Rising Action (17.3)

"Nia!" Val and Owen yelled at the same time, dashing forward. It seemed that the sudden noise had finally broken Fenix out of his trance as well. He saw Nia on the ground and moved towards her, mouthing her name.

Val knelt down, carefully turning Nia over in her lap, gasping as she saw the girl's entire back was covered in blood, "Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck. Okay. Okay, do either of you have a knife," She asked desperately. Fenix quickly handed her a blade and she made quick work of the back of the shirt, tearing the back of it. From what she could see, it seemed that the explosion from earlier had knocked some of the wood pieces for the crates into her back, possibly getting scratched badly enough by some of them to leave a long, large gash. 

She didn't hesitate, reaching down to grab the hem of her shirt to pull it off to use it as a bandage but Owen stopped her, "Hold on," He tugged his own hoodie off, and pulled off the tank top he was wearing underneath, handing that to her and pulling the hoodie back on. Val tore it in a way that gave it more length.

"Fenix, can you hold her up for a moment?" She asked, trying to keep Fenix lucid during all of this. Fenix nodded, crawling over and gently lifting Nia so she was upright. Val quickly bandaged Nia, wrapping the cloth around her back and abdomen, "Someone needs to carry her, we need to get her medical attention now."

"I can do it," Fenix said, "Owen, can you hold her up and put her on my back?" Owen nodded, and gently held Nia as Fenix stopped and crouched, "Okay, now put her on my back," They maneuvered her carefully onto Fenix's back and once she was settled, Val was already planning what their next move would be.

After all, one of her role models was Bella and if there was one thing she knew about Bella, it was that the woman always had a plan.

Before she could hear anything though, she heard something overhead. Looking up, she realized that some of the ships flying by weren't actually ships. She recognized them, in fact, she had been in them plenty of times.

Rebellion escape shuttles.

"They're heading toward the far side of the town!" She realized, "Alright, we need to follow those shuttles, understand? Owen, you go in front. Fenix, because you have Val, you go in the middle. I'll cover you from behind. On three, we start running. Are you all ready?" She asked. It seemed that Fenix and Owen had managed to put aside their shock and grief due to the fear of possibly losing Nia, "Alright, one, two, three!" 

They began sprinting, sticking close to the walls and jumping to avoid some of the dead bodies on the ground. Val winced as she accidentally stepped on someone's arms. 

At the front, Owen had not hesitated to grab the closest piece of wood and brutally hit any guards that got in the way. Val heard yelling behind them and turned to see that they were being followed. Cursing, she looked around for a weapon, and to her luck, there happened to be a crossbow on a dead body by her feet. Wrenching it out of the hands of the corpse, she grabbed the quiver and loaded the arrow. Her eyes locked in on the target, and she let the arrow fly.

And, of course, she couldn't put her title as the Rebellion's Arrow to shame.

As she shot all of them down, she turned back to see Owen and Fenix waiting for her. As she looked at them, Fenix almost jumped a bit, "God, I don't think I'll ever get used to that," He muttered. At her confused look, he pointed to her face, "You know, glowy eyes and all."

"Ah. Yeah, that. Come on, we need to keep moving. One of the shuttles landed so that means we can get Nia help if we get there. Keep moving, Owen!" She called up front. The other boy nodded and they began running again.

They hadn't made it too much further when Val stopped again. Fenix and Owen took a while to notice, turning back and realizing Val had stopped in front of a building. Owen reached out to tap her on the shoulder, "Val? What's wrong—"

"The pet store," She said, staring at the half-destroyed, burning building in front of her, "It's the pet store, guys, don't you see?! This is Sam, Haven, and Lifen's store!" 

The moment she said it, Fenix and Owen immediately realized what she was talking about. They stared in silence for a moment before Fenix spoke, "You don't…You don't think they're in there, do you? They must have left—"

All three of them went deadly quiet. As they looked at each other, they knew they hadn't been hearing things.

That was the sound of a baby crying.

"Wait, Val!" Neither of them could stop the girl fast enough before she ran into the store. Owen was about to run after her but before he could, a wooden beam fell down, blocking the entrance. The boys both looked at each other, panic written across both of their faces, "What do we…We can't leave her!" 

Fenix hardened his face, "We won't. I'm going to clean Nia's wound as much as I can and then we're going to keep her awake until we can figure out how to get Val out of there. We can do this, love. We can do this."

Meanwhile, inside the building, the build-up of the smoke was so strong that Val was coughing the moment she entered. Hearing a crash, she whirled around to see that the entrance had been blocked by a wooden beam falling in front of it.

Her heart dropped. She wasn't getting out through the door.

She had no more time to ponder it though before she could hear the baby's cries getting louder again. Finding it too difficult to breathe, she dropped down to the ground to crawl, covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief as she slowly crawled around the debris, making her way to the staircase.

It was only near the staircase that she realized that further across the room, there was something sticking out of the pile of debris. She looked between the second floor and the object before deciding that she should check it out.

As she got closer, she started realizing what it was and she almost scrambled back, covering her mouth and trying to bite back her whimpers. 

It was an arm. There was a person buried under all that debris.

She didn't want to. She really didn't want to. But if there was a chance that the person was alive, she had to try.

Reaching forward, she realized it was the left hand of the person and gently placed two fingers on the wrist. She let out a choked sob as she found that she could feel nothing at all. No pulse. She knew who this was. 

Haven was dead.

She scrambled back, unable to hold in her tears. She struggled to breathe, trying to hold in her noise so that she could still hear the baby crying. She made her way over to the staircase again, carefully making her way up. 

