Winter Affliction

Part 26

There wasn't any sense in the chaos.

His ears were ringing. His vision blurred and the world around him swam. He could tell, in some distant and far off way, that his body was aching but that pain was numbed by the shock. Just like the screams that he could hear past the dull fog of his clogged up hearing.

Red.

So much red and brown and black and other colors that he couldn't have imagined belonging to the unmoving body in front of him–

Cale was able to snap to attention. Or at least, he found movement in his battered limbs. He should join the hordes of people running, some quite nearly trampling him in their haste.

The figure in front of him let out a wet cough and Cale placed trembling hands onto his stomach, attempting to clog the steady gush of blood that pooled around them. His face was blackened with burns but Cale recognized him as the man who'd been standing only a few feet in front of him when the first blast sent his body careening to the ground.

Dimly he was aware that if this man hadn't been standing there, it would be him who was missing an arm and steadily bleeding out. The man looked at Cale as though seeing him for the first time and Cale tried to say something but his own voice was muted by the ringing in his ears and he couldn't quite acclimate himself to speaking without hearing.

He held onto the bleeding, held it in, stared back into his eyes.

And saw the life leave them.

Cale had only ever seen one other person die before this moment and the memory choked him.

He still held onto the man's stomach even after he knew it was too late, his own burnt fingers blistering against cooling blood.

There were still screams all around them and Cale's hearing just about adjusted before the second explosion rang out and he cowered away from the sound fearfully.

He'd buried his face into the open stomach of a dead man.

Cale clenched his hands into fists and stood up shakily, surprised to find he still had all of his limbs. Someone running nearly knocked him over but he paid them no mind, limping over to another prone form. He collapsed at the woman's side when he spotted that she was still breathing and he bleeding wasn't as heavy. But her burns were disfiguring in the lighter end. Other parts of her looked as though she was melting.

Cale swallowed thickly and held her hand. Her shallow breathing hitched but she made no other movements. She was clearly in too much agony.

Cale tried to speak again but he couldn't hear himself and the syllables became a mess. She was going to die if he didn't get her help–he needed to find help–

A stampeding group trampled the both of them. Feet colliding harshly with her chest and collapsing her ribs, Cale's body flung to the ground with a knee to the face and a heavy instep that nearly cracked one of his own ribs.

He laid there blankly for a moment.

The tremor in the woman's hand had stopped and he couldn't hear her shallow breath anymore.

More footsteps approached and he knew he'd be crushed to death as well if he remained on the floor. He was too dazed to make sense of any of it but he knew he needed to stand up and so he did.

The third figure he limped towards was already dead. Guts splayed and burned and trampled by the fearful masses.

Cale let out a hollow mute laugh and leaned up against rubble with gasping breaths and tears stinging his own burnt face.