“You have a gun, they don’t.”
“Which also makes it uneven, since you care about that so much.”
Azure takes a slow breath, “Straight ahead, there is a tower, that’s where I’m going and I’ll take out anyone in my way. Do what you want.”
“Am I going to set people on fire with these bullets?”
“No, I took those out. All you have are regular bullets now. I didn’t trust you not to accidentally shoot yourself.”
Ocher holds in the surge of annoyance at Azure’s words, knowing the other boy is purposely trying to get under his skin. “Fine.”
Azure turns and walks directly towards the leader at a leisurely pace, ignoring their shouts to stop. Ocher scans their weapons and realizes everything they have is close range, so as long as they don’t get too close, he’s safe.
“Ocher, behind you,” Azure calls out at the same moment he surges forward, swinging his own knife in a wide arc. Azure catches the closest person off guard with a slice across his torso, deep enough to wound, but shallow enough to avoid being life threatening. Another person runs at him in outrage and a quick tap to his forehead from Azure's fingers drops him to the ground.
Ocher runs after Azure who’s quickly putting distance between himself and their attackers. Those who remain have turned on him instead. It’s seven against one and Azure shows no indication of coming back to help him. If they get close to him with those weapons, he’s done for, so as much as he hates it, he fires and catches a teenage girl in the leg. She stumbles to the ground and the others pause, looking at him with various degrees of hatred.
One opens his mouth to speak, then his eyes flick over Ocher’s shoulder and too late. He turns just in time to feel a sharp pain slice down his arm. He curses as his arm begins to bleed freely and realizes he’ll have to do some damage to make it out of this. Instead of giving into the pain, he shoves a foot into his attacker’s torso, kicking him back and in the same movement firing haphazardly in warning to the others and letting only a few of the bullets make contact. It’s enough to give him some breathing room.
He takes advantage of their momentary hesitation to run around them, holding his injured arm close to his body. Azure is ahead of him, calmly attempting to get the door open when he sprints up, already starting to feel light headed from blood loss.
Azure steadies him against the wall with barely concealed concern as Ocher urges him to hurry. He can’t fight them off one handed.
There’s the grating sound of something old moving and Azure pushes the door open, dragging him inside by the back of his shirt. Ocher stumbles inside and slides down the wall, sighing in relief at the resident’s inability to get through the sealed door.
He stares at the long gash down his arm and watches himself bleed out on the floor. There are no first aid kits here, no army medical supplies. He lets his head loll back as Azure fiddles with the locks to another door across the room.
The adrenaline is wearing off and the pain in his arm is really starting to set in, a constant ache that throbs more with every passing second. Azure really is taking too long with those locks, he probably needs stitches.
Ocher takes another look at his arm and he thinks the blood is starting to clot, but since everything is starting to blur, he can’t really tell. He’ll just have to wait for Azure to find whatever it is he’s looking for and hope afterwards, he cares enough to help him.
◆◆◆
Pressure on his face brings Ocher back to consciousness and his eyes blink open to see Azure crouching over him, one hand pinching him harder and harder until he fully wakes up.
“Had to make sure you weren’t dead before I bothered helping you heal.” Azure presses his fingers onto the wound and Ocher uses his good arm to shove him away at the sudden increase in pain, only to have his wrist caught in Azure’s free hand. “I’m trying to help you.”
“You’re still trying to make it as painful as possible.”
“Maybe.” Which Ocher thinks definitely means yes. “You don’t get to complain though.” If he wasn’t laid out from blood loss and in desperate need of help, he absolutely would. And loudly.
Azure smooths a hand down his arm, from the inside of his elbow to his wrist before wiping his bloody hand on Ocher’s shirt and sitting down on the other side of him. Ocher gives his arm a once over, it still hurts and still looks bad, but the pain isn’t quite as sharp as before and he’s not losing anymore blood.
“How did you do that?”
“Hmm?” Azure tilts his head, considering just how much to tell him. “It’s an ability, one I’m not very good at,” is what he settles on.
Knowing that’s all the answer he’s going to get, Ocher looks at their surroundings. The door Azure had gone through is shut again and the room they’re currently in is circular with rows of curved seats surrounding an altar in the center.
There’s dust from disuse and the tapestries have degraded so much that he can’t tell what they were supposed to represent. The only thing untouched by age are the stone walls and floor. “Are we staying in here?”
“Yeah, it’s late. Besides, if we try to break through them now, you’ll just rip your arm back open and they can’t get in here.”
“If your people had places here where they could hide and keep people out, how were they captured?”
Azure is quiet for a moment, “I don’t know,” he finally admits. “From what I remember, everything happened pretty fast. There were soldiers and like I said, we weren’t violent. We were probably caught off guard. Although, the destruction of the city came later. They made sure not to light any fires since we could use those to fight back.”
“Oh.” If that’s the case, no wonder they haven’t managed to break out yet if they’re such a threat. “Did you find what you needed?”
“Yes,” Azure answers, reaching for the hand of his wounded arm and laying back, letting his eyes close. “By morning, you should have healed enough and we can leave.” He cracks one eye back open, “Don’t get any ideas, this is just to heal you.”
So, he still hasn’t been forgiven. “Are you still mad?” Ocher questions, curling in towards him, and squeezing his hand in case Azure decides to move away.
“Yes because you’re the absolute worst person I’ve ever traveled with. I can’t wait to ditch you.”
Ocher wiggles his fingers a bit, “You’re still healing me, though.”
“Just shut up, you half worthless troublemaker.”
“Only half?”
“Shut up, Ocher. Half is still too much.” He drops it, can’t push his luck too much or he might wake up missing an arm. For now, this is good.
Chapter 9: Azure
“Can’t you just send him a message?” Azure’s annoyingly curious traveling companion questions him, gesturing to his tablet.
“I could, but he’s much less likely to do anything for me if I don’t show up to ask in person.”
“You travel a lot.” And the sigh that comes after that lets him know that Ocher is getting tired of it. Funny for someone who claims to have wanted freedom.