Chapter Five: Reconsidering
Cloud's lips were suspended above Yuffie's, their kiss broken by the sound of gunfire. There was a moment where neither of them moved, as if hoping they'd misheard something, and then came another sharp crack. Yuffie quickly scooted away from Cloud and they both got to their feet.
Their stray Fire materia lay glowing in a corner and Cloud walked over, bending to retrieve it. "It's probably Vincent and Tifa, we've got to let them know we're here."
Yuffie laughed. "Uh, and figure out what they're shooting at. C'mon, Cloud, you used to be a soldier or something, right?" Cloud paused mid-crouch and turned his head to look at her. His eyes brought the edges of her mouth down a little, like she'd said something wrong.
Cloud turned back to pick up the materia and straightened up. "Well, that part was obvious, so I left it out." She stuck out her tongue in response, and a smile found its way onto his face before he shook his head, trying to focus. "We need to find a way out of here." Yuffie opened her mouth to speak and then closed it as Cloud glanced over at her. "I know, I know. Don't say it."
They both turned to the tunnel they had slid down earlier. There was another gunshot and a few pebbles skittered out of the opening as they peered inside and up the slope. Yuffie made a skeptical sound and Cloud agreed with her assessment – it didn't seem promising. They turned away and looked around the cavern.
The rock around them was rough, and a few large pieces of stone lay on the ground. Cloud held up the Fire materia and concentrated, trying to generate more light without casting a spell. He hadn't used the materia for this long before, and was surprised at how quickly it grew uncomfortably warm in his hand. "Yes!" Yuffie pointed to one corner and Cloud immediately stopped trying to coax more light out of the hot crystal.
In the fading glow, he saw Yuffie's grin as she turned to him. "I think those rocks are just in a pile. The light seemed to kinda go on past them." They began pulling at the stones, gingerly at first, and then with more force once it was clear they weren't supporting anything. Two more gunshots echoed.
The rocks had been blocking the small chamber off from a larger tunnel that ran in two directions. Cloud and Yuffie hesitated, not sure which way to go, until another shot and a dim flash came from their right. "Hey!" Cloud called as he heard rapidly approaching footsteps.
"Cloud!" Tifa answered him as her and Vincent's outlines came close enough to be illuminated by the materia in Cloud's hand. Tifa ran to Cloud and embraced him, then pulled away before he could hug her back. She leaned over and put her hands on her thighs, coughing, and above her Cloud saw a pair of sharp red eyes watching him.
Shells clinked on the rock floor as Vincent emptied his revolver. He slid in fresh cartridges as he said, "There are some kind of insects in here. We ran by them to avoid getting cornered." Vincent snapped the cylinder shut, his face asking how the other two had ended up there. Yuffie spoke first.
"We'd set up camp for the night, I had to go off alone for something and Cloud kindly brought me a light before taking the floor out from under us," she explained quickly. Cloud started to object to the way the ninja was describing things, but she lightly punched his arm and talked over him. "Hey, no, I didn't break those boards, so yeah, it's your fault." Yuffie made a face and asked of no one in particular, "What are bugs doing in here?"
Rubbing his arm, Cloud answered her. "It's dark, warm in the winter, and they probably had …food… for a while when there was mining going on." He was painfully aware that neither of them had a weapon, just the Fire materia. But Vincent had his gun, and Tifa… "Are you alright?" he asked, as she cleared her lungs and straightened up.
"Yeah. I'm still short of breath from breathing in that coal dust earlier, and… and I just had to flee from killer bugs. But I'm up for more action now." Tifa looked at where Cloud and Yuffie had come from. "You said you fell?"
Cloud turned back to the small chamber they'd slid into earlier. "Sort of. There were some planks covering a shaft that led here." He walked over and pulled himself up and into the mouth of the shaft, a couple feet above the ground. "I'll see if I can get back up." Cloud started to crawl, but the angle soon grew too steep, and he struggled to keep from sliding back down. He managed to wedge himself in place long enough to shake a mental image of being crushed to death by another cave-in and yell "Hey!" up the shaft. As his voice boomed upwards, his foot slipped out from behind him and he fell back down. "No luck," he said over his shoulder as he crawled out.
"Oh, man…" said Yuffie. There was a faint tapping and a wet hiss as the monsters Vincent and Tifa had run past followed them down the tunnel. "How many bullets have you got?" Yuffie asked Vincent.
