[zapdragon555]

Jadyr felt himself settle again as Emille went away once more--that shithead was playing with his mental state something fierce. Jadyr wasn't used to being so spooked every time a guy walked into the room. Jadyr's eyes slid back down to the boy on the floor, his hand shifting on Jonah's chest to his side, keeping him steady so he wouldn't roll over onto his hands. He forgot to mentally ask why he cared.

He blinked as Jonah murmured something, and he leaned closer just in time for one of the ties to snap. Jadyr cursed sharp and soft under his breath, jolting as he stared at the blood welling in the tight cuts to the boy's wrists, and wincing once more at the dislocation of his thumb. Christ, Jadyr hated how much that hurt his chest--he wasn't used to empathy. It made him feel sick, both with himself and with the situation.

But enough of that self pity shit. Jadyr watched in silence as Jonah slipped him the knife, and he caught it, flicking it open. Right--he could feel his heart pick up in his chest with excitement. Yes, this could work. They had twenty minutes? Hell, Jadyr only needed ten. He shuffled closer to Jonah, murmuring soft and fast to him as he began to carefully cut away the ties on Jonah's arms. "Hey, man. Stay awake for me, alright? Carrying you out of here is gonna be a bitch, so you're gonna have to use your legs at some point." He cracked a smile, more a smirk than anything, but it seemed he was trying to keep Jonah engaged enough to stay something like alert. "You done good, with this knife. This is good--this is gonna save us. Good job," he muttered, uttering a soft mantra of words as he worked, eyes flicking up to the door every now and then as he worked on cutting all of their bonds away.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Jonah acknowledged the partial-command with a nod of his head, and made a vow to himself not to fall asleep until they were out of this - although the world was swimming, and he wasn't too steady in the 'coherent thought' category. Don't fall asleep. he could do that. He waited until Jadyr had released the last bond, and immediately got up - although his injured ankle didn't like that much. Limping, he made his way to the side of the room not near the door, and picked up a hammer that had been lying leaned against the wall. If Emille came back, he fully intended to use it. Quietly, he gave a nod at Jadyr - the other was the ringleader. He had no idea how to get out of this, and he was fervently holding onto the hope that Jadyr just might.

In the background, there were crashes and bangs, as well as a soft humming sound as Emille got some things ready in the next room. He wasn't paying any attention to his captives, so they had an opportunity to slip out of the wide-open door on the other side of the room... if they were quick, quiet, and very, very lucky.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr nearly called out to Jonah as the other boy went the opposite direction they needed, but kept himself quiet until he realized Jonah's intent. Alright, smart. This teensy knife wouldn't do them much good, anyway. Jadyr was impressed enough that Jonah was able to stand up as easily as he did, but he wondered halfway how good his arm strength would be if push came to shove with that hammer and Emille's face.

Well, whatever. Jadyr was wasting time thinking on it. Once Jonah was close again, Jadyr put a hand on his back to steady him and whispered a curt, nearly-silent 'keep close' into the other boy's ear. He then pressed Jonah's back as a signal to move very, very steadily. Thank god the floor was made of concrete and not wood--that was a boon, for sure, when it came to being quiet. Once they were out the door, they could actually run, and then Jadyr could see about getting a taxi and getting back to the rest of his gang. They could rough up this Emille guy a bit, if they could find him. When they found him. And then there was Jonah... that threw a wrench in things. Maybe he could just dump him at a hospital with some cash... that was another thing to think about later. Ah, they were almost there... just a few more meters, and they'd be home free.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Thankfully, Emille was more concerned with readying his equipment than he was with actually keeping an eye on his captives, and they made it with more than a couple of minutes to spare. When they got outside, it was the middle of nowhere. There was nothing in sight that even remotely smacked of civilization. No roads, no other houses, no landmarks except for a largish mountain rising up somewhere off to the left. It was dawn, and the temperature out here was several degrees colder than it had been in there. Which left a huge problem for Jadyr. He could run. There was a vast forest on one side of this shack, and it was dark, chock full of crevasses and caves probably. Perhaps hiding places, maybe even a log cabin. But Jonah was another story. Even that brief dash to the door, and into the dusk outside had winded him, and he had sunk to his hands and knees, attempting to get a breath that didn't come right back out of his mouth. Would have been handy to have that nifty shirt he'd had on right about now. Instead, he was half-naked, roughed up, bruised, beaten, and looked like ten miles of a bad drug-trip. Possibly was still even having one.

