CYOA Page 170
Sep. 12th, 2013 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You can't ignore a cry for help like that. You're not sure that guy you saw is Joel... and you feel like you would be sure, if it was. ...or maybe that's just what I have to believe?
"Help!" cries the female again. "Over here!"
"Coming!" you call back, though your throat is already so raw from the smoke that you're afraid it's not very loud. It sounds like she's behind that... machine or whatever it is right there... It's like a big metal wall, which seems like a good thing to be behind right now. You have to crawl to avoid the smoke, which is everywhere now -- and to be able to fucking see anything.
When you make your way around the corner, you realize there's two people back here -- and one of them is-- "Joel!" you cry raspily, practically hurling yourself onto his prone form. He's hurt! There's blood on his face... coming from a head wound, looks like... The owner of the voice you heard is crouched beside him, trying to tug him by the arm. Joel's not budging. The girl, woman, whoever... is bigger than you, but you know from firsthand experience that Joel is super heavy.
"Joel, can you hear me?" you cough into his ear; he's clearly unconscious. Talking is painful, but who cares-- "Joel! Wake up! Please -- we have to go!"
Obviously, if Joel were capable of waking up right now, he would.
You turn to the voice -- a young-ish woman, you would guess. "Help me lift -- lift him up! Maybe we can-- do it together," you choke out between coughs.
"There's a window-- back there," she says -- and her voice is colored by the smoke as well, all raspy and gruff. "I'll get... this side..."
The two of you can lift him! It takes some effort, but you manage to work his arms around your shoulders, and this way you can drag him along without actually drag-dragging him along the ground. You're taking the woman's word about the window because you still can't see shit (and you've stopped trying; your eyes have been reduced to watering, stinging, useless nothings). Something to your left crashes to the floor... you sense it more than hear it... another section of catwalk, maybe? Fuck... this whole place is gonna cave in!
"You go first," says the girl.
...Huh? Then you realize there's a wall directly in front of your face. And a busted-out window... "Can we push him through here?" you wonder out loud.
"You climb through... then I'll push, you pull?" she suggests.
"Okay... here... lean him, like... on my back..." You would hate to drop him and have to climb back in! You climb through the window carefully enough to keep Joel at your back, then twist around to tug him toward you... basically hug him toward you, stumbling backward when the girl gets his legs up and gives him a good shove. At least you didn't have very far to fall to the ground. You topple Joel over on his side. "Help me get him-- away from here--"
But your helper isn't climbing through the window.
"Hey!" you try to shout to her (you're pretty sure the word was smothered by the obnoxious cough that followed it).
...but she does stick her head out the window, and now that you can open your eyes, you see her for the first time... sort of. She's still obscured by the smoke. You can make out long dark hair and a dark shirt. Or maybe the smoke and ash and stuff just makes everything look dark. "There's other people. In here. I have to help--"
She's gone before you can thank her for helping Joel.
You can see now that Joel is breathing. ...I probably should have checked that before now?! You're not even sure you remember how to do CPR; you learned back in Boston, but you've never had to apply the knowledge. I bet Joel knows how... I should ask him about it later... but you think you remember the first step in any emergency is to get to a safe location. You're not sure how much longer you would've lasted in there, given how woozy you're feeling now.
Oh God, Joel... did you inhale a lot of smoke? Is that why you passed out? That's not good... or is it whatever happened to your head?! His face is caked in blood. You don't know what you're supposed to be doing for him right now, other than getting him the hell away from there, and you're kind of stuck on that point now. Maybe I should go help my helper?
But... you really feel like she's going to die in there. And now that Joel is safe, you don't want to risk your life chasing after corpses. It makes sense, doesn't it? I mean... that's dumb... so why do I feel so GUILTY? ...I guess cuz maybe they're NOT necessarily corpses, yet...
"Nnhh..."
