Chapter 3
Marlene was crying. Wedge normally considered himself pretty good with kids, but he couldn't get her to stop. His heart wasn't in it.
An electric lamp illuminated the basement room and its drawn faces. They'd returned to Sector 7 to find it in chaos, and Biggs and Jessie had sent him to get Marlene to safety. As they were stepping outside with Johnny's parents, he'd picked up a shift in the sound of gunfire that had led him to run not for the gate out of the sector but for Seventh Heaven.
"Everybody, with me!" he'd shouted, and the half dozen other people in the street had followed him into the bar and down the hidden elevator shaft. Only minutes later, they'd heard the first boom, and a horrendous cacophony had followed. Amidst all that noise, Wedge had been sure the ceiling wouldn't hold, but it had.
In the first few minutes after the crash subsided, he'd felt a simultaneous horror for all the people trapped above, and a relief in his own quick thinking. He'd made the right call, he thought, and managed to save some people. He'd saved Marlene.
It hadn't taken them long to discover the door into the sewers was jammed. They'd all taken their turns hauling on it, banging on it, but it wouldn't budge. The ceiling might have held, but something had still cracked in the building's foundations. Periodically the mountain of debris above them shifted and groaned, and each time they all looked up, expecting to see visible cracks forming.
Wedge was no hero. He'd doomed them all to a slower demise here in this dim basement, waiting either to suffocate or for the building to finally collapse on top of them.
"Will you shut that kid up already?" The man who said it was one of the few Wedge didn't know by name, but he recognized him as a regular at the weapons shop, a friend of Nick's.
Marlene just cried harder. Wedge held her close, rubbing circles in her back. "Hey, she's just a kid, all right?"
There were two older kids down here with them, and they were putting on brave faces, but they probably wanted to cry, too. He thought Ollie might be the town gossip's nephew, but he had no idea where their parents were.
"She just knows what we all know," added the gossip, unhelpfully. She was always up in everybody's business, but Wedge didn't know her name either.
"We're still alive," said Mrs. Sanford, Johnny's mom. She'd mentioned earlier that Johnny had gone out drinking in Wall Market, or he thought she would have sounded more anxious. "Shinra will be sending out search and rescue teams, and they'll find us."
Nick's friend threw her a skeptical look. "Lady, you really think that?"
"Even if they did find us, we'd all just wind up arrested," said the gossip.
"What do you mean, arrested?" asked Barnaby, the old man who ran the general store across the street.
The gossip gestured to the map of the reactor layout on the wall, their plans still spread across the table. "Haven't you noticed where we are?"
Wedge shifted uncomfortably where he sat, wanting to draw in on himself and disappear, but the gossip looked directly at him.
"That's right. You're the one here who's to blame for this. You and your AVALANCHE friends, going around blowing everything up!"
"What!?" cried Mr. Sanford. "You brought the plate down?"
"We didn't blow the pillar!" Wedge protested. "Biggs and Jessie went to try to stop it." And now they were probably dead. Wedge had barely made it down here, what shelter could they possibly have found?
The gossip waved a hand. "I know you didn't blow the pillar, that's nonsense," she said, "but you put a target on our backs, make no mistake."
Wedge stared miserably at his own feet as Marlene whimpered into his shoulder. "We just wanted to save the Planet... To stop Shinra."
"There's no stopping Shinra."
"I don't understand," Pauline spoke up. She was well-dressed compared to the rest of them, someone who worked on the plate and came into the bar sometimes after her long commute home. "Why would Shinra do this? We're all innocent here, they should have just arrested these AVALANCHE people."
"It can't have been Shinra, that's all," Mr. Sanford said decisively. "That's just crazy talk."
Wedge shook his head. "You think we would have blown up our own home? I know all of you. We all live here..."
"It just doesn't make any sense," Mr. Sanford insisted. "It's Shinra's city..."
"And they never gave much of a damn about the likes of us," said Nick's friend.
The minutes stretched with no one speaking, only the sound of Marlene's sobs.
"Well, come on now," said the gossip. "No one's coming to save us, so isn't there any way of getting that door open? Haven't you got any more explosives down here?"
