A/N: Wow, three chapters in as many hours. I need a break. Whew!
Cauterization
POP! POP-POP!
"Flock, scatter!"
"But what about -?!" Gazzy protested.
"Leave him!" I said, feeling my heart tear. "Get out of range!"
"We can't - "
"I'll get him, just GO!"
Someone was shooting at us. Geese were falling out of the sky around us in a shower of disturbed feathers and cut-short cries, and we would be next if we didn't move. Bottom line was, Iggy was down, and we must look like targets, BIG targets, with all these geese.
"Fang, watch the others!"
I dove.
He was falling fast, and I tucked my wings in as far as possible to go faster. My arms reached out and scooped him from the air, but he was heavier than me, maybe by another twenty or so pounds, and my muscles strained to open my wings and catch the air. "You weigh a ton," I complained.
Iggy did not respond. His face was ghostly pale, and to my horror, there was blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. I swallowed my anger and fear and made a note to check for injuries later. I needed altitude, quick. Those trees were getting awfully close...pull up...
"GRAGH," I hissed, and we cleared the pine tops by mere feet, my wings beating as hard as they could. Hang on, Iggy, don't you die on me!
POP, KER-POP!
A shot grazed my face, so close that I could hear it whistling past my ear. As it were, I was angry now. I swooped low enough to place Iggy in the top of an evergreen, then used my momentum to bank back around. The bullets were the main threat. It might have been an honest mistake, I dunno, but it needed to stop, now. My flock was in danger!
My wings took me up, up, and then down. I might be killed for this.
They were outstretched to their max, and I was diving as low as I could, about to clear the trees and find my enemies by that lake...there!
"RAAAAAWRRR!" I screamed, breaking from the trees and about two feet above their heads.
"HOLY -"
"AAAAGH!"
"JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH!"
Take that, you jerks!
I sailed off over the lakeshore of where they milled and cowered in confusion and chaos, and I wheeled back to the tree. That oughtta teach 'em to shoot at us again.
My flock met me there, and helped me carry him home. It was good that we were only two miles out on this rare, blue day, so it didn't take long.
"Hang in there, Ig," Fang murmured, and I felt a pang of guilt. I should have been paying more attention to where we were. Everyone had been saying it - "Hunting Season, Canadian Geese" - but did I listen? Nooooo. Did I stop to think? Noooooo. Iggy had been the only one giving it any thought, and he'd taken the bullet that was meant for me.
Sometimes, I think I don't deserve to live, with the mistakes I make. Especially ones like these, that get people killed.
"Ugh...crap..."
"Crap" hardly says it, but that's good enough. "In here..."
We lay him down inside the cave on the springiest bits of bedding that we could find. "I need light!" I snapped, and everyone moved towards the back. Angel was staring at Iggy with wide, tearful eyes; Nudge had held on to him for most of the way over and clutched at her chest now, her powers of empathy making her feel what he felt. Total was bouncing around anxiously. "Is he gonna be okay? Is he gonna die? Is he, is he -"
"Shhh," said Fang, putting a gentle hand on Gazzy's shoulder. He was tight-lipped and shaking. That was his best friend bleeding on the floor, there.
Sometimes, I wondered if I asked too much of my family.
"Okay, Ig...wake up."
"I'm...still awake..." was the slurred response. In the bright light of day, I could see the irregular patch of red spreading across his shirt, the bullethole -
I swallowed, hard. "Umm...okay. Nudge, sweetie?"
"Y-yeah?" Nudge was recovering, but her shoulders were shaking.
"I'm going to need your help," I said briskly, leaving no room for her fears. There was no time for it.
Nudge hurried over and knelt beside me. "What is it?"
"The bullet's still jammed in there," I said, angry all over again. "It entered just below the middle of his chest...I don't know if it nicked his heart, or what." I pressed lightly with my fingers, and Iggy groaned softly. I'm so sorry. "The bone is cracked about here. Can you use your powers and...draw the bullet out?"
The worst that I presumed was that it might have ricocheted inside his rib-cage, and that it might not be as easy as just pulling it back through the hole. I ran my sleeve over the side of my face and found blood there, too, where the bullet had nearly got me. It was big enough, I was guessing. Not as large as a shotgun shell, but large enough...
