Divided by Hostilities (Chapter 7)

[jiminee]

Chapter 6

Rain came. The battle-weary men who had fought through the night welcomed with relief the first drops of cold rain. It became heavier and began to wash the dust, sweat and blood from their faces, soaking the hair and clothing that wasn’t protected by armour.
It was a relief until the first bolt of lightning struck, accompanied by the rumble of thunder. The bolt hit the middle of the battlefield, scattering the men fighting there. Lightning could be deadly. It was going to be different now, fighting with the added danger of the storm. Anything could happen.

The TNT bomb fell in slow motion, right into Pause’s arms. He held it, staring at Beef, unflinching. Beef tried to move but his arms and legs wouldn’t obey.
“Drop it, Pause!” he was screaming. Pause stood like a statue as the TNT exploded and Beef’s vision went red. Something cold hit his face.
“Pause!”
“Beef?”
Beef woke up in a cold sweat, stiff from his uncomfortable sleeping position. Something was dripping onto his face.
“Beef?” came Pause’s voice from the next cell. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah I just had a bad dream.” Beef’s heart was beating fast. “I’m okay. But I think the ceiling’s leaking.”
“My cell is leaking too. There is a small waterfall running down the wall.”
“I’m so sore, I slept sitting against the wall,” Beef complained. “And there was water dripping on my head.”
“Are you okay? You were calling my name. You sounded pretty distressed.”
“I’m fine,” Beef reassured. “Just a bad dream.” He got up, stretching out his sore limbs. “Are you okay?”
“My ribs are still sore. My headache is gone though.” Pause said.
Beef looked out the barred window. It was raining pretty heavily, and occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the cell. He looked back at the wall. The dripping water had become a steady stream, running in the mortar and cracks like a miniature river.
“Wonder how old this prison is. It’s in need of maintenance.” Beef said.
“I wonder if we could,” Pause lowered his voice, “bust out.”
Beef laughed. “Are you crazy? How could we even do that?”
“I don’t know. This prison seems pretty old and shoddy. It’s been in Abattia for as long as I can remember.”
“We can’t just bust out.”
“We could try.”
Beef sat down and stared at the wall. The rivulet of water had carved a line through the moss and grime, exposing the bare stone.
“How do you suggest we do it then?” he asked Pause, humouring him, although he didn’t believe for a second Pause had an idea.
“I don’t know, do you have anything in there with you that might help?” Pause asked.
“Day old bread and cold stew? Of course I don’t. All my things and armour were taken off me.” Beef said. He stared at the stone. “There’s something written here…” he said absently.
“What?”
Beef rubbed at the stone. Moss came off on his fingers. He could see small lettering, although it wasn’t in English. But he knew these letters…
“Somebody’s carved some words into the stone. I’m trying to read it.”
“Probably just standard prison graffiti,” Pause said.
“But it’s in a different language…” Beef said. He rubbed away some more moss.
“What?”
“You know those glyphs you see on enchanting tables? It’s written in those.”
“Oh,” Pause said, sounding disappointed.
“No, it’s okay,” Beef said. “I can read this.”
“What?” Pause said again.
“I know the language. I taught myself as a child.”
“How did I not know this before?!”
“It just never came up.” Beef said. “I’ve rubbed all the moss off. I can just read it.”
Pause was silent.
“It says… up two left five. What the heck does that mean?” Beef said, frowning.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know that!” Pause said. “Nobody can read those glyphs.”
“I can. Help me figure out what ‘up two left five’ means.”
“It’s pretty obvious,” Pause said. “Count up two bricks, then five across.”
“Um… okay.” Beef said, startled at Pause’s quick answer. “One, two… one, two, three, four, five. Now what?”
“Push?”
Beef braced himself, and pushed against the brick with all his strength. At first nothing happened, but soon he felt the brick budge with a scraping sound. He kept pushing, and eventually it fell out of the wall into Pause’s cell.
“It worked!” Beef said. He heard Pause groaning, and soon his face appeared at the hole in the wall.
Pause looked terrible. Blood had dried in rivulets down his face from a large gash on his forehead, and his red face paint was faded and smudged. He had dark circles under his eyes, and Beef wondered if he’d had any sleep at all last night. Despite all this, Beef had never been more happy to see him.
“Beef,” Pause said, and Beef could easily detect the emotion in his voice. He remembered their conversation out there on the battlefield, and wondered just how deep Pause’s feelings for him were.
“Pause,” he replied. “It’s so good to see you.” He smiled, and it felt like the first time he’d been genuinely happy in a long time. Pause was smiling too.
“What do we do now?” Pause asked. Beef thought he heard his voice wobble a little. “Can we bust out?”
Beef looked at the place where the brick had been. The bricks surrounding it were smooth and clean, but there didn’t seem to be anything that might help them escape. He wondered what had happened to whoever left the coded message. Presumably they had a friend in the next cell too. They must have put the brick back, since it hadn’t been discovered and patched back up by the prison guards. But there was something: a small, browned scrap of paper wedged in a crack in the bottom corner. Beef carefully pulled it out and opened it.
“This says…” He paused, squinting. It was also in code. “You will be freed when the walking man comes. What the hell does that mean?”
Pause rubbed his tired eyes. “It can’t be for us though. This is so old. How would it be for us anyway?” He sounded disappointed.
Beef looked up. It was as if Pause had hoped that there would be something to help them escape, but that hope had been ripped away. Beef could see it in his eyes.
“It’s okay,” he said bravely. “This is stupid, but we’ll get out soon enough. They can’t keep us here forever.”
“Maybe there’s another loose brick, or something,” Pause said. He began pushing at the bricks around the hole, wincing. “I can’t do this. My ribs are too sore.”
Beef didn’t think anything was going to happen, but he pushed the bricks anyway. If Pause had enough hope that something was going to magically appear to help them, Beef was going to have to at least try. But it was futile, anyway; no matter how hard he pushed against the wall, nothing else gave way.
“Pause, I don’t think there’s any more.”

