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Mibba

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Survive

The Storm Rages On

A loud clap of thunder wakes me up. I can’t tell how much time has passed but almost everyone is asleep.

I see Lucy and Leah snuggled under a blanket. The boys each have their own blanket but they are sharing with one of the girls. Penny and Mac are sharing a left over blanket and Tori has one to herself. She isn’t sleeping though.

I check on Niall. The fever broke and he is sleeping peacefully.

I begin to make my mental checklist.

Food. We need more but the storm is scaring any animals away. I could try to find more fruit, but not the star ones.

Water. Three of the four baskets are completely empty and the last one is only half full. We could use the rain water.

Warmth. The fire is fine and the wood is still dry. I should start another fire over in the second room area and put everyone already checked there.

Injuries. I need to check everyone over again, especially the boys. I didn’t fully inspect them.

My stomach growls and interrupts my thoughts. I haven’t eaten much since I got here. A little liger, a little tiger, and a little fruit.

I go over to the fruit. I grab one of the bananas. We have enough for everyone to have one before we run out.

Where did the star ones go?

I whip around, scanning the cave for them. Maybe they rolled away.

Tori looks up at me with a crazed look in her eyes. I see that the star fruit color is all over her face, the remaining bit is on the floor around her.

“Tori,” I say. I approach her like you would a wild animal, very slowly.

“Tori is leaving now,” she says. She stands and backs toward the entrance.

“Did you eat all the fruit?”

“Tori was hungry, not anymore.Tori needs to go,” she says.

Most people have woken up by this time.

“Tori,” Liv cries.

Tori turns to her before saying, “Tori must leave.” And then she ran.

“Tori,” I yell after her. But it is useless. She was gone, lost in the storm.

“We have to go after her,” Liv yells.

“We can’t,” I say. “The storm is getting worse.”

“We can’t leave her,” Liv cries. She struggles to try to get up but Louis, who she was sharing the blanket with and the one with only one foot, holds her back.

“We have to,” I say firmly. She breaks down and cries.

“Now here’s what we’re going to do,” I say now that everyone is awake. “I am going to build another fire off in the side area.I am going to inspect everyone’s injuries again and then you may go to that fire. This part of the cave is beginning to get a little wet. I need a few people to move the wood and the food. We need to put the baskets outside so that they can collect rain water because we are running low. The guys’ clothes are almost dry so they can put them on in a bit.”

“I can build the fire,” Luke says. I nod and he stands to make the fire. Ashton and Michael start to carry the wood over to the side area.

Zayn, Liam, and Harry each grab a basket and put them outside. They have to hold them because the wind is threatening to blow them away.

I walk over to Lucy first. I inspect her foot. It is healing nicely, or as nice as it can heal with what we are given. She should be able to walk soon. I rewrap it and look at Leah.

I rewrap Leah’s arm because it is also healing nicely. I then help Lucy up and together Leah and I help her over to the other fire.

The boys come back with the baskets of water and from building the fire. I instruct them to sit and they listen.

I turn to Brooke and Anna. Both of them are fine.

Liv is still crying. I understand. She just lost her sister to some crazy fruit. I quickly look at her foot. It is ugly and raw but it isn’t infected so it’s okay.

“Liv,” I whisper to her. She looks up at me and I see the tears still streaming down her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lose anyone either but the storm is too bad to go out in.”

“I k-know,” she stutters, “I just-t w-wish that i-it didn’t have to-to b-be T-tori.”

“Come on,” I say. I pull her up and we make our way to the other fire. I put her down and head back to check on the others.

I sit down next to Louis and unwrap his foot. What I see makes my heart thump faster and my palms begin to sweat. The stump is infected. It is an angry red, worse than Liv’s, and has yellow and green mixed in.

I look away and swallow.

“What is it?” Louis asks. I glance up at him and see horror on his face.

“It’s infected,” I say.

“No,” a voice says behind me. I turn to see Liam walking to us. “Lou, I’m sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing,” he said in a weak voice.

“You kept him alive,” I say. I stand up and begin to walk away. A hand grabs my upper arm and pulls me back.

“What can we do?” Liam asks in a low voice. I turn towards him and take a deep breath.

“We have two options. We could wait and hope that someone will rescue us soon. Or we can cut off the infected area and rewrap it.”

“Cut it off?” he hisses to me. I nod.

“Those are the only two options.”

I turn and walk over to Harry and Zayn. I rewrap Zayn’s arm and give Harry some more water. I send them over to the fire along with Ashton, Michael, and Luke, all of whom are fine.

I kneel down next to Niall and check his temp. It seems normal and he is still sleeping. I turn to go but feel a hand around my ankle.

“Thank you,” he says. I look down at him and nod.

