The guards were completely caught by surprise from Charise’s charge. With the way that the other escapees had immediately gone for blood they had not been expecting anyone to instead simply make a break for it. Instead, they had become so invested in the combat that the sudden changes from Jack and Charise’s interference had thrown them off entirely. They had gone from keeping the patients contained and trying to regain control of the situation to suddenly overwhelming the escapees as their coordination and attention was shattered.
Charise had aimed her flight at one of the points where while there was a cluster of guards that were external spellcasters. Hoping that by causing some disorder there it would make it harder for the security personnel to respond. After she broke through the defensive line she quickly took off down the hallway shouting at Jack. “Which way?”
Jack simply tried his best to keep a tight hold onto her and not be in the way more then he already was. That and keep his stomach where it was supposed to be. Struggling to answer and not simply vomit all over her he shouted back. “I have no clue from here. I hadn’t finished my explorations yet! I had just found you lot when all of tonight happened!”
It was this point as he ruminated slightly on his failures of the night that his mind was swamped with other memories of his terrible choices and the consequences of them. Suddenly all of the emotions of the last few weeks slammed into him at the same time. His small-scale experiment had not shown this side effect as it had been done in such a limited context. It seemed that all of the emotions that would normally be felt during the time that the spell was active weren’t simply repressed but rather stored up and released when the spell was broken.
Jack let out a sound that couldn’t fully be described. It was something that seemed impossible for a human throat to make. He was hit by a flood of all kinds of emotion at the same time. Joy, frustration, envy, anger, humor, nervousness, elation, peacefulness and more. His brain struggled to cope with the massive amount of chemicals being released all at once.
Charise looked down at him in surprise as he suddenly let loose such a horrific noise that was guaranteed the bring the guards running. She hissed at him as loudly as she dared, “Damnit Jack you asshole! Shut the fuck up! What the hell are you doing?”
Tears streaming down his face Jack tried to form a response but the only sound he could let out was more of the grating noise. Struggling to make sense of what was going on under the deluge of emotions and triggered memories the only thing he knew was that he needed to stop making sound. As he couldn’t seem to get his body to stop in a normal manner, he let go of his grip on Charise with one arm and stuffed his wrist into his mouth. Immediately there was a horrific pain as his teeth and jaw slammed shut biting deep into his own flesh. Blood seeped from between his teeth and drippled down his chin.
Glad that the noise had stopped and not noticing the fact that they were now leaving a trail of blood behind Charise tried to speed up yet more. Even carrying two limp bodies she practically flew down the hall trying her best to guess just where they should go. Suddenly from a corridor ahead of her she heard the sound of running steps and shouting voices.
“Quickly! They called for reinforcements ages ago. Hurry up you damn wastes of space. We should have been there already! Double check your equipment as you run and for the love of all the Agier don’t stop moving! Last report was they were struggling to keep them contained in the entrance to the main corridor.”
Glancing around she saw a doorway that was closed to one side. She raced over and tested it, finding it unlocked. It was a small utility closet. As fast as she could she opened the door and tossed Jack inside, before shoving the unconscious beastfolk and herself inside and closing the door as best she could behind her.
It was as she waited with baited breath for the incoming group to pass that she noticed her side was wet and sticky like the feel of drying blood. She sniffed the air and smelled a metallic odor. Worried, she frantically tore a hole into side of her patient gown and reached in to see if there was a wound that she hadn’t noticed due to the adrenaline. When she couldn’t feel anything unusual, she let out a small quiet sight of relief. She would double check once they got out of the closet but it seemed like she had simply gotten splashed by blood back during the fight.
Jack meanwhile was in his own little world. Trapped inside his head, overwhelmed by emotions and memories. Far worse then when he had been when he was first affected after breaking the system’s hold. Suddenly, a beam of bright light hit his eyes and shocked back to the present. He tried to take a deep breath to steady himself only to find his arm stuck in his mouth. Teeth lodged deep into the muscle. He made a couple of grunts to try to get Charise’s attention, as he watched her pat down her side.
In the light of the hallway Charise was better able to see her body. Her clothing was indeed covered in blood but looking and feeling through the hole she had made none of it seemed to be hers. She heard Jack make some unintelligible grunting noise and quietly said, “One sec, just making sure I wasn’t injured earlier. Would you check over the girl you wanted me to nab? I hit her pretty hard to knock her out.”
When it became obvious that mere grunts would not work to get her attention Jack reached out and grabbed Charise’s shoulder and shook it. She whirled around to face him her lips in a scowl and an unhappy hiss coming out as she started to berate him before trailing off at what she saw. “What? I told you just a sec, I need to mak…”
Jack stood there. Blood covering his chest as it continued to drip down from his chin. He gestured to his mouth with his one free hand and grunted again.
“Can’t you just open your mouth and let go? Fuck I don’t know what all we have to make bandages out of other then our clothes. Shit we don’t have time for this. Uh fuck. Check the closet really quick and I’ll check the girl.” Charise cursed as softly as she could manage while so upset. Jack’s arm was a setback but so far things had been going better than they anticipated.
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Jack shook his head at the first question, then shrugged and nodded to the rest. Looking back into the small closet that they had just hidden in he was that there were numerous cleaning supplies. Everything here was clearly some kind of non-magical alternative in order to deal with the environment in the building. For a moment Jack stared at everything blankly, both not quite sure what would be useful as well as being woozy from blood loss.
