Ch.15: Ongoing
Rebel's P.O.V.
My ears were ringing. I couldn't hear anything but the thumping of my heart. I was upside down, that I knew. The windshield was broken, shards of glass laying around me. Breaths left my nose heavily and were sucked back in slowly. The seat belt was holding me in. I grabbed a piece of the broken windshield. It cut into my hand, right over the scar from the whip I caught. Sawing at the fabric that made up the belt, I felt the pain coming back. Then I was loose, falling to hit what used to be the roof of the truck. Immediately remembering the others who were with me, I looked around, trying to find them.
A hand latched onto my hurt arm, pulling me out. My vision cleared and I looked up to see Aries. He was shouting something at me, hefting me to my feet. That hurt like no other. My leg, my arm, and my hand burned as if they had been set ablaze. As I straightened myself the pain increased, sending a grunt from my lips.
"Ava..." I slurred, "Where's Ava?"
"I'm here, Reb!" Her voice was distant and foggy. At least I was getting my hearing back.
"We need to go!" Lani yelled, gesturing to the cars catching up to us. I looked back at the flipped truck. It was crushed, completely.
The sides were dented in and the windows were all cracked or broken. It was almost like it was the rode kill flattened to the road. Irony. The only thing that drew my attention away was the fact that there was a dark liquid pooling on the pavement. I knew this substance all too well: blood.
"Tigger?" Aries called, glancing around. We looked around, trying to find the small boy. "Tigger!"
I swallowed hard, realization b-slapping me.
"He's still in the truck!" I said, looking closer to see half of Tigger's body draped out, of the truck onto the road like he was a piece of fabric. Dirty fabric.
Aries ran to get the unmoving boy. The cars were gaining. I could hear them coming nearing us, and that sent me over the edge of panic.
"Aries! We need to move!" I cried, anticipating for them to turn around the corner and see us any moment. He struggled to throw Tigger over his shoulder.
"The woods! Go to the woods!" Lani ordered frantically. Sprinting, we took off. The throbbing in my leg prevented me from going full speed. Aries was weighed down from carrying Tigs, so it's not like I would've left them anyway. If we didn't get deep enough into the forest we wouldn't stand a chance. I heard the vehicles slam on their brakes. By then we were too far back to see through the dense trees. We still didn't stop; we couldn't.
Bethany was pale, laying limp in Ava's arms. Tigger didn't look much better himself. Lani's face was cut in some places from the broken glass, making her look like a weed-eater went to town.
Where were we, six beaten down mutants, going to go? We had no family here to take refuge. We didn't have money, either. Running wouldn't last forever, especially with the blood loss most of us were facing.
"Stop!" Aries panted, freezing in his tracks to lay Tigger down on the ground. "We need to stop!"
I wanted to say no, but my body argued otherwise. I came to a halt a few feet from Aries, hands on my knees. My breaths came labored, but as I looked to Tigger I found that I faired pretty lucky. There was no rise or fall of the boy's chest. He wasn't moving at all, like earlier. Aries knelt down beside his old friend's body, checking for a pulse.
"No," Aries whispered, trembling.
I looked up at Ava through the haze in my eyes. She bit her lip, gently lowering Beth's body into a pile of, I'm sure, very comfortable leaves. She placed a hand on Aries' shoulder, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."
"No!" Aries shouted, begging CPR. "He's not dead! He's not!"
The sixteen year old had lost his sister and his friend today. He didn't have time for grieving. He wouldn't loose another.
Ava tried to pry him away. Aries just fought her, tears pouring down his cheeks as he desperately tried to save his friend. Lani's bottom lip quivered as she watched. I slowly made my way over, grabbing his arm roughly.
"There's nothing you can do," I said sternly, pulling him to his feet.
He looked up at me with sad eyes, his curly brown hair drenched in sweat. "I'm not leaving him to die here!"
"He's already dead!" I barked, glaring to emphasize my seriousness.
"No!" He screamed, struggling against me, in denial. "No he's not!"
Ava warningly laid a hand on my arm. I let Aries go, reluctantly. Lani hugged him gently, trying to comfort him.
