Chained - Jenlisa

Maybe Next Time

Short update, but... enjoy. ;)

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Emergency services surround the enormous fire and they push us back to a safe zone. The woman, holding tight to her fussing son, gives me her condolences. She tells me how thankful she was for Lisa, and she offers me her services if I ever need them in the future. I thank her for it but can't focus on her right now. I'm numb inside and can't seem to care about anything anymore.

Sandara comes up to me and gives me a comforting hug. I hadn't even noticed that her helicopter had landed. "Do you want to go home?" she asks carefully.

I wipe my face even though there aren't any more tears. I've dried up. "I... want to see her."

"Jennie..."

"Just let me stay. I want to stay."

Sympathy on her features, Sandara nods and sits beside me. "I'll stay with you then."

We watch as emergency services slowly drowns out the fire. My eyes follow the smoke covering the sky, and I whimper when I think I see Lisa's face within. It hasn't even been an hour and I'm already going insane.

"They've put it out," Sandara sighs after a while. "They'll be looking for bodies soon."

"I want to be here," I say, already knowing what she's getting at. I don't care if it hurts. I want to see Lisa's body.

Sandara thinks for a minute. "I don't think this will be good for you. You don't want to see her like... that."

"I have to."

"Remember her how she was. Don't ruin her."

"I have to!" Groaning in frustration, I drop my head into my hands. "She was always there for me. I'm going to be here for her, okay? I'm going to be here."

"Okay," Sandara whispers, placing a friendly hand on my back. "Okay."

I lift my head enough to see the blackened remains of the house and the Facility retrieval team. They're preparing to go into the wreckage and bring up any bodies left behind. They're going to get rid of any evidence that we were ever here.

Barely five minutes pass before the retrieval team starts moving about oddly, and Jisoo comes running toward Sandara and I. Excitable, she slips to step before us, almost going into a split.

"You've got to see this," she says urgently. She waves her arms wildly and stammers for us to follow her, now.

Sandara and I run to keep up as Jisoo leads us to the steaming remains of the house. We all stop at the edge of the chaos, and Jisoo points somewhere in the wreckage.

"Look," she breathes, excited.

I squint but see nothing aside from charred remains and the emergency services guys moving bits and pieces to look for bodies. Then, by their feet, the rubble moves. They move more remains from the spot and Jisoo shifts her feet.

"That has to be her, right?" she asks. "She's the only person that could possibly survive, right?"

Without thinking I throw myself forward to go see if it really is Lisa, but Jisoo catches me around my waist. She holds me back and tells me to stay where I am, then she goes to inspect the scene herself. Sandara takes the job of keeping me at bay as we wait to see who's under the house.

Jisoo moves the emergency services guys out of the way so she can get down to business, and smartly they stand back as she kneels to dig into the rubble. Ashes and ugly black chunks are thrown into the air, Jisoo having no sense of being careful. But she does stop being so rough, though, and slowly moves wreckage to the side as she comes upon something.

"What the...?" I hear her exclaim. She reaches down into the dip she's made and bangs on something solid. She knocks again, hard, and falls halfway into the dip, which I think is a deep hole now. She cries out and the emergency guys grab her legs and drag her back to the surface. She immediately crawls back to the hole and reaches inside, her head and arms disappearing for a moment. Then, slowly, she comes back up holding two wriggling babies.

"I did not expect that," Sandara says flatly, letting me go. We stare in wonder as the emergency guys take the babies away and Jisoo disappears again into the hole. This time she brings up a little girl, maybe ten or twelve, looking scared but otherwise unharmed. She remains with Jisoo near the hole and refuses to leave to safety. I wonder why as Jisoo goes back into it, and this time brings out an adult, bloody and limp. My heart jumps to my throat when I notice the body wearing a collar.

Sandara must have noticed it, too, because she grabs me before I run off to see for sure. "Hold on," she tells me, pulling me back. "She's hurt. She needs a hospital."

Jisoo barks for doctors, and my eyes grow wet. I thought I couldn't cry anymore but seeing Lisa unresponsive and injured has given me a reason to start again. "I need to go with her," I say as Lisa is taken away. "I need to be there."

Sandara holds me so I don't run. "I know. We'll go in a different car. The doctors need to take care of her. Come on. We'll be right behind them."

I nod and follow Sandara, my eyes on what I can see of Lisa. I catch the sight of something piercing her shoulder and I gasp. God, what happened to her?

Sandara ushers me into the back of a vehicle but I don't entirely register it. My mind and prayers are with Lisa. She needs to live through this. She needs to live.