Just One Look

As we pulled Jeff in, we set him on the bed and started to observe his injured body. His left arm was completely taken off of his body in a messy cut. All he had was a combat knife, and he had to get it off. It's strange, hearing that he dug through his entire arm with just a small, measly knife...

"This is a simple fix, Hiyochi. How do we stop the blood flow?" I asked her. Hiyochi, barely able to stand, walked over to Jeff, with fear in her eyes.

I noticed that her eyes were glowing, and tears started to well up in the corner.

"Ethanol Gel..." She muttered. I had no idea what she said, so I asked her to repeat herself politely.

"A Gel that stops the regeneration of strands on a subject for an extended period of time, sometimes permanently if it enters the bloodstream directly..." She muttered. Hiyochi put her hand on Jeff's shoulder, as it was still spurting blood, and looked at the wound from the side. It spurt blood on her face, coating her hair in a thin layer, and she moved backward slightly once more, looking at Yonoa with dead eyes.

"Bandage... strands won't heal him anymore..." She told us.

Woah...

Strands were an all-capable piece of technology, for lack of a better term. It adapted to one's own body and healed injuries even fatal in most cases. A severed head could, with vague detail, be healed with strands. To hear that strands wouldn't heal somebody anymore...?

When Jeff heard the news, he opened the radio again and started to speak to it.

"Attention all Arkians and Civilians... do not touch the Gel... strands cannot heal the damage," Jeff calmly said. I thought he would've been freaking out by now, but he was keeping a cool head... how impressive...

"You're not freaking out? This is extremely bad, you may never have your arm back again!" I said to Jeff while alerted.

"Troy... I was never useful enough to the Arkians. Learning this information with my own sacrifice is all I could've asked for, and I'm glad it'll stop somebody else from being injured down the line," He said, looking down at the floor.

"What's wrong? Painful?" Yonoa asked him, helping bandage his wound.

"My friend in the comms room... Griff... the explosion went off, and we were separated, but it was right behind him... I think he might be dead..." Jeff muttered.

Griff was another one of Sky's allies, an Arkian is what we called them. I looked down at the floor, mourning for Jeff. They were both very noble for taking that role in the comms office, to alert others, and take the brunt of the hit.

"Were you able to see any of the fights from up there? How are things proceeding? Are we winning?" I asked Jeff next while he was fighting consciousness to stay awake.

"No idea... most of Zealous is in shambles, and will take a lot of time to repair if it's not completely destroyed. Ruby is out there fighting too, trying to keep everything together. Sky was fighting Quake the last I saw again, and Dani and Illya were grouping up for something I believe. It looks like it's just about finished... and it's only eight a.m." Jeff stated, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket.

"Fighting Quake again? I thought most of them were beaten..." I muttered. As I started to walk away from Jeff to let Yonoa handle everything, I turned my head toward the hallway full of boiled bodies, to see one walk over everything with a baby in his hands.

"Hey... please... take Aegis..." I heard him say. Another man was walking toward me, limping with a broken knee. He was putting far too much pressure on it, and barely staying stable. If it weren't for the child and the will to take care of her, he would've fallen by now. Did he walk over all those bodies with a broken knee?

"I got her, I got her... what the hell happened? How were you hurt? What is your name?" I asked the man.

"It's David... I tried to get to Sky to help him, but I was caught in the crossfire in the end. Is this where medical assistance is, by chance? I really messed up my knee getting here..." He muttered. He held it up as Aegis left his arms to come into mine, and he immediately fell to the ground.

"Dammit! How many other people were injured in there? Are there others?" I asked him again. The child in my arms, Aegis, started to get upset and fussing around, wanting to be put down. I let her down to see where she would go, and she immediately headed for Hiyochi.

She tugged on her pant leg, and Hiyochi's dead eyes were revived as she stared down at Aegis.

"For you... for you... Mom and Dad wanted to cover the future... now I have to..." Hiyochi said. She seemed to find a newfound motivation, thinking of Aegis as the future generations staring right at her eyes. They lit up, and she pulled out some tools and more bandages, along with some stuff to disinfect wounds.

It was easy to forget Hiyochi was so young and impressionable. She lost hope as easily as she gained it... I hoped that one day, Yonoa and I would be able to solidify that hope in her, one way or another.

"I can do this, I can do this," She said. Hiyochi started to poke and pry and Jeff's wounds, and it was so fine and delicate that he didn't even wince in pain.

"Troy... I want you to know, that my leader, Sky Asterio, is a good man. I'm not sure if I had to say that to you, but I want to state it again and again, for the people of Zealous, he will save this city, no matter what," Jeff told me.

I already had some of my own opinions about this Sky Asterio guy... but I guess I had to be lenient about it sometimes, no matter if it was my home on the line or not.