Disclaimer: I don't own The Hills Have Eyes.
Oh my goodness, I haven't updated this fic since October and now it's May, so... I am so incredibly sorry! School got in the way and I had other fics I was working on. This one just kind of got neglected, unfortunately, but here is the newest chapter. I hope that everyone enjoys this latest update. Thanks so much to Berry's Ambitions, L. Harwell, and hunter-strain13 for their kind reviews. I don't know what I'd do without y'all's support. Means so much to me! Now, I guess, on to the latest chapter! Lucky number thirteen!
Edge
Chapter Thirteen: The Nightingale
"Can you hear me?"
The question, firm and focused, mingled with the various other sounds in the area around Missy. Deep breathing, whispers of the uncertain, a strange coughing. They were attempting to lodge in her skull, to distract her, but she was able to tune them out. She had to, or else things would get very sticky, very fast.
His eyes - such a bright blue, it still shocked her - were rolling. Unable to focus, unable to see anything, really, she figured. Missy placed a bloodstained hand on the person's cheek, as if to bring him back to reality. She then called back to one of the other clan members, "What is his name?"
There was a silence that followed, as if they were wondering the significance of this question.
"Lizard," a small voice piped up. Missy figured it was the young girl. Ruby, she told herself again, adamantly. You're tired. Your memory is shot.
"Lizard," Missy tested the name on her tongue, then repeated. "Lizard, can you hear me?"
The sound of his name seemed to garner his attention. His eyes snapped onto her, slightly out of focus, but she knew he saw her. "...th' fuck...you wan'..."
Missy found herself tilting her head to the side, her brow quirking almost automatically. A strange, dry chuckle emitted from who she supposed was Jupiter. It sounded odd, such a light sound dispersing such a serious situation, but Missy heard the underlying tones of cynicism. Despite his apparent trust in her, Jupiter doubted her abilities to save this man.
"Well, your attitude's good, at least," Missy said, though the traces of sarcasm in her voice were unadulterated.
The man now known as Lizard gave a cough. Several specks of blood landed on his bottom lip in the process. "Fuck 'ou."
"I wouldn't say that to the person who's gonna save you," a kind - and new - voice came out of seemingly no where. It was then Missy realized a man was standing next to her, a pile of haphazardly thrown together items in his hands. The towels, bandages, rubbing alcohol, needle and thread, and knife she requested were in a bundle in his arms, along with a new pair of clothes slung over his shoulder.
Missy looked up at him in gratitude. This mutant wore a green bowler hat, which had a dusting of sand around the brim. Scraggly hair hung, windswept, beneath the hat. He was thin, lanky almost, and had two slits where his nose should have been. But, despite all of the differences she noticed off the bat, Missy couldn't stop looking at his eyes. This particular mutant held a strange kind of warmth in them. The gentleness she saw there was something most humans would benefit from knowing, so to see it so freely displayed on the face of a person who had every right to feel otherwise was something that shocked as well as fascinated her.
"Thank you..." she trailed off, not realizing she was looking for a name until he gave her one.
"Goggle," he said, his voice soft, and yet gravelly at the same time. He placed the items on the floor next to her and stepped back politely "An' it's no problem."
Lizard gave another cough, and Missy spun to face him, her face no doubt showing the characteristic motherly concern she was so used to feeling. Another painful thought of Clyde followed, and she inhaled shakily.
She removed the hideously bloodstained towel from one of his wounds and watched as only a minimal amount of blood bubbled from it. It was deep, so the lack of blood was a good sign. It was also on his leg, located in a terrifying proximity to his femoral artery; however, it hadn't been severed, as far as she could tell. If it had, she supposed, he would have been dead long ago. She could see the ragged flesh where it had been stitched previously, and then ripped back open. This Lizard character clearly didn't know the definition of taking it easy.
"Is there any way...do you have a lighter? Or matches?" Missy asked, eyeing the needle. It needed to be sterilized to the best of her abilities before she even started stitching. An infection was the last thing this guy needed.
"We have matches," Jupiter said. Missy could hear him rising from his seat. "Hold on."