"Oh thank God!" you cry; Joel is starting to stir! "Joel, you're safe now. Ish. I mean, the smoke sucks here still... but not as bad as in there... and I don't think the wall's gonna fall on us or anything..." You're still punctuating everything with coughs, and it still fucking hurts... but so does breathing. You just have to stand it. -Endure and survive!
"What..." He grimaces, bringing his hand up to his head.
"Take it easy... you got hurt, somehow... how do you feel? Can you move? Can you get up?"
"...think so..."
"It would've been really helpful if you'd woken up a few minutes ago, you know," you scold him. Because you're mean like that!
He smiles a little. "Sorry... ...wait, how did you..."
"Get you out? With my superhuman strength, of course. It just wasn't easy." You snort. "Okay, so actually, this girl... this woman... got my attention, and it's a good thing, cuz I was about to go completely the wrong way. To this guy on the floor who I thought might be you."
Joel makes some kind of affirmative grunting noise. "Prob'ly the guy that gave me this." He rubs his head... and you assume he's talking about the wound (because the guy couldn't have given him his actual head... ha). "I was tryin' to help her."
"Were there other people there? Cuz she said she had to go help them."
"Yeah... at least two more... maybe I should... go see..."
He starts to get up, but you push him back down. "No. No way. I just got you out of there -- you're not going back in! Besides, you can't go in this way. When we were getting you out the window, these beams or whatever fell down right behind us and it's totally blocked." A bit of an exaggeration there, on how close that was to you... but he can't see through all that smoke anyway!
"Maybe another way, then..."
"No! You're not going anywhere." It's rare when you're the physically stronger one, of the two of you... and you suspect it won't last long. Plan B... "I can't let you go in there alone, so if you insist on going in, I'm going with you. And I don't think you want that."
Joel grimaces. "Fine. But we gotta move..."
"Yeah. Okay. This way..." You're coughing less now, but every word you speak feels like it's carving itself into your throat, and your head is throbbing pretty bad now. You and Joel hold on to each other and stand up together, a simple act that you find annoyingly challenging. "I feel like... dizzy, for some reason."
"The smoke. I feel it, too... we need to get to the hospital."
The hospital that you're not even remotely near yet. "What can they do about it?" The two of you lean on each other, helping you walk farther away from the building.
"Don' know, but I reckon they can do somethin'. If--" He cuts himself off and just leaves that word hanging there.
"If what?" you prompt him.
"Nothin'. We just need to go. ...I don't s'pose you grabbed any of my shit while you were in there?" He looks around now, as if he expects to see it laying around nearby.
"Uh... no? Kinda had bigger things to worry about. And I couldn't fucking see anything." Which is true, but... "Why weren't you still wearing it when I found you? ...Why were you even in there in the first place?"
He shakes his head slightly, then winces.
"Why?" you demand.
"Some other time."
"What? You mean you'll tell me later? Whatever. So that guy was a hunter? And that woman was a hunter?" She didn't strike you as an asshole, which hunters typically -- no, always -- are.
"Need to quit talkin'... we're just hurtin' our vocal chords more. And our lungs."
You side-eye him skeptically. "Bullshit. You just don't wanna talk. Great -- how long are you going to use this as an excuse?"
"No excuse. Ssshh."
"Whatever, Joel." Yes, it hurts when you talk, but it also hurts when you breathe, and you can't very well stop doing that.
"Hey." He pauses. Looks at you. "Thank you. For savin' me."
"Pfff. What else was I gonna do, let you die?"
"I owe you one."
"You owe me like ten by now." You turn and look at the smoky building behind you. I owe HER one, too, for saving Joel... but you'll never get to repay her. You really hope she makes it out; if you didn't have Joel here to worry about, you would probably try to find another way in and see if you can help her, but you know he'd never let you go in alone, and you're not willing to risk his life.
And you're glad, because although it makes you feel selfish, you don't want to go back in there and try to be a hero -- especially for random strangers -- and especially-especially if they're hunters. What good is being a hero if it gets you killed? You can live with being a selfish prick... you can live.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2020-12-29 06:35 am (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2020-12-29 02:13 pm (UTC)