"We need to keep moving," I started, beginning to walk off.
Ava gathered Bethany and followed me. Lani looked up at the ram mutant, blinking innocently before grabbing his sleeve and tugging him along.
•••
"What are we going to do?" I asked after we had walked a ways.
"Get a hotel?" Lani tried, her feet dragging along in her fatigued stage.
"We don't have money." Ava looked down at the girl, frowning sympathetically.
"I do." We all jumped at Aries' hoarse voice. He hadn't spoken for a while now.
I glanced back at him.
"I have a tenancy to steal people's wallets," he explained.
"How much do you have?" I questioned, hope beginning to spring in my mind. I quickly forced it back down, scolding myself for my foolishness.
He tossed me the billfold.
"Two hundred. Sweet!" Lani cheered as I pulled out the cash.
"Yeah, but how are we going to get them to give us a room? We look like we just slid down a giant cheese grader," I grumbled.
"Aries doesn't look that bad," Ava pointed out.
"Hello, did you not notice the horns!?" Aries growled, tired and frustrated.
"You could steal a jacket off the coat hanger. Then you could say your girlfriend kicked you out and you needed a room." Ava, always making plans.
"I guess that could work." I nodded, shrugging. I honestly just wanted to lay down and bottoms up a container of pain relievers.
"Now we just have to find a town..." Ava looked around.
"Well, how about that giant billboard up ahead?" Lani smiled.
Sure enough, it was advertising Motel 6. "We'll leave the light on for ya'!" was written clearly across the bottom. It said two more exits and take a left. Seems simple enough.
"I do believe in miracles!" I groaned, almost jokingly. Yes, I am joking because in the state I'm in I no longer have control of my mind. I blame the fact that I've been shot.
•••
"I need, uh, a room..." We could hear Aries say from inside the run down crap hole. I could imagine him pulling the neon green hood down on his stolen hoodie. "My girlfriend, uh, kicked me out."
"Okey dokey sir! You're going to go up that elevator to the third floor and take a left. From there you go to room 67. Have a nice night!" A cheery woman chirped brightly. Yuck, totally too much happiness in that description.
Aries probably started climbing the stairs, so we started up the fire exit steps attached to the side of the building. We had planned for him to open the window when he got to the right place. He did just that and soon we were climbing into a fairly small, cheap hotel room.
Ava rushed to the bathroom to start tending to Bethany's wounds. She called me in and together we determined that it wasn't a bullet wound, but a stab. What heartless monster stabs a child? If I could lay my hands on that — I'd scalp him and then repeatedly shock him whilst he stood in a bucket of water. Luckily, the affliction was in the girl's side. It was only a half of an inch deep, but the blood was gushing. This was crucially deadly to a two year old. Ava sent me to town to get a first aid kit. When I came back Beth was black and white, like a newspaper. No literally, she changed her colors. Wow, there's a lot of weird sentences today.
"Give me that," Ava ordered, quickly jerking the first aid kit from my hands and beginning to work.
I watched, helping as much as I could. Ava hurriedly stitched it up and wrapped it in ace wrap. She handed me the girl and told me to go get Lani and to lay Bethany on the bed with her middle area elevated.
I obeyed and eased the baby girl down on the bed, laying a pillow behind her back. My eyes softened for a second. Gosh, was this kid sweet
"I'll watch her," Aries said gruffly. I nodded, leading Lani to the blood stained bathroom.
Ava cleaned the girl's face and stuck bandaids here and there. When Lani was done it looked as if she were sent out to model the product. Little strips of orange splayed across her face like she had some tropical disease. Aries assured that he was fine, and that he "only had a few scratches here and there".
But when Ava got to me there was no denying that I needed help, fast.
Yeah, I know. A terribly awful filler with no real meaning and it was going way to fast and blah blah blah. I'm having a bad day. I'm sorry for the stupid excuse and the disappointing chapper.
NEXT UPDATE: Soon
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Sorry, I'll try to do better next update. I might add in RAVA... I don't know. Review and tell me.