I Still Fall for You, Like Suns do For Skies

[Espi]

((Takako Chigusa continued from I Waited for the Sky to Change))

The grating voice of Sakamochi woke Takako up, and she bolted upright and threw the blanket off herself, immediately alert.

No, it was just the announcement. It was already 6 am? Takako wasn't sure what she'd been epecting, but she definitely could use a few extra hours before--

Oh.

Akamatsu wasn't exactly a familiar face, but she recognized the name from role call and such. Someone had already killed--

Niida.

Takako gasped, just a little. Niida was dead? How? Takako suddenly felt like her skin was crawling. He was a bit of a creep, sure, but he didn't deserve to die. She didn't know him well, and they weren't on great terms, but now what? How was she supposed to feel about something like this?

Seto's name next. For a moment, shocked as she was by Niida's death, Yukako thought of Mimura, how he must have felt, if his best friend was dead. Had they--

No.

It was a lie. Takako covered her mouth in shock. No way. She gasped. Not Hiroki. Her breathing got faster. It wasn't possible. She whimpered quietly. Hiroki was dead? There was no way. There was no way in hell anyone was going to just come along and take him out. No way in hell he'd ever let himself get taken out like that, either. It was a lie, a trick, something. And yet, she knew better. There was no reason to lie about that kind of thing, not without context. No agenda to push. They knew everyone in the class, there was a better way of convincing them of...whatever it was like this.

Takako's eyes welled over and she covered her face, crying softly. She knew it was true. She couldn't lie to herself. She would never see Hiroki again, talk to him, hear his jokes, share his encouragement, his energy, his strength. He could have been so many things, but all he was was gone forever. She hadn't even had a chance to find him, to save him. Was his dead body out there? Rotting, eaten by animals? The thought, the vision, only made her sob anew.

She cried for a while before something elsse finally clicked.

Forbidden zones. Their collars would explode. Certain death. She could mourn more later, but she needed to make sure that she was safe. Sitting around and dying wouldn't do Hiroki any favors. Takako grimaced as she looked around for the map showing the zones. It took her a few minutes of sifting through the rubble, slowly crawling over the dust and wood splinters, but she finally grabbed it and took a look.

Dammit.

Was it because she'd been camped out in here? Were they trying to push her elsewhere? Or was she just unlucky? Whatever it was, it didn't matter. Takako had to get out of her. Crawlintg back over to her stuff, she slung her bag over her shoulder and grabbed her baseball bat. H3 seemed like a good direction to take. She could have a better lookout, maybe--

With a cry, Takako's leg gave out and she tumbled to the ground, barely catching herself on her hands.

Oh no. Takako grunted as she rolled into a sitting position and examined her leg. Jagged red climbed out from under the bandages, where blistering pain erupted as soon as she touched it. Her skin was swollen and hot. It was probably infected, and the wound was deeper than she'd expected. As soon as she tried to lift her leg, sharp pain pierced her hip.

Breathing heavy, Takako tried to stand again, but it was no use; the injury was more severe than she'd thought. Bad enough that she probably needed surgery to fix it. Which was impossible to get out here of all places, which meant--

Takako slowed her breathing. No panicking, no giving up. She hadn't lost yet. She could find a way to treat this if she had the time. All she needed to do was focus on escaping this place before it killed her. How long had it been since the announcement? Ten minutes? Hard to say. She'd wasted too much time being emotional. She had to get out of here.

Takako tossed the bag to the side. She could find food or water later, but carrying this thing was basically impossible. It sucked to lose the supplies she'd spent so much time on, but those supplies did her no good if she was dead. She took her baseball bat once more and braced the head on the ground, pushing herself off the ground, taking as much weight off of her hurt leg as possible.

The bat was short--too short to be a crutch, which is what she really needed, but there wasn't anything left in this room long enough for that, not even a length of wood. Limping heavily, Takako surely looked ridiculous as she doubled over to lean on the bat and slowly begin to hobble forward. She made it to the door after a painstaking minute or so. Bracing on the wall, she used her free hand to shove the legs and surface of the table out of the way before opening the door.

