Blood: 17

There ain't nobody here but us chickens

"What are you after?"

Reeve neglected to answer, turning everything out of his gym locker onto the floor, rifling through it with one hand, the other closed around a flashlight. Tessi's patience was wearing thin, the Turk folding his arms and tapping his foot, hoping that would get the message across.

Unfortunately, after years of working with Scarlet and Heidegger, Reeve was an expert at ignoring people. Tessi slammed the locker door shut, "Reeve! What are you looking for!"

"My megaphone. It should be here."

"The hell do you want a frigging megaphone for?"

"We need to get people to the slums. If Meteor's going to come crashing down on top of us, we might as well have something between us and it. Besides-" he tossed a towel Tessi's way, 'The slums have underground tunnels. We can get in those and pray."

"Your confidence inspires me."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

Tessi gave no answer, twisting his hands up in the towel and wandering away a little. Reeve shook his head, resuming his search.

Still there had been no word from Evan or Rose. It was possible they had just been too busy to call, or they were dead. Personally, Tessi preferred to believe the former.

"It's not here." Reeve announced, drawing his attention back to the locker room. "I can only guess that Cait picked it up while I was in jail."

"What, that thing has an autopilot or something?"

"Yes." The look Tessi shot his way made Reeve frown, "I can't sit there controlling him all day. I have a job to work. Besides, it would look strange if I sat in a board meeting fiddling with remote controls, eh?"

"I s'pose." Enough of this. "Once that Meteor's done falling, we're high-tailing it over to Junon where it's safe."

Reeve was disgusted, "What about the people?"

"You have to look out for number one in this world, Reeve. Unfortunately I get paid to look out for you too, so your sorry ass is coming with me to Junon."

"Can't you leave some orders with Reno and co?"

Tessi shook his head, tossing the towel on the floor and folding his arms across his chest. "They take orders from Heidegger. I'm just a teacher. Besides-" He loosened his tie, a look of mild embarrassment crossing his face, "- Reno ran past me in the street on my way here shouting 'there ain't nobody here but us chickens' or something along those lines. Then made for the train tunnels."

"Running away from Weapon? Where were the others?"

"Rude and Elena were on his tail, and I don't know about the babies."

"Great."

"That's what I thought."

A steady beeping interrupted them, Tessi glancing around in surprise before settling on Reeve. "That your watch or something?"

He shook his head, "That's Cait. AVALANCHE conference." Now this could be interesting. Reeve waved his hand at Tessi, directing him to walk away and plug his ears. Reluctantly, he did as he was told.

At times like this he sung the 'na na' song. It always used to get Evan steamed, having a serious conversation with Heidegger down the phone with a trainee singing nonsense in the background. Just thinking about Evan put the idea out of his head and left him sad.

Evan and Rose... They had better be all right. If something had happened to them... He snapped out of it, Reeve's touch on his shoulder making him look round.

The Urban Development head looked thoughtful, holding what appeared to be a remote control in one hand, index finger curled around one of the joysticks. "If we're going to ground we had better do it soon."

Tessi frowned, "Why?"

"I need space to concentrate. Cloud and friends are going after Sephiroth. I'm going to have to game like I've never gamed before."

"I see." Tessi checked his belt, glad to find that he hadn't put anything down and forgotten about it. All equipment present and correct. "If you're done, then let's go."

Reeve showed no resistance, merely twitching an eyebrow as Tessi pulled his nunchucks from his belt and cracked the chain snapping them up into one hand. The situation outside must be worse than he had let on.

Tessi turned to Reeve, "If you think those people out there are going to listen to you, then you're welcome to try and save them. Get it clear though, that I AM NOT going to stand around longer than necessary and risk bodily harm to myself or you."

"That's crystal clear to me." Reeve assured him, walking by and taking the lead towards the stairs.

The rescue crews had been and gone to the upper floors, so the two of them were alone, clambering over toppled walls and downed ceiling in the dark. Tessi still struggled to control himself, the dusty air and closed space shaking him to the bone. He could call no experience to mind which could possibly explain why he was claustrophobic, and truthfully, he was glad. If something had happened to make him fear enclosed spaces, it must have been terrible. He began humming to himself, determined to take his mind off it.

Reeve frowned at his behaviour, but said nothing. Everyone left in the building must be feeling a little unhinged by now, and Tessi was only young, no matter how hard he pretended. 'Not looking forward to facing Sephiroth.' He found himself thinking, slipping on something wet. 'If something goes wrong, I'll live, but the others won't. Admittedly I'll be killed by Meteor, but that's not the point. Feels kind of cowardly, sitting back here and controlling Cait. Feel like I should be there, helping out. Not like I can't handle myself or something. Quite a handy shot when I have to be. Give me an AK and I'm laughing, but... Still feel like I'm copping out.'

