savetheearth | SAGE PARTY GO

Emmanuel doesn't move, at least not consciously--he sways as the bottom drops out of his stomach, and his heart pounds in his ears. The knuckles of the hand gripping his phone are white, and there's a sudden weight in the other, cold and smooth. It's a metal blade about the length of his forearm, and the highly polished surface glints with whatever light is left in the cavern.

He hasn't quite processed the danger yet, however, or his new acquisition, and all he does is grip it automatically so it doesn't fall, twisting to follow the sound of the entrance collapsing.

Unable to keep entirely still Julien hovered around the edges of the group, wondering if this was how it felt to be afraid of enclosed spaces. Or crowds. Still he heard things clearly enough.

Dead?

"I knew this was a bad idea," he said under his breath. Talking felt strange, like he had to do it around a lump in his throat - he knew he'd just gotten something, maybe by listening. Couldn't worry about that now, now he had to glance about with his flashlight's help.

Shit. Were those - Sam had talked about those things but they clearly weren't going to run away and he was a lot closer to one than he wanted to be, and there were those evil-looking bat things swooping about just to make it worse. He started to back away towards the center of the room, but there was the friendly reverend, oblivious to anything behind.

Julien lunged at him. "Look out-" he managed just before he half-bodychecked, half-grabbed poor Emmanuel. A bat made a strafing run just through where the man's head would have been.

Emmanuel wasn't a small man by any means, but he also wasn't expecting a heavy weight to collide with him at high speed. He toppled over pretty ungracefully with a yelp. By some miracle, he managed not to impale himself on his new weapon, holding it parallel to the ground under his side. His phone, however, skittered across the dirt and was crushed by a panicked foot. He felt a twinge of regret at that, but there were more pressing matters at hand. Hopefully he was due for an upgrade, anyway.

The dark forms darting at them took a few more moments to register as individual shapes and not a formless mass. Bats? But far bigger than any bat should be, at least on this continent. Adrenaline finally kicked in, and he gasped aloud, pulling in air. He tried not to elbow Julien by accident while they tried to disengage, his heart now pounding for an actual physical reason.

"What is that--I--thank you--"

He raised his free arm to shield his face a little, trying to track the creatures' movements. Then the other arm came up, and he stopped to stare at the blade he was holding. It was heavy, definitely solid metal, but well-balanced, and even in the meager light he could see the edges of it had been sharpened. This was like that coat, only it was actually something useful. He had to use both hands to change his grip, however, considering he'd never handled anything bigger than a kitchen knife before.

"We have to get--" Emmanuel swallowed hard, adding another word to his unfinished thought. "We have to get everyone out of here!" There were children in the mine with them, at least three that he'd seen.

Julien hadn't meant to push Emmanuel over and even less so to go down with him, and not getting impaled himself was another minor miracle, though a wing did slap at him. He scrambled gracelessly apart and sucked in a breath because ...oh, oh.

There was the hollowness, the resounding pulse again. So soon? There was a moment of pressure, of heaviness in his chest and his heart pounded weirdly in his ears but he kept up his two-stage breathing and it eased. Whatever that was it probably wasn't going to cripple him on the way.

Did the bat do that? Hopefully he wouldn't rack up a bunch of extras here and end up as whatever the hell the Apostle was in record time. Julien couldn't worry about that now. He struggled to his feet, then upright, trying to keep track of where everybody and every thing was, doing a double-take at the stake or knife or whatever Emmanuel was holding now but not looking for long.

"Sounds like there was a cave-in," he said past the lump, his voice as hoarse as if he'd gone a few days without speaking. The hairy humanoid had found someone else to bother, but there were more bats. They couldn't really rake with their talons like birds might but they had teeth and fair size and a couple were swerving their way. "There!"

He put out an arm to steady Julien as he righted himself, not disoriented enough to miss that the young man didn't seem to be doing so well. Had he fallen wrong? The bats were a bigger problem, however, and he slashed the air clumsily with the knife to try to keep them at bay. It worked for the moment, since they seemed aware enough to try to avoid the blade.