"About a dozen. The rest are with our supplies."
"We have to keep going deeper, then," said Tifa.
"I bet we can fight 'em off!" Yuffie shadowboxed the air. "How many were there?"
Cloud shook his head. "Tifa's right. Maybe with Fire spells we can take out the ones nearby, but what if there are more? How long will it take-" He stopped, listening. A faint noise came down the open shaft. Cloud and the others crowded around, trying to hear.
"Cloud?" They could just hear Barret's voice. Cloud cringed as he took a deep breath, then leaned into the opening and yelled as loudly as he could in response.
"Yeah! Rope!"
"Got it! Hang on!"
Cloud sighed and leaned against the cave wall. "We did have rope with us, right?" asked Tifa.
"Cloud." Vincent was leaning into the tunnel with his gun drawn. "They're still coming." He cocked his head and listened for a second. "From both directions. I need light to aim by."
Cloud nodded. "Yuffie, stay back and wait for the others to drop a rope down." She started to protest, but Cloud continued. "You don't have your shuriken and I don't think you're used to fighting without a weapon. Tell us when… if there's a rope and then get out of here." Yuffie nodded and sent an air kiss toward Cloud. He looked toward Tifa, but she was already turned away, heading toward Vincent in the tunnel. Cloud moved to join them.
In the glow of the materia in Cloud's hand, the three could see shapes coming toward them. Vincent cocked his revolver and aimed down the tunnel, the way he and Tifa had come. Once he'd drawn a bead on the first monster, he squeezed the trigger and part of the bug's carapace exploded onto the rock wall. It continued to crawl toward him with its front legs, and Vincent could see its jaws moving before he sent another bullet crashing through its head.
Behind Vincent, Cloud held out his hand and cast a Fire spell at the approaching shadows. An orange light filled the tunnel and a burst of flame flew from the orb in his hand. Three of the bugs were incinerated immediately, but as the flame dissipated he could see there were more behind them. The sound of gunshots behind him stopped as Vincent started to reload.
Tifa wasn't sure whether the monsters would reach Cloud or Vincent first, and had hoped it wouldn't become an issue. As Vincent reloaded, however, two of the insects scurried toward him. He backed up as Tifa readied herself and prepared to strike. One of the bugs seemed to take notice of her and changed its direction, hissing as it drew near.
She half-crouched as she delivered a low kick to its mouth, and was instantly glad she had her boots on. The creature locked its jaws around the toe and she could feel the twin points through the thick leather. Tifa kicked it against the tunnel wall, concentrating all the force she could on the point where the insect, her shoe, and the rock came together. One hit didn't do it, so she stomped her foot again and again. Her muscles began to ache from holding the thing aloft while it squirmed and tried to gnaw into her foot, but she felt its shell began to splinter under her repeated kicks. Its grip finally started to slacken and it slid off her boot, collapsing in a broken heap on the tunnel floor. Tifa took a shaky breath and looked back down the tunnel.
Gun reloaded, Vincent fired at the remaining insect, hitting it squarely in the mouth and knocking it to the side. More light filled the tunnel as he and Tifa spun to assist Cloud, who was sending another fireball down his end of the tight space. A loud hissing, the sound of death cries and smoking carcasses, entered their ears through the lingering ringing from the gunshots. Distantly, they heard Yuffie shout. "There's a rope! C'mon!"
"Tifa, go!" Vincent shouted over the noise. She darted toward the shaft where Yuffie was already climbing up and started to follow her until she felt the rope flex. It probably couldn't support their combined weight.
"We can only go one at a time!" she called over her shoulder, feeling exposed as she crouched and waited for Yuffie, the rope moving side to side as the ninja scampered up. There were several shots in quick succession, and she wondered if Cloud and Vincent could hold out long enough to cover her escape, let alone their own. The rope stopped moving and she grabbed hold of it, pulling herself up toward the others.
Cloud and Vincent were slowly backing out of the tunnel and into the small cavern, the insects now a full-fledged swarm coming at them. Vincent had to pause to reload again, and Cloud covered him, sending more fire out at the monsters. Cloud glanced at the cylinder of Vincent's gun, loaded with the only two cartridges he had left, before Vincent snapped it shut. "Just go – I can hold them off." Vincent nodded and stepped back quickly.
