One Boy. A Thousand Feelings | Duncan

~ Chapter 25 ~

'That had to be a robot! No normal squirrel would act like that! Am I gonna get fucking rabies?'

"Armana! You ok?" Duncan asked, running to her aid. "You landed pretty hard on your head....hey you're bleeding. Did you scrape your leg on your way down?"

He accounted to himself it was more than just a scrape. It was a nasty injury; there were numerous, black and blue contusions superficial to the dermal penetrations made within the region of her thigh. She had acute scratch marks cut into her flesh, ovoid red rings surrounding the lines of torn skin. He saw teeth marks inflicted upon her, particularly by incisors. He carefully brought his hand to cup her thigh in awe, analyzing how the bite wasn't compressed into the tissue with smaller teeth tearing the skin. Otherwise it would've been an open, jagged wound by a carnivore of some sort. It rather belonged to a rodent by its small, single puncture wounds and the amount of scratches she had.

"Are you ok? Does it hurt?" He asked her in sympathy.
"I'm ok, just baffled over everything. This may sound crazy, but I bull-crap you not, this squirrel just randomly came up to me and started climbing on my leg. I tried to stay calm but it wouldn't get off of me. After a minute, I got fed up and grabbed it but then the little shit dug it's claws into me and bit me. Its like it was thwarting me to quit." She answered.
"You think it did this to you on purpose?"
"Had to be. Squirrels are usually under predation. The last thing they'll want to do is come up to us giant, non-primitive humans."
"Well whatever it ends up being, I believe you."

They see the Screaming Gophers carry off Gwen in triumph, causing Armana to deeply sigh in deflation. Duncan rubbed her back soothingly, both of them hearing someone's steps quickly pad upon the grass behind them.

"Hey Armana, you ok?" They see Bridgette came to examine the situation with Jojo tagged along.
Armana nodded.
"She fell because she was attacked by a squirrel." Duncan pronounced.
'Well when you put it like that.'
"Attacked by a squirrel?"
As silly as it sounded to Bridgette, she moved in front of the couple to inspect a clearer angle of Armana.
"Ooooh, that's bad."
"Dang girl. Did you have peanut butter for lotion or something?" Jojo interjected.
Armana chuckled, "That's the problem, I did nothing to deserve this."
"Ok, I took first aid training before cause I wanted to be a veterinarian some day. So we can treat you in the infirmary. Come on, help her up."

Duncan lifted Armana with an arm supporting her by her waist, guiding her arm behind his neck and over his shoulder. Jojo mirrored his ministration and they lifted her off the ground. Armana limped in favor of her left leg, finding pain in trying to engage in her quads which you'd use in order to complete full strides when you walk. The infirmary was a dark green tent; multiple dingy, steel frame beds furnished with IVs and a station was made to access simple, basic medical care. They walked Armana to one in the middle of a row of beds particularly against the right side of the tent.

"These aren't even actual beds, how are you supposed to lay on this?" Duncan accounted to the sturdy sort of bed frame without any comfortability a mattress would've gave.
"Well, we just need something to set her body on and keep it from moving. They'd also usually use LED lights to illuminate a local area or cavity of a patient too, but it's pretty bright outside." Bridgette judged.
"So we should take her back outside?" Duncan asked.
"No, in here would be fine. We'd probably have to cut somewhere in this tent's fabric to let light in over Armana's leg with something sharp."
"Already got that part covered." Duncan smirked unfolding his pocketknife out.

He grabbed one of the beds to stand on top of in hopes of cutting an opening into the tent's roof.

"Be careful." Armana warned.

He positioned the bed next to the one she laid on and mindfully stuck out his arm to the extent of slightly balancing on his tiptoes.

"Cut vertically." Bridgette instructed.