"You wanna blow something up in here?" Nick's friend asked incredulously.
"Yes, a way out."
Barnaby began to protest, "That can't be--"
The door jolted loudly, silencing everyone. A few glanced uneasily at the ceiling, and they jumped when three more steady bangs followed.
"Hey! Anybody in there!?"
Wedge leapt to his feet, pulling Marlene with him. She'd finally gone quiet, eyes round. "Barret? Barret, is that you?"
"Wedge! Please tell me--"
"Marlene's right here."
There was a faint thud, and a murmur of relief too soft to make out through the door.
"There's ten of us altogether," Wedge went on. "I got as many people down here as I could before..." He didn't finish.
"Good," said Barret. "That's good. But you got the door latched or somethin'?"
"No, it's jammed. We can't get it open."
"Okay. How 'bout we give it another try with me an' Tifa pushin' from our end?"
Wedge set Marlene down, and Nick's friend came to join him. They pulled as hard as they could as Barret and Tifa shoved from the other side, but the door still wouldn't budge.
"I told you, we've gotta blow it open," the gossip said again.
"Wedge, you are not gonna blow this door," Barret said firmly. "We got a lot o' rubble over our heads right now, and it ain't done settlin.' Any kinda blast an' the roof might not hold."
"I understand," said Wedge. "But how do we get out?"
"You got a light in there?"
"Yeah, there's a lantern."
"Go into Jessie's stuff," Barret told him, "an' look for a vial labeled 'ADNT.'"
"What's ADNT?" Wedge asked.
"'Absolutely Do Not Touch.' Do not get this shit on your skin."
"Doesn't it have a chemical name?"
"Names don't matter so much, long as you know what things do," said Barret. Wedge wondered how many times he and Jessie had struggled to pronounce the name before giving up on it.
He searched through the crates under her desk until he found the vial in question, and Barret walked him through it. Wedge pulled on gloves, retied his bandana around his mouth, and had everyone else stand far back in anticipation of fumes. Then he carefully poured the substance around the door frame and stepped back to watch as it ate through the metal.
Once the reaction had stopped steaming, Barret slammed into the door from the other side and knocked it down clear out of its frame.
"Papa!"
Wedge had to catch Marlene to hold her back. He could tell Barret wanted to run through, too, but they waited until they were sure the chemical reaction had stopped and nothing would drip on their heads passing through. Then Barret charged in and scooped Marlene into his arms.
"My baby girl. You're safe. You're safe..."
Tifa flung her arms around Wedge in turn. She'd never hugged him like this, fiercely and with abandon, but he understood. Biggs and Jessie were gone, but they were still here. He hugged her back just as tightly. They were still here.
"Touching reunion," said Nick's friend flatly. "Now can we get the hell outta here?"
Tifa pulled back. "Right," she said, but she glanced around the basement.
Barret caught her eye and set Marlene back down. "Tifa, you take point. Take Marlene with you an' lead everybody back outta here. Wedge an' I'll take five minutes to grab whatever we can an' we'll be right behind you."
"But Papa--" Marlene began to protest.
"Five minutes," he repeated. He bent to kiss her on the forehead. "An' then I ain't lettin' you outta my sight, I promise."
Marlene nodded, and she took Tifa's hand.
"Okay, everyone, this way," said Tifa. With her flashlight beam to light the way, the others filed out the ruined door and into the sewers. As they left, Barret grabbed a duffel bag and dropped it open atop the table.
Wedge looked around the room. Everything seemed both valuable and useless at once. They had boxes of ammo, but what did the fight even look like after all this? There were notes scribbled in Biggs's handwriting, plans they'd already accomplished and errands to places now crushed under rubble, but the Gs were looped in that particular way only Biggs wrote them.
"Focus up," said Barret. "I know this ain't easy, but we can't afford to stick around too long."
"Right," said Wedge, giving himself a shake.
He packed up Jessie's computer first. It was military issue and portable, designed to survive use in the field, and probably the most valuable thing in the room, both in terms of gil and the chance that Jessie had left something personal on it. It was a piece of her.