"Are you coming?"

Reeve snapped out of it, realising that he had stopped. Tessi looked back at him from atop a pile of rubble, blinking against the flashlight beam. "Don't shine that thing at me. Hurts."

Reeve shook his head. "Sorry."

Tessi offered his hand. "Coming?"

---------

She was still sleeping, lying quietly on her back. Even with the potions her face hadn't healed completely. Evan sighed deeply, shifting his weight in the armchair. Several hours had passed since their arrival in Junon, and Rose was still asleep.

He checked his watch. Quarter to three in the AM. That made it near on twelve hours. Shirley had gone off to forage supplies, content to leave the medical bay in his hands for a short while. She kept coming and going, her longest time out of the building about two hours.

Rose stirred in her sleep, mumbling something incoherent and attempting to roll onto her side. Evan leant forward and pulled the blanket up to her chin, falling back into his chair and drawing his legs up underneath him.

This whole thing was a mess. One big, jumbled mess. How had any of this been allowed to happen? Who in their right mind would give permission for human experimentation? If not for that dammed experiment, none of this would ever have happened. Sephiroth would never have existed, and Vincent and Marlon would still be alive. Possibly. Weapon would never have attacked Midgar, or Junon, Rose wouldn't be in such a state and he wouldn't be sitting there, waiting for Shirley to return and praying that none of the patients arrested. Damn it all, things would be hunky dory and perfect.

Evan shook his head, turning in his chair to lean his head against the arm. It was silly to think the world could ever be perfect. These were just the tired and troubled thoughts of a world weary man. If the world were perfect, his marriage would never have broken, none of his trainees would have died and he would have millions of gil for doing nothing. He would be happy, and that could not be allowed to happen. The world would end if Evan Reilly were ever truly happy. "Look at me," he said aloud to the ceiling, "if Tessi were here he'd tell me to stop angsting. Whatever that means."

"It means that you're in need of a break." Shirley stood at the doorway, her shoulder bag weighing her down.

Evan stood up, "You found supplies?"

"Of course. What do you think I am?" She crossed the room, shoving past him to reach under Rose's bed for a metal chest. "The streets are covered in all sorts of things. I even found some cure materia under the roadside barrier. It's not much, and at such a low level it's only good for superficial wounds, but it's something."

"Hmmmm. I wish I had your optimism."

"It's not that difficult. Just a case of disciplining your brain." She began unloading her bag into the chest, arranging potions and materia in orderly lines and groups. Evan frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets,

"Are you this particular about all your things?"

Shirley looked up at him, a look of despair on her dirty face, "Only things I need to get my hands on in a hurry, like in the event of a life saving operation."

Red faced, Evan turned away, drifting across to the window and opening the shutters. Meteor was still there in the sky above, taunting him. Was any of this worth it? In a few days that thing would crush them all and that would be that.

"Come away from there and close the shutters." Shirley instructed him, getting to her feet and dusting off her knees. "All you're doing is getting depressed looking at that thing. You're not doing yourself any favours."

"What's the point?" Evan snapped suddenly, "All we're doing here is forcing these poor people to hold on a few days until Meteor comes down here and kills them anyway! What's the point of drawing out their suffering like this? It's just plain cruelty in the long run, or are you doing this to keep yourself from going mad?"

Shirley said nothing for some long minutes, eventually turning and walking over to the battered old sofa beside the door, and picking up her shotgun. She looked at it a moment, breathing a sigh and turning and throwing it to Evan, "If that's your view, then put her out of her misery." She pointed to Rose.

Evan hesitated, glancing from the gun in his hands to Rose. She lay on her back still, apparently having failed in rolling onto her side. Put her out of her misery? He threw the shotgun away, Shirley watching it clatter on the tiles and spin underneath a broken crash trolley. Evan shook his head, "This is insane. I can't... I don't have it in me anymore."

"You don't mean what you're saying." Shirley corrected him, "The thing to do in this situation is what you do best. I save lives. You protect your students. That would be her, I'm assuming."

"Once."

"Then do what you do best and hold out for her and yourself."

Evan looked at Rose, nausea hitting him. For a split second there, he had considered killing her. That realisation left him sick to his stomach with himself. He glanced at Shirley, finding that she had forgotten him and was now involved in the wall-mounted cabinet.

Shaky, he crawled back into the armchair beside Rose's bed, and settled for a long stay.