Ultima Ratio

Chapter 57: Staying Alive

When her helmet was removed, Danya's face was white and lifeless. Red lines stretched across her skin, shaped like thin, leafy branches. Blood dripped from her ears and the unhealed bullet wounds that littered her body. Some of her clothes had been ripped off, and what remained were tattered, smoldering shreds. When Akira looked at her up and down for any sign of movement, there was none.

"No," Akira whispered, but when she scrambled to check Danya's pulse for herself, her left hand only managed to graze Danya's scarred skin before Akira was hauled back. "Let me go!"

"Jivan, start compressions," Elodie ordered, rummaging through her pack as she ignored Akira's pleas. "Quyen, check her back."

"On it," Quyen stiffly muttered in Akira's ear.

Before Akira could ask why they should be worried about Danya's back in particular, Quyen slammed her face first into the ground.

"What the hell are you doing?" Akira yelled as Quyen pinned her down. "We have to help Danya! We—we—"

"And what can you do, really?" Quyen snapped, digging her knee between Akira's shoulder blades. "That's for stunning me. Now, shut up and let me check you."

Any protest that Akira had was forgotten when a sharp pain erupted throughout her body. After a few seconds of blinking away the stars in her eyes, the sensation had lessened to a tingling fire nipping at her back.

"Four second-degree burns," Quyen said. "She'll probably be fine in the short term, but there's no telling how long it'll take us to reach the rendezvous point now."

"Wha—?" Akira breathed, confused. The pain began to dissipate as she regained her awareness of the real problem, but most of her vision was filled with the dark dirt pressed against her face. She tried squirming again, but without her right arm to give her additional leverage, her attempts were futile. "What about Danya?"

"What about you?" Quyen hissed. "You didn't even realize the drones were shooting at you! You're just lucky they didn't electrocute you too!"

"Danya," Akira merely repeated, finally managing to shift her head through the dirt to see her.

Jivan was kneeling at Danya's side, performing chest compressions as they worriedly glanced between their interlaced palms and Danya's chilling face. By Danya's head, Elodie was sitting on the ground with a small metal case lying open in front of her, similar to the ones that carried their boosters. Within it were two dark vials, one of which was empty with its insides streaked with the remnants of its contents. In Elodie's hands was a syringe filled with the fluid, and she focused on removing the air bubbles before repositioning herself by Danya's hip.

All Akira could do was struggle on the ground under Quyen's weight, helpless.

"What's that?" Akira asked Elodie, desperate for information.

"Her blood," Elodie whispered as she lifted Danya's arm.

Elodie's answer only succeeded in giving Akira more questions. But Akira couldn't put them into words with the chaos in her mind, so she merely focused on the way the needle entered Danya's arm, and how her dark blood was plunged back into her body.

And then they waited, with the only movement coming from Navin when he switched with Jivan to continue the compressions. Akira wasn't sure how much time passed, but she didn't care. The only thing she focused on was Danya, watching her face for the slightest twitch, even if it was one of discomfort.

Finally, a lifetime later, Danya's lips parted to take in a gasp of air, and Akira could finally breathe as well.

With that, Quyen removed her weight from Akira, and Akira didn't wait to crawl over the remaining two meters to be at Danya's side. When Akira brushed her thumb over Danya's cheek, her skin still looked pale compared to Akira's and it felt like ice against Akira's fingertips, but at least she was alive.