"Oh..." Edwin instantly regretted regaining conciousness.
His head was pounding...and his left knee and hand throbbed with pain...and he had an odd feeling of having forgotten something...
Then it came back, the zombies, the marines coming...the massacre of his survivors...the fleeing. "Ah!" His eyes opened wide as he grasped for something, anything to defend himself with, instead he only found his fingers clawing through slick sludge before reaching a cold stone floor.
A dozen feet ahead of him there was a grimy looking wall curving towards him at the roof, between him and the wall there were two small 'sidewalks', one which he was sitting on, between them there was a small river of dark brown water...that stunk.
Oh right...they were in the sewers.
Groaning he sat up, his right hand coming up to rub the back of his head as he glanced down at himself.
It was not a pretty sight.
The front of his shirt and pants were covered with black sludge, so thick that he barely saw the shape of his own body. Despite that he could still see that his left hand wasn't in the best of shapes, it had clearly swollen up from whatever blow it had received, heavy bruising barely concealed by the cold goop. Though he couldn't really see his left knee under the filth he had the feeling that he was bleeding from it.
Great, infection ahoy, whoopee...
At least he was still alive...and since he saw no ladder nor that hole he had fallen through he guessed himself to be in relative safety for the moment. But who had...oh right...the sister. Finding her was a simple case of looking to his left.
She was propped up against the wall next to him, her left hand still clutching that bolter of hers while the right lay limply in a pile of sludge. Her helmet was still on, leaning against the wall so that its red lenses looked up at the roof. She wasn't moving... Suddenly afraid Edwin noticed the splash of dark blood over her slim stomach where two craters had been made from the return fire that marine had poured into her.
Wincing he rolled over unto his knees, ignoring the way both his knee and hand stung when he put weight upon them. Inching closer he reached out, using his club-like left hand as support while the right moved to clasp the cold helmet of the sister. There was no stirring from her by the contact...dread crept upon Edwin as his fingers struggled to find some sort of release catch.
Come on, it should be somewhere around the ring by the neck, or could it only be...
With a click his fingers pushed against something, a moment later a hiss escaped the neck of the power armour as the helmet came loose.
She was probably dead...taking a deep breath Edwin forced himself to grab a hold of the helmet and pull it off.
For some reason he had expected to find a beautiful warrior maiden. Instead he found himself looking at a gaunt face with overly pronounced cheekbones and a long blade-like nose. Her hair was black and stringy, almost oily. She was also pale, if due to blood loss or all the time spent in her churches and within that helmet he couldn't tell. There was no stirring from her though, eyes closed, face relaxed.
"Oh no..." Edwin's shoulders dropped. Dead, she was dead...and he was alone. "I...I don't want to die. Please...no...not here...not alone...emperor...please." He swayed where he sat, the pounding in his head getting worse. "Emperor, please, let her live...I can't..."
"The emperor is always with you." Blinking Edwin found the sister's eyelids flutter up, dark brown eyes gazing straight forward, weary. "I am alive."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Edwin put a hand to his forehead. "Oh man what a relief! You really scared me there."
"My...apologies." The woman frowned, eyes unfocused as they turned to look at him. She looked exhausted.
Placing his damaged hand on her shoulder Edwin forced a smile. "Nothing to it! I'm just so happy that I'm not alone!" He glanced to his left and right, wondering where they now where. "Where's that hole we fell through?"
"I...dragged you away from that place...so as...not to get killed." The sister panted, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. A fever no doubt...and those wounds of hers weren't helping. "We're...safe."
Edwin laughed. "Yeah, stranded on a planet full of undead and astartes wanting to kill us, safe indeed!" The woman blankly looked back, obviously not understanding. "Forget it...just joking around..."
"You seem...to do that...a lot."
"Oh?" Edwin raised an eyebrow, forcing himself to look cheerful. "You were one who actually listened to me blabbering on?"