Missy nodded, and she heard heavy footsteps walk away from their little gathering. Lizard's eyes fluttered closed for the briefest of moments, and Missy was on him like a hawk, slapping his cheek as gently as she could but hard enough to keep him awake.
"Th'...hell?" he asked weakly, his eyes opening and then settling a very strong glare on her.
"We need to keep you awake," she reasoned.
Lizard started to reply, a half-formed curse, when Jupiter came back, a box of matches in his calloused hand. Missy took the matches from him, nodded in thanks, and then set to work.
She took the knife in one hand and set to cutting off the remnants of Lizard's shirt. It was sticky, full of blood, clinging to him like a second skin. Some of of the blood had dried in the time she was unconscious, obviously, and those areas were crusted and flaky, difficult to run the knife through. Missy looked at him, only to find him staring at her in contempt, his eyes heavy and dangerously close to shutting.
Missy took one of the clean towels and started to wipe the blood from his body. She took another and covered his bare lap, offering a slight promise of privacy in this crowded room. Realizing she needed water to visualize the wounds better, she rose and turned towards the clan. "Is there...any water in this place?"
Her mind was obviously scattered, tired from the exertion and ringing from one too many blows to the head. She should have thought of the matches and water beforehand, but she had forgotten them. The simplest items, she had forgotten. It was enough to put a sour taste in her mouth.
Ruby nodded and was off, slipping around the corner as if she were a cloud of smoke.
Missy then allowed herself to ponder where exactly she was. In the middle of the desert, sure, if her company was any indication. How far was she from the mines? From her comrades? If...if there were any left.
A chill raced down her back.
The small mutant then returned, carrying a basin of water in her thin arms. Her eyes were wide and expressive in her face, hopeful that she was doing her job correctly. "Is this okay?"
Missy nodded, her returning smile warm. "Yes. That's fine. Thank you."
The young girl sat the basin down next to Missy. She reached over to the pile of items brought to her by Goggle and picked up a towel before submerging it into the slightly cloudy water. Wringing it out, she set to cleaning Lizard's skin of the dried blood.
She tried not to scrub too hard, nervous about causing even more trauma to the wounds that were already bad enough to begin with. The blood flow had ceased, it seemed.
"Shit!" She heard Lizard curse as she ran the towel over what she presumed was a sensitive area. She murmured an apology to him, and he growled at her in reply.
The atmosphere around her was tense. Every eye was on her, she felt. It was strange, being the center of attention when she hadn't been in so very long. She found it unwelcome, even now, especially under the circumstances.
As if sensing her discomfort, Jupiter called out, "Let's give the two of them space. Can't help nothing by hanging over them like vultures."
Missy turned and looked to the leader of this small band of mutants, gratitude deep in her gaze. Jupiter gave her a curt nod before walking off, albeit somewhat reluctantly. She couldn't blame him; if it had been her son there, being tended to by some random stranger, she wouldn't have wanted to leave at all. Hell, they'd have probably had to tranquillize her to get her away.
Clyde...
She looked down and saw her hands were shaking.
As unfortunate as it would seem, she could not allow herself to think of her son at this moment, not when someone's life was on the line. She had trained herself in matters of distraction, and focused on those methods as she set to work.
These motions were practiced, familiar. She took the rubbing alcohol and poured it into the wounds that were deeper than the others, the wounds that looked to be the worst of all. Lizard clenched his eyes shut and grit his teeth, cursing the world but never her.
It was amazing what a little soap and water could do, she realized. Without being covered it blood, Lizard didn't look nearly as critical as he had been just moments before. That didn't mean his condition was any less severe, of course, but at least she was making progress.
"Lizard," she began softly, "Lizard, focus on my voice, okay?"
Lizard made a grunt of ascension.
"Can you tell me something about yourself?"
Missy knew that, just by being around him in the small capacity that she had been, that he wasn't the type to open up about himself. Especially not to a stranger.
"Ya...don' care...'bout me..."
Missy set a wry look upon him. "If I didn't care, why would I be doing this?"
