Is this Heaven? It's so calm. No sound, no movement, no pain…
Wait! Wait with the "no pain" part! Actually, I think I do feel some pain. What's wrong with my shoulder? Or is it my whole arm that is wrong? And my head, ow, it hurts!
What happened, anyway? And where am I? Everything's so still here. There's no wind, no voices of birds, no ground…
No ground? Yeah, that's right; I'm flying in the air, no firm ground under my feet. I definitely must have died. But this is not Heaven as I imagined it. What does it look like, anyway? Maybe I should try and open my eyes.
Wait!
Calm down, just calm down Virgil, this must be a bad dream or something; you will wake up any minute. Come on, now is the right time! Wake up! Wake up before you get a heart attack – my pulse runs as fast as a racing horse.
I wait and wait, but then the realization dawns – it's not a dream – my eyes are open but still I can't see anything. I'm blind. If only I could remember what happened and how I got here. And where is here?!
And that's when I hear it. It's not a call, but it's still my name. There's no wind to carry it. And it seems so weak. Like a whine.
"Virgil…"
It's Gordon, it's totally Gordon! Did he die, too? Is he also blind? Can he tell me where we are?
"Gords?" My voice is way stronger than his. At least something I did not loose.
"What happened? Where are we?"
"Virgil!" and now I can hear him properly, although something seems odd. "Thank god!"
There's a long pause, and I'm thinking maybe he went mute? Or deaf?
My head hurts so bad. Was that light I've seen?
"Virgil… how badly are you hurt? Can you move at all?" his voice sounds so strange, so tight… I try moving. Ow!
"My left shoulder's out of operation. My head hurts something unimaginable. I can't remember what happened. Where are we, Gordon?" Please, tell me this is a dream.
"Virg… You fell off the cliff. We are… we are on a mission…" something's wrong with Gordon, he can't catch his breath right. "Could you maybe… I would appreciate it if you could support yourself. Can you find somewhere to hold on to?"
Support myself? Fell off the cliff? Does it mean Gordon's holding all my weight? What's going on?
I try to find something to hold on to, but as I move, Gordon cries out, so I stop immediately.
"What? What happened?" There's no answer and I'm getting worried. "Gordon?"
"Sorry," he says breathlessly. "Just try again."
I don't want to, but there seems to be nothing else I could do, so I try again. Now I realize that Gordon's right, I must be hanging off the cliff, I can feel the harness tighten around me as I swing. But am I swinging in the right direction? Probably I should tell Gordon I can't see a thing?
There, I'm clinging to the rock with my right arm, now to move my legs…
Someone's yelling at me. Is it dad? Have I done something wrong?
"Dad?..."
No! No, Virgil! Get a hold of yourself! You're on a mission!
I'm flying again, and it's so calm. The pain is fading.
"Virgil!"
Now, that's Gordon, and he sounds desperate. Did I pass out? I can't leave him alone in this strange place. But where is he? And where am I? My head…
"Virgil! Please, Virgil, please answer me!"
Ok. All right. I know, we are on a mission. I fell off the cliff. My arm's hurt, my head's hurt, and I'm blind. Gordon wants me to support myself. No, priorities, Gordon wants me to answer him first.
"Gords! I'm sorry, I must have passed out. I'll try to grab something again now!"
I can hear a sigh of relief and then an exhausted "FAB."
I swing and now it's my time to cry out – I hit the rock with my bad shoulder. It hurts like hell and for a while all I can feel is agony.
"What happened?" comes the scared reply to my pained cry.
"Gordon, I should probably tell you something. I …" I swallow and gather all of my courage "I can't see a thing."
I wait.
"What?! Virgil, how was that not the first information you gave me? Nevermind, just hold on a second!"
And I do. All I can hear now is puffing and wheezing and muffled cries. What is Gordon doing? It takes some time. Can I talk to him?
"Gordon? What kind of mission are we on?"
There's no answer, so maybe I should think about it myself. Think Virgil, think. If only my head didn't hurt so much. I must have hit some rocks when I fell. How did that happen? Wasn't there a storm? Yes! There was a storm! And some hikers lost in it! We saved them, and then… and then… No, not that light again, ouch!
"Virgil, please! Please don't do this to me again!" Gordon is pleading with me. He sounds closer to me now. Right above me, to be exact.
"What have I done?" I ask stupidly. I know very well what I've done. I passed out again.
"Jesus!" is all he says. "You scared me!"
"Sorry?"
"Ok, I'll try to pull you up here, that ok with you?" He still sounds wrong. Winded. His voice seems so inappropriate in this calm and silent surroundings.
"Can you see me?" I ask him instead of replying.
"Yes, I can," and now he sounds exasperated. I give him thumbs up.
…
"I don't KNOW, Scott! He's not bleeding or anything. His left shoulder is dislocated, and he definitely bumped his head, he said it hurts. He can't see, Scott…"
At first he was yelling, then his voice lost rapidly on its intensity, and the last sentence wasn't more than a shattered breath.
"Where is the storm?" I asked weakly, reaching out towards Gordon. I wasn't flying anymore, not dead, not in Heaven. I was lying on the ground. I could hear my brtoher above me.
He flinched in surprise, but I managed to catch him by his uniform.
"How long have I been out?" I wanted to touch his face with my other arm, but it didn't react to the orders my brain sent there. "I can't move my arm."
"Yeah, I know. No more than ten minutes. How do you feel?"
How did I feel?
"Confused. Where are the hikers? And the storm? Where are we?"
Gordon laughed a bit. It wasn't a real laugh at that. It seemed off.
"The hikers are in TB2. The storm is all around us. We are in the eye. Still can't see anything?"
He was gently probing around my ribs, avoiding touching my bad arm. His voice still sounded strange, unnatural.
"Try and show me some fingers, I'll try and look in the right direction," I joked, but Gordon did not laugh this time. "I think I saw a light before I passed out, but I'm not sure. You pulled me up here?"
"Mhm… I need to go get some pills, and then I'll put your arm back in the right position, if it's all right with you?" Gordon stood up. He sounded so… weak. I let go of him, and that was when I realized my hand was wet. I sniffed it. And froze.
"Gordon! Is this blood? Are you bleeding? Where? How much?" What happened to HIM in the storm? Is he hurt? Is that why he sounds so strange?
"Calm down, will you? It's yours." Now that's bad. He's lying to me!
"No, it's not! You've just told Scott I'm not bleeding. I heard you! So tell me now, how badly are you hurt?" I grabbed him again, and his uniform was covered in blood!
This can't be happening! My brother's hurt and I can't see where and how much, and so I can't help him. I felt so helpless and scared.
"Virg, it's nothing, ok? Just… Just concentrate on yourself. We need to fix your arm. Please…"
I didn't want to fix my arm, and I didn't want to concentrate on myself. Gordon was bleeding, Gordon was in pain, Gordon was lost in the middle of the storm, and I couldn't help him.
"Gordon! Can you hear me?" Scott's voice rumbled from the comm.
"Yeah, Scott, I hear you. Virgil's conscious now," and with that Gordon handed me the transmitter. He mustn't have realized what he was doing, because it was definitely not a clever move to make.
"Scott!" I yelled into the comm "Gordon's bleeding something bad, and he won't tell me what happened, and I can't see, so please get us out of here ASAP, will you?"
I could hear Scott taking a huge breath, just to yell right into my face…
"What?! Gordon, you are what?! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I don't have time for this, Scott, I'm sorry." And before Scott could say any more, Gordon switched the comm off.
"Sorry to you, too, Virg," he added and fixed my arm in one swift move. One move that put my arm back in place, but took me out of action. The darkness swallowed me again.