𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓, ᵀʰᵉ Qᵘᵃʳʳʸ

CHAPTER FOUR

DONT PANIC.

Alina was being comforted by Anthony while Abigail attempted to draw the thing that had attacked her with kaitlyn next to her, trying her best to smooth her. Ryan had come back and helped Alina himself and brought her back to camp.

Alina began to blink slowly as she looked up at the two boys hovering over her. "Alina. Hey. Buddy. Can you tell us what happened?" Ryan asked her gently.

"Animal attacked...it..- where's Abi?" Alina asked, her eyes slightly widening as she remembered abi getting tackled by the 'animal.' Anthony could notice her lightly trembling as blood leaked down her face from the impact she had made on the ground when she was tackled.

"She's super out of it." Dylan commented as he stood over the three.

"Do you think she has a concussion or something?" Anthony asked.

"We need to know what happened." Ryan ignored her question.

Alina nodded slightly. "Right, there was..there was a..guy there..but..there was some kind of..some kinda animal. It looked like a guy..but it was an..animal." Alina responded, confusing the boys around her.

"The hell?" Dylan uttered. It wasent his fault—Alina sounded like a lunatic.

"What kind of fucking animal does this?" Ryan said in disbelief.

"Not..normal." Alina whispered but nobody heard her. Alina breathed heavily. "Did..did I get..is abi-?" She asked worriedly.

"Hey, Hey shes okay dude, Shes right over there."

Alina seemed to relax as Ryan nodded towards Abigail who was still sitting in the log next to Kaitlyn, occasionally glancing at Alina despite being told not to.

"Big claws. Teeth right on top of me..I think it was a bear..?" Alina said it as if it was more of a question. She didn't believe it completely, but what else could it have been?

Anthony looked down at Alina's leg in distress, squinting at the black blood-like liquid that leaked from it. He recalled a distant memory of his father treating his uncle Chris's injury that looked very similar to this. The most confusing thing about it was that the next day, Chris's leg was absolutely fine. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

"A full-sized bear would have crushed her. There's no way."

"I thought we don't get bears around here?" Dylan asked, looking over at Ryan.

"Is that normal?" Anthony abruptly asked, still looking at Alina's leg. "Isn't that an infection?"

"Oh, fuck. It is. And it's-its spreading." Dylan said in panic, pointing at Alina's leg for Ryan to see. "This is bad. This is really bad, dudes."

Ryan began to apply pressure on it, Alina letting out a pained grunt. "Sorry, Al! Sorry!" Ryan eventually stopped. "You're okay. It's okay."

"Mmm..fuck, that hurt." Alina murmured.

"We should amputate." Dylan finally spoke, Alina immediately shaking her head. "No. No. No-"

"We have to cut it off before the infection spreads." Dylan cut her off as he looked at Ryan and Anthony. Anthony could understand why Alina didn't want that—he barely lasted 6 weeks with his crutches. Imagine dealing with that permanently.

"What?!" Ryan exclaimed before he lowered his voice. "Why would we do that?"

"I don't know, man. Look at that black stuff." Dylan said simply.