The medic frowned at Jenten, but complied and stood back.  As he did, his head jerked to the side, and he looked in horror at the remains of the First Sergeant.  The man's head looked back at him, eyes glazed with death.<br/><br/>The rent form chuckled darkly at Raice, drooling blood on Merelli.  "You'll try to save me?  That would be a mistake.  And unless I'm mistaken, plenty of people have yet to die before this is over."<br/><br/>Then Jenten spoke his piece.  "You want to win this war, don't you?" the dying man asked him.  "Your friend here is leverage.  You probably wouldn't bother with me unless I had his heart within a breath of my needle.  Ask the right questions, the ones that can help you win this... and he lives until my hand can't stay up anymore.  Heh... I can't promise anything after that."<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Arget's threat had brought all action in the infirmary to a dead halt.  The guard with the needle in his neck was still too confused and groggy to do much, and even if he were coherent, he had no clue where they'd put Arget's stuff.  One of the doctors, a middle-aged anthro-ocelot in a prim white coat came forward, holding the vial of 100%.<br/><br/>"Here it is," he said, holding it out in front of him in a shaking hand.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Alhanda and her guards stopped in the stairwell as they heard a door beneath them open, then shut, and clawed feet descending the stairs.  The Lady sniffed... dragon blood.  It had to be Chiro, descending a floor or two below.  She was in no condition to meet the serpent again, and instead let her guards take point ahead of her.  They slowly took the steps down.  The moment Ome burst into the stairwell, Alhanda barked, "Below us!"<br/><br/>Chiro could doubtless hear Alhanda's order.  The stairs below him descended for three more stories before they ended.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Maeve shied back from Dreamer's wound, pressing against the car door.  When he pulled back, she relaxed, but hung on his every word.  When he'd finished, she looked at him with her watery eyes, and found herself shuddering again.  "If that makes you insane, then I am too."  Her eyes strayed from his as movement caught them.  She saw Kitten approaching, waving, with a lovely cat-morph beside him... and tagging at his heels, her little niece.  "F- Feldana?" she stammered.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>The other guards on the wall jumped as the one holding the bazooka fell to the deck, his head split wide.  They ducked, looking around for any other assailants, unable to see one.  "SNIPER!" one of them shouted reflexively.<br/><br/>The raccoon struggled insanely within Jania's belly, lashing out with his claws and teeth at her rubbery stomach walls.  The wolf stuffed into her anus planted his claws into the orifice, pulling and clawing, hoping to split it open into a wide gash.  The coyote's ribcage was crushed beneath her mighty forepaws, but he still struggled even as his inflamed heart exploded, lacerating her front legs.  The badger, the only one left unaffected, had taken the demise of his fellows with that mad, bloody disinterest characteristic of his condition.  His rage was all the more heightened by his particular breed's genetic disposition toward violence.  He didn't wait for Jania to come to him - he leapt upon her head, digging his feet into her shoulders and reaching his claws back, jamming them forward at her eyes.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Sara's shot sent the guard's brains spraying out ahead of him onto pew, and his body slumped forward.<br/><br/>Halvorson didn't so much hear a voice in his head as he felt the urge to move, to run, NOW.  He launched into a sprint, his tired legs aching with every move, the old man's head bobbing as he bounced on Halvorson's shoulder, Halvorson's free hand pulling Karogen after him.  He saw Mad and Baz running, too, and suddenly realized that he hadn't decided to move on his own.  Before he could reason it out, though, he was back in the chapel.<br/><br/>Sara was doubled over behind one of the pillars of the entrance, coughing up black ooze.  Halvorson let go of Karogen and gently slung the old man down into his arms, holding him out.  "Carry him, he's light.  Get into cover."  He jerked his head at the funeral corridor.  Karogen would doubtless find O'Toole there, still out cold.<br/><br/>He saw Feign bent over the medic in the entry to the corridor.  The medic was alive, but as he moved to sit up at Feign's urging, he groaned, massaging his chest, two holes in his shirt there.  Halvorson called at Feign, who'd taken the medic's pistol, "Feign! Cover this entrance!  They're behind us!"<br/><br/>"Wait..." the medic moaned through clenched teeth.  He quickly dug in his pockets and held two fresh clips out to Feign.  "The gun's empty."<br/><br/>Halvorson knelt by Sara.  "Can you walk, Sara?" he asked.  He looked at Baz a moment, pulling his lips tight.<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Janus watched Iln swallow Heretic and rubbed his face.  He saw Iln's concerned eyes, but couldn't find any words.<br/><br/>Fenson was feeling the scale on his neck again, looking about at the battlefield, and basking in the late morning sun.