An Aftermath

"We couldn't have done it without you, Mister Raynes."

The world expanded, the prone figure in front of him no longer filling his vision. There were things - people - swarming around, and someone standing behind him. His hand shook. There was a harsh smell of ozone in the air. The gun was so heavy.

"Mister Raynes?" He turned, and that familiar figure was there again, impossibly crisp and utterly incongruous in his suit. "Are you quite all right, Sir?"

"Not sir..." he muttered. They were swarming everywhere now; chattering, collecting, analyzing. Worker bees in the hive. His head hurt from the sheer volume of activity, it was too much to process.

"Mister Raynes, perhaps you should come with me." A hand on his shoulder now, almost comforting, turning him around and leading him outside, away from the - don't look back don't look back don't look back - and through the low-roofed halls and corridors.  His hand was still shaking - the same hand as before, the same aching vibration shooting through the arm - as he was bundled into the waiting shuttlecar and whisked away through the warrens, back to the City, back to the vaulted spaces. Open air, if you could call if that.

And there was that crisp bastard seated across from him, a look of concern on his face. Oh good, thought Raynes. I've finally flapped the unflappable. He patted his pocket and pulled out a single precious bootleg cig. Somewhere between then and now he'd lost track of the gun.

"I must say, you've really come through for us, Sir." The man across from him suppressed a grimace as Raynes lit up, clearly past caring about air filtration. "We owe you a debt of gratitude."

The shuttlecar dipped into another tunnel, and Raynes took a deep drag. Silence and darkness. For the longest moment there was nothing but the strange natural glow of the butt; nothing but the whisper-hum of the 'car speeding through vacuum-sealed rock. And then, with an explosion of light and sound, they burst back into the City. Raynes exhaled.

"It's not Sir." Eyes locked. "And you owe me a hell of a lot more than that. I want to see your boss."

Ashes to ashes, we all fall down