Slow Down

[Dominic "Shadow" Blackwood]

Shadow was about to make his way over to the man when Spirit asked him if there was any blood on his clothes. He glanced at his attire and cursed. "Crap! I've got some on my shirt and my shoes. I don't mean to sound vain but I really liked those shoes! Blood doesn't come out of white!"

[Artemis "Spirit" Jacobs]

Spirit snickered. "You're going to need new ones, anyway, go deck yourself out in Red...I'd burn those," she advised. "I, for one, don't want to have the same fate as this fella." In saying this she was overly cautious as she stooped and tugged the man gently to his feet, curling the blanket around him. He looked up at her with wide, glassy eyes; blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. He attempted speech, gurgled and choked. Spirit donned a gentle smile as he succumbed to a fit of coughing.

"We're going to bring you back with us, we'll have a bed made for you," she said, touching her waist as she did so. "Shadow, hold him for a minute?"

Clipped to her belt was the small black box that wirelessly connected to her earpiece, barely visible in her right lobe. She hardly even felt it anymore, and the frequent buzzing of her other runners reporting back had become commonplace. Flipping a switch, she took a minute to connect with a runner at base.

"Set up a cot in the holding cell," she said under her breath; seeming not to hear, the homeless man merely continued to lean heavily on Shadow, overcome by a furious trembling and plagued by a retching cough. "Then leave; we'll be coming in by the west wing, if possible I don't want any present."

The runner copied and Spirit flipped another switch, muting her mic. She moved to help Shadow. "You'll get one of these back at base, don't let me forget. Ready?"

[Dominic "Shadow" Blackwood]

Shadow held the man by hooking his arms under the homeless man's and winced as he coughed up more blood. "Try and breath easy, it'll help." He whispered soothingly to the man as Spirit began talking into her mic. He nodded when Sprit asked if he was ready before helping her lift the man up and kicked open a door leading onto an alley. "So where's this base of yours exactly?"

[Artemis "Spirit" Jacobs]

"It's one of the warehouses. Kinda hard to tell out from the others, more than once have I had to give directions to a new recruit," she smiled slightly at him from over their burden.

The three continued to stagger on, dragging between them the poor soul who had subsided into a fit of trembling and dry rasping. Spirit wisely kept her head tipped away and eyes forward; to calm the sickening bile rising in her throat she pictured a hot shower back at base and a good scrub down. That'll kill the germs, no sweat, she convinced herself firmly, fighting back a tremor that rose from the base of her spine.

It was a solid twenty minutes later that the group arrived on the Red Base doorstep and banged inside. Spirit was winded, achy from dragging the man through the streets- he now hung between their shoulders, eyes roaming listlessly in his head and feet stumbling. He hardly had the strength to lift his head anymore.

"In here," the young woman gasped, guiding Shadow to where a small, darkened room was set in the corner of the storage area. A made cot was waiting; a full waterbottle stood in the corner. Easing the man down onto the bed, Spirit motioned for her new recruit to follow her out and locked the door behind her.

"Just in case. Now, you need gear, right?" The latter was said distantly, distracted. Without waiting for answer she wandered mindlessly to the Runner's storage room, letting herself in and beginning to rummage through the boxes.

[Dominic "Shadow" Blackwood]

"Uh... yeah, just some shoes and a shirt." He muttered distractedly as he looked sympathetically at the huddled mess lying on the cot of the cell. He was quite surprised he was now actually part of a runner group. When he was arrested he thought that was the end of it, looks like fate had other plans.