CHAPTER 5
Miguel and Tory lay on the sandy shore, both on their backs, panting heavily. The adrenaline had begun to wear off so while Tory felt a heap of exhaustion land right on her shoulders, all Miguel felt was a searing pain in his side from the slash the gator's claws had made. He groaned quietly in pain as he lay there, his chest rising and falling as he breathed rapidly. Tory, who was beside Miguel, turned towards him and as she saw him, her eyes widened. His white t-shirt was quickly beginning to stain crimson.
"Oh, my God! Miguel! You're bleeding!" She exclaimed.
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Miguel remarked drily. Once again, Tory's hatred for him immediately disappeared once more, as she slowly pulled the damp shirt up and over Miguel's head, exposing his bare chest. There was no doubt Miguel was in better shape than he had ever been before. His muscles in his arms and chest rippled, bronzed by the glaring sun, but Tory didn't even give all that a second look as all of her focus was on the gaping wound in his stomach. That needs patching up ASAP, or it was going to get infected.
Tory's survival instincts kicked in. She remembered reading somewhere that salt water was a good disinfectant for wounds, so she quickly grabbed Miguel's shirt and tore one sleeve off it. Holding that, she ran over to the sea nearby and dunked it in, soaking it completely, before walking back to Miguel.
"This might hurt." was all she said, before lowering the sopping rag onto Miguel's abdomen, wiping the wound as gently as she could. However, the salt water and the wound coming together caused Miguel to cry out in pain.
"Ah… Fuck!" Miguel groaned, wincing and gritting his teeth in pain. The agony was blinding him. It felt like his whole side was on fire, and Tory was dragging a blowtorch up and down his abdomen.
"Sorry." Tory replied, continuing exactly what she was doing, his pain not wavering her at all. A couple of moments later however, the pain became too much.
"Argh okay, enough! Enough! Fuck!" Miguel swore, roughly slapping her hands away and trying to roll away from her. She glared at him.
"Hey, I'm trying to help you, dude." She snapped, almost pinning him to the ground as she finished disinfecting the wound. After she did so, she tossed the rag aside, it was now dyed red from the blood, and she then tore the other sleeve clean off his discarded shirt.
"Do you have to do that? I kind of like that shirt." Miguel grumbled as she did. She looked at him and almost laughed, raising an eyebrow.
"You can't be serious!" She laughed. "What do you value more… you or the shirt?!"
"Hmmmmm… tough one. I don't know. That is a pretty sick shirt." Miguel remarked quietly, joking around to try and take his mind off the pain. However, the pain after Tory's treatment started to ebb away, even more so as Tory used the other sleeve as a dressing, wrapping it tightly around him before sitting back nervously. She wasn't a doctor or medic by any definition of the word. The only things she knew about this were what she had read or seen on the internet. So she was undeniably anxious as she watched the wound for a few moments, praying that the blood didn't seep through the dressing. Luckily, it didn't, and Miguel was able to slowly feel the pain subside slightly.
"There. Done. You can stop your whining like a bitch now." Tory remarked, more out of relief that he was okay than anything else.
"Thanks." Miguel murmured, lightly tapping his abdomen and grimacing. It was definitely sore, but hopefully it would go away after a while. It wasn't like he had any other choice other than living with it.
"You okay?" Tory asked, genuinely concerned about him.
"Never better." Miguel replied, though Tory could tell he was in a fair bit of pain.
"So I was thinking…" Tory said, nervously, taking a deep breath. "Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for us to work together? You know, watch each other's backs."
Miguel's eyes widened. Tory was actually asking him to join forces!
"Well, kind of hard to say no to that when you literally just saved my life." Miguel responded, smiling faintly. He held out a hand. "Allies?"
Tory nodded and shook it.
"Allies…"
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"So… what do we do first, do you think?" Tory asked, as the two slowly got to their feet, Tory helping Miguel help slightly, though he already felt a lot better than before.
"Well, I mean we've found water. That's the most important thing. The other two vital things we're going to need to survive are food and shelter." Miguel reasoned. "And I don't know about you but I haven't eaten in nearly 24 hours so I'm fucking famished. I'm thinking we go looking in the forest for food. Then we find shelter for the night."
Tory nodded.
"Well actually, we only need to do the food part. You found us water, I found us shelter." She stated. Miguel raised an eyebrow.
"That right? Where?" Miguel asked, confused.
