#anditos

"SARAH?" Panic burned through Andi's blood. They'd gotten separated- a stupid, amateur move that was much miss the fault of an unstable building than of his own carelessness. He'd lost sight of her between the fall and the dust that has swirled around as he and Gremlin had fallen through a rotten floor, leading the way on the run from Hunters. They'd almost lost the bastards, who had no doubt then been drawn in by the sound, and Sarah had had to run. The hunters hadn't thought to look down, and had missed Andi. / He roared, shoving aside the section of floor that had fallen on him. / "Gremlin!" The Airedale was pacing nervously, looking upwards. Rubble had formed a crude, steep staircase that Andi wasted no time in helping Grem and himself up. "Sarah! Find her, Gremlin!" / The Airedale's nose hit the floor and she began sniffing, pacing back and forth for a moment before latching onto the trail with a bark. She sprang into motion, lurching through the ruined building. Andi's gun was already out- if those hunters laid so much as a finger on that kid- / There were cruel, laughing voices in the distance, the motion of something falling between four men. Andi didn't spare a thought for stealth. He and Gremlin exploded on them in a flurry of bullets and teeth. His rifle only offered maybe two good shots at this range, so he attacked the fourth man- Grem had the third on the floor- with a knife kept on his belt. Then there was silence except for Gremlin's growling. / "Sarah!" / There were five bodies on the ground, and one was much too small. Andi's blood turned to ice. His chest wouldn't expand, his breath halted completely as his stomach bottomed out. / _No!_ His mind screamed. There was only the sound of Gremlin panting and growling, the creak of an unstable building. He kicked the warm bodies of the hunters out of his way and rushed a Sarah, dropping to his knees so hard he could tell himself that's why he was tearing up. / "No, no- no no no no- Sarah-" As long as he'd been alive, as long as he'd been a soldier, nothing ever made it easier- the sight of a dead child. Blood stained one leg of her jeans, and his trained eye immediately dissected the scene. She'd been shot in the leg, fallen- blood was on her hands and wrists from grabbing it. Larger, bloody hand prints were all over her clothes from where they'd tried to restrain her. She'd fought like hell to get free- the tears in her clothes were bigger, and worse signs of a fight. Busted lip, torn fingernail. / Her throat had been cut, jagged work from a dull knife and a tactless attacker. / He felt like he was going to throw up. The world was ending all over again and he knew, quite seriously, that this was his fault. If he'd been quicker- if he'd left Gremlin, she would safe down there for now- if he'd gone a different way, lead Sarah through different territory. / "Sarah..." His voice cracked and, tenderly, as if he still might hurt her, he pulled her into his lap. You could see enough death and still say, "Please wake up." He choked these words out through tears. "Please wake up, Sarah. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." / Gremlin whined, nudged them, but Andi didn't notice her. / Sarah was dead. He was supposed to protect and she'd died twenty feet away from him.

“Oh shi-”       Andi felt the ground below him begin to give out, and he only had time to think I wonder how far down this ruin goes before he found himself in a freefall. On instinct, he scooped his rifle around his chest on it’s strap so that it wouldn’t be under his back when he landed.       His next step, as darkness began to wash up the walls around him, was to reach out with his powers. Though no where near as strong as a Han’et, with their gods-given and gods-enhanced abilities, he still had some tricks up his sleeves- and one of them involved finding a safe place to land.      “C’mon, c’mon-”        The air warped around him, rushing in to fill the space he had occupied as he vanished from the crevice under the mountain. Elsewhere, worlds away, another pocket of air rushed out with a muffled whoosh as he popped into being. He slammed down on the floor- carpet, he had just enough awareness to identify- and grunted as he took the impact of the distance he had fallen under the mountain.        He folded over his gun with a shy of relief that he wasn’t an Andi splatter in some undiscovered ruin, then peeked up to figure out where he had brought himself.

@dirtylimerick Andi groaned, shifting in his bed as a faint sound caught his ears. Light streamed in through the windows and he found himself too tired to care what it was- until he heard the floor creak in the living room.      Every sense on full alert, his eyes sprang open and he hovered there, listening for the intruder. He carefully rolled over and his fingers crawled across the bed to find his nightstand. 

@helosther Blood is smeared across the walls of the windowless room- once a large supply closet. Areas of it have been hastily wiped, as if to keep the place clean. A gurney, a chair, and a lot of medical equipment crowd the room. A figure lies on the bed, held down by too many straps.      Shrunken in the years since the outbreak, in the years since being relocated to the hospital, Andi is more waif than man. Bruises darkened his chest beneath his eye, and where he fought against the straps most desperately. His skin was discolored, the sun a forgotten concept, nutrition alien entirely.      The sound of the door opening makes him cringe, and he twists towards the sound. His eyes are a little hazy, and a lot fearful.