It’s fine, Pause told himself. Everything’s fine. We’ll be let out soon enough. But it was not working: he could already feel his body going numb. He was shutting down, the dread creeping through him faster and faster. He clenched his eyes shut and tensed his muscles, trying to stop the tendrils of anxiety that were shooting through his veins. He couldn’t feel anything. But he could see, despite his eyes being closed… was this a vision? A dream? He saw a bright, burning light, white-hot and expanding quickly. The edges were a bright red, and as it expanded, Pause saw the fireball bursting through the prison walls and enveloping everything. The image was accompanied by a feeling, something aside from the pure panic. Something that felt good, making his heart beat fast with the anticipation of whatever was coming.
It didn’t last long, though: The panic took over, gripping his heart again and making him shake uncontrollably. He was beginning to feel again, though, senses coming back slowly. He tried to breathe.
“Pause?” Beef was saying. “Pause!”
Pause could hear him, but he couldn’t respond. He was shaking. The world had ended. That was all he knew. The world had ended. He felt something warm envelop his left hand, but he still didn’t open his eyes.
“Pause! Open your eyes! Are you okay?” Beef sounded panicked.
Pause wasn’t okay. He forced his head to shake.
“Open your eyes.” Beef’s voice said, gentler but still afraid. Pause was still shaking, but he opened his eyes.
“S-sorry. I’m - ” Pause couldn’t get the words out, he was shaking so much. He looked up. Beef was staring at him through the hole with deep concern in his blue eyes. Pause slowly realised that Beef was holding both his left hand where it rested on the bricks. As the feeling of total panic subsided a little, his feelings for Beef surged forward. He’d been trying to ignore them, because Beef’s response when he’d told him on the battlefield had knocked the hope out of him. But being locked in here, right beside him had driven him crazy. The feelings had just kept getting stronger. Attempting to breathe normally, he tried again.
“I just – just had a panic attack. I don’t know what happened. I know we’ve only been in here for two days,” he said. As he talked, he realised how silly his fears were. “But it just feels like we’ll never get out. I feel like I’m trapped.”
“It’s okay,” Beef said. “We’ll get out. Are you alright?”
“I’m better.”
“You just - ” Beef paused. He sounded scared. “Stopped. You started shaking, and – closed your eyes. I reached through and grabbed your hand, I don’t know why.” He slowly took his hand off Pause’s, leaving him with a tingling feeling on his skin.
“Thank you.” Pause said. “There was something else. I saw something, I don’t know if I was hallucinating or something but… It was like an explosion. A huge light, just burning through everything.” He didn’t know how to explain the feeling he’d had, but he knew it was significant. “At the time it felt like… like the world was ending, but at the same time something was being created. Sorry,” he said, cringing. “That was a bad description. And I probably sound crazy.”
“You should eat something,” said Beef. “I wish they’d give us water, too.”
Pause nodded. “I could always just stand with my mouth open. There’s enough rain coming in from outside to take a shower in.”
Beef smiled. “Take care, okay?” He looked at Pause. “Remember, we can’t be in here for too much longer. They have to let us out.”
Pause nodded again. “Sorry for freaking you out.”
“It’s fine.”
“I should probably go and lie down, and wait for them to bring food,” Pause said. Beef agreed. Pause turned towards the bed, but he saw Beef stand there, watching until he lay down.

Pyro was weary. The rain and the lightning made it difficult to fight, and everyone had slowed down. The Daedalian had hardly yielded; it felt like Abattia wasn’t making any progress. He sighed, looking up to the grey clouds and wondering if it would ever stop. The ground was muddy; hundreds of footprints created deep pools of water swirled with blood. The hilt of his sword was slippery, and it felt like the weapon was getting heavier and heavier. He dared not think of the people he’d hurt, much less that he might have killed them; he pretended that every person he’d seen fall to his sword had a friend that might have healed them with potions.
And then there was the silence, a slowing of the clashing swords that was moving down the front line. Pyro looked, and it was a man. He was walking. He came from the east, a dog by his side and walked in a straight line, right through the battle.
Some people were silent, some muttered amongst themselves and some even started shouting at the man. But everybody at the front line stopped fighting, and the ceasefire rippled down the ranks of the men until everyone had stopped. Guude and Zisteau were the only ones who moved, their horses creating pathways through the confused men. They met in the middle, right in front of the man who finally stopped. Pyro pushed his way through the crowds, trying to get a better view.
“Who are you?” King Zisteau said loudly, staring down with his one good eye.
The man looked up. “Kurt, Kurt J Mac. Just passing through.”

Comments

[chemrepnacl]

I love this story. Pauseunbeef feels.

[jiminee]

Yesss, good. Let the feels flow through you

[gummy53]

Yay, another chapter! I am in love with this story. And for a second there I thought Pause was dying and I died a little on the inside. But I'm okay. I think.

And yay, Kurt! :D

[linkcam15]

Omg, I haven't been on here for a while and when I saw you had two chapters I haven't seen yet I was so excited!! Keep up the good work, I really love this fic :)

[jiminee]

OMG Thank you <3 It's comments like these that keep me going :*