File 2.3 - An Unwelcome Rescue

A soft constant thump in her stomach began to awaken Shizuka. It felt distant, but pressed against her making her sore. Her body seemed almost weightless and moving. She had trouble explaining the sensation to herself, still not completely awake. ‘What happened to me?’ The more she started to surface from the fog the more a ringing in her head annoyed her. Accompanying the ringing was a widespread ache in her head. She then realized that she was upside down. The odd feeling snapped her back to her senses and awoke to her staring at brown leather. ‘I’m being carried!’

Shizuka fought with the person that carried her to try to break free. Her legs kicked into the chest and stomach. She also tried to lift herself free from the arm around her waist keeping her from sliding off the shoulder. “Let me go! Stop now!”

“No. Ya’ll just run away ag’in.”

“This is kidnapping! Let me go!”

“Can ya really call it ‘napping if yer dad’s makin’ the call?”

“If I don’t want to see him ever again, yes!”

“Well ain’t ya lucky tah be able tah say that.” Ed shifted Shizuka up a little to get back into position to finish carrying her. He preferred if she stayed asleep until he took her back to the ship. The thought of listening to her whining made the march back even more painful.

Around him steam and smoke raised from the ground where particle beams impacted. Carrying Shizuka made him tired. His body shook still from what happened not making it any easier on him. Not helping him was the rise in temperature that only made him sweat all the more. It felt almost unnatural to him for warmth in the air. ‘I liked tha chill better… Why’d it h’ve tah be a whiny brat?’ The longer he stared out into the horizon the more he wondered about the battle he witnessed. ‘I’ve ne’er see anyth’n like tha b’fore. What were those metal monsters?’

Ed avoided a large crater in front of him forced to work through fallen plants that used to be crops. The entire area used to be farmland, but now became nothing more than a trampled garden. He wondered if the destruction caused could be salvaged. ‘Is this what war’s like? Like in tha books?’ His work with the Niphilheim sent him around the world and they had their share of conflicts. Yet none of it compared to what he saw. ‘Is it those terrorists, Ragnarok?’ Ed shook his head trying not to think too hard about it. He hoped never to see such things again.

“Yo Ed!” shouted Sheila from their truck as it screeched to a halt. “I see yer still alive, kid!”

He picked his head up and waved with his free arm to them. A welcomed relief came to him seeing his crewmates still alive. When the battle started he lost all contact with them. It seemed that they came out with less trouble than him. “Yeah! Somehow an’way!”

As Ed approached them Sheila leapt off the side of the back of the truck landing on the ground. She didn’t miss a beat to rush out to meet Ed. “What ya hauling there?” Sheila looked around over Ed’s shoulder to get a better look at the person he carried. She pulled back in surprise to see the girl they searched for glaring viciously at her. “Hey, ya might redeem yerself after’ll!” Sheila patted their target on the butt glad to see the annoying child taken down a peg.

Shizuka snapped immediately, feeling the hand of the woman touching her. She bent around Ed to stare upside down at the woman. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

“Still get some fire in ya, huh?” She leaned over to meet the girl eye to eye. The higher position gave her a confident grin.

Fin poked his head out the door seeing the scene develop. “That’s enough, Sheila! Load up! We’re goin’ back to the ship!”

“Tch! Yes, Cap’n!” Sheila pulled back and climbed back into the truck. Ed followed behind her and dropped Shizuka onto the flatbed of the truck as he jumped in himself. The closing of the rear hatch signaled Nate to start driving once more.

Once the truck got back up to top speed Shizuka pulled herself up off the bed. She remained unrestrained, an odd thing for people not wanting her to escape. The other men and woman in the back of the truck gave her a sense that making any trouble wouldn’t succeed for long. She leaned her back against the side of the truck looking out at the road very pensively.

Ed faced the rest of the guys in the truck trying to put distance between the girl and him. She gave him more trouble than he ever wanted. The mission should have been a simple retrieval. ‘Damn girl!’ He found himself staring back at Shizuka and saw her too deep in thought with the road. “I wouldn’t if I were ya.”

Shizuka shifted her eyes over to Ed, catching his words. The road disappeared in the distance quickly. She didn’t know how safe a fall she could make at their speed. She was trapped. Shizuka resigned herself to settle back against the truck refusing to speak to anyone.