Burn Victims [Piper]

[Augusta Davingoun]

Augusta didn't plan things out well enough, and as he limped his way through the pitch black tunnels, he cursed himself. About halfway there he slipped and fell over he put an arm out to catch himself but his hand slid and his face met the cold dirt of the floor. He laid there and wished he would just bleed to death on the spot, but then that fear captured him again.

He hadn't seen Kristopher... and so he pulled himself up despite his injuries, and stumbled on. He had to see if Piper and Kris were okay. He had to. He was surprised that he made it this far without kicking the bucket. He knew a rib was broken because it hurt like hell to breathe, plus the slices on his right shoulder when a wooden beam fell as he was running out with a small girl, plus a burn mark covered from under his right eye to the crook between his neck and shoulder. Plus all the random burn marks everywhere.

But he hated himself. He didn't want to be the one with this weight. Only five dead. he lost twenty-four. Twenty-four people who died form a lost sense of freedom. Twenty four lives were entrusted to him and he didn't plan well enough to get them out of there in time. He felt like he had killed twenty four and not the boogies or the fire. He wanted so badly to just crawl in a hold somewhere and die. But he couldn't do that to Kristopher.

He walked into the clearing to the cavern in the middle of the head quarters. And the first person he spotter was Piper, thank god. He didn't think he could live if her death was on his shoulders. But as he walked in, weary and hurt heads turned, a lot of heads. The looks he got from the hurt rebels were either pity or anger and that made him extremely uncomfortable. He let out a pained cough and limped toward one of the long stone tables before he leaned against it. He let his head hang and tried to brush some strand of hair out of his face, but some of it was clumped together with dried blood and sweat.

He wasn't sure how he could live with himself....

[Piper Wren]

Piper had been one of the lucky ones, she had made it out before the fire had cut her group off from their escape route. How had this all gone so wrong so quickly? So many lives had been lost and thinking about it made her feel sick, grateful she had nothing in her stomach incase her body reacted that way from stress. After leading a small group of five back to the Headquarters, Piper had done her best to treat their injuries with the limited medical supplies they had and ignored her own injuries. She had been lucky, the young woman had escaped with only cuts and bruising, the worst was a wide cut on her right shoulder which had stained her sweater with blood.

'I can't believe it happened like this...'

She thought with a wince as she treated a girl with a head injury, staunching the blood until the flow stopped and cleaning it with antiseptic. One big worry on her mind right now was if Augusta had made it out of the North Wing alive...so many hadn't, the death toll was up to twenty four. Suddenly she the room went very quiet and Piper glanced up to see Augusta limp in, she tapped the wrist of a young man seated next to the girl she had been treating.

"Look after her for a minute..."

Quickly she made her way over to Augusta and gently rest a hand on his shoulder, tipping his chin up to look at her with her other hand. Piper's face was tinged with black smut from the fire, a large bruise was forming along her right cheekbone and a dried trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth where she had been struck.

"I was scared that you weren't going to make it out..."

[Augusta Davingoun]

Augusta let his head stay down and he concentrated on looking at his feet, he didn't think he could look at the others. Too much stress right now. He felt a hand move his chin and he tried not to pull away. The burn on his face looked gruesome and it was very painful, but as most every Boogie knew, Augusta was very tolerant of pain. He coughed again, which sounded more like a weak gasp for air.

"I was scared that you weren't going to make it out..."

He looked at her silently and then said in a oddly soft and weak voice for a guy like Augy, " You look horrid Piper, are you feeling okay?" And despite his vast arrange of injuries, he continued in his pained voice, " You should get a bandage or something..."

Augusta glanced around slightly trying to look for Kris but didn't see him so he tried to focus back on Piper, but not only was his face covered in smut, but his glasses had a layer of ash on them too. He hadn't gotten a chance to wipe them off, which is most likely why he fell down and got dirt all over his second degree face burn.

[Piper Wren]

" You look horrid Piper, are you feeling okay? You should get a bandage or something..."

Piper briefly covered the larger cut on her shoulder with one hand, it was still bleeding but not as heavily as it was earlier, everything was sore now that the rush of adrenaline had worn off. She knew she had got off easily compared to other people, proved further by the state of Augusta. Carefully she removed his glasses from his face and gently wiped them off with the only clean part of her sweater that wasn't singed or bloodstained before replacing them on her friend's face. Piper felt a pang inside at the state of him...

"I'm fine, it looks worse than it is, your injuries need treating..."

She glanced around, most of the other Rebels were staring at them. Piper fixed a group of them who were whispering with a fierce glance that was quite unexpected of her. The silence took over once again, perhaps treating Augusta here wasn't a good idea. The tension in this room could be cut with a knife.

"I'll take you into the other room, are you alright to walk?"

A cough escaped Piper's lips, left over from when the smoke and ashes had hit the back of her throat in the burning North Wing. She could still smell smoke in her hair and on her clothes, everyone was trying to block it out, Piper wanted to scrub her skin and wash away the smut and dried blood but for now there were other priorities.

[Augusta Davingoun]

Augusta flinched slightly when Piper removed his glasses, but relaxed when she replaced them on his face. He could actually see a bit more clearly. He tried to smile but it came out as more of a pained grimace. He wasn't surprised when Piper said her wounds were not as bad as they looked. Sounded like her.

He watched Piper as she gave a harsh look, which seemed so unlike her, to some of the rebels. He knew a lot of the rebels were losing faith in him, he didn't blame them. hey had lost friends, brothers, sisters, and loved ones. They had lost so many, and everyone else was injured. If only he had planned better. He felt so dumb and worthless.

"I'll take you into the other room, are you alright to walk?"

Augusta looked at Piper blankly for a second before letting out a gasping-cough and nodding. "y--yeah..." he whispered and slid back into a vertical position before limping around Piper. The limp was from when he fell. Back a long time ago when he first met Kristopher, he had his knee pulled out of socket by a gang of boogies. Kristopher put it back in place when he fell down and hurt it after the fight, one of the thousands of reasons he fell for the blond. But the knee, was never the same, ever, it almost always hurt when he ran, but he ran anyway, and it hurt when he lifted heavy things. And now, after falling down when the beam hit him, he most likely knocked it out of socket again.

He must have seemed so pathetic, he was supposed to be a leader, and he was the oldest slave here, or so it seemed. He was supposed the keep them safe, he was supposed to lead them to victory, but all he did was lead them to their deaths.

[Piper Wren]

Piper saw Augusta's pained grimace, he was trying to be brave, just like everyone here was even if everything hurt. Although things had gone so wrong she couldn't bear it if everyone pinned all the blame on Augusta's leadership. It wasn't his fault, not in Piper's eyes anyway. She would be prepared to defend her friend because she believed in him. When Piper noticed Augusta's pronounced limp she went to Augusta's side and put his arm around her shoulder, wincing slightly at the contact but she could put up with it.

"Lean on me, you don't need to be putting too much pressure on that leg."

She didn't know of Augusta's previous issues with his knee but something else was playing on her mind as she helped him towards the spare room...Where was Kristopher? He knew about the Rebel Headquarters and would have seen the blazing North Wing from a mile away, but none the less he hadn't come in with any of the straggling groups. Piper nibbled anxiously on her bottom lip, it probably wasn't a good idea to bring this up to Augusta right away, the last thing he needed was to be worrying about Kristopher too even if she had a sick feeling in her stomach about the blonde's safety.

"Nice and easy...."

'I'll treat Augusta...then go and search for Kris...'