Disclaimer: No, none of these characters are mine. I'm only borrowing. Really, I promise.
"Marguerite's Struggle"
Chapter 2
While the two explorers were hiking through the jungle, a pair of raptors heard the raised voices of the explorers and followed them. Having picked up their scent, they set out stalking their prey with anticipation of a big and tasty meal.
While Challenger was running to catch up, one of the raptors burst onto the trail and began mauling Challenger. Without much thought, he let out a loud scream as he collapsed to the ground helpless against the long claws that were ripping into his chest.
By the time Marguerite heard Challenger's scream and turned around, the raptor had already seriously injured him. She quickly whipped out her pistol and shot the raptor and ran over to the professor screaming his name. As she was running over to the him, the second raptor leapt out behind Marguerite and ripped into the flesh of her back and thigh. Without hesitating and ignoring the shooting pain coursing through her body, Marguerite quickly spun and shot the raptor twice before making her way over to the now unconscious Challenger.
Marguerite dropped down on her knees beside the bleeding professor and tried to wake him up. "Challenger? George?" She did not have any success. The sight before Marguerite's eyes was gruesome and not encouraging. Challenger had deep gashes covering his chest that were heavily gushing blood. His face had already lost all color due to the massive blood loss. On top of his serious injuries, he also had an immense welt forming and a bleeding cut on his head that had slowed down to a trickle which he received when he fell during the raptor attack. Even if Marguerite managed to stop the bleeding, Challenger had a serious concussion and would not be regaining consciousness any time soon. Marguerite was on her own, almost a whole day's walk from the Treehouse, with a dying Challenger and with enough blood pumping out of both of them to attract every predator on the entire plateau. She had a lot of work to do and very little time to do it in.
Marguerite quickly ripped the pack off her back forgetting she was also injured and cursed at her momentary weakness. She pulled out the medical supplies and tried to stop Challenger's bleeding and bandage his wounds. "Damn it! Where's Summerlee when you need him?! I'm not a bloody doctor! It's just like a man to desert you just when you need him! Come on, FOCUS! George, you are going to owe me BIG if I ever get us out of here!" She quickly went back to cleaning his wounds.
After a half-hour, Marguerite managed to temporarily stop the bleeding and made a crude bandage after applying all of Veronica's anti-infection poultice to his wounds. She then turned her attention to herself. It was impossible to reach her own wounds since they were on the back of her body so she had to think fast. She wouldn't be much help to Challenger if she bled to death. She took off her blouse and ripped it in half. She wrapped the first part around her leg as a tourniquet/bandage and used the second half to wrap around her waist as a makeshift bandage for her back. "Guess this will have to do for now." She then took her jacket, along with some long, strong branches and some vines and made a stretcher. "Honestly, Challenger! First my underwear, now my blouse and jacket! How much more of my clothes am I going to have to sacrifice for you?! I don't think you'll be satisfied until you have every since article of clothing I own and am running around this bloody jungle naked!"
After several unsuccessful attempts, she managed to get the heavy Challenger onto the stretcher without ripping open his wounds and dragged him a mile to the nearest stream. The mile journey took the rest of the afternoon and was hard on the struggling heiress. With each step she took, she could feel the blood seeping out of her and getting soaked up by her clothes.
When they arrived at the stream, Marguerite set up camp and gave Challenger some water to keep him hydrated. He was still sleeping, so that left her to stand guard. The night passed by slowly without any danger. After what seemed like an eternity, morning followed. Marguerite jumped into the stream, clothes and all, to clean out her wounds and wash off some of the blood so the predators wouldn't pick up its scent. Now already exhausted, Marguerite picked up the stretcher carrying the barely living Challenger and set out on the long journey back to the Treehouse.
To keep herself from losing consciousness, Marguerite kept talking to herself. "They will be expecting us back today and... when we don't come back, they will come looking for us. Well for you at least, Challenger. Hopefully, I can get us close enough to the Treehouse today so they won't have to search far for us." She glanced over her shoulder at Challenger with a worried look on her face. "I don't know how much longer those wounds of yours are going to stay clean before they get infected out here. I don't have any more of that poultice. I might as well stop and clean and re-bandage them." Marguerite didn't have a lot of water left in her canteen. Even though she had filled both of them up at the stream, she had used it to keep Challenger's wounds clean and ward off infection. Once she finished the all the remaining water and tending to Challenger, she picked up the stretcher and set out again. "Just keep fighting, George. I'll get us to the Treehouse."
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Back at the Treehouse, Roxton and Malone returned early from their trip to find Veronica and Summerlee in the kitchen but no Challenger and Marguerite.
Roxton shot a worried look at Veronica. "They're not back yet?"
Veronica shook her head. "They're not supposed to be back until this afternoon. But, in case you have forgotten, Marguerite went on this little excursion. You know how much she hates long hikes and any hard work. She probably nagged Challenger to stop and rest several times and are just running a little late. They'll be back soon."
Roxton mustered a smile to cover up how worried he really was. He couldn't fight off the feeling that something was wrong. He learned a long time ago that he shouldn't doubt his instincts. Inwardly, he promised himself that if they weren't back in the next hour, that he would personally go out and look for them. He didn't want anyone to get hurt on his watch.
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"I'm sorry Challenger, but I have to rest." Marguerite managed to get them another two miles closer to the Treehouse since that morning. It was now close to sunset and the two injured explorers were still a long ways away from their destination. The Treehouse was still another three miles away.
Marguerite checked Challenger's wounds again and checked to see if he had a developed a fever. She sighed in relief and said, "You are a very lucky man. I just hope this luck of yours holds until you get back to the Treehouse. You'll be back in your lab in no time. But I'm afraid you're not going to be able to perform that new experiment of yours George, we never got your mineral."
Marguerite was looking much worse. Her crude bandages were no longer useful seeing as camisole and trousers were practically dripping with her blood. Her muscles were aching; the little five minute breaks she took every couple of hours were not enough for her to rest. Her face and chest were dripping with sweat and her face was flushed. Giving all her attention to Challenger, her ignored wounds were growing worse by the minute. Marguerite had already developed a fever and an infection had begun to set into her wounds. Her body was completely exhausted. She hadn't had any food since breakfast at the Treehouse and she had used all their water on Challenger's wounds. With the crippling effects of her massive blood loss, infection, and dehydration, the only thing keeping her alive and going was sheer determination and adrenalin.
"Don't....fret, my dear. There's always tomorrow." Realizing she was talking aloud and Challenger had regained consciousness long enough to hear her, she quickly turned her attention to him to see he had lost consciousness again.
"Challenger?! Challenger?! Damn it! Don't you give up on me now! I haven't dragged you this far for you to die on me! I promised I would watch your back and I don't intend to break that promise. You just stay alive and keep your promise of getting us out of here! I'll get us back to the Treehouse if it's the last thing I do." With that said, Marguerite shot up forcefully, ignoring the pain ripping through her body and the warm liquid oozing slowly out of her body and set out into the now pitch black jungle.