Yes, this was going to pose a problem. A big problem. Emille also hadn't left them with their cellphones, or any device with which to call for help. Problems just kept getting bigger here.

[zapdragon555]

The chill that hit Jadyr's bones as they rushed out into the open was enough to knock the wind out of his already-tight lungs. They'd made it--god, they'd actually made it. Jadyr licked his dry lips and looked around in all directions, panic threatening to rip at his heart. He felt like his head was spiraling off his neck; where were they?! Jadyr whispered a curse under his breath, then another, then a string as he bent down to roughly shove at Jonah's shoulder. "Fuck, man, get your ass up here. We're not resting. We gotta move."

Without waiting for a response, Jadyr's body decided to take advantage of the adrenaline. Jadyr grabbed Jonah and, with some awkward maneuvering, managed to get the boy onto his back haphazardly, and bent so that his passenger wouldn't fall backwards. "Whatcha thinkin', buddy?" Jadyr rasped, beginning to walk in a direction that felt about as right as any. "North sound good? Because we're going this way, and it sure as hell better be north."

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Jonah pretty much collapsed against Jadyr, but was conscious enough to hang on without being dropped, or simply falling back off his piggyback-ee. He murmured something that sounded fairly like: 'North to me', albeit with a lot more slurring and mumbling. His eyes closed, and he tightened his grip on Jadyr's shirt, taking a deep and shaky breath. The drugs were starting to wear off, but he was still a little bit disoriented. He knew where he was, obviously, but wasn't too coherent just at present. Even though he wasn't speaking, his breathing, and the way he swallowed every now and again was a clear pointer than he wasn't... exactly working on all cylinders yet.

He reached up to rub his eyes after a few moments, blinking ahead of them. "That's... there's a house..." he murmured, gesturing vaguely ahead of them. Indeed, there was a house in front of them, and there was a light on. Not only that, it appeared to be a clinic? Maybe? There was a red cross painted on the side of the house, and the porch had a sign hanging over it. Unfortunately, it was badly worn, and couldn't really been made out. Jonah winced a bit on Jadyr's back, and closed his eyes, burying his head in his savior's neck, and clenching his fist into that shirt. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. Whatever was happening with his mind, his body was in pain, and he wasn't quite sure why just yet.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr took a kind of strange comfort in the occasional shiver and grip on his shirt from Jonah. If the guy died on his back, Jadyr wasn't sure what he'd do. He told himself, mentally, that he'd drop the boy and make a run for it himself. But something about that left a bad taste in his mouth, and so after awhile, he'd pretty much conceded that he'd keep walking regardless. That felt better in his head, and so he stuck with it, and told his repercussions and common sense to go fuck themselves.

When Jonah spoke he felt his heart thump in surprise, glancing at the fringe of light hair in the corner of his vision. A house? Jadyr looked forward again, squinting. He'd been looking down at his own feet for awhile, so it was a good thing one of them was looking straight. God, he was an idiot. Why hadn't he noticed it first?

It was a stupid time to think about such things. Jadyr hiked Jonah up a little higher on his back and started trotting, trying to keep his gait as smooth as possible for Jonah, and managed to reach the little house-clinic-oddity in a matter of minutes. He stepped up onto the porch and kicked the door hard a few times in succession, the only form of knocking he had while holding onto Jonah's legs. "Hey!" he called, shifting his grip on the boy's thighs to try to pull him up better. "We need some help out here! Anyone home?!"

[Rainbowfox Ari]

There was noise inside the house, rustling and stomping around. Some floorboards creaked, and a very gruff and masculine voice shouted from inside the house. "Hang on a moment! Try not to bleed all over the porch, I'm coming!" It wasn't too much longer before the door opened, and a man stood in the doorway. He had darkish-blond hair, done through with purple streaks - but that looked natural. His eyes were steely, but pink, and he looked anything but happy to see people. He was wearing a labcoat and a stethoscope around his neck, but he was also dressed in a ragged t-shirt, jeans, and slippers underneath it. There was a massive scar curving from his left ear to just under his left eye, and another across his nose. His features had a sort of brash set to them, and he didn't look like a guy you'd want to get into a fight with.

