Dancing In The Thunder

9-Healing Isn't Healing Enough

TW of suicide, SA

Rikari POV

Well... Eli's gone. Not dead, just passed out. And probably dead. I check the pulse. Whew, still there, thank god.

Valen's already in tears, so I just hide this from them. Instead, I give a signal to Clove. She knows some pretty major first aid.

"Oh. Of course. He passed out from the pain, didn't he?"

I nod, "It seemed pretty bad."

"Well yeah. He's bullet legged. It's safer to not take the bullet out for now, it's not blocking his breathing so we do not take it out. I think we need to take him to a hospital."

"During this war," I ask, "Will they take us?"

"God, I hope so," says Clove, who's now suddenly crying, "This war's so stressful.. I never wanted this to happen... I wanted to stand up for what I believe in but not like this..."

"I.. I'm sorry, Clove," I say, "I know this war's been hard on you. Go take a rest, okay?"

"No, I want to help," says Clove.

"You're stubborn," says Layla, leaning on the door.

"Am not."

"Anyway," Layla says, "Valen's in there. If you wanna go get their help, you'd have to go, like, now."

"Alright, let's go," I say, slinging her over my shoulder.

"Rikari Thompson! You can't see!"

"Okay, mom," I say, rolling my eyes at Clove. She was right, of course, but it was out of one eye, not both.

"I'll go. No matter what you do, DON'T TELL VALEN."

"Valen already knows," Valen says, "I was with him when he got shot."

"Ahhhh right."

And so we walked, looking for any possible nurse office or anything to help Eli's leg. Valen's carrying him—they're strong and can run.

Valen POV

I wouldn't be in this situation right now if it weren't for my stupid heart. If I didn't already throw myself, basically, at Eli, I wouldn't be so squirmy and weird about all of this. This is the most emotional capacity I've shown—to anyone. And I don't like it in the slightest. Love is dumb as hell.

Eli was still passed out—I gaslighted my brain into thinking he was just sleeping. He was the oldest and the tallest of us, our leader. Having him like this worried me. He was too vulnerable, too weak. It was terrifying.

We all needed the medic, hell, even I needed it, with the injuries we'd all gained just from walking. I'm not sure how the war got here so fast, but they'd probably been butting heads for a while, considering this camp was never a popular good opinion. I didn't know any non-redheads who agreed with them, to be honest. Another reason men, in my opinion, shouldn't be in power.

And now everyone was just .. ghosts of themselves, essentially. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody knew what to do. I don't even know if there is a medic anymore or if they quit to go to the fight, but either way, we couldn't have stayed there.

Finally, Eli woke up. His face was stretched in pain, but other than that, he seemed fine and unaffected.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Glowy POV

I haven't said a word all day. Nobody's noticed, in true stress fashion, even I only notice it now. Valen looks like they haven't slept in a week. Layla just looks worried constantly. Eli still looks in pain. Rikari even is serious.