Harper wasted no time as he ran out of the hospital as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran for a minute or so before stopping dead, looking wildly around him. He lifted up the comm again and saw Rommie still waiting there, an eyebrow raised and the beginning of a smirk on her face.
“Er…” he started, somewhat embarrassed. “Where?”
“I’m sending the coordinates down,” she said calmly, “Dylan and I will meet you there.”
“Is she…” he didn’t finish the sentence, but merely gave her a pleading glance. She nodded, putting him out of his misery.
“Yes Harper,” she confirmed, “physically, she’s fine. Well,” she paused, “as fine as can be expected. Suffice it to say, she is not in danger.”
“That depends on how you see it though,” Harper argued. “I mean, after what that guy did to her…”
“Harper,” Rommie interrupted before he could continue, “standing here fretting about it really isn’t going to help the situation. Go. We’ll be there too, I promise you. Just remember; the faster we get there, the better. All right?”
“Don’t I know it,” Harper mumbled as he deactivated the comm and looked at the coordinates Rommie had sent him. The tracking device inbuilt in the comm should lead him the right way. He just hoped she’d be ok.
****
She had no energy to move, though she suspected she probably should. It seemed pointless, and so very important all at the same time. Her main priority was, of course, not to be found, but where was she going to go? It seemed she had nowhere else to go, and wherever she did go, they’d find her. And even if they didn’t; what was she going to do? Stay in the field forever? She’d reached a dead end it seemed, a cliff only a hundred metres or so away, and she didn’t want to turn back. She couldn’t turn back. What was the point anyway? She’d end up roaming endlessly. Unless…
It was a terrible thought, and she didn’t like it, but somewhere the despair she was feeling came through, how desperate she really was. She didn’t want to die; it wasn’t that, but she couldn’t seem to find another way out. Were there any other options? Probably, but none that she could see. As far as she was concerned, she had no one, or nothing. She had nowhere to go, and as much as the thought of death scared her, the thought of life scared her more.
Slowly, she walked up to the cliff, her arms clinging around her and her head bent down. She felt herself shivering. Was she frightened? Why? She didn’t have to do anything. She was just going there…just having a look. Maybe she’d jump…maybe she’d just stand there for a moment, pretending she was going to jump. Pretending she wouldn’t have to feel anymore. Feel the bliss she wouldn’t actually feel cause she was too scared to.
On the other hand…maybe she would jump. She would see when she got there.
****
“Harper,” Rommie’s voice came over the comm again, “she’s moving.”
“Oh great,” Harper moaned, then stopped. “So she wasn’t before?”
“No, she was keeping still in one place, I thought she might have been sleeping, but she’s moving now. Slowly, we should still get there.”
“I’m not far off now,” Harper said as he broke into a jog, “I’ll catch her up.”
“Just take it easy,” Rommie warned. “She has been acting weird around you lately and besides; she might think you’re there to take her back to the hospital. It would appear she didn’t like it much there.”
“Yeah, and it’s really no wonder,” Harper replied with an angry undertone, unable to keep the rage from his voice. Reminding himself to make sure everyone knew what that scum had done, he shook his head and looked down at Rommie again.
“Harper?” she asked with a frown on her face. He shook his head.
“I’ll explain to you later,” he said, “but let me tell you one thing; she’s not going back there. Not in a million years, all right?” Rommie didn’t answer, but he wasn’t really too bothered. He turned off his comm and put it back, running towards Beka’s position.
****
She’d reached the end of the cliff now and her steps got slower and slower until she stopped, peeking over the edge nervously. It seemed so far somehow…so deep. She wondered what would happen if she did jump. Would she go splat like she’d always been so scared of? She almost surprised herself by giving a small, sarcastic chuckle. How ironic wouldn’t that be? The one way she’d been so terrified of dying…and she’d actually choose it?
Well, if she really was going to do it, of course she’d choose another way. One not quite so…brutal. She kind of wanted to be well preserved when she died, not an unrecognisable mess of skin and blood at the bottom of a cliff.
Well, actually, she didn’t really want to die at all, not normally, not really. It was just that there wasn’t really any other solution. Not a better one anyway, she could go back to the hospital, technically, but she’d choose mostly anything over that. She looked down again, the rocky stones sticking out from the cliff making her shiver, wondering how many bones she’d break against those. Whether she’d feel anything.
She lifted one foot carefully and held it over the edge.