"What are these things--the creatures people talked about before...?" He kept close to Julien, trying to cover him and get an idea of where the exit was. It seemed like anyone who kept their head enough to try to get out were now facing child-sized--what? Monkeys? Whatever they were, they were just as unnerving as the giant bats. Thankfully the two of them were close enough to a wall that Emmanuel could put it at his back, making the position more defensible.

Not that he had a clue how to do any defending in the first place. He fumbled for the flashlight stuck in his pocket.

"I-I don't suppose you have any idea how to use something like this?" He lifted the knife--it was more like a small sword, really--to ward off another attacker.

Julien rasped, "I think so. 'Sposed to be shy, I guess they found their courage." He put a hand on Emmanuel's arm but got up on his own, he was fine now, it was just... hard to talk.

He felt the urge to just slap at the things when Emmanuel waved the blade around, which would have been confusing if things weren't mad enough right now to put it out of his mind. Someone - sounded like Chris? - was screaming in more than alarm, over there somewhere. He couldn't do anything about it.

"Sorry." The best he did in fights was strategically be in, or out of, the way. He'd have said that if he wasn't having to force speech. For the moment, frustration and protective urges and adrenaline surging, he just got on the side of Emmanuel's off hand, where he was probably less likely to get hit. Julien still flinched at shapes coming too close in the dark.

There's a lot he could say about that--maybe they were just waiting for the right chance to strike--but he settled for "Bad timing, then."

The noise around them was making his anxiousness mount; the others were in trouble. But first they had to look after themselves, and that meant getting rid of these creatures. There were three of them that he could count trying to divebomb his head and shoulders, getting bolder with each swoop. Emmanuel gripped his flashlight in his left hand, trying to see if shining it in their eyes would throw them off, but it didn't seem to deter them much.

"It's all right--" but he made the mistake of turning a little to see how Julien was faring, and one of the horrible things decided now would be a good time to sink its fangs into his arm. He yelled, though more in surprise than in pain. That would come later. He flung his arm out automatically, trying to shake it off, dashing it against the packed earth wall. It dropped to the ground, stunned.

Again, a wave of something like vertigo overcame him, and he nearly dropped his flashlight. The shouts around them were drowned out by his heartbeat--another one?--and he had to lean heavily back against the wall, unprepared for it.

Oh, shit. Julien kicked at the fallen bat and connected, but not terribly solidly. Maybe that didn't matter; it flopped about, unable to maneuver as well on the ground as a vampire bat, unable also to get into the air.

The others, he didn't know what to do except get between them and the reverend, trying to track both of them as they wheeled and flapped. He suddenly thought, against the wall was the best spot, they needed clearance for wings that big. Even two people, that might be okay.

Looking away would get him attacked, backing up without looking could get him accidentally stabbed. Julien gritted his teeth. He was not coordinated enough to be sure he could hit a quickly-moving bat with a flashlight, but he'd try.

Seconds passed before Emmanuel was able to recover, and he pushed off the wall, his concern for Julien shoving away any lingering disorientation.

"Be careful--" And without really thinking about it, he moved around to Julien's right, lifting the knife. In a nearly effortless gesture, he spun the hilt between his fingers, letting it settle into his palm backhanded. A step forward, then he swept his arm up in an uppercut, meeting one of the bats as it dove at him and slicing clean through one of its wings.

What.

"Oh god-"

The hapless bat hit the ground and bled out rapidly. Julien stared at it in horror, and then forced himself to focus. Prioritize. He was calmer here than he might have expected but if he didn't keep focus, if he thought too much about the situation, he'd panic. His breath was coming hard, though his altered lung structure just meant those deep odd breaths were more rapid.

Focus! Julien tried to clear his throat, it didn't help, he went on anyway. "Can you do that again?"

The screeches and loud flapping noises coming from the bats were getting on Regina's last nerves, and frustration marred her face with a strong tension all over, chewing on her bottom lip as she kept running. A slight feat for someone who haphazardly bandaged her arms from her previous attack, but it was no time to hesitate and show fear. She must run, fight, shoot, and then run some more, even if it hurt.

With one hand on the handgun, she brushed her free one against the rocky walls and as she leaned on them to reload her weapon (she couldn't afford to go bullet-less now), her gaze flickered to a pair of men. Apparently, those two were caught in own predicament — more angry bats. Should she help them? One of the men just stabbed that huge bat within her gaze, but... it couldn't hurt, could it?