Her desk drawers were cluttered and full of junk, and Wedge swept it all into his bag without checking it. They could sort out what was useful later. There was no point to grabbing Biggs's notes, but the spare clothes he'd kept down here could be handed off to refugees, and that was what he would have wanted.
"Time's up," said Barret. "Let's go."
Wedge didn't argue. Barret's brusqueness kept him from crying. Maybe it kept Barret from crying, too. They took the electric lantern and plunged into the sewer.
He understood immediately why Barret was rushing them. The impact of the plate had shaken loose some of the masonry, and they picked their way here and there over fallen brick or under broken pipes. Dust showered down at the slightest groan overhead.
"...Barret? What are we gonna do now?"
"Find someplace to hunker down and rest up. Ain't nothin' else to do 'til we get our heads straight."
Wedge nodded, though Barret couldn't see. They walked on in silence for a few minutes before Barret spoke up again.
"Biggs and Jessie... They were up at the pillar?"
Neither he nor Tifa had asked until now. He could tell they knew, but they hadn't wanted confirmation.
"...yeah," Wedge said. "They told me to get Marlene."
"...thank you."
Even with Barret's gratitude, Wedge felt like a coward. He hadn't argued with them, after all. It was always his job to be the lookout, to guard the escape route, not to go charging in. He'd thought... He hadn't thought anything in the moment, really, but deep down he'd hoped that was still the task they'd given him. He'd secure the way out, and they'd follow.
They hadn't followed.
A light appeared ahead, and soon they caught up to Tifa's group. Barret wove his way to the front of the line, lifted Marlene into his arms, and carried her the rest of the way. Her tiny arms wound around his neck as they climbed out. Wedge had done that, at least.
As Tifa led the way through the streets of Wall Market, Wedge found himself staring upwards at the gap where the Sector 7 plate had been. He wasn't the only one. They stumbled into each other, none of them looking where they were going. Their sky didn't look like that. It hadn't looked like that.
They reached the park outside the Sector 7 gate, where a few dozen people were gathered, some milling about, some sitting in clusters, a few tending to wounded. It was good to see familiar faces, but there just weren't enough of them.
Nick was going around with a pad of paper taking names, and his friend dashed ahead of their group as he spotted him.
"Nick!"
"Shude!" Nick exclaimed in reply, and the two men embraced. "Man, I thought you were... How the hell'd you make it out?"
"Fuckin' bar had a basement," Shude said, causing Nick to throw a look in Tifa's direction.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and explained, "Jack built it to smuggle things in."
It was true, and Nick accepted the explanation without suspicion. The gossip exchanged looks with Barnaby, but before either of them could make up their minds to elaborate on what Tifa had been using it for, a redheaded blur ran up, shouldering his way past Shude.
"Mom! Dad!"
"Johnny!"
He collided into his parents' arms, all three of them forgetting for the moment past arguments, including the ones about Johnny's drinking habits. Wedge watched their reunion, relieved and heartsore at the same time.
"So you're takin' down names?" Barret asked, nodding to Nick's notepad.
"Yeah," said Nick. "Johnny ain't the only one who's come in from Wall Market lookin' for family, and not everybody's just waitin' around in this park to be found. I figure it's somethin'. Once the trains are runnin' again tomorrow, I plan on heading the long way around to Sector 8. There've gotta be folks who made it out the other side, too."
"Good," said Barret. "That's good of you."
Nick passed the notepad to Tifa, whose shoulders relaxed slightly as she skimmed over the names. "Your son's around somewhere?" she noted.
"He's takin' that kid Randall around," said Nick. "Any chance you've seen his folks...?"
Tifa shook her head as she handed the notepad off to Wedge. "But, maybe they're over in Sector 8," she offered.
Wedge couldn't help a glance at Ollie and Abigail, lingering with the group, waiting to see the list. He didn't see their parents' names on it. They might be in Sector 8, but chances were this night had made its share of orphans.
With a blink, he noticed that Tifa hadn't put down her real name. Instead she'd listed aliases that she and Barret used, ones printed on some of their fake IDs, with only Marlene listed as herself. Wedge figured it was her name in the same handwriting that would tip off anyone who knew them. After a moment's hesitation, he put down one of his fake names, too. Then he passed the pad on to Barnaby.