The second floor was even worse than the first, the majority of it being caved in or just open to the air with so much of the building being absolutely destroyed. She could tell she was closer and closer to the baby. She crawled around, prodding around to see if she could possibly feel the baby.

Right as she got next to the sound of crying, she realized there was another faint noise.

A woman's crying.

"...Lifen?" Val asked, her voice raspy from the smoke, "Lifen, is that you?"

There was coughing, "Oh, thank God. It's one of you kids, isn't it?" Val couldn't see her face from the debris practically entrapping her, she could only see her hand, which was holding on tight to a cover basket. A baby basket, "Please, take them. Protect them both, please. And…Tell them I'm sorry. Tell them we're sorry."

"N—No, Lifen, wait. Let me…Let me get you help, please," Val's voice broke, her tears falling endlessly now.

There was weak laughter, "It's too late for me. Half of my body was crushed by debris. I can't…I can't feel anything. I won't make it. You can't stay here any longer. You need to go, please, take them with you."

Val shook her head, "Wait, just—What about Sam? Where's Sam?!" She asked. She hadn't seen the man on her way in.

Lifen was silent for a moment before she whimpered, "He's…In here. With me. Haven was downstairs. The bombs hit. Sangcheol…He protected us but…He died immediately during the impact. His body is…Please, just go. There's nothing you can do for me except for this. Get them out of here safely."

Val was fully crying, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You weren't even…You had nothing to do with any of this, I'm so sorry."

Lifen reached up weakly, ruffling Val's hair, "It's not your fault, child. There's nothing you could have done," She said raspily, "Tell me, Haven, are they…"

Val let out a sob, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Lifen let out a sigh, "Don't apologize, you've done nothing wrong. I'll be with them again. Just…Make sure Xingxing knows who her parents were, will you? Take care of Alya, too. She's been taking care of our Xiao Xingxing. I…Think it's time for you to go."

The girl took multiple deep breaths, trying to calm herself as she put her hands on the baby basket, "I swear, she will know who her parents were and she will love them. Rest in peace, Lifen. We will take care of her."

"Good. You're a good person, kid. Now go," Lifen said, patting Val on the head. Finally, she took the baby basket and began to crawl away, carefully weaving through the debris. 

She turned back just in time to see Lifen's hand drop to the ground.

Val only had a moment to let a noise of despair before she began to hear the house creak, and her stomach dropped.

If the house collapsed, not only would she die, but the baby and kitten in the baby basket would die as well. She had just made a promise.

She was not going to break it. 

Making her choice, Val stood up, dropping the cloth. If she was going to move quickly with the basket in her hands, she needed both hands to hold it steady. She made her way down the steps, yelping as her foot almost slipped straight through the staircase. She looked down to see a hole in the wood where her foot had almost gone through. Opening her mouth caused a lot of smoke to enter though, and she coughed, struggling to get it out. She put weight on the leg that went partially through the hole and winced. It must have been sprained.

She didn't stop, continuing down the stairs and quickly moving past what she knew was probably Haven's dead body. She was only a few steps away from the entrance before suddenly, a part of the ceiling collapsed above her, causing the wooden beam under it to fall as well. Val knew she couldn't move fast enough. 

Quickly, she knelt down, placing the basket under her before covering it with her body.

And she screamed as the weight of the entire wooden beam fell on her, along with part of the ceiling.

The tears fell as she grunted, trying to hold her body up against the weight of the debris so that she wouldn't end up crushing the baby and the kitten. Val tried to push herself up, trying to move the debris off of herself but she could feel her hands giving way.

And then in an instant, all the weight was off of her, and she collapsed to the side of the basket, looking up at the whole in the ceiling, straight up to the sky. 

"Come on, we need to go," A voice said hurriedly, and Val shook her head,

"Take the basket and go. I can't move. Just get that basket out of here, please," She said, the tears still falling down the side of her face.

The person made a noise of exasperation, "Like hell, I'm leaving one of Kaedan's kids here to die. I'm getting you out of here. I'm sorry. This is going to hurt," The person picked Val up, putting her over their shoulder and she let out a muted scream as she felt the pain in her back. Then, they grabbed the basket and moved toward the side of the store.

"A side door?" Val asked as the smoke finally cleared, and she realized they were outside, "You…You were at Kaedan and Xander's wedding."

The person nodded, "Ariyasul. An old friend of Kaedan and Xander's. Your friends are waiting up front. Come on, let's go," They continued to carry her and she heard multiple people yelling her name.

When she saw who was carrying her next, she was met with purple eyes, "Hi, Hyun Anna," She said, smiling weakly.

"Hey, Val," He smiled back, his voice breaking, "I've got you."

He looked up at Ariyasul, "I can never thank you enough for saving her. I owe you my life for this."

Ariyasul held up their hand, "No need. I could never forgive myself if I stood by and just let one of Kaedan's friends die, not again. You guys need to get out of here. The guards know you're here and they're hunting you down."

"Where will you go?" Bella asked, coming forward next to Hyunwoo, "If you need to come with us—"

"I appreciate the offer but…There are still so many people to evacuate, I need to help them. You all go ahead. You've got injured and children. I'll…Be there later," Ariyasul smiled, "Good luck," They waved before walking off.

They walked a while, taking a few turns here and there before finally gripping the wall in an alleyway. They chuckled lightly, pulling the backpack off, revealing an entirely blood-soaked back.

They already knew that even if they got the bullets out, they wouldn't make it.

Looking up at the sky, they laughed softly, "It's better that they don't know. Let Kaedan think I escaped. Let him have that at least."

They closed their eyes.

"At least I get to see Wyran again."