By now, Jonah had slumped over Jadyr's shoulder, and was breathing erratically, his heart pounding against Jadyr's back. If the man noticed, he gave no signal of it. The kid was obviously still reacting to something, because the bloodloss from the wounds had been minimal, and there wasn't much swelling in the wrists or ankles. There wouldn't really be anything to push his body to these extremes... unless he had already been sick, or already been drugged when Emille got to them.

"Yeah?" the man at the door asked Jadyr, giving him a once over. "Well don't you just look like a pretty pack of posies." he said, dripping with sarcasm. "You want to come in, I'll bet. I'm closed, but..." He flicked his gaze to the young man on Jadyr's back. "... Looks like your friend is in enough of a condition to ignore the signs up front. Just so you know, I don't usually answer the back door. Come in. Watch the floor, it's uneven."

He stepped back to let the two come in, and gestured vaguely to a table roughly in the center of the room they'd stepped into. "Lay him on that. Then get an ice-pack out of the fridge over yonder, and put that on your wrists."

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr looked like he'd seen an angel when this new stranger appeared before him. Jonah was looking more and more worse for the wear, and Jadyr was growing more and more nervous by the second. It showed in his antsy footsteps as he rushed inside as soon as he was allowed access, ignoring the man's comments about their appearances. Like, shut the fuck up--they'd just been kidnapped! But Jadyr couldn't find it in him to be angry. Mostly, he was thankful, relief pulsing steadily through him as he made his way to the table with a soft 'yeah thanks' mumbling out of him. After some careful maneuvering, Jadyr managed to deposit Jonah onto the table and shift him around to a righted position, giving him a firm pat on the (uninjured) shoulder, rubbing some feeling back into it. Or at least he was trying to.

Ice? Jadyr blinked in confusion at the man, brows furrowing, his hand still locked on Jonah's shoulder for whatever reason. After being so physically close for the last plodding hour, Jadyr's subconscious seemed hellbent on staying close. Right, ice--he'd forgotten about his wrists, rubbed raw from the binds and barely swollen from said wounds. "Yeah," he mumbled thoughtlessly, glancing back at Jonah, then finally releasing his hold on the other boy to wander shakily over to the fridge.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Ronin moved over toward the other boy, and gave a cursory look at his body, before checking the cut in his side, and deeming it superficial. After noticing that, he took a few steps over, and clicked on an overhead light, adjusting it to focus solely on the boy, and not the rest of the room. He noticed the blood around his wrists, and retrieved some gauze to wrap them with, piling on ice over both of the heavily-swollen joints, looking him over. He checked his pupils, his pulse, and moved his head into the light to get a better look at the swelling near his cheek. Although he was gentle, the movements didn't seem gentle, they seemed downright slipshod. Or drunken. One of the two.

Damn kid had a rate of nearly one-fifteen, arrhythmic, and his breathing was rapid and shallow. The superficial cut didn't seem to be even bleeding anymore, and the wrists were a secondary concern, as they had stopped too. His pupils were reduced to pinpricks. He had to bring his rate down, and find out what was wrong with the kid. That required testing his blood, which he couldn't exactly do just now. He'd have to act on something, and hope it was the right thing. He was too tired, and too drunk, to really think straight at the moment.

Sighing explosively, he turned to the other kid. "You. Look, I don't know your name, and I don't care. You want me to fix him, you're going to have to help." He picked up another stethoscope off the counter, and tossed it to the boy. "Monitor him. You can count, right? Count for one minute, remember the number, and start over again. If that ticker of his goes any higher, you come get me. I need to grab some things from downstairs."

Okay, so maybe it wasn't all that professional to make the patients care for one another, but he was tired, he'd had WAY too much to drink, and he couldn't be two places at once. Besides, his electronic monitor thing wasn't here yet. He'd had it on order for days, but the woods were a weird place to get mail to. The surly looking one would have to do it. Not like he had a nurse to keep track of that shit, either. HE'D run off after one too many looks at the good Doc Ronin's behind-the-scenes records. If he was going to save the kid, he needed to act fast.... so he left Jadyr there with the 'scope, and went downstairs.

