RUSTY | frank castle

THIRTY

Rusty saw the hose ending, and she knew a hard landing was to come. She quickly threw Lexi to the side, letting her land roughly on the staircase. She quickly pushed Fender to the side too, letting him jump onto the stairs below Lexi. Not even half a second later, Rusty felt her hand slip at the sudden stop of the hose. Frank fell onto the stairs, rolling down them and into a wall. 

Whereas Rusty, unfortunately for her, missed the stairs, but managed to cling onto the handrail of the stairs with one hand. She screamed in pain, her body dangling dangerously high off the ground. She swapped arms, groaning at the movement of her right one. She must have injured it badly. The woman panted, her sweaty palm slipping excruciatingly slow. 

"F-Frank." Rusty called out, though her voice was weak. 

Lexi barked, seeing her owner in a life and death situation. She ran down the stairs in Frank's direction; Fender, too. 

Frank panted, grabbing his upper right arm in pain. He heard Rusty's call, looking for where she was but only noticing the dogs running down the stairs towards him. He then saw Rusty's arm on the handrail. 

"Rusty!" He ran to the rail, looking over it to see his friend barely hanging on. "Oh, my god."

Rusty panted. "Pull me up."

Frank took her arm, reaching another one out for her to grab onto. She swung it up, wincing in pain. Frank pushed his body to the handrail, using all the strength he could master to pull Rusty up. Lexi bit Frank's trousers, getting a hold of him so he wouldn't fall with Rusty over the edge.

Frank yelled, pulling her up slowly. The pain in his own body matched Rusty's as both of them groaned. The woman managed to swing her leg onto the edge of the stairs, then the other. She put her arms around Frank's neck, hugging him as they pulled her body over the rail. 

Rusty stumbled to the ground, leaning onto the wall. She panted, holding her arm in pain. Frank sat next to her and they looked at each other.

"I'm never doing that shit again." Rusty wheezed out. 

Frank let out a single chuckle, a little smirk stayed on his lips for a few seconds as Rusty's dogs licked her. Both of them grunted as they managed to stand up, making their way down the stairs yet again. 

Rusty noticed Fender developed a limp in his back leg. He was using it, but he was in pain. All of them were. 

   •••    

Fender and Lexi ripped apart the people in the way as they reached the basement. Frank walked on, kicking open the door as he yelled, "Wilson!"

Rusty put her glock in her thigh holster, telling her dogs to stay outside the door. She limped into the area, it looked like it was a kitchen. She stood beside Frank, looking as Lewis grabbed Karen, pointing the dead man's switch at her and Frank. 

"We're unarmed." Frank said, putting his uninjured hand up. Rusty did the same, warily. They walked forward. 

"You heard him." Rusty said. 

"Stay back!" Lewis panicked. "You take one more step, I swear to Christ this is going off!"

Rusty stopped, wincing as she put the weight off her shot leg. 

"Whole world thinks we did this together, kid." Frank said. 

Rusty limped forward, danger in her eyes. Frank followed beside her. 

"Hey! Hey!" Lewis backed up with Karen. "Stay back."

Rusty panted. She felt the blood trickle down her leg, inside her trousers. She was exhausted, barely standing straight. She put her hand forward, keeping the injured one close to her body. Blood dried on her forehead and she felt bruises form all around her body.