"Come on. I'll show you." She replied, before turning around and setting off down the beach. Miguel began to follow her but after a few meters, he had to slow down. His side was beginning to throb again, and he feared that he would bleed through the dressing if he continued pushing himself like this. He came to a halt, bending down and panting heavily, trying to catch his breath back. Tory, noticing his discomfort, stopped abruptly and turned to him.
"You good?" She asked. Miguel gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Yeah, fine." He grumbled. He didn't like feeling useless like this. He felt like such a wimp, like he was letting down the team, even though the team was literally just him and Tory right now.
Tory shook her head, sensing that he was lying. It was like she had a sixth sense, like she could sense how he was feeling despite him telling her otherwise. It was really weird. She had never felt this with anyone before, not even her family, so she was confused… why was this happening?
She didn't dwell on it for long though, as she jogged up the beach and over to the jungle, snapping a large branch off one of the trees and then bringing it back to Miguel.
"Here. This might make it easier. Save me having to carry you the whole time." She remarked. Miguel nodded and thanked her gratefully, using the branch like a walking stick, a crutch to enable him to walk much faster. So they set off down the beach once more, Miguel now able to keep up, and they eventually came to a sight that made Miguel gasp. There, at the edge of the beach, right by the water, was an abandoned lighthouse!
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"Wow. You found this place?!" Miguel exclaimed, staring up at the only man-made building he had seen in 2 days. It was definitely a sight for sore eyes. "When?!"
"This morning." Tory replied. "I haven't even gone in yet. I had just found it and was trying to find something on the beach to use to pick the lock when I saw you go looking for water so I left and followed you instead."
"Oh, right." He nodded.
"Yeah, so if you find anything you think we can use to break open the front door be my guest." She said. Miguel thought for several moments, before walking all the way around the tower, studying every inch of it carefully.
"Hmmmm… I might have something." He remarked as he came to the side of the building.
"Oh, yeah? What?" Tory asked. Miguel raised his walking stick and suddenly, he rammed it against the side window as hard as he could, smashing it to pieces and creating an unlocked opening into the lighthouse.
"Voila." He said.
"You idiot!" Tory exclaimed. "How are we supposed to keep the cold out now at night after you smashed the window?!"
Miguel winced in realisation and raised his hands up.
"Oops. My bad. Oh well, what're you gonna do now?" He laughed. Tory sighed and shook her head, though she stifled a giggle too. She was the one to climb through the window as Miguel probably couldn't in his current condition, so she entered the lighthouse and immediately walked through it to the front door, unlocking it and letting him inside. Then, together, they went through the entire lighthouse, exploring every inch of it. It was a two storey building, the first being a virtually empty lobby and the upper floor being what used to be a bedroom but had now been completely cleared out, other than an emergency survival kit that had been stuck to the wall. It was a pretty useless building, barring the fact that it brought them shelter from the cold.
Eventually, when they were done exploring the small building a couple of minutes later, they met back at the front outside the lighthouse.
"Alright… now, food." Tory said, her stomach rumbling furiously in agreement. Miguel nodded.
"Yeah, let's go find some food." He said. "Probably in the jungle we can find some fruit of some kind."
Tory nodded, before looking at him and taking a deep breath.
"Sure. And I'll go do that. But… but… are you really well enough to be going into the jungle right now?" She said.
"I'm sorry?" Miguel murmured. Tory shrugged.
"I mean come on, you literally nearly got killed by a crocodile. You can barely walk right now. How are you supposed to be able to run if we face any danger?"
Miguel looked down and scowled. As much as he wanted to go, he unfortunately knew that she was right. There was no way he'd even be able to be up on his feet and walking for more than about half an hour, even if there were no predators.
"Isn't the whole point of us working together that we have each other's back though? How are you supposed to be able to survive if you get ambushed like I did by the croc?" Miguel stated. He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried about her. He didn't want her going in the jungle alone.
"Yeah, so I'll stay on just the outskirts of the jungle. Not far in. Nowhere near as far as the lake." She said. "We can get more water together tomorrow."
Miguel looked at her for several moments, unsure, before eventually reluctantly nodding.
"Alright, fine. I'll sit around looking pretty as you do literally everything." He said. Tory laughed.
"Hey, for what it's worth, you make a really hot trophy wife." She joked. Miguel rolled his eyes, chuckling.
"Hey, Tory…" He said. "Be safe, okay?"
Tory nodded.
"I will. See you soon…"