"There's another one coming your way!" She screamed out in warning, and sure enough, an extra bat swooped in to their left. "Watch out!"

"I-I don't know, I--"

Emmanuel's body reacted to the shout before he even realized it, turning on his heel, tossing the blade to his left hand and stabbing the creature clean through its torso. The momentum of the attack meant his arm kept going even after it met resistance, slamming the bat into the cave wall, impaled on the silver blade.

Emmanuel himself gasped in pain, and let go of the hilt, having forgotten his left arm was actually injured. The bat spasmed for a moment, then went limp. It and the knife clattered to the floor. He clutched his arm to his chest, looking like he might throw up.

The movement was fast and fluid enough that Julien jerked away instinctively. He could feel his heart speeding up and pounding in his throat - not another extra, but very rapid. Bats were one thing. This-

-but, the rest of Emmanuel was clearly not used to that sort of... that. It was easier to focus when there was something he thought he could do - oh, a girl had shouted, he couldn't see her well with this lighting and distance. "Thanks!" he cried in her general direction.

He thought maybe there weren't any bats too close, even though since... they had wings they could change that in a hurry. Still. Julien reached as if to touch Emmanuel, didn't quite, and rasped "Down. Less of a target." He crouched himself and pulled off his drawstring backpack, removed an old towel; he could press it against Emmanuel's arm and have the other hold it until the bleeding stopped. There wasn't really time or resources for more.

Emmanuel obeyed without really thinking, crouching down, one knee on the rocky ground. He couldn't tear his gaze away from the dead bat for a moment, then forced himself to.

"It's not--bad, I don't think, just..." He winced a little as Julien put pressure on the wound, but managed not to make a sound aside from a quick intake of breath. "Thanks."

He glanced at the knife, now stained dark with what must be blood. He didn't want to touch it anymore, but--it was his only defense at the moment. He shifted to pick it up gingerly with his uninjured hand.

"How many of those things are there--...?"

He hadn't brought anything that could hold the towel in place. Well, no, that wasn't entirely true. Julien tried to press it against the wound with one hand and with the other upended the backpack - not much in it without the towel, a water bottle and that was it, he had his pants pockets for those things - so he could pin it under one knee and stretch it taut with his free hand. "Don't know. Cut this in strips, I'll tie it on."

Julien had been learning first aid at the clinic. He didn't have everything down and made his share of mistakes even just being quizzed in perfectly tensionless moments, but he did know about blood loss and how it could creep up on you. The dark and the sweater made it hard to tell how bad it was, how much Emmanuel was bleeding, but Julien had seen and felt too much to not want it stemmed.

Edited 2013-07-19 03:18 (UTC)

Emmanuel looked at the knife skeptically; the blade was triangular and definitely made for stabbing things, not cutting them. But the edges turned out to be surprisingly sharp, and he managed. A bit clumsily with only one hand, but it was enough.

He could hear shouts and forms moving around in the darkness, and tried to listen for anything getting close. At least being low to the ground made them smaller targets.

"Doesn't have to be fancy--we should go help." With his initial deer-in-headlights reaction out of the way, he was running on adrenaline, and despite his distaste for violence, he couldn't exactly watch people get hurt and not do anything.

Julien grunted assent as he tied the makeshift pad in place, as tightly as he could. He hadn't gotten very far in Boy Scouts and didn't really know knots, he knew it was likely this would come off at some point, but what could he do?

And he'd already seen how useful he was versus bats. If Julien came with he'd just be in the way or a distraction again.

"Okay," he said, hoarse. "I'm finding Strider, he'll tell me what to do. Good luck. Don't die."

Edited 2013-07-22 11:47 (UTC)

"Thank you--" Emmanuel gritted his teeth a little, staying silent until Julien was finished. He flexed his hand to see how well he could move it, wincing. At least it was functional.

"Be careful," he said firmly, feeling uneasy about letting the young man go off on his own. But he had a clear head and Emmanuel could hardly begrudge him wanting to check on a friend.

He couldn't lose focus now, there were things to be done. Probably more people injured, too.

SAGE PARTY GO

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