People to help

Aerith took the first turning she could, hurrying past a couple of people.

"Get out!" she wailed, on impulse, and rushed on.

She was starting to feel a little frantic. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't believe she'd been naked for this long: since Wall Market there'd been nary a thread to hide her beauty. On top of that, even with the plate over their head about to come crashing down and kill them all, people still found the time to ogle.

She stopped as she past one person staring particularly openly to pout as seriously as she could at them.

"Shinra's trying to break the pillar!" Aerith said. "Don't you have something more important to be doing? Like, say, running?"

He still stared at her boobs for a solid second before clearing his throat.

"Oh, right," he said. "Yeah. I'll just be coming- going! Going!"

As he ran off, he still turned his head to not waste a single second that she was in view. Beet-red, Aerith kept going. She turned another path, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw an alley with a straight shot up to Seventh Heaven. She made a start down it.

"Miss! Miss!"

For the first time in her life, Aerith really began to hate her charitable side. She stopped, crouching, arms shaking, to look down at the person talking to her. There was an old man, a snapped-off cane in one of his hands, laying prone on the floor. It didn't look as though he could walk very far unaided.

Aerith swallowed and nervously looked around. For once she was disappointed there wasn't anyone else near her. If she looked back she could see the tunnel everyone was being herded into, just at the end of the street, and there at least it had handrails the man could probably use to get along. But getting there...

The sound of gunfire raged high overheard, and a small explosion fell not far to her side, making Aerith fall face-down to the floor. She pushed herself up after a few seconds, trying to brush off a little of the ash, but soon gave up. She looked at the pitiable man.

"Alright," Aerith whimpered, charity winning out over pride, and she crouched lower to offer him an arm.

After a few seconds she'd pulled him closer, both his arms going over her shoulder to hold on as much as he could, and she walked slowly to drag him towards the escape tunnel. Someone else could take over then.

She couldn't go so fast now she was bringing someone, but she tried to hurry, especially as the old man's hands 'accidentally' started to drift lower down her chest.

Panting, blushing, Aerith made it to the tunnel, bending forwards a little for far too long as the man moved from being pressed against the bare Cetra's back, to supporting himself on the handrail.

"Thank you," he said, struggling. "Bless you. I wouldn't have..."

"Alright bye!" Aerith squealed as he leaned in for a grateful hug.

She turned around and ran as fast as she could the way she came, praying her humiliation would be at an end, or at least see something of a breather, when she made it to the bar. The route there had to still be open.