The Dark Rose

Chapter 14

Everything was in disarray; the streets were filled with people running in panic, others stood in front of the building taking pictures of the apartment ablaze. More than a dozen civilians from the apartment complex ran out through the front door, crashing with other people and hurting each other in their frantic states.

Firefighters, police and EMTs arrived at the scene. The policemen tried to calm the people in the streets and securing the front of the pavement were the building stood. The firefighters just entered while the EMTs looked at potential victims from both the blast and when they hurt each other trying to get out.

Back inside the building, Laxus was the first regain his consciousness after the explosion.
As he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling above him, falling to his back from the explosion. His vision was disoriented, his head was about to explode due to the painful migraine cause by the explosion, he couldn't hear anything and worst of all, he couldn't feel his left arm.

Well he could still feel it but a tingling and numbing sensation loomed over it each time he moved his fingers around. He could barely move his wrist. The worst was not being able to bent his arm as he tried to get up with it. With his right arm, he managed to get up, only to see the fire set ablaze inside the room. His only lead was now dead.

He looked to his side and saw Hibiki, curled up on his side. He crawled towards him with the little energy he had left.

The detective's eyes blurred more with each aching step as he dragged himself to his partner. He was going back to being unconscious with each breath he took as he inhaled more of the ash and smoke.

He finally made to him and saw that the analyst had taken most of the debris from the explosion, slowly bleeding out. Left with no other choice, Laxus had to get himself and Hibiki up and make it to the elevator.

With the support of his right arm, he finally managed to get himself off the floor he laid on. Still having some strength left, he lifted Hibiki onto his back and pushed himself toward the elevator. The explosion made him dizzy but it was not enough to incapacitate him.

Now in front of the elevator, he pressed the button, hoping the tight quartered moving room would come. He placed Hibiki on the side of the wall and sat with the blonde, waiting for the damn elevator.

Laxus held on to the remaining energy he had left. His eyes were twitching due to the smoke and the more he inhaled it, the more it made him less breathe. He was losing his consciousness and fast.

The elevator dinged and to the detective's surprise, firefighters were in it. A few made their way to the room while two of them took them down to be checked on by the paramedics on the scene. As they went down, one of the firefighters gave Laxus his gas mask, finally giving the man fresh air in his lungs.

Finally bringing the two down, they took them to the paramedics. The firefighters placed the two of them down onto the gurney and the two were rushed right into the backs of 2 ambulances by the paramedics, riding in separate vehicles.

...

"This is Channel 7 News, and we're live right now in front of the building in which..."

Laxus was brought to the ICU, only having minor injuries to his arm whereas Hibiki was taken down to the emergency surgery room. He finally regained some motion to his left arm and was given a thin cast over it, nonetheless, he still had to be careful with it.

The detective sat on the corner of his bed, where he listened to the TV, showcasing the event of the bombing that occurred. "Is this the work of terrorist?" Said the blonde reporter on TV.

"Great..." Laxus facepalmed as he heard the woman utter those words. It was bad enough that their only suspect died before telling them anything concrete and now the media was instilling mass hysteria with their terrorist talk. "Just fucking great." He moved his palm to his lips, wiping the saliva as he embalmed his hand into a fist and taking it off his face.