tucking them under her arm and heading over to Rose. "Out cold." Evan remained silent, Shirley's mutterings probably her way of focusing. "You," she called to him, "Evan or whatever your name is, take these and get cleaning that wound on her face. Be careful not to move it too much. I know it's not all that important, but a woman's looks are sometimes all she has. If we can save her from scarring too badly, then we can try. In the end I suppose staying alive is more important."

He did as he was told, keeping an eye on what Shirley was doing out the corner of his eye. She appeared to be examining Rose's torn boot. Without a word, she drew Rose's knife from her belt and began cutting the boot off.

Evan turned his attention back to her face, taking care not to move the edges of her wound too much, but conscious that he had to get the dirt out of it. Shirley was happy not to speak to him, well aware that doing so could cause him to make a mistake. The poor man was obviously shaken. She ought to ensure he wasn't suffering from shock or about to, but Rose was in more need of her skills at that point.

She cut Rose's boot free, throwing it aside and examining her heel closely. "Her Achilles tendon's severed. Right through. You said she was walking wounded."

"She was only using one leg, but she was getting about."

Rose began murmuring, her words meaning little to Evan. He didn't try and understand her, realising after a minute that she was speaking Wutaiese. Shirley looked at her, pinching her blonde eyebrows together, "She's Wutaiese?"

"No. She speaks the language."

"Right. I think I have a Hi-potion around somewhere. There was a small stash of them. You stay with her."

Evan sighed, Shirley leaving the room and him alone with Rose, cleaning her face. "Look at you. Out of the three of us, you were the best suited to the field and look at you. I suppose you were in the wrong place at the wrong time." He tore a new piece of cotton wool off the roll, dousing it in iodine. "I wonder where Tess is, and if he's all right. You said he was fine, I know, but if Midgar has gone to hell the way this place has, then I feel we may never find him, or, best case scenario, find him wheeled in here in a worse state than you." Rose still murmured unknown words, turning her head away from him. "I don't know how much more of this I can take. I planned to give up and retire this year, but I think that's out."

"There're only a few of these left." Shirley marched back in, examining the green bottle closely. I know it's not a long term solution, but it should heal her tendon at least."

"Isn't there any materia?"

She scoffed at that, twisting the cap off the potion and shoving Evan out the way with her backside." Materia? Here? This place was almost picked clean a few days ago. You think it's a mess now? It's a better state now than it was after the Weapon attack." Carefully, she tilted Rose's head back and got her to swallow a few mouthfuls of hi-potion. At once her wounds began to close, with the exception of her face.

Evan watched, a little puzzled as to why that one stood out so much. "The nerve endings are dead." Shirley explained. "This Hi-potion's too weak to revive enough of them to close it. Potions work by stimulating the nerves to close the wounds, and the platelets to seal them. After that it's up to nature." She threaded a needle and started on Rose's face. "Stronger potions speed the healing process up faster than weak ones. We're all out of Xs I'm afraid, so she will have to do the rest on her own." Looking up from her work, she hesitated, "It is only you two?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

Evan said nothing, walking over to the windows to glare up at Meteor. Tessi wasn't dead. He was still alive in the turmoil that was Midgar, and Reno and Rude and Elena – they were fine too. They had to be. Tessi, now there was no doubt about that. He could handle himself anywhere, let alone Midgar. He would be fine. He just had to be.

---------

The dust was choking. All the lights had failed and there were things... squelching underfoot. Tessi shook his head, his hand and sleeve clamped over his nose and mouth. He did not want to be there. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to get out, 'what are you doing! You can't go in there!' his limbs screamed at him, but he forced himself to ignore them. What did limbs and extremities know anyway?

The seventieth floor was blocked off, the elevators out of service and the stairway collapsed. If anyone had been up there, they would be trapped now, or worse. Resigned to the fact that he was not about to go poking around up there, Tessi turned and headed back down the stairs. So far the only keycard protected floor he hadn't checked thoroughly was the Science department.

Rescue crews were on their way up, but he had to do something himself, not just sit around waiting while he could be saving lives. Doing nothing would weight heavily on his conscience. He slipped, only just keeping his footing on the stairs, but grabbing the banister anyway. A water pipe had broken and was now running down the steps. 'Probably trying to get out of here before it collapses on us.'

Shaking himself down, he continued to the Science department.

The situation wasn't so dire there, the lights off, but the doors working fine. After a quick scan of the labs and storerooms, Tessi came up with nothing, making for the cells. Hojo's monsters were loose, but not really causing any problems. Tessi reasoned that they were probably terrified of what was going on around them. He knew he was. They had happily mauled a few of the Scientists to bloody pulps, but then, they probably had reason.

Stepping over one such mess, Tessi walked into the cell block. To his surprise, all the doors were open. Except one. "Odd."

Reeve sat up, shocked awake by the voice. He quickly got to his feet and crossed to the door. "Tessi?" He was more than a little surprised to find the youngster there, and looking so healthy. "What's going on?"

"The place is a mess and everyone's fleeing the building like rats from a sinking ship." It suddenly occurred to Tessi that something wasn't right with the situation. "What you doing in there?"

"Scarlet and Heidegger locked me in here. Where are they?"

"Fuck knows. Why'd they lock you up?"

"Because-" Reeve faltered, not quite sure how to go about explaining why. "because I've been acting as a double agent for AVALANCHE. I know how that sounds, and I can imagine you don't exactly feel compelled to help me out, but, if you would be so kind?"

Tessi shrugged, punching his personal code into the keypad below the card reader beside Reeve's cell. The door opened, much to their joint relief. "Thank you."

"No probs, but you better come with me and find somewhere safe. I need to contact Evan and find out where he is."

There were no complaints on Reeve's part, the Urban Development head quite happy to follow Tessi out of Hojo's freak factory. Tessi halted at the top of the stairs. "Any idea where will be safe in this mess?"

Reeve thought a minute, cradling his chin in his hand. "I have a fair idea. We need to get away from this building, and the Sister ray, so I would say the slums."

"Slums it it then."

"Can we make a detour? There's something I want to pick up from my locker in the gym."

(NOTE: Blood, blood, lots of blood. I'm just getting started on the blood and horrific injuries. Rose is in a bad way; thank Goodness for potions. Good thing magic exists in their world. Can't blame her for dragging her leg. Reeve's on board too! You gotta love Reeve, He has one of the coolest voices in AC, and it's nice to know what he looks like finally. Can anyone guess what's in his gym locker that he's after? And why?)