Leading the crowd was Frey and his boyfriend (Neo assumed, Frey was clutching Kai's hand extremely tightly in a way that probably wasn't platonic), swiftly followed by the boy he had brought back to life after the Rowdies killed him by accident and Myles. Then there was an eclectic mix of random strangers (mainly girls) who Neo didn't know particularly well. There was Morgan, of course, who he did know, but the others he was at a loss on. And then, at the back, the Rowdies and himself.
They wouldn't care if he slipped away from the living.
Martin glanced to him, "Neo, you good?"
"Fine," he grunted back, placing all of his effort into not giving away the bullet wound. Martin frowned but kept moving.
Now was the biggest moment - the moment all of them had been waiting for - getting the hell out of this facility. To do so they would have to scale a large wall, and to do that they were going to have to work effectively. And so immediately, Neo ignored the pressing pain and began to assist Art Girl over the wall with a smile, being gentlemanly and then helping another girl who was struggling to get over, before jumping over himself. Checking they'd left no-one behind, Frey was the last to hop over and then they were off, running again. They all wanted to whoop and cry with happiness but they couldn't because just because they were out didn't mean they were safe.
"Okay guys we have to keep moving," encouraged Frey, unofficial leader of the group. Of course he was - he was the one who was most stable-like and trustworthy - he had come up with this whole plan. Kai looked at him adorably and Neo felt his heart warm up. Myles grinned too when he saw the two lovebirds glancing at each other but not expressing any feelings. Neo gazed around at the selection of people. The people who you could tell were distraught, the people who were close. The Rowdies were tight with each other, two girls (one with red hair, one with brown) were obviously close. Also there was an older blonde haired girl and a younger one. Neo wanted to assume they were sisters but when he got to properly see their faces as one of them turned back for one last look at the facility which had enclosed them, he reckoned that the older girl was just looking after her - a middle aged woman was nearby and looking over them fondly. Myles, Frey and Kai were close now - Frey had been the first one out of all of them to meet Myles, and that Dirk guy (who was younger that them) was trying to keep up with them and jump into their conversations, something he wasn't doing very well at. Then there was a girl who was moving alone, with blood over her jumpsuit as she eyed Frey with disappointment. Maybe she and Frey had been friends, but Frey had moved on and gotten a boyfriend. Maybe, if Neo still had time, he would remind Frey that this blood-coated girl existed. The other boy was hanging behind blood girl, hesitant not to go near her and avoiding talking to anyone. He kept his head down easily and looked quite depressed.
"Francis," the middle-aged woman called out to him, "How's about you join us?"
The boy -Francis-looked uncertain, "Are you sure?"
The woman nodded and looked round at red-hair and brown-hair, who didn't seem to mind. Francis made his way over, careful not to stop moving or break up the pattern, slowly shifting over inch by inch.
This was the kind of thing Neo was happy with. This, all of these tortured people congregated and working together to get free. Frey's little plan hadn't, of course, gone exactly as smoothly as he had wanted. But Neo was happy to die here. There was no miraculous healer who could save him now, it was going to have to be left up to fate.
Everything was happy.
And then a sniper shot shot through the night - striking Myles right in the back. Neo watched, in slow motion as the bullet came through his chest as well, and nearly vomited. Art Girl doubled herself just in time to catch him before he fell to the floor and the other half of Art Girl caught up to assist her in carrying.
They had to get away, now. There wasn't time to stop and do CPR. Anyways, they had Neo now.
Or so everyone else thought.
Now Neo couldn't just drop off - he had to save Myles if it was the last bloody thing he did. He had to save Myles, because without Myles, the win wouldn't be so sweet. They couldn't have accomplished anything without Priest's nephew. And what had Neo accomplished whilst he was here? He hadn't been part of the plan, he had just been the Rowdies tagalong.
But he would stay alive to save Myles.
They had to continue running, and as painful as it was to hear Myles' cries and not be able to do anything, there truly wasn't a place they could stop and rest.
Eventually they did get the chance to come to a stop, in the middle of a clearing after travelling through a forest for a while. The meadow had flowers and was beautiful, actually. If this was going to be the place that Neo was going to die, then he was truly happy.
You'd have thought someone would have noticed by now, but Neo had isolated himself from everyone, lying on the floor separately as they tended to Myles instead.
It was only when everyone was asleep, when the long day was finally over, that Neo could finally release his tears.
Sobbing, he still tried to limit the noise and grunted in pain as he tended to the wound. How he hadn't died already, he didn't know.
"N-Neo?" Myles breathed, not even trying to sit up properly.
Neo dragged himself over to Myles. Neo's breathing was getting more and more staggered - he was dying.
"Have you been shot?" Myles asked in horror, "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Didn't want you to worry," Neo mumbled, "Just lost Wynter and all that jazz."
"Christ, Neo. Christ. You should've....wait. How long ago were you shot? Before me?"
"Yeah," Neo muttered.
"Is it bad?" Myles checked, panicking. "Fatal?" All Neo could do was weakly nod.
"Jesus, we need to get you help," Myles instructed, "Lemme wake Frey up."
And that was it. Myles tried his hardest to lean, and in doing so hissed and apparently used a little too much effort. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the floor. Panicking, Neo grabbed Myles' wrist to feel a weak, slowing pulse.
Neo didn't want to make this to do with chance, but he was going to have to hope he didn't die in the process of doing this; Myles' life depended on it. Frey was going to wake up in the morning and find the scene anyways, so Neo opted not to nudge him awake.
It was horrific, because Neo couldn't do anything while Myles was alive, except sit and watch him.
He hadn't thought dying would be so emotionally painful.
But then again, Neo guessed, not everyone went out like this.
Neo checked his own pulse again. It was finally starting to slow. It was down to all that running that he hadn't died yet. Myles' was slowing still. Slowing, slowing, slowing....stopped. Neo pressed his ear to his mouth and kept his fingers on Myles' wrist. Making the wrong assumption here was not what he wanted to do.
This was the right way to go, Neo thought as his dehydrated mouth cracked a smile. Myles was gone, not that anyone knew. He was the only one awake, in this eerie silence. And so, for the last time, Neo pressed his hand to the dead person's chest.
"Please work," Neo whispered, tears beginning to fall. He could feel it sucking the energy out of him.
Neo saw as Myles regained consciousness.
Neo saw as Myles' eyes widened.
Neo saw Myles whisper-shout, "Neo, why?!"
Neo saw Myles, alive once more.
What Neo didn't see was Myles waking Frey in panic.
What Neo didn't see was Myles beginning to sob into Frey's arms.
What Neo didn't see was Myles as he broke down to his raw self.
Neo didn't see all this because he had looked up at the sky when he stopped breathing.
And there was no one to save him when he did.
