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They hid behind a wall as they barely heard a Talon agent with an Irish accent yell out to the others. "It's too risky to keep looking, Captain! We'll either find them when the storm passes or they'll freeze to death!"
Oh, if the footsoldier only knew how close he was to their hiding spot.
As soon as they couldn't hear the shouting of Talon and the stomping of boots, Hanzo shoved the door of the abandonned building shut. Mei quickly found a heavy, wooden desk and started pushing it to block the entrance. The archer quickly joined in, and they had it in front of the opening in no time.
"Well then," Mei let out sigh, leaning against the table and watching her breath dissapate into the freezing air. "I suppose we are stuck."
Hanzo was silent as he stared out a crack in the wall. Snow flew past the hole nearly too fast to see. It was nothing but a freezing cold blur of white.
The room was dark due to the falling ice and clouds blocking out the sun. Mei wandered about, trying to find something they could use for light or heat. The storm made electricity impossible, and a fire was too dangerous as the sparks could catch and the smoke could choke them. She did, however, find a battery-operated lantern in the corner of the room, as well as an old, ratty quilt in the closet. She returned with the items and placed them on the table.
"Ms. Zhou, you are a climatologist. How long do you think it would take for the storm to die down?" Hanzo finally spoke up, looking over to her.
"It is hard to say. It could stop within hours, but it could also take days before it calms enough for us to be able to wander around," she responded, flicking the switch on the lantern to light the surrounding area. "I'm happy I remembered to put some rations in my emergency kit. Even if we are stuck here for a couple of days, we will have enough food to sustain ourselves."
"You bring food with you on missions?"
"I suppose it's a force of habit. I was stationed in Antarctica, you know. If you get stuck in the wild during a blizzard without the things you need to survive...well," Mei murmured, her expression falling as she recalled those days before she was trapped in her sleep and waking up to the slowly decaying corpses of her fellow scientists, pulled back into the world of the living by people who had ordered the destruction of the only organization that could have saved her colleagues.
Needless to say, she hadn't made that mistake in decades.
"Oh. Right," Hanzo responded, noticing her sudden shift in demeanor, and remembering seeing her face on the front page of the news, extremely malnourished, confused, and in the process of being rushed aboard a United Nations ship. He hushed, deciding it might be best to leave her to her thoughts.
Her brow furrowed gently, dark eyes squeezed shut, then opening. She walked over to a corner, sliding down the wall and resting her head on her knees, tightening into a ball. It was something she did almost subconciously when memories from the Ecopoint entered her mind. Building their little "beach" in the rec room, helping her friends suit up into their snow suit. Knowing those people and experiences were gone forever, it was always too much for her soft heart. Silent sobs escaped her, and she was thankful that the only other person in the room wasn't paying attention to her.
Or at least, she thought he wasn't.
Something about seeing Mei curl into a ball with her shoulders shaking from something other than the cold made Hanzo's heart ache. The poor woman has seen and experienced far too much suffering, and she deserved none of it. He thought for a moment, and then grabbed the blanket from the table. He walked near silently to her side, and kneeled next to her, wrapping her gently in the blanket.
Feeling the rough woolen cloth over her coat, she quickly wiped away her tears and looked up at him. His heart broke even more when he saw her normally beautiful brown eyes now puffy and red. Mei looked positively pitiful like this, and it needed to stop or else he'd die from the grief she projected onto him. He was horrid at comforting people, so he just put his hand on her shoulder as reassuringly as he could.
He was shocked when she suddenly leaned into him and sobbed into his chest. He wrapped his arms around the poor girl and pulled her close, hoping it would help return her to her usual cheery self.