Back from holiday, so back with a new chapter!
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Chapter 6: Packing up
Bella
I woke up to the first rays of morning sun coming through the cracked window. It blinded me momentarily, but I didn't need to see my surroundings to remember where I was. The gut-wrenching stench that was all over the cockpit now told me enough. Within a minute, I was out of my seat and outside the plane, sucking in deep breaths of fresh air in an attempt to calm my stomach. But even the air surrounding the plane was already tainted.
Once I was sure I wasn't going to lose the little contents of my stomach, I looked around me, trying to spot my bronze-haired captain.
"I'm sorry," Edward said from his place against one of the trees a couple of feet away, once I noticed him. "I woke up before you and couldn't take the horrible smell any longer, but I didn't want to wake you."
I walked over to where he was sitting, needing the fresher air as well. "It's okay," I said, taking a seat on the ground next to him. The air between us was tense, we both knew what was going to happen now. There was no sign of rescue and by now it was fairly obvious that something had one seriously wrong. It looked like we were on our own.
I stole one of his sandwiches and nibbled on it, but didn't enjoy it. I don't know if it was the atmosphere or the actual sandwich. I forced myself to eat it anyway, knowing that I would need some food in my system for what we had planned today.
"I guess there is no avoiding it any longer, right?" I stated, tired of our silence.
"Yeah," he mumbled, picking up a broken twig from the ground and rolling it between his fingers, lost in thought. On one hand I wanted to demand he tell me what he was thinking, but on the hand I figured that maybe he needed a moment to process all of this, too. He might appear strong but every so often I would see his façade slip a bit. He was human after all.
After a few more minutes, he looked up at me and gave me a small smile. "Well, let's get going then, shall we?" he said, his eyes still emotionless. Without another word he got up, offered me his hand and carefully pulled me up as well.
He told me to wait outside as he quickly ran into the wreck to get our backpacks. I was relieved that I didn't have to go inside again. He was back within seconds, coughing and gasping for air. I quickly handed him the bottle of water that had been next to him, but he declined it with a small hand gesture. "I'm not thirsty. We should keep it for later," he explained before putting the heavy backpacks next to my feet.
He pulled some rope from out of his dress pants and started attaching one of the parachute bags to one of the packs. "Why do we need that?" I asked, wondering why he wanted to drag that heavy thing along.
"Basic survival, Bella," he said, his mood a little better than before. "We can build some shelter out of it for during the night."
I suddenly felt the need to throw my arms around him or at least thank god for dropping me in the forest with this man. At least he seemed to know something about survival. I suddenly felt a lot more positive about going in there, even though I still wasn't so keen on it.
Just as I was about to ask what else he had thought of to keep us safe, an uneasy feeling started to make itself known. I started wobbling from one foot to another, trying to figure out how the hell I was going to relieve myself without either being seen by Edward or having to go inside the forest. The idea of being bitten in the ass by some spider or other creepy animal wasn't really something that looked like a lot of fun.
Edward must have noticed my discomfort because he stopped rearranging stuff in the backpacks and shot me a confused glance. I could feel my cheeks reddening instantly. Realization dawned on him and he couldn't hide his smirk. If he didn't look so damned handsome doing it, I might have smacked the smugness out of him.
"Just go behind the plane," he said, serious again, although I could still detect a glint of humor in his features. "I won't look. Promise."
I shot him another glare before carefully making my way to the other side of the plane. Smug bastard. He didn't have to worry about being bitten in the ass. Stupid men who can pee while standing. Not fair.
When I returned to his side of the wreck, feeling a whole lot better, he was still working on the backpacks. I awkwardly stood next to him, watching his every move and trying to figure out what exactly he was doing. I had no clue. But at least he seemed to know. Thank fucking god.
After everything was attached, he stood up next to me and pulled out the compass."We were flying north right before we started crashing so if I we keep going north, maybe slightly north west, we'll get out of the forest quicker—I think," he explained, showing me the spinning of the needle inside the fancy compass.
"Do we have a few more minutes before we have to leave?" I asked, my eyes not leaving the needle that was now pointed straight forward. I was hypnotized by it. Edward's voice shook me out of it so I could focus again on what I was going to ask.
"Err, sure," he said, confused.
"I would like to clean your wound once more," I explained, finally looking up at him again and specifically towards the now dirty gauze on his forehead.
"Oh, but it's fine," he shrugged.
"Edward, please," I sighed, already crouching down to get the first-aid kid from out of the backpack. "You really don't want it to start getting irritated, believe me."
"Okay," he said, taking a seat next to me, "On one condition, though." I looked up at him, wondering what the hell that condition could be. "You let me take another look at your arm and take a painkiller," he said, nodding towards the arm I was still holding firmly against my chest.
I deliberated for a while, but when I realized that it would be nice to have the dull ache in my arm gone, I agreed to his condition. I quickly took care of his cut, and then in return let him take another—unneeded—look at my arm. It would just need rest, that's all. Considering the condition we were in now, that rest would just have to wait.
I was about to get up again when he pushed a little white tablet into my palm. I swallowed it quickly with as little water as possible, remembering his earlier statement that we could probably use every drop of water we had later. His eyes never left mine as I was taking the medicine, as if he was checking if I was really taking it.
"Want to check under my tongue, Mom," I joked. He just shook his head before getting up and wiping his hands on his pants. I don't think you could longer call them dress pants considering how dirty they already were.
"Shouldn't we take some spare clothes?" I asked, suddenly realizing that I would be in the same dirty clothes for at least three more days.
"I tried to open the baggage section of the plane, but it's completely stuck," he replied sadly. "I would have loved a change of clothes, too." He motioned towards his probably very uncomfortable outfit. At least I was lucky enough to be in sweat pants, a t-shirt and a sweater. I shot him an apologetic look but he shook it off, telling me that there wasn't anything to be done now. Except for leaving. The sun was already pretty high in the sky, so we would have to start moving soon if we wanted to get somewhere today.
Realizing that there was no point in postponing the inevitable any longer, I turned towards the backpacks that were still on the ground before us.
"No, you take the other one," Edward said as I went to take the left one.
"Why?" I asked, my hand freezing in between the two bags. I didn't see any difference between the two of them, except that the one was an ugly green color while the other was a nice grey.
"It's a lot lighter," he explained, quickly throwing the grey colored one over his shoulder. It didn't seem so heavy like that.
"Edward, I can carry some weight," I chastised.
"Please, just take that one. It'll make me feel better, especially because you only have one arm you can use."
After taking a deep breath, and forcing myself not to argue with him, I took the greenish bag and slung it over my shoulder. When I felt the full weight of the bag, I was suddenly not so upset about having the lighter one. This one was already pretty heavy. I didn't want to try lifting the bag Edward was carrying anymore.
"You ready?" he asked, offering me a small smile. It didn't reach his eyes though.
"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied, with a similar fake smile. And with that I took my first step into the forest, never looking back at the wreck behind us. We would really have to save ourselves now.
Thank you for reading!
Love, Ellen