“You’re welcome,” I say. I expect him to let go of me but he doesn’t.

“Really,” he says, “you could have left us out there. We would have died out there.”

“Which is exactly why we brought you in here,” I say. “If you would like, I can help you over to the fire. This part is getting kind of wet.”

He nods and begins to sit up. I forget that he still doesn’t have his clothes on. I hand him his pants and his shirt. He puts them on and we begin to make the trek over to the fire. About halfway there Ashton and Michael stand up and take him for me. I head back and grab his blankets. I drape one over his shoulders and hand the other one to Claire.

I head back to Liam and Louis, the only two not in the side room. They are both whispering back and forth. I step in front of them.

“Have you come to a decision?”

“Yes,” Louis says. “Cut it off.” I nod.

I go and grab some supplies.

“Skylar?” a voice asks. I turn to see Brooke and Anna.Brooke holds out four walkie-talkies and I see that Anna has seven more.

“I fixed them as best I could. If we keep it to the same station and don’t mess with anything else, they should work,” she explains.

“Good,” I say, “thank you so much. Um…would they work in this storm, like if someone went out there?”

“I think so…why?”

“Uh just wondering,” I smile at her. I would go get food and try to find Tori. “Can you get Claire and Riley for me? And send in the guys. And then I don’t want anyone coming in while we work.”

“What’s going on?” Anna asks. She chews on her lip, with a worried look on her face.

“Uh, we just need to…um…fix Louis up again,” I say. It’s not a lie, it’s just not the whole truth.

“Okay,” she nods and they both turn to walk away.

I head back to Louis. I set down the extra sweaters, the knives, the bowl of water, and the blanket.

Claire and Riley walk in and I tell them to help hold him down. If he moves it could mean a more serious injury for him…and maybe for others as well.

“We don’t have anything to numb it or knock you out with,” I tell him. He nods but I say, “And it’s going to hurt.” His face drops a little but he nods again.

“Ashton and Calum go back and make sure that none of the girls come in here, especially Liv. I need Zayn to hold down one arm and shoulder and Luke to hold down the other arm and shoulder-“

“Liv says that if she doesn’t get to come in, she will scream,” Ashton says. I turn to glare at him and catch a glimpse of Liv. She looks so sad that I can’t not let her in.

“Fine, help her over here.” Ashton carries Liv over and sets her down by Louis’s head. She lifts up his head and rests it on her lap. She strokes his forehead as he smiles up at her.

“Liv,” I say, “This isn’t going to be pret-“

“Yeah well I don’t care,” she snaps. I nod and turn to the boys again.

“Harry hold down his leg and Niall hold down his other leg and make sure you get his foot too. Liam I need your help down here. Michael I need you to get a torch. Claire I need you to sit on his stomach and Riley on his hips,” I instruct. The boys, Claire, and Riley do as they are told. When Michael comes back, I begin.

I cut a stripe off of the sweater and tie it as tight as I can around his calf, cutting off the blood flow to his stump. I then hand a knife to Michael and tell him to put the blade in the fire until it is red. It is supposed to stop the bleeding, may hurt worse but it will be better for the long run.

While he’s doing that I tell Liam in a low voice, “I’m going to need you to soak the sweater in the water and as soon as I tell you, you have to hold it to the stump as tight as you can. It will hurt him but we need to stop the blood as quickly as we can.” He nods and I look at Louis.

“Are you ready?” I ask and he nods once. “Bite on this,” I say as I hand him the sleeve of the sweater.

“Whatever you do, no matter how much he screams and cries…do not let go of him,” I tell everyone. Once they have all nodded in agreement I start.

“It’s ready,” Michael says. I nod and take it from him.

And before anyone can stop me or have second thoughts…I start.

I do it as quickly as I can, but cutting through bone is hard. He screams and cries and begs but they hold him down. Liv tries to calm him but he continues struggling.

And then his leg moves. It moves away from me and suddenly I’m not cutting him anymore…I am cutting myself.

He grows more confident and shakes Luke off him. Luke falls back and strikes his head on the ground. There is blood but he is sitting up quickly. Not quick enough because Louis has gotten Claire off of him and is trying to get Riley off too.

I scream in frustration and lunge at him. I sit on his leg and hold his calf between my knees. He tries to throw me off but I’m stronger than I look. I raise the blade and slam it down in an arch, severing the infected skin. Liam swoops in and holds the sweater to his stump.
I sit there, holding him down until the bleeding has stopped. Then I take another sweater and wrap it around it.

I sigh and climb off of him, signaling to the others that it was okay to let go too. I pant slightly. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

And then I turn to Harry.

Notes

Hope you liked it! Happy Reading! :)

Comments

Keep writing! I like it a lot so far!