As the ex-Turk disappeared into the mine shaft, Cloud struggled to coax more power from the materia in his hand. He had never cast so many spells in quick succession and it was draining the orb's power. One more weak blast emanated out toward the bugs and the materia went dark in his hand. A couple of bugs succumbed to the fire, but more crawled over their bodies and came at him. Cloud ducked into the chute and grabbed for the rope. It sagged as he started to pull himself up, Vincent still climbing above him, but he couldn't do anything but hope it held.
The rope stretched and Cloud hesitated, hearing several fibers snap loose, but a second later Vincent reached the top and the rope was all Cloud's. He started to climb again and felt something on his leg as one of the insects below reached his foot and hauled itself onto his calf.
It sunk its jaws into his leg and Cloud gasped, one hand dropping from the rope. The pain was excruciating and he frantically kicked his leg, trying to knock the thing off but only succeeding in battering it against the sides of the mine shaft. "Cloud." Vincent's voice came from above him and he looked up, the man's outline visible as he tossed something down.
Cloud barely managed to catch Vincent's pistol and aimed it down at the creature chewing into his calf, struggling through the pain to line up the sights on the dark blur. He fired and the gun bucked in his hand as a bullet slammed into the monster's carapace, its innards spilling out and mixing with the blood running down his ankle. Another shot made it lose its grip and fall away from Cloud.
He stuffed the empty pistol into his waistband and put his hand back on the rope, shakily pulling himself up. When he reached the top, Cloud heaved himself onto the cave floor and felt Barret drag him away from the hole as the others crowded around him. Red's tail twitched and he wrinkled his nose. "I'm… going to see if it's still raining," he said, and trotted up the tunnel.
Yuffie looked at the blood and insect guts coating Cloud's pants leg around the gash and had to turn away, burying her face in Vincent's shoulder. He took a step back, but she clung to him and he tentatively patted her back a single time before looking over. Beside him, Tifa had covered her mouth and was just staring at Cloud as Aeris tended to him. Vincent started to reach out to Tifa, to comfort her, but the light from the materia glinted on the metal of his hand and he remained where he was.
Aeris tugged at the tear in Cloud's pants until the fabric split apart enough for her to get to his leg, the pale skin surrounded by dark red. "Cloud… oh, Cloud," she murmured, a worried look on her face as she uncorked a potion and poured it onto the wound. Cloud felt the pain start to subside, slowly.
"The shaft, watch out…" Cloud managed to warn. He looked over at the hole they'd pulled themselves out of, expecting to see a flood of ravenous insects pouring out.
What he actually saw was Cid pulling the pin from a grenade before dropping it down and ducking away. There were a few faint clinks as it bounced along the walls before it exploded near the bottom with a rumbling that grew as something below gave way. Barret nervously looked up at the ceiling, but the metal support beams held and the shaking subsided. Cid peered down the shaft. "I think she's all stopped up now. Ain't no way anything's gettin' up here."
The pain in Cloud's leg faded and was replaced by a dull, heavy feeling. "Can you move it?" asked Aeris, leaning over him. Cloud was surprised to find that he could, although only clumsily. "It got you pretty good, but ultimately it's a flesh wound. When we get to Gold Saucer, we'll find a stronger potion and you'll be right as rain," Aeris said, patting Cloud on his other leg before standing back.
Vincent pried Yuffie off and extended his hand. Cloud took it, getting to his feet and leaning against the tunnel wall before returning the pistol. "Thanks."
"No problem."
Red came back down the tunnel. "Still raining. Glad to see that you're alright, Cloud."
"We can't travel anyway – it's dark and we couldn't hustle if we needed to," said Cid.
Tifa looked at Yuffie and then the others. "But you all made camp for the night, right?"
Aeris replied, "The fire's gone out, but yes, the sleeping bags are still set up. We weren't totally sure where you'd fallen, Cloud, so we were checking every nook and cranny before Barret heard you."
"An' it was a good thing I did. Why'd you take so long to yell?"
Cloud paused and glanced at Yuffie before answering. "We didn't want to cause another cave-in."
"Yeah, but killer roaches were the bigger threat," Yuffie added. "Man, those things were disgusting! I mean, they sounded disgusting, anyway. It was like…"
"Awright, tell us about it tomorrow. C'mon Spiky, let's get you some rest."
A/N: There's still one chapter left to resolve a couple of things. Thanks for reading to this point – praise/criticism/etc. is always welcome.