"I can try." Nudge's face was set. She looked at him thoughtfully a moment, then placed on hand on Iggy's heaving chest, one hand a few inches above, then closed her eyes.
We held our breath.
Nudge's face contorted in the agony that he must be feeling, and they both bared their teeth as she began to maneuver the bullet. She was going by feel alone to tell where it was as she moved it along, and it was going very slowly. I bit my lip at the agony they must both be going through, and how terrifying it must be for Iggy, who was going on trust alone, and then Nudge, who had never done this before and was possibly killing him faster.
His breaths were coming hard now as he swallowed entire screams whole. We held him down so he didn't buck out of Nudge's hands and hurt himself. "Almost," she whispered, grinding her teeth. We watched the messy area of entry avidly as it began to move - gross, ABSOLUTELY - and then, miraculously, after nearly thirty minutes of torture, a disfigured lump heaved itself out of the hole and into the palm of Nudge's outstretched hand. Ping!
"Oh, God," Total moaned, as sickened as the rest of us.
"Yes!" she said, and Angel handed me the First Aid Kit we'd picked up a few weeks ago. That wound might need stitching, but I didn't have the tools. I had to make due with just binding the bandages on, but they leaked through in gushes. Fang had a solution.
"You're not going to like it," he warned.
I urged him to go on with it; anything was better than having Iggy bleed to death!
Fang rummaged in one of the backpacks until he found one of the hunting knives that we'd purchased a while back and asked Gazzy for his lighter. (Yes, I know: he has no business with one, but like it's ever stopped him before...) Gazzy had to try several times to start it, his fingers trembling with anxiety, until he had a broad flame. Fang held the blade' flat side over it and waited, then approached Iggy with it.
Angel and Nudge looked away. I flinched.
Iggy screamed. I pushed down on him to stop him from moving, the scent and sound of burning flesh making my eyes water. Fang moved the blade around carefully to seal the hole, despite Iggy's desperate screams, until he fell back in a dead faint, the wound neatly cauterized and steaming.
"Geeze," I choked under my breath, feeling ready to throw up. Nudge did - she got up the minute Iggy stopped moving with Total and barfed over the side of the cliff. Fang and Gazzy helped me re-do the bandages until they were good and tight, then packed up the kit and put it away. Angel dabbed at the blood from his mouth with a small towel. "He bit his lip," she explained shakily, and I nodded, not steady myself.
The worst was over, for now. The flock gathered around in a semi-circle, Gazzy the only one outside of it, holding his best friend's wrist determinedly. I had no idea the extent of his injuries. Don't you just hate that game, 'Wait and See?'
"Fang, Angel?" I said at last. "We still have to go into town today to get supplies. Nudge and I will get everyone some new clothes."
I had to make up for this somehow. The girls nodded, their eyes still wide from the experience, and Fang only blinked at me. "Gasman, Total? Can you watch Iggy?"
"Of course!"
"Wouldn't let you down."
"Great." I stood up and dusted myself off. "We'll be off, then. And everyone, watch out. This is a time for hunters, and I should have been watching for them. I'm sorry."
Like sorry's gonna help us, now. The Gasman didn't look at me, and I couldn't blame him. I grabbed an empty backpack and stepped toward the ledge. There was no such thing as moving backwards.
"Then, let's fly."
A/N: My first intense scene. Do I crap out as a write or what?
Also, introducing my Beta, DynazOwnzYou, and my other Beta, Mikey2x4, both of whom are lazy slackers that forget more than I do.
Dynaz: Hey! At least I can spell!
Mikey: And at least I can impersonate you almost as good as the Gasman can!
Me: Psh... Anywho, I apologize for any psychological pain that I might have incited in the readers...geese are so cool, and I wish I didn't have to kill a few of them off like that. (Oh, yeah.) But don't worry: there will be more later. (Psych torture, I mean. And maybe some geese, too. ALSO, questions will be answered with MORE QUESTIONS! Dum-dum-dum!
IN MEMORIAM
Flock 4,450,886 of c. geese, in Heaven
"Hey! The clouds up here are so much poofier!"