A voice came from behind him, “What’s taking you so long? Come on hurry up! Is there anything useful in there or not? She’ll live by the way. She’ll have a nasty headache when she wakes but then she’ll also have the fun experience of you mucking about in her mana too wont she.”
Jack attempted to turn to face Charise and found himself falling over instead. His free arm shot out instinctively and caught the edge of the door. Barely holding himself up he mumbled around his arm trying his best to indicate his inability to figure out just what he had been looking at.
Charise gave him a look and simply said, “Was there any kind of cloth or anything we can use as a bandage for you? Right can’t talk just point if you saw anything and I’ll grab it.”
Jack hung onto the doorframe and tried to get himself back onto his feet fully. He managed to prop himself up on the doorframe and gestured to the middle of a shelf on the far wall. There was a stack of small towels on it that they could use.
“Got it. Come on. You hold these and let’s get moving out of here. Your mouth seems to be keeping the bleeding down, at least for now. I also don’t think this is a good place for us to be stopping and trying to fix things.” Charise grabbed a bunch of the towels and shoved them roughly into Jack’s working arm and looked down the hallway. Sure, that soon, if there weren’t already, there would be people after them.
Jack nodded awkwardly and tried his best to hold the towels without dropping any as the two of them once again began to flee. He ended up dropping most of the towels during the flight. Only managing to keep ahold of two of them.
Charise led the way, heading down the passage that she had heard the group they had hidden from come down. She was hoping that it was the way towards the exit as they didn’t have any other clues. She was moving much faster now that she only had to carry a single person and could carry them in a more comfortable fireman’s carry rather than hauling them like luggage under her arm.
From behind her as he struggled to keep up Jack began to hear voices. “How did we miss this blood trail? It’s heading in the same direction that we came from so we must have crossed paths with whoever left it.”
Hearing that he attempted to find the energy to pick up his pace. It wouldn’t do him any good to stand around like an idiot and get himself caught again after everything. He grunted as loud as he could at Charise in an attempt to warn her about their pursuers. Desperately working his jaws as she didn’t seem to hear him there was a sudden pop and his arm came free of his mouth. Gushing blood. He couldn’t help but let out a frantic “Fuck!”
Charise glanced behind her at the exclamation and saw Jacks new state. She also saw that behind him there was a group of figures. Far enough away that they couldn’t fully be made out but close enough to know that if they didn’t get out of the building soon, they would be captured. “Hurry it up! They are right behind us.” She called back to him no longer worrying about stealth.
“I know! I was trying to tell you. I’m going as fast as I can. I just hope that we are almost to the exit.” Jack called back, frantically trying to wrap one of the towels around the wound on his arm as he continued pelting forward as quickly as he could. His legs were beyond tired and his body felt drained but even so he had to keep running. To push himself harder and faster than he ever had before. If he wanted to escape this prison, he needed to go faster than he ever had in his life. In some ways this mad dash for freedom felt familiar.
It could have just been the blood loss but it seemed to him that much of his life was in the same vein as what he was doing now. Trying to scrape on by no matter how pathetic he seemed to others. Rushing from one terrible situation into the unknown with never enough information or planning. Only the knowledge that if he stayed where he was it would spell his doom. He couldn’t help himself, as the swirl of thoughts ran through his mind he began laughing, a frantic harsh half laugh half sob. His eyes once more pouring tears made it hard for him to see just where he was going but he pressed on none the less.
It might be a hard life but it was still his life and he was damned if he would ever let someone or something else take it from him. He had been and was still limited to escaping as things stood but that didn’t mean that he always would be. He had learned and managed to do impossible things before. He would prove that even a jack like him could change the world.
He focused back into the present from his self-assurances just in time to avoid running headlong into a wall as the corridor made a sharp turn. He could psych himself up as much as he wanted, but if he didn’t escape then all of his self-aggrandizement wouldn’t mean anything at all.
As he rounded the corner he had to skid to a sudden stop. The doors leading outside of the complex were right in front of them but Charise was standing there without moving. Breath heaving and more then a little dizzy from blood loss Jack tried to ask, “Whass the matter? Why’d you stop here Charise? Somethin’ wrong?”
She looked back at him taking in the bloody mess that he was. His left arm was bleeding profusely, poorly wrapped in a towel that was nowhere near tight enough to work as a bandage. The front of his hospital gown and the lower half of his face completely caked in a mix of fresh and dried blood. His skin so pale from the blood loss that he looked more akin to an undead then a living person. He was in such bad shape that he looked like he had just stepped out of a dime store horror novel. The whole time of their escape she had been feeling a minor amount of resentment for his pace slowing her down and his constant strange actions from the time that they had met. But comparing their states now she couldn’t help but wince internally at her attitude. It was clear from how he was that he hadn’t been lying about his weakness like she had thought earlier, and even without her level of strength he had still be doggedly keeping up and not giving up in the least. His level of willpower was almost frightening. To be willing to put oneself thorough such lengths for the mere possibility of something was… She couldn’t find the words describe just how exactly it made her feel.
Shaking her head Charise replied to his slurred words, “Yeah, the outside of the building is surrounded. I have no idea how we can break out of the blockade that they have set up.”