Grappling and lifting

Wincing in distaste as Jaxx tore into the Hitcher, Jay averted his eyes as the man-shark’s teeth found the old cockney geezer’s throat and his screams were abruptly cut short into wheezing gurgles and then finally, a grizzly silence punctuated by the wet sounds of Jaxx satiating his vile hunger
“Smeg’s sake” Jay muttered, shaking his head – The death of the Hitcher didn’t so much bother him as the manner in which he had been killed; the shark was like a child that would put almost anything in its mouth
Catching Davie’s eye, he motioned back towards the cages where the still unconscious Cassandra and Plisken had, out of necessity, been left, while they had dealt with the Hitcher’s minions
“Give me a hand with those two, would you?”
Davie grunted in affirmative and the two men turned to accompany each other towards the back of the room, leaving Jacky and White Wolf watching in sick fascination as Jaxx stuffed another handful of gore into his mouth
“What?” he demanded, green-black blood dripping down his chin
Jacky shook his head, wrinkling his nose in disgust
“Nothing” he scowled as he turned to leave “You go ahead and enjoy yourself shark boy; c’mon White Wolf – let’s go and see if there’s anything we can salvage down here”
“I agree” the giant hamster twitched its whiskers in the Cricetinae approximation of revulsion “I think we’ve seen enough here”

The two turned to leave, as Jay and Davie approached the cages at the back of the chamber, Davie giving Jay a sidelong glance before wordlessly pulling the door to Plisken’s cage open and catching hold of the unconscious man to haul him up and over his shoulders into a fireman’s lift, leaving Jay to silently survey Cass, laying sprawled on her back on the floor amidst a tangle of her hair
That really was a very short skirt she was dressed in, he mused dejectedly, and those stockings left... well... nothing to the imagination
Sighing, he pulled the cage door open and walked inside to crouch down beside her and brush her hair away from her face; it had been tied in bunches, he noticed, but its length was such that it still got everywhere, just like it always did – He smiled briefly at the recollection of what a pain it had been while they had been in bed together, but quickly shook his head to dismiss the memories; unwilling to confront them so soon after that bloody dream he had just had
She looked so peaceful while she was asleep; her long lashes closed over those brilliant green eyes of hers...
His green eyed monster, as she used to half-jokingly call herself
Whoa - This wouldn’t do!
“Cass?” Jay shook her by one of her shoulders but to no avail – she was out cold “Cass?”
Oh well
Taking a deep breath, and catching hold of her beneath her axillae, Jay pulled her up into a sitting position and manoeuvred himself around behind, to haul her awkwardly up onto her feet before manhandling her around into a clumsy embrace of sorts, acutely aware of her immediacy, and thankful she wasn’t conscious for this – She had, after all, made her feelings for him more than adequately clear, and she’d only get the wrong idea...
Holding her steady, Jay quickly slipped down into a crouch, trying to ignore the soft press of her body against his face as he did so, and letting her weight flop down around his shoulders before, catching her legs and one of her arms up in his, he stood to begin inching out of the cage, making his way towards the exit to the surface that had been made by whatever it was that had impacted up there some time earlier

Passing the ruined and almost entirely eaten corpse of the Hitcher on the way out, Jay was glad to see that Jaxx and, for that matter, all the other members of the crew weren’t around – Cass was hardly at her best slung over his shoulder with that short skirt on; and while he had never actually broached the subject of her working as a dancer in Club Fister, largely on account of the extraordinary amount of time he personally used to spend down there, he knew she was self-conscious enough a person to be bothered about maintaining her modesty

It took another five minutes before he managed to successfully negotiate his way outside, to emerge blinking into the bright sunshine to survey the devastation wrought by what appeared to be remains of the drive room that had smashed down from orbit, carving a hundred metre long trail of devastation through the jungle before what little remained of it, appeared to have disintegrated into a still smoking tangle of wreckage down near the lake – How anyone had made it out of that alive was a complete mystery
“Crap” he groaned
Whether it was from the fresh air or the sound of his voice, Cass jerked awake on his shoulders, and briefly began struggling in his grip until he shouted and she realised it was him
“Sorry” she apologised as he lowered her down to sit on the ground “Thanks for rescuing me... Again - I didn’t realise it was you!”
“S’okay” he acknowledged, slumping down next to her on the scorched earth “How’re you doing?”
Cass bit her bottom lip and frowned
“So-so” she muttered, drawing her knees up under her chin, and making the laddish part of Jay’s brain wonder if he’d be able to see her knickers if he shifted his position slightly
“So what happened?” he asked, dismissing the idea in favour of giving the impression of being a reasonable human being “What’s with the outfit?” he paused to smile up at her “It’s not your usual look”
Truth be told, the schoolgirl outfit looked pretty damn good, but it wasn’t the sort of thing a grown man of six hundred-odd years ought to admit to liking
“I was about that far...” Cass looked at him and held up a hand, pinching the thumb a forefinger in close together “...that far, from an attempted rape and probably being killed while I tried to fight the smegger off”
“Shit” Jay quickly sat up; suddenly serious “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah” Cass shrugged in a poor attempt at nonchalance “I just got smegging lucky this time; what happened to the Hitcher? Is he dead?”
“Yeah” Jay smiled “Jaxx ate him”
“Ugh” Cass wrinkled her nose “Disgusting smegger”
“Don’t be so hard on him” Jay said gently “In his own way, I think he’s genuinely trying to help”
“I still say we should kill him” Cass shook her head
“Like Alex said: You should give him a chance”
Cass sighed at this and distractedly fiddled with the material of her stockings for a moment before looking back at him
“What am I going to do without you as my moral compass?” she murmured sadly
“Yeah, I was going to say” Jay smiled broadly “I’m not going anywhere! – Since we’ve been down here on this planet, I haven’t been affected by that virus – It seems I’m cured!”
Cass grinned back at him and for a moment Jay thought she was going hug him or something, but it seemed as if the distance he had been maintaining towards her of late was finally starting to pay off and so she reluctantly did nothing more than place a hand over his and give it a friendly squeeze
"I was going to cure you anyway, so I didn't quite mean it like that" she smiled “ But I’m sure Katrina’s thrilled” she continued, making Jay guiltily realise that he had told Cass about this before his wife - Again!
“Anyway” she continued, suddenly clambering to her feet and standing above him “I guess we should get back to the others – they’ll be wondering where we are; but first I want to go and see if I can get my clothes back”
Jay squinted up at her in the sunlight and then quickly looked away, suddenly conscious of just how short that skirt really was
“Why, what’s wrong with that outfit?” he asked nonchalantly
“I look smegging ridiculous” Cass scowled “I mean, I'm wearing stockings for smeg’s sake – Clothing you can break with twigs! – Smegging stupid!”
“Oh, okay” Jay sighed, clambering to his feet “Give me a few minutes and I’ll get everyone organised, and then we’ll see what we can salvage from the Hitcher’s encampment”
Cass gazed off at the smoking wreckage in the distance and frowned
“Is that part of the Dwarf!?” she demanded

<tag-tbc>
Anyone fancy seeing what else is down the Hitcher’s hole?
Where does it go?
</tag-tbc>