Golden thorns chapter 57
The sun was so bright. Even when he shaded his eyes against the watery light, he was still forced to squint. The freshness of the air made his head spin and he almost stumbled with giddiness. He turned to the huntress stood next to him and tried to gage her expression. She was scanning the treeline for any signs of life, but he could see that she was relieved to be back in, albeit pale and weak, daylight.
"So what's the ETA on our ride? Please don't tell me that we have to spend another three days trekking through the jungle." He asked.
"I've sent the emergency casevac signal. They'll know that we have serious triage. Should mean that we can get a ride out here. Maybe five hours or so." She turned and walked back to where the rest of their team were gathered. Coran followed. Devlyn was laid out on the ground, his scales fading to white. Jo was knelt next to him, periodically checking his pulse and holding up the remnants of the saline bag. Marie simply stood in direct sunlight, a beatific smile of bliss on her face, and a single tear on her cheek. Coran closed his eyes and listened.
The air was still. A slight breeze carried the hot musk of the forest over to them. Far off in the distance, Coran heard the cry of Nevermore as they bickered over territory. The leaves rustled. The wind moaned. Everything seemed still. Not that that meant anything, Grimm were patient by nature. There could be a full hunting pack of Beowolves out there and they wouldn't know until the first pounce came.
Hours passed. No-one talked for fear of attracting the wrong kind of attention. Evening came and they wolfed down the last of their rations. Devlyn began to shake fitfully in the cold. Coran laid his jacket over his injured friend and sat beside him. Even though it wasn't safe outside, none of them wanted to go back underground after what they had been through, so they divided up into watches as night fell. Still, there was no sign of evac.
Sometime in the early hours, Coran was woken by Marie, who was on watch duty.
"I felt something just now" she whispered "what is the word… like shaking of the ground?"
"Tremor?"
"Yes. It was small, but I am sure I felt a tremor."
"Have you told the others?"
"Not yet." He sat up and listened to the night again.
"Get some sleep. I'll finish your watch. I wasn't sleeping too well anyway." He got up and wandered over to Devlyn, checking his pulse. The Faunus was shaking slightly. But there was nothing more they could do for him other than change the dressing. With the coming of the dawn Coran heard the distinctive whir of engines. He rushed over to his team and woke them. Before long, the ship flew over them. No one cheered, they were all too tired. They just limped over to the ship as it landed. The paramedic took Devlyn from Coran's arms and secured him to a gurney.
"Sorry we're late," the pilot said from the cockpit as they lifted off. "You won't believe what happened back at Vale." Azura lifted her head, eyes wide.
"Why? What happened?"
"Massive Grimm incursion. No-one really knows what happened, but earlier this morning a huge hole was busted in one of the main plazas. Grimm poured into the breach and started ransacking everything."
"And? Was it contained?"
"That general from Atlas brought a load of new robot things with him. They had things under control pretty quickly. We haven't been able to get out to help you 'cause of the clean-up effort. We've been shipping the civvies to hospitals."
"What do we know about how this happened?"
"Look, I'm not supposed to say anything but judging from your job, I think you're going to find out anyway. Amongst the wreckage were parts of what looked like a train, explosive residue four kids from Beacon."