After several minutes of what felt like an eternity, Virgil woke up to remember his best friend was still very much hurt. The red, semi-crusted liquid leaking from his back was a dead giveaway that there was no chance of the wound healing anytime soon. Virgil gently lifted his best friend to a sitting position propping him up against a nearby rock, careful as to not let the injured area not touch any surface.
"Richie, are you okay?"
"Yeah, V. Except is there any particular reason my back hurts?" The blond teenager reached back to feel the offending area. When he brought his hand back he found it covered with goopy, red liquid. The pale teen had a panicked look on his face. "V, what happened?"
Virgil rubbed the back of his neck and replied, "I couldn't get to you in time."
Richie shifted his position to look at his best friend better and raised his eyebrows. "I'm just glad you found me before it was too late. Can you help me get this wrapped?" Richie pointed to his back.
"No problem." Virgil helped Richie pull the blood encrusted shirt off. "So you're not mad at me anymore, right?"
"Nah-uh." Richie flinched as piece of the shirt stuck to the already dried parts of the wound. "You just didn't want to get panicked is all. I shouldn't have freaked."
"You got that right." Virgil said after which having to dodge a lame punch from the injured teen. "So we cool?"
"Yeah. We're cool." The two boys shared their normal fist hit, hand shake, smiling.
Virgil started to tear Richie's discarded shirt into strips in order to wrap the wounds, barely visible in the purple electricity of Virgil and the light emanating from the forest fire.
"Richie, what happened to your glasses?" Virgil asked as he tied on strip of blood stained, formerly white clothe around Richie's pale and toned chest.
"I lost them when I tripped in the forest...and then stepped on them." Richie said slightly embarrassed.
"Ha-ha, man. That sucks." Virgil laughed. What kind of friend would he be if he didn't laugh at his friend's misfortune?
"Yeah, well. That means you'll have to guide me back to Dakota, assuming we're not there right now." Richie quickly retorted.
"Ah, man." Virgil said in more mock than anything else disappointment.
Virgil had started to think about the large creature that had attacked them. He really hoped that it had been burned along with the forest, but if they could make it out chances are it could make it out as well. At first Virgil thought it may have been a mutated monkey affected by the big bang, but he could come up with no reasonable explanation as to why a monkey would have been at either big bang.
"Hey, Rich?" Virgil said pulling Richie out of whatever thoughts he may have been having.
"Yeah?"
"Do you still have those bags you put our imitators DNA in?"
"Got 'em right here." Richie patted his right pants pocket.
"Do you have any extra?"
"Bags? Yes." Richie said handing the other the extra bag. "Why?"
"I want to get DNA from the monkey thing." Virgil picked a few orange hairs off the pieces of Richie's shirt.
"Good idea, V." Richie said taking the bag back. "You finished with my back yet?"
Virgil tied one more knot and answered, "All done. How's your head?"
"No brain damage, I guess." He brought his hand up to the large knot covered in purple, green and red bruises. "I have a mando headache, but that will go away with sleep."
Riche lay down on his side, so as to not aggravate his back. "We should just stay here 'til morning and get some rest."
Virgil lay down next to his blond friend. "Agreed. Do you have any idea what time it is?"
Richie turned over a little to see the sky. "A little after 2 according to the moon."
Richie turned back over, back facing the darker teen. "It's freezing out here."
"Yeah, your right. Hold on a minute." Virgil got up and a few minutes later returned with small amount of fire wood. He caught a few pieces on fire. "That better?"
"Maybe a little too much now." The pale boy said, grin obvious in his voice.
"Ha-ha." Virgil said dryly. "You can move if you don't like it."
"Its good.'Night bro."
"G'night."
With that both boys drifted into a deep sleep.
a/n Sorry about the sedentary and rather irrelevent seeming chapter. If you read the otherside of the story it makes a little more sense why this is included here, but otherwise the next chapter will certainly move the story forward and have a lot more action, so please continue to read. Also, reviews are still very much appriciated. :)