"Can't...avoid it." The sister actually smiled back, if only slightly. "Sorry, I'm not...accustomed...to interact...with anyone...but my sisters."
"I'm aware." Edwin patted her shoulder, wincing slightly how his hand stung at that, he kept smiling though. "To be honest I would never have dared to speak to anyone of you before...all this... When you stand guard by the doors to the church you all look so...scary."
"Scary?" The eyes looked away, focused on something on the wall behind Edwin, a glance back showed him nothing but a filthy wall though. "I...haven't...thought of us...as scary. We're...tools...of the emperor."
"Some tools are scarier then others though." Edwin laughed as he lowered his hand, casually putting it into the sludge on the floor, it was probably bad...but the coldness enveloping the throbbing hand felt good...he couldn't help himself. "Speaking of tools...what the hell happened back there? The astartes are the heroes of our psalms! Why would they..." He motioned for the surroundings, words failing him.
"Heretics..." The woman snorted, the pale face twisting into a grimace. "They must be...the emperor will punish them, be assured...death will come to them...on swift...wings."
"Uh...right." Edwin frowned, remembering the scene of the slaughter of the people in the chapel such words were hard to believe. They had been invincible... and for the emperor to punish them...the angels of death...his angels...everything was too messed up to make any sense out of it. "Are you okay?"
"I...have...been better." The woman panted, the hand clutching her weapon tightening as the other moved up towards her wounds...
Edwin quickly brushed the filth-covered hand away. "Hey, no putting crap into the wound please." Right...hypocrite...he glanced at his own damaged hand half submerged in cold sludge. Edwin sighed, looking about himself for something, anything to help. "I wish I could help you somehow...but so far I got nothing."
"The wounds...are not severe..." The sister replied, an obvious lie considering her paleness. Probably no organs damaged, but if she was still bleeding...Edwin didn't like the conclusion. "I...need...some rest. I...dragged you...here, rest..." She blinked, slowly as her shoulders slumped. "Rest..."
"Hey, stay awake now." Edwin forced himself to give her a small slap, then he instantly found himself looking into brown eyes shooting daggers at him, focused at last...at him. Recoiling he managed to keep his voice steady. "Good, as I said, awake is good for you right now...especially since I need your help."
The anger faded, the woman too tired to stay upset with such a blatant show of disregard of one of the emperor's chosen. Heck, Edwin was surprised at his own guts, then again...much had changed these last few weeks. "What...help can...I...offer?"
"Well, where do we go now?" Edwin looked about himself, the rumbling in his stomach was worrying...as was the fact that they were both injured and surrounded by death. The fact that he barely felt any worry at the situation was worrying in itself, he was getting jaded...or perhaps he had simply accepted his fate?
No, don't despair...you have some chance to...erm...don't despair...
"I...do...not know." The sister breathed, gasping slightly. "We...can't go...up...unclean."
"Yeah, unclean." Edwin managed a strangled chuckle, glancing at the filth surrounding him. "So no going up then eh? And lost in the sewers without food and water...beaten up as well...what to do?"
"Pray to the emperor..." The sister breathe, of course. "...and...walk...hope."
Edwin snorted, then shrugged, knowing there really wasn't anything better to do. "Damn, I barely know you and I already hate it when you're right." He stumbled to his feet and offered his good hand to the woman.
A small smile appeared upon the sister's lips as she took the hand, a whimper escaping her as he managed to pull her unto her feet. She nearly stumbled on into the water before he caught her, curling his arm around her waist while she put her left arm over his shoulders, armoured fingers digging into his shirt as she struggled to remain standing. "I'm...sorry."
Edwin shrugged as they begun their wobbly march. "Don't worry, just don't make it a habit."
A chuckle. "Very...well."
"By the way, name's Edwin."
"I...know...I'm...Joan..."
"Joan? Really? And here I thought you looked like an Adam."
"Excuse...me?"
"Another joke, sorry."
"Ah...funny...heh."
