Thumbs

Struggle

~“Maurice?” Katie asked as he leaned on the boulder.

This was when Katie noticed that the jeans on the lower part of his leg was dyed dark red. Wrapping his black flannel around his left calf, he tied it over the wounds, leaving the knot over the hole at the front of his leg. She quickly pulled on her clothes and rushed over to him with one of the clips on her overalls still unhooked. He was breathing heavily and had his eyes were squeezed shut.

“Maurice! You’re hurt!” Katie exclaimed, her eyes fixated on his leg.

At a closer look, she could see that there was a new hole in his jeans, right above the red stain where he wrapped his leg. Panicking, Katie grabbed his arm, her hands too small to wrap around it completely. She shook him anyway, in attempt to make him open his eyes. Maurice wearily opened his eyes and stared at his bloody leg. Maurice did not want to let the infected behind them track them down, so he pushed himself off of the rock with a huff and attempted to take a few steps forwards. He stumbled down onto his good knee with a low moan.

Katie looked around frantically for something for him to lean on. Luckily, she saw a discarded branch laying next to an old tree not too far away. She ran to it, and dragged the tree limb back as quickly as she could. It was a bit short, but looked thick enough to support Maurice. The broken giant looked at what Katie had brought and immediately put it to good use. He used his machete -which was more like a pocket knife- to quickly lop off some of the loose twigs. Once the limb was bare he used it to stand up straight again. He tested it, and even though he was limping terribly, he was moving. They needed to get back to the truck.

“Which way is the truck?” Katie asked Maurice.

He looked up at the sky, then pointed to his left, which was east. Maurice knew which direction to go by looking at the sun, and so did Katie, but she wasn't as good at it as Maurice. If they followed the river, they would be back before the sun would set. But she was now terrified of that river.

Maurice began moving at a slow pace, the makeshift crutch replacing his injured leg quite well. Even so, Katie kept close to his uninjured side, hanging onto his hand as if for dear life. If he fell, she wanted to be there to help him back up.

“It will be okay Maurice. We are almost there.” Katie reassured him when he began to slow.

In complete honesty, she had no idea where they were. None of the trees looked familiar, and Maurice was taking more frequent breaks. Katie was now practically pulling Maurice onwards toward the truck. If they continued like this, his leg might snap in two!

What if she couldn't get him there fast enough? What if those monsters found them? What would happen if the sun went down and they weren't home yet? What would happen if Maurice didn't get better?

What would she do without Maurice?

The dark green grass started becoming dotted with bright wildflowers, signaling her that they were close. Hope began to blossom within her again, just like the yellow flowers that they were now trudging through. But she was suddenly tugged backwards and lost her grip on Maurice’s hand when he fell behind her. She turned around to see Maurice laying on his side with his walking stick still in his hand. His tired eyes looked hollow.

“Come on Maurice! Just a little farther. You can do it.” Katie said while taking his hand again.

Breathing heavily, Maurice lifted himself slowly from the ground without looking at Katie. She gripped his hand tighter than before and pulled him forward. The sun was just about to set, and that meant the monsters would be out soon.

~They made it to the truck just as the sun began to wane over the tips of the giant oak trees. Maurice could barely crawl through the hole to their camp, and he left streaks of blood in his wake. Katie climbed in after him, trying to avoid getting her hands and knees covered in the sticky red liquid. He had been bleeding for a long time, and Katie wasn't sure if that was just a bad thing, or a really really bad thing. She knew that blood was important, and that it was supposed to stay inside your skin. So losing too much of it would definitely be a problem. Right?