The bat caught on the lip of the doorframe, and Takako lost her balance, falling forward. She caught herself again, but her left arm jolted violently as the bat slammed into her stomach when she landed on top of it. Takako suppressed a scream of anger and pain, laying face down on the floor. She had never been so helpless in her life, and it was at the worst possible moment.

Lifting herself off of the bat took Takako another couple of minutes. Her left arm was bruised from the landing, her elbow throbbing, enough that leaning on it was hard to manage. But eventually, she got back up onto her feet, or at least, her foot, and kept going. There was just a couple of long hallways, then she'd be in the main lobby, and she could get out of this damn building and find somewhere safe to settle and recover.

The bat slipped as she crossed into a different, tiled floor. Takako slid forward once again, and this time, so did the bat, flying out of her hands as she crashed onto her shoulder and her side, barely avoiding hitting her head. "Shit!" she swore, unable to contain herself any more. Her arms hurt, her hip hurt, leg felt like it was being twisted off. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Not here, not now.

As Takako regained her senses and lifted her head. The bat had rolled off somewhere, probably into the side room with the chairs in it. It would take her so long to find it. Time she didn't have. She wouldn't be slowed down much crawling. She'd be unarmed, but she was kidding herself if she thought she could protect herself with a metal stick and one leg.

This was getting worse and worse. But she couldn't give up. Only cowards gave up, and Takako Chigusa was no coward. She was a fighter, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her from making it out alive.

Takako began army crawling, grimacing as she used her bruised elbows to pull herself forward. It hurt, but it wasn't as bad as her stab wound, and she could use her good leg to try to push herself forward. She made it all the way down the hall and to the door. It was closed.

Takako grimaced. How many minutes had it been? Ten minutes crying, five getting out of the room, five on the floor, ten more down the hallway, and another ten crawling? That was probably being generous with the rounding, so she wasn't out of time just yet. Pushing herself up with her hands, Takako pulled her good knee under her body, holding her weight as she grabbed the doorknob and twisted it open.

The lobby. Finally. Takako laid herself back down as she kept crawling. The door there was closed, but she could manage that as well. Just get across this room, get outside, and keep going. Down the path, then maybe to one of the buildings. If she was as hurt as she was, she needed more medical care. The clinic was a long ways away, but if she could just make it there, she could probably find a way to fix her leg up. Once she did that, she'd be okay. She'd need to be more careful, more avoidant now, but she could do this. She could survive this, and live.

Takako was exhausted, panting heavily, sweat dripping down her forehead. Her core felt tightly clenched from exertion, her arms were bruised from wrist to elbow, and she could feel blood oozing down her leg where the wound had reopened. But she kept going. She was at the door. How much time? She didn't know anymore. Enough. It had to be enough. She wouldn't allow it to be too late. Takako repeated her previous movement, her arm trembling as she opened the door. The open sky was clear and blue above her, and Takako breathed out, a little bit relieved.

She dragged herself just a little further down the path, off of the pavement and onto the grass. Her knees were still scraped up just from that, but the cool, dewey grass was soothing to her inflamed injuries. Takako had never imagined that crawling around like this could be so difficult and painful. A good lesson to know, she supposed. More importantly, she was almost home free. The soil and grass hurt less to drag herself along than the hard floor, and Takako could almost smile in relief. She just had to keep going, and soon she'd clear enough distance to be safe. Then, she could finally rest a little.

Takako looked over at herself as she kept going, still on the lawn of the building but surely getting close to the edge of the zone. Her entire front was covered in blood and dirt and now grass stains, and it made her laugh a little. She'd have been so angry once to be this unkempt, but at this point, she was just happy to still be alive. Takako kept going, feeling the renewed strength of being so very close to the end.

G13 TAKAKO CHIGUSA:
DECEASED