Jonah moaned a bit, not waking up, but seemed to be either dreaming or in pain. One of the two. His hand and fingers twitched, his thumb making an almost scratching motion. Perhaps the gauze itched or something.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr had by then managed to wrap the icepacks around his wrists, and looked rather silly, too, but the cold was helping the pain he only just realized he was experiencing. He was about to ask what Jonah's prospects were when suddenly he was being assaulted with a stethoscope, and he caught it with a startled grunt, blinking at the doctor. Realization dawned on him, suddenly.

This guy was fucking drunk. Jadyr wanted to smack his forehead, but his wrists hurt, and he was holding this contraption which reminded him a little too much of that Blood Room or what have you that had gotten them into this damn mess. Trying not to feel too bitter about the whole thing (though Tobias would pay, for certain), Jadyr nodded and walked over to Jonah, wincing as the boy made a noise.

"Hey," he said, like it mattered, like Jonah could hear him. He sat on the edge of the table, fiddling with the stethoscope, then sighed and hooked the thing over his neck. He tried to recall the frenzied, all-too-excited instructions that Jonah had given him at the club, and by some miracle he recalled the basics. He glanced at the other boy's hand as it twitched, and he fought down some sudden, stupid urge to hold one of them, just to stop it from moving. But he had a job to do, which was regrettable, because now he couldn't just leave and run and find the city again and leave Jonah with the doctor, which he was already having repercussions about even considering. Lord knows why. "I'm gonna listen to your heart, okay buddy? We're gonna play doctor," he muttered in a whispered voice under his breath, just to hear himself talk, to make sure that this was real and they weren't still back at Emille's place with some kind of hallucination gas pumping into their lungs. The thought made his skin crawl. Jadyr placed the earpieces where they were designed to fit, and held the little disc to Jonah's chest, moving it around (and wincing at the amplified sound of fabric brushing) until he found the rapid pulse. His eyes flicked up to the clock on the wall, watching the dulled red second hand tick as he counted in his head.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

Jonah's heart was definitely still rapid, and still roughly one-fifteen per minute. The boy was, actually, starting to wake up, though. Those moans became soft groans, and those twitches became actual movement. Since Jadyr was still wearing the stethoscope, he possibly almost got deafened when Jonah coughed, hard, blinking weakly, and looking around the room, propping himself up on his elbows for a moment, before flopping back down with another groan. He didn't even seem to register that Jadyr was there entirely. When he did register it, his heart picked up a bit, then relaxed as he flopped onto his back, and stared at the ceiling in an entirely 'stoned' manner.

"It's spinning outside." he muttered, sounding... entirely loopy. "It's spinning outside, and there's raining in my head. I can hear your red shirt from here." He licked his lips, and tried to rub his eyes, only to look at his wrists, and immediately panic. "MY ARMS! MY ARMS ARE MUMMIES!" ... Upon which point he started sobbing. "I don't want my arms to go to the desert without me. They're dead now. Mummies are dead. Why are my arms dead? I don't want my arms to be dead. Dead and desert dust." He sniffled, and blinked up at the ceiling again, instantly changing 'gears' in thought. "Did the sky become ground? Or am I buried? AM I DEAD!? Did... did Emille put me in a coffin? Why are you in a coffin too?" He directed this last question to Jadyr, turning to look at you. "You have a cute name. It's like a little hopping bunny rabbit with a bazooka. But it has a long tail. With a lot of spikes. A cute little bunny-lizard."

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr stared hard at Jonah, his expression carefully blank. And then Jonah started speaking, and Jadyr felt a weight lift off his chest. It was a weight that quickly plummeted back down, however, when Jonah started speaking complete, utter nonsense. That... was a little more than worrying. Jadyr flinched when Jonah started panicking, and he dropped the stethoscope around his neck to reach out and grab Jonah's wrists, attempting to hold the other boy down and stop him from hurting himself. "Jonah, damn you, just hold still!" he snapped, fear flashing in his eyes. "You're fucked up right now, I get that, but can you stop scaring me?!"

