Chapter Ten

His ears were pounding, he couldn't hear anything Carl was saying to him. He could just see the blood covering the ground beneath her. There was so much of it, but where was it coming from? He felt hands on his shoulders pushing him to sit on the rock behind him. His head was forced down by his knees. He put up no fight, he had no control over his body.

"Deep breaths Aaron, please don't do this, I need your help" he could hear Carl now, begging him to calm down. He hadn't realised he was breathing so quickly, so he did what he was told and took a few deep breaths. He lifted his head and saw that Carl had gone back to Chas. He was patting her cheek, trying to rouse her. Aaron walked back over on shaky legs.

"Try to bring her round a bit. Put the splint on her and then cover her back up with the blankets" Carl told him and turned to scramble about in the rucksack. Aaron spoke loudly to his mum as he fastened the splint around her leg and then covered her up as instructed.

"Mum! You need to talk to me! Stay with me and tell me where it hurts."

He moved back up and patted her cheek like he'd seen Carl doing before, but when he took his hand away he left a huge smear of blood down her face. He looked at his hands and saw that they were covered in it. He quickly wiped them on his trouser legs, trying not to be sick, and then wiped his mum's face with his sleeve. Her eyes opened and she looked at him, confused.

"Aaron...what's going on?"

"It's okay Mum, you're gonna be okay. You need to stay awake though."

"I feel weird..."

"Are you hurting anywhere? Apart from your leg?" he asked, trying to speak calmly for her benefit but he could hear his voice sounded like a scared kid's.

"Nowhere, can't really feel owt. Just cold." She started to drift off again.

Carl, meanwhile, had found what he was looking for in the rucksack. He pulled out a walkie-talkie and turned it to the correct channel. "Bob, Bob can you hear me?" he shouted desperately into it.

A familiar voice came back through the speaker, "Whoa there Carl, no need to shout mate. Are you back with Chas and Aaron?"

"Bob, are the ambulance people there yet? There's something wrong..."

"They've just got here, I was about to start out with them to come and find you. What's wrong?"

"It's Chas, she's bleeding. I don't know what's wrong with her, she's gone all funny."

Another voice came on the walkie-talkie, "Hello Carl, my name's John, I'm a paramedic. I just want you to stay calm and follow my instructions. Do you understand?"

"You need to get here now, she's bleeding loads and she doesn't know what's going on!" Carl said desperately.

"We're on our way Carl, I promise. Now could you go to Chastity and feel her neck for a pulse."

Carl scuttled over to Chas again. Aaron had sat next to her and was holding her close to him, trying to keep her warm. Carl felt for a pulse.

"Carl? Are you there? Can you feel it?"

"Yeah I can feel it, but hardly. It's dead faint, and she's really cold" Carl relayed back into the walkie-talkie, "what does that mean?"

"Is she sat up at the moment?"

"Yeah"

"I need you to lie her down flat and keep her as warm as possible Carl. Try to talk to her and keep her awake and calm if you can. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm on a motorbike, can you tell me if I'll be able to get through to you on that?"

"Yeah, if you follow the paint trail I left, it's mostly flat"

"Great. I'm on my way. You're doing really well Carl."

Aaron heard everything and had already started to manoeuvre Chas around so they could lay her flat. He'd taken his blanket off and made a pillow for her. Carl helped him swivel her, but as they did so, she started to come round and fight against them.

"No! Whassgoinon?" she tried to shout but it came out as more of a moan, "geroff! Geroff me!"

She managed to punch Carl in the face before they both grabbed hold of her arms and pushed her down. Despite the situation, Aaron couldn't help a small smirk as he saw his mum bop Carl straight on the nose.

"Chas stop it, calm down" Carl spoke softly yet firmly to her. It seemed to work because she stopped fighting with them.

"Carl? What's going on, where's Aaron? What's happened?" she tried to sit up again. Aaron gently pushed her down, it didn't take much force, her burst of energy had dissipated and now she was back to being as weak as a kitten.

"I'm right here Mum. Stay lying down, it's fine." Aaron leaned over so she could see him. She seemed to have come to her senses a bit now she had some blood going to her head again.

"What's fine? What's going on?"

"The paramedics are on their way" Carl told her, "they told us to lay you down and keep you warm 'til they get here. Chas, when you fell, did you hurt anything else apart from your leg?"

"No, why?"

"No reason. We're just checking" he said, not wanting to alarm her. She looked at Aaron and could see there was something they weren't telling her, but she was having a hard time making her brain work at the moment. She closed her eyes. 'Just for a minute while I think. Need to remember what's happened. I was talking about something important...what was it?'

She could hear a faint droning in the distance and felt a hand stroking her cheek. Someone was telling her to open her eyes again. Aaron. Aaron!

"Aaron," she mumbled, moving her hand from under the blankets to grab his. He willingly took it and squeezed it.

"Mum, you need to open your eyes and stay awake."

She tried to open her eyes but her eyelids felt so heavy. She squinted at him. "I'm sorry love, I'm really, really sorry."

"I know Mam, it's fine. The paramedic's coming, I can hear him. You'll be okay, you just need to stay awake. Please, try to stay awake for me."

Carl sat back and watched this exchange, wishing it was him Chas was asking for, that it was him stroking her face and holding her hand. Then he realised what Aaron said, he too could hear the bike getting closer. He got up and ran up and out of the ditch to flag him down, hoping that he wasn't too late.