Enoch Crosslin (crossedwire) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-03-28 00:04:00 |
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Current mood: | indescribable |
Pragmatic
Who: Cross and Rook
Where: the field
When: mid-morning, day 13
What: gathering the remnants
Rating: PG
Status: complete
Cross' face was set in hard lines as he strode through the field, headed away from camp and toward the spot where the blood-curdling, sickening screams had come from while they'd all been safely up in the trees. When they'd started, Cross had for a few heart-sinking moments not known where he was. His confused mind had wanted to place him back in that tiny apartment in Colorado where he'd lived with his mom, and the screams were coming from the television. He was under the bed again, frozen amidst the dust and the shoeboxes that were pushed way up underneath, hiding from the sounds of the movie that had come on just after dusk fell. Don't move. Don't move and they won't find you.
Then he'd fully awakened, all tense muscles and hammering heart, and Helena had been with him, clinging to his shirt as they both tried to sit up without capsizing the hammock. It had been clear what was going on, and it was also clear that it would have been suicide to climb down and attempt to go to the rescue. It had been pure agony to listen to that and to be unable to do anything to help. The frustration of it still sat in a hard knot somewhere inside Cross' chest, not easing in the slightest.
He was nothing if not a pragmatist, though, and as soon as he'd helped build up the fire and gone to wash his face and take care of morning necessities, he was off to gather up anything that might have been left behind by the people that had been dragged away to the Laughers' dens. There was no hesitation in his steps, even when he saw the disturbances in the grass, the blotches of red that stained it. It was what one might expect: two pillows and two blankets. One of the blankets was stiff in spots with drying blood, and Cross stood and stared at it, his expression calm but his jaw tight and his teeth gritted shut.