"Pop...'ll kill you."
This caused her to smile. It was faint and all-knowing, though she felt the slightest twinge of doubt at what Jupiter had told her. He seemed an honorable man - and he did seem legitimately grateful that she saved his daughter - but Missy knew all too well the limits of an individual's kindness.
"What's your favorite color?" she decided to ask, instead of the numerous amount of questions that were now plaguing her already troubled mind.
Lizard laughed - well, it was more of a strangled sound of cynical mirth than it was a genuine laugh, but still, Missy took it for what it was - and flexed his fingers a bit, eyes focusing on them as if he were amazed the blood was gone from him. Amazed that there was a time where blood was not staining his hands.
"Red," he said.
Missy gave him a smile. "Yeah?"
Lizard nodded gruffly. "Don'...see...what that...has...to do...with anythin'."
"Just trying to keep you awake," she reassured. Lizard looked at her with a sense of skepticism that was unsurpassed, but gave a weak shrug. Missy was in awe to see that he could move his body on his own, even now. She attested the fact to the power of one's will. And, by all means, Lizard had a strong one.
This continued for a while. Missy's hands started stitching wounds shut, only after pouring the rubbing alcohol into the wounds - and trying not to be offended at the names Lizard called her - and asking him questions all the while just to keep him from fading from the present.
"Favorite time of year?"
"Winter."
"What do you like about the desert?"
"Quiet..."
"Can you tell me the names of your family?"
"Ruby...Jupiter...Pluto - this is fuckin'...stupid..." he hacked, glaring daggers at her, but Missy remained unperturbed.
Minutes turned into an hour, an hour into two. The questions flowed easily from Missy, who was used to doing such things. It was interesting, hearing his answers, but she stayed focused, body hunched over the particular wound she was closing, nimble fingers working to coax the needle through ragged flesh.
More than once, she looked up to find Lizard staring down at her. It was almost as if he was wondering what manner of woman she was. Never one to shrink away from anyone's gaze, Missy found herself staring back for a few moments before studiously going back to work.
A sigh emitted from Missy as she snipped off the last bit of thread on the last stitch of the last wound. This one was a bit bigger than the rest, spanning the length of his back in a jagged crescent pattern, she hadn't even seen until she told Lizard to turn over. If she had, she would have addressed it first. Then again, it was more shallow than the rest, not as life threatening as the other, deeper, wounds that adorned his legs and arms and stomach.
She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, feeling his bony shoulder underneath her palm. He was rather wiry, but muscular, she noted as she stared at the contours of his arms and back.
"All done, Lizard."
He shrugged away from her touch. Really, Missy didn't know him from Adam, but she expected nothing less. She handed him his clothes but he told her vehemently that he, "Don't need...your damn help...getting dressed."
She allowed him this, trying not to let his words get the best of her, since he was - after all - still rather wounded despite everything.
Missy turned away, allowing him the appropriate privacy to get dressed. He grunted several times, and she found herself wincing for him. She found herself turning to look at him despite herself. "Are you sure you - "
"Yes," Lizard snapped, and just then he wobbled just slightly. Reflexively, Missy jolted upward and stopped him from tumbling further. He growled at her, still not wanting her help even in his most vulnerable state, and he jerked away from her.
Missy stared at him, fighting the urge to shout at him. Her training, however, would not allow her to spew venom at an injured person, not when he was still so weak.
Lizard eased himself into the chair, his face betraying none of the pain that he was undoubtably feeling. Missy watched him, almost entranced, at his willpower.
"I'll go tell everyone we're done here," she said, looking away to the door through which everyone had left the room.
No answer.
Concerned, Missy looked back at the hot-tempered mutant, only to find him sleeping, the stable rise and fall of chest a promising sign. His breaths looked even. Upon feeling his pulse, she was relieved to find it steady, much stronger than it had been earlier.
Good, she thought, proud.
With a faint smile, she backed away from him, not breaking her gaze until she closed the door behind her, a strange sense of hope set deep in her chest.
End Chapter Thirteen.