In the moment of opportunity, Takeshi flung his body through the doorway and charged at Iggy. His fist disappeared in the air until it clashed with Iggy's nose. Emi slipped out of Iggy's hands as he folded down to the garbage covered floor. Behind his head, Takeshi's leg erected high toward his chest, ready to fall on him like a cut tree. Iggy heard Takeshi's limb cut the wind, and he lifted his hands over his head. The cold mist appeared circling within his grasp. Takeshi's calf landed into Iggy's palms, and through the touch, Iggy gulped Takeshi's energy. Takeshi's momentum drained instantly and he collapsed back through the doorway.
Iggy went to fling himself onto Takeshi to finish the job, but Emi stood between them. The electricity came easily to her hands, and as Iggy came through the doorway, she merely pointed at the back of his shoulder and sent a bolt right through him. He fainted onto the floor and the cold mist dried up from his fingertips.
Emi knelt down at his side and laid her harmless hand flat over his shoulder blade where she shocked him. She held him against the floor for many silent minutes.
A while later, Takeshi awoke startled. He scurried up to his knees with his fists up, ready to fight more, but his cheeks were pale white and his eyes were spinning from incoordination. Even so, he extended an arm and clamped it around Emi's forearm. "We have to go!" he cried, pulling on her. "We'll stay in the woods. This guy is a lunatic!"
Emi slipped out of Takeshi's hold and pulled the blood drenched hair out of Iggy's face. She smiled from the luck of the whole situation. "We're not going anywhere," she responded casually. "This is him. I know him. I know who Iggy is."
"What are you talking about? This can't be him!" Groggily, Takeshi buried his face into his hand. He stretched his legs up to standing, but he was dazed and weak. This place was sickening him further, too. He straightened his finger and pointed at Iggy's back aggressively. "This is him?!" He flung his hands in the air. "He looks nothing like his picture!" Emi rolled Iggy onto his back. Takeshi leaned over, glaring into his face with a great deal of frustration. "Nothing like the picture," he growled. "Not a smidge! Oh… He sure is a sick fellow, isn't he?"
Emi's gaze danced down to the thick bandage running vertical down Iggy's chest. Her finger trailed it from the top to the bottom. "Is this why I had an ache in my chest?"
Takeshi sought her out. "Do you still feel it? The pull?"
She shook her head side to side. "No, it's gone, now."
"Looks like it was leading you right to him then," he concluded a little smugly. Then, he gestured toward the sketchy tattoo trailing the letters XIF17 running down Iggy's forearm, just over the fresh bite wound that wasn't healing. "It's some sort of tattoo… and that bite looks very fresh."
"What have you gotten yourself into, Iggy?" Emi sighed.
Through the door, Takeshi saw the light sky. "I suppose we'll stay here for the day." He shut the door behind himself and immediately dreaded the motion. The disgusting smell of corpses, rotting food, and garbage would only get worse as the day progressed. "The truth is," he groaned, "we're homeless. We don't have a choice." He draped the black-out blanket over the door window and slithered down into a sitting position beneath it, cradling his suitcase along his side.
Emi laid her back against the grimy wall, and pulled Iggy up to lie over her thick thighs with his head nicely planted against her stomach. He stained her clothes, but she didn't care about that now. She held him, lovingly, petting his hair and cheeks while he slept, for she had missed him much more than she had known. And even in unconsciousness, Iggy felt her warmth. He rolled and wrapped his heavy arm around her. He hugged her. She chuckled and slipped her fingers through his hair. "You can activate the tracker now."
Takeshi lifted his chin and looked up at her. "How do you know about the tracker?"
She smiled. "I know a tracker when I see one."
He opened his briefcase, and joked, "you're smarter than you look."
"Oh, shut up."
When Iggy awoke, he did so with a jolt of adrenaline. He flew forward off of Emi's thighs and hunched over like a runner. With each large breath, he felt the decaying skin over his wound pull tight and apart. And with each precious breath more than a second of the last few days of his life went to waste. He felt it through all of his bones. Very little time to live.
"Iggy?" Emi chased him with her words. "Iggy? Where are you going? Iggy, it's me. Emi."
Iggy swallowed hard and he hunched his shoulders further forward to try and hide the hideousness beneath the bandages. "I know," he said over his shoulder.
Emi leaned forward, too. "Do you remember anything? Anything at all?"
Iggy looked up at the walls around them. He remembered everything. Every last detail. There was tension in his hands. He peered down at his scabbed wrist. It was real. It had all happened. And he'd left her there at the weakest moment of her entire life, to be at the mercy of her own abusers. Shame on him. Oh, shame on him.
"Iggy? Do you remember what happened?"
Iggy lifted his chin and inadvertently locked eyes with Takeshi. Takeshi's tense hands were locked on his black suitcase, clenching the top edge against his suffering nose. Under Iggy's sights, Takeshi froze as if he was caught in headlights. Overwhelming danger sept off of Iggy, and Takeshi was afraid to move, to breathe, to even think about what he had witnessed the previous night. The gore. It was more than Takeshi's ever seen before, and regardless of his age, he was fragile in that sense. He was never meant to be on the battlefield. Iggy held out a hand and Takeshi didn't know what to make of it.
"I'm cold…" Iggy said under his breath. The stale sweat made him shiver. "Give me your jacket."
Takeshi scrambled to take off his jacket, but it wasn't quick enough. Iggy stood to his feet and ripped the black-out blanket down from the front door. He wrapped it around himself, then kicked Takeshi out of the way. Without waiting another second, Iggy headed out into the new night.
Emi jumped up to her feet and ran after him. "Iggy! Wait! Where are you going?!" His chin lowered enough so that he didn't have to look at her as she trudged through the overgrown yard beside him. "Why won't you talk to me?" she pried.
His throat was tight. "I need to go back for something important."
She snagged him by the upper arm and pulled him to a complete stop. Releasing him, she said, "you're so weak, now. What happened?" He gripped his fist over his chest, and looked a thousand miles away. She nudged his chin up with the pad of her finger and they locked eyes. "Talk to me."