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Stretching out in the sun after crawling from my battered tent, I felt cautiously optimistic for the day ahead.
Since Murphy had ensured knowledge of my removed wristband was incredibly public, some of the tension that I usually felt from the other campers melted away. I suspected that at least some small percentage of this was due to the gossip spreading that I was a doctor, but I was thankful nonetheless. The additional boost of a meal for my trade had certainly helped to brighten my attitude.
As usual, my tent mate was deeply lost to sleep when I rose, leaving me with the freedom to work on the many tasks that remained on my to-do list. The highest priority was to check on Jasper, prompting me to navigate toward the dropship. Whilst I walked, I reminded myself that it was a good sign that I'd been left to sleep, battling down any anxiety that threatened to make itself known.
To my surprise, when I entered the medical space in the ship I found that Monty was absent. Glancing around, I realised that Clarke and Finn had taken over responsibility for watching him and hoped that Monty was managing to get some rest in the meantime.
Leaving the two of them to continue their hushed conversation, I wasted no time in checking Jasper's wounds. With relief, I found that they seemed to be relatively stable considering our lack of supplies. Upon touching his forehead, I noticed that his temperature was slightly raised and grabbed a bottle of water from the nearby table. Once I'd unscrewed the lid, I poured the liquid over his hair in an effort to cool him down.
"How's he doing?" Finn queried, leaning around from my side as I returned the items that I'd used to avoid meeting his eyes.
"Not bad. It's still too early to know." I answered vaguely, causing him and Clarke to sigh restlessly. "Monty and I may need to look into other options."
"He already went to check the woods on the edge of the camp. He couldn't just sit here any longer." Clarke revealed as she rubbed her tired eyes and I gave her a weak smile before heading back outside.
Early morning sunlight dappled over the camp as some people rose for the day. Due to the hour, it remained reasonably quiet as most of our group were still sleeping off the previous night's party. Monty's choice to venture into the woods alone seemed unnecessarily risky, especially whilst there was hardly anyone awake to notice if he hadn't returned.
I knew well enough from my time in the Skybox that there was no worse experience than feeling powerless. Though I completely understood his desire to rescue his friend, especially after an entire night of watching him suffer, I couldn't ignore the fact that he was behaving recklessly.
Wandering toward the edge of our territory, I gazed out into the trees for any sign of my friend. Without knowing how long he'd been gone, it was impossible to tell how far he might've travelled in search of something useful. Even sending a search party would be challenging without at least an awareness of the direction he'd ventured.
