Chapter 9

Present Day…

When Mordecai opened his eyes again, he felt completely drained and was freezing cold. The sun was setting and the forest was now shrouded in darkness. He was still lying on the ground in the same spot, but now there was an odd red glow that seemed to bounce off the trees in a bizzare circular pattern. 'Am I dead?' he silently wondered. He remembered that Rigby should have been next to him, but he was gone. "Rigby?" Mordecai called out, but his voice came out barely above a whisper.

Familiar voices were talking anxiously somewhere off in the distance. When he turned his head to look in that direction, he realized that the red glow was coming from an ambulance and the voices he heard were his park friends. He lied there shivering when he noticed that someone was coming towards him with what appeared to be blanket. As the figure drew closer, he realized it was Benson.

"Benson?" Mordecai asked weakly.

"He's awake!" Benson called back to the others. They started making their way over to Mordecai too, but the paramedics promptly ordered them to stay back and out of the way.

"So cold…" Mordecai said, shivering uncontrollably.

"I know, take it easy, Mordecai. You've lost a lot of blood." Benson said, covering him with the blanket. "You're very lucky that a couple spotted the wrecked cart on the way up to the peak for an evening picnic and reported the accident. You would not have been alive in the morning. " He was livid about the wrecked cart and the whole ordeal, but now was not the time or the place to express his extreme displeasure with the blue jay.

"Rigby! Where is Rigby?" Mordecai asked frantically.

"He's already in the ambulance." Benson said flatly.

"Is he okay?"

"We don't know yet, Mordecai. He has some pretty serious injuries." Benson sighed. "The paramedics are working on him now. They need to get you two to the hospital immediately."

"Hospital? No Benson. No hospital. I'm fine. Just take care of Rigby. Take me back to the house." Mordecai said shakily.

"You have to go to the hospital, Mordecai. You're badly hurt and starting to go into shock."

"No hospital! Don't take me to the hospital!" Mordecai pleaded. He then noticed two men moving toward him with a stretcher. "No! Tell them to stop! Please!"

"You're not thinking clearly because of your injuries, Mordecai. You're going to the hospital!" Benson ordered.

"No Benson, I'm fine! See?" Despite his pain and weakness, Mordecai desperately struggled to sit up in an attempt to hoist himself onto his feet.

"No Mordecai! Don't try to get up!" Before Benson could finish his sentence the blue jay's eyes rolled back in his head and he sunk to the ground unconscious once more.

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A/N: Sorry to leave you guys with such a short chapter, but this might be the last update for at least a week as I am going out of town with my family. I might be able to finish up Ch. 10 tonight and if I do, I will post it before I leave tomorrow.

I am torn on what to do about the rating of this story. The M rating seems to be for intense violence and explicit sexual content, which this story does not have. Chapters 10+ will have a few more f-bombs and it will go into more detail about Mordecai's drug abuse. Not really the act of taking drugs, but more or less the psychological aspects of it. So I'll leave it up to you guys. If you think that kind of stuff warrants an M rating, I will change it. Leave a review or PM and let me know what you think.