It occurred to him, then, that he cared. He really did care about this guy, and he cared that he was tripping, and he cared that he would stop tripping soon and be back to normal and safe and not in life-threatening danger. Of course he couldn't just leave. His newly-found conscience wouldn't let him. "Jonah," he repeated, softer, moving his hands to the boy's face to hold it steady. "Hold still. Shh. We're gonna calm down, alright? Gonna calm right down. Your arms are fine, you're fine, I'm fine, my name isn't cute, and you're tripping balls. But you're gonna be alright." Probably, he hoped, at least.

[Rainbowfox Ari]

At first, Jonah was nearly vibrating with panic... up until he felt Jadyr's touch. His reactions trailed off, and he started to relax, partially - if not fully - calm by the time the other gripped his head. He took a deep, shaky breath, and let himself gaze into Jad's eyes. His own yellow were still all pinprick-pupils and fear, but it was calmer fear now. He wasn't flailing anymore, and even if he was still very much in the middle of a bad trip... it was Jadyr who held his reins now - just like a skittish horse.

"O-okay." he whispered, voice barely trembling on the edge of bursting into tears. "Okay... I... Okay." He dropped his head, and settled his forehead against Jadyr's arm, focusing on his breathing. In and out. Trying to regain some sense of sanity. "The room is spinning." he murmured. "I think... I think I'm going to pass out again, and I don't want to..." He squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to just... focus. "You're.... you're not really glowing, and there aren't ants all over me, right? I'm not in a coffin, my arms aren't mummies, and you're... you're not a lizard, right?"

He scooted a bit closer, so that he was almost sitting on Jadyr, clinging to his shoulders, trying to keep his balance, both mentally and physically. "I'm queasy... but it's not too bad. I'm just... really, really dizzy." he breathed, shivering. "And cold..."

The doctor came back in to this, and looked at the two of them. "That's likely because you have drugs coursing through your damn system. Enough to get several extremely large body-builders high enough to pass out. I'm frankly surprised you haven't died from a heart-attack."

Jonah shivered again, starting to tremble once more - the 'pep talk' wasn't doing much to help him. As a matter of fact, the doctor's words were scaring him. As was the fact that the man was coming at him with a syringe.

"Now, if you'll hold still, I can give you this sedative, and you can ride this out fast asleep." Ronin said, starting to go in for an injection.

The boy jumped out off the exam table, and practically knocked Jadyr over in his haste to get away from the doctor, who - by this point - reeked of alcohol. He was very much drunk, and Jonah was having none of that at all. He scrambled to try and get away, before just clinging to Jadyr, head buried in his shoulder, and leaning as far away as possible without knocking the both of them off the chair.

[zapdragon555]

Jadyr's worry softened as Jonah began to calm down, and he let out a heavy sigh, nodding his head. "Yup. No lizard people. Don't worry about it." He glanced away as Jonah clung to him, not really wanting to be so close, but he wasn't about to shove the guy away either. He seemed way too fragile right now, physically and emotionally both. "Passing out here's okay. You're safe enough here, I'm pretty sure." Even so, Jadyr really wished he had his gun. That little knife was nowhere near enough to give him peace of mind.

Jadyr blinked as the doctor came back in, and furrowed his brow at the blunt words. Hey, cut it out, he thought inwardly, but he didn't really want to talk back to this guy, if he was helping them. Best not to piss off someone who might be the only human being around for miles. "What kind of drugs?" he asked, curious, eyeing the doctor with scrutiny. Was it something Emille had given them? Jadyr didn't feel particularly buzzed, so it must have been something that Jonah had already had in his system. The thought was a little chilling--Jadyr saw, talked with addicts every day, a lot of them customers for a few dealers in Black Mamba. But Jonah seemed so... kind. Too small and soft for that kind of thing. Jadyr found himself wondering why such thoughts were coming to mind, and why he couldn't find it in himself to pull away from Jonah's hold. He eyed the needle in Ronin's hand, and suddenly Jonah was moving and flailing and trying very hard to get away.

Jadyr cursed and threw his arms around the other boy, trying to hold him still for a second, then loosened his hold slightly as Jonah seemed to crumple in his arms and hide there. Jadyr's eyes flashed to the doctor, the muscles in his neck tense as he kept his arm around Jonah to steady him and keep him there. "Hey, man, you look hammered--you sure you should be sticking him with that thing?" he asked, a defensive nervousness in his voice.