They parted ways with the basement refugees then, wandering to another part of the park as they all considered where they could go from here.
"Anyplace in Sector 6 must be full up by now," Tifa said.
"Yeah," Barret agreed. "Maybe we can scope out someplace over in Sector 5."
Tifa nodded, even though Wedge knew Sector 5 didn't have any inns. Around the park, some people were just settling down to rest on the ground, piling jackets or whatever they had under their heads for pillows. He opened his mouth to ask why they couldn't stay here, too, why Sector 5 would be any better, but then he remembered the conversation in the basement, and he hesitated.
"...you really think people would give us up to Shinra?" he asked instead.
Barret looked at him, brows furrowed. "Shinra's gonna say this was us," he said, "an' there's gonna be a lotta folks not thinkin' straight right now. You did exactly the right thing gettin' those folks down there, but that's still eight people now who know exactly who AVALANCHE is and which of us survived. We can't stick around here."
Wedge nodded, heart heavy. Barret and Tifa started for the park's exit, but Wedge asked them to wait just one minute. He hurried back to Nick and passed him the spare clothes from his bag. They might have fit Nick himself, but Wedge trusted him to pass them out to whoever might need them most.
Tifa managed a small smile for him when he returned. Then she offered, "Nobody said anything to Nick."
For now, nobody had said anything. AVALANCHE's hideout had saved their lives.
His weariness caught up to him as they wound their way through Sector 6. Tonight he'd jumped off a train, climbed through the plate's underbelly, made the long walk back to the nearest station where their fake IDs would still work, and then after all that there'd been no rest coming home to Sector 7.
Barret and Tifa were moving slower, too, a limp in Barret's step. For the first time, Wedge noticed a dark stain on his leg. It couldn't have been bad or Tifa would've insisted they stop to deal with it, but it made Wedge wonder what they'd run into in the reactor, or on their way back. They'd still finished the mission and taken out the reactor. That was why the power was out as they moved into Sector 5, right?
"Shinra did this to get to us, didn't they?" he mumbled. He hadn't meant to say it aloud.
"No," Barret said without hesitation. He paused afterwards, glancing down at Marlene in his arms, but she'd fallen asleep. He continued softly, "If the point was to take us out, they would've done it different. They didn't even make sure we were all there. They knew we weren't."
Wedge looked up at him. "Then what was it for?"
Barret shook his head slowly. "It wasn't about takin' out AVALANCHE," he said again. "It was about makin' sure there won't be any more of us. They made it look like we don't got a righteous cause, we're just out to destroy. And anybody who understands what really happened tonight is gonna be too scared to stand up to it."
"...that can't be how it goes," Tifa said quietly.
"Nah," said Barret. "We ain't gonna let them get away with this."
Wedge wanted to believe him, the way he'd always trusted Barret's lead in the past, but even he knew that right now, none of them had any idea how to move forward. Fighting Shinra was what had gotten them here. They weren't strong enough to do it.
He knew that was what Shinra wanted him to think. Someone had to fight them. He didn't know how anymore.
Sector 5 didn't have any inns, but it had its share of abandoned shanties, and that would do for a night. They crowded into one, scraped the door shut, and sat around looking at each other by the light of Tifa's flashlight.
"I'll take first watch," said Barret.
"Barret," Tifa protested, "you need your rest."
"We all need our rest," he countered. "Ain't one of us had a quiet, restful night, but we can't let our guard down, so somebody's gotta take first watch."
Tifa frowned, biting back further argument. "Okay," she relented, "but promise me you won't take the whole night. Okay?"
Barret's expression softened. "Promise," he said. "I know my limits."
Wedge and Tifa settled down as best they could, and she flicked off the flashlight, plunging them into pitch black. It didn't make getting to sleep any easier. It would get this dark in the basement, but the rhythm of breathing was wrong. Biggs and Jessie weren't here.
He shut his eyes against them, but it was all he could do to let the tears come silently.