xp_logs | The Gates: Surrender (Reply)

Courage is doing all that you can in a difficult situation. Wisdom is knowing when it's time to walk away. Just before dawn, Elpis reaches that point

The water spurting from the broken hydrant was ice-cold. Just what he needed. Nathan stuck his head into the falling spray, ignoring what sounded like a protest from Angelo's direction. It had the effect of a slap to the face - or several - and his thoughts finally sharpened back to something approaching clarity. About damned time.

Nathan straightened, wiping his eyes, and turned back towards the three young people, all of whom were looking tired and discouraged and perhaps a little shell-shocked. He could still hear the sporadic outbursts of gunfire, but the roar of the fires was louder. Smichov was burning to the ground, he thought, looking around them. Well, the security barrier might be to the benefit of the rest of the city after all...

"I think we've done all we can," he said hoarsely. "We're not firefighters."

"There's always more to do", Angelo said wearily, but it wasn't disagreement. "But from here on in, it's just tryin' to keep it from gettin' worse, an'... I don't think that's really gonna happen."

Medusa still held herself erect, but her hair had grown limp and her usually impeccable clothes were now smudged and wrinkled. "Perhaps others may now step in to help. There is just so much to do here..." And I think we will all collapse if we keep trying, especially at the pace we have set.

Rahne didn't answer at first, being in wolf form; she snapped a gulp of water out of the hydrant's surge, then sat back for a second before forcing herself to change again and stand on two feet. "Ye think we can get out?" There wasn't much point stopping, at least not for long, until they could. But she assumed Nathan had something in mind.

"We still have our papers." Nathan told himself to stop shivering. Alert was good. The cold was a good trade-off for being alert. "What I say we do is head back to the clinic to get Juliette and just head to the nearest checkpoint from there." They'd yanked the tapes out of the camcorders and the memory cards from the cameras and stashed them in pockets and the like before leaving the hotel; Nathan had even wiped the memory on the laptop, just in case they had to leave it behind.

"She's got a point, though", Angelo commented quietly. "What do we do if they decide the papers aren't enough, given what's happened?"

The laugh that slipped out was not at all reassuring-sounding. Even to his own ears. "Oh, they will. One way or the other. I did not bring the four of you to Prague to have you wind up in a Czech holding cell or worse."

Rahne gave him a concerned look. This was Nathan; she didn't really doubt he could get them out 'one way or the other,' but she wasn't sure what it was going to take. She had a slightly dizzy vision of the entire barrier going to pieces, and the other four of them creeping out carrying Nathan afterward. ...All right, she was definitely very tired herself.

Medusa stiffened slightly at the idea of seeing Nathan's telepathy in use again. "Hopefully it will not come to that. We have our papers in order, the materials are well hidden...and I believe we all look exhausted and ill, which does not make us very threatening."

Angelo nodded, straightening slightly from his slump. "Right... if we're goin', let's go get Juliette an' get out of here."

"We'll head to the US embassy and call Moira from there," Nathan said after a moment of trying to force his more than slightly scattered thoughts onto a more productive track. "She can send her plane to come pick us up. No one minds a stop at Muir, do they?"

"I certainly do not," Rahne murmured. Of course, she might be biased, but she rather doubted anybody else was going to be complaining either.

"If there is hot water and a soft bed, I would go almost anywhere," Medusa said. Not to mention that Nathan returning to a peaceful environment would hopefully help with whatever had caused him to act strangely since the chaos inside the ghetto had begun. "Do not forget that we can call on assistance from Attilan if we encounter any difficulties during our exit." Which would be preferable to more mind tricks.

"Let's see if we can avoid the international incident if at all possible," was Nathan's quiet response to that as he looked around, trying to pick a direction. Away from the gunfire, that made the most sense. It struck him that his sense of direction had to an extent deserted him; he knew where he was within Smichov itself, but he couldn't bring back to mind the layout of the surrounding city. As if Smichov was a little world all of its own...

Clinic. Right. "Come on," he murmured, and led the way.