"Can we stop for a second?" I let out breathlessly, resting my hands against my knees. I grab my brother's backpack string to pull him to a halt. He turns around and laughs. "Oh my God we've barely been out, Ben," he replies.
I shake my head "I don't care," I huskily let out. "How can... anyone have fun... doing this?"
I walk over and lean against a bench before sitting down on it and dropping my backpack down next to it. My entire body ached from all the jogging. This was not what I liked to do. But Jared insisted I try it with him. Boy, what a mistake.
He hands me a water bottle. Without hesitance, I pop the lid open and chug the ice cold water. It burned my throat so I gave it a break. Sweat was building against my forehead and under my shirt. I was so uncomfortable.
"Agh, the sun is already up. It's so hot," I look up at the sun as I take another sip. The slight rain did no good as it only made me wet and hot. "Can we go now?"
"No, man, you haven't experienced the rush of it," he replies, still standing in front of me. I could see him squinting through sunglasses to see me through the shade. We were on a trail in the middle of a surprisingly unknown hiking and biking trail. It was lush with trees, all kinds of trees.
"The rush?" I cover my eyes with my hand to look at him, wondering what the hell that even meant. He simply nods, his foot fidgeting impatiently. I take the hint and stand up, slinging the sports bag over my shoulders.
"Alright, I'm so excited to get hot and sweaty for no good reason" I smile sarcastically at him, putting my hands up in joy. He doesn't smile and insults me.
As we walk down the trail for another 10 minutes, we hear a loud scream. It sounded like a very angry man. We're both frozen in our tracks. "What the fuck," I mutter. "That... did not sound like a fun scream, dude." I look over at him, just to see that he looked genuinely scared. I felt bad.
"Um, let's ignore it ok?" I continue to begin walking again. "If it's really bad, we can leave but, I mean, we have no idea what that was." He keeps his eyes out to where the noise had come from, but eventually does begin to walk alongside me.
"I've never heard anything like that out here," he says nervously. I look to my right to see that he was fidgeting with his fingers. "Maybe.. maybe we shouldn't keep going?" He states with true uncertainty.
We both stop. "Hey, it's ok that you're scared," I look him in the eyes with false reassurance. So was I for that matter. "But we're together alright? We can't let that ruin our hike." Honestly, I hated this hike, but I knew how much Jared loved it here. I was putting him first.
He nods and puts his hands out as to calm himself down. "Ok, ok. Yes, let's just continue," he says as he let's out a deep breath and keeps on going. I follow alongside with a grin. I was happy to help him out.
I look around at the void of nothing but green leaves and heavy bush. I really liked that part of the hike, but the sweating and going uphill wasn't my favorite thing ever. "I enjoy this actually. It really isn't that bad," I lie halfway. "Thanks, bro."
After a minute or two, we hear a russeling in the bush right next to us. I jump back, my adrenaline kicking in and making my heart pound like a drum in my ear. I grab my brothers arm, who was standing up tall and frozen from fear.
"Only thing that can make that sound is a deer," he replies softly and calmly. But I could feel and almost hear his heartbeat thumping out of his chest. We stand still until we felt safe to keep moving. Then, we hear a sound like the ground being hit hard in deep mud.
We both collect ourselves, and move on. I keep my eyes on the side where the sound was. I look over to him as he gasps.
"Holy fuck!"
My eyebrows move down in a confused way as I watched him hurl himself into the bush as fast as he could, chucking his backpack to the ground in a panic. I stand still as I watch him push through all of natutes obstacles.
"Oh my fucking God! Ben, hurry up! Come here!" He nearly screams. I see his hand waving rapidly for me. I ditch my backpack and entered the homemade path where he had gone. He was kneeling on the ground next to something.
My heart drops once I realize what it was. A girl, a very young girl, had her face covered in mud. Everything was filthy and layered in dirt and her skin was brittle as it was basically decorated in yellow and black bruising and small, sharp cuts. Her wrist was completely shattered with a huge, deep scar going up along the forearm. She was terribly skinny, basically emaciated.
I cover my mouth with my hand at the absolutely horrid sight. I immediately drop down and examine her. "Jared, call the fucking cops! Now!" I scream, beginning to panic as well. This girl was barely alive. Her jaw was covered in pink and purple marks from what I could only guess was a hard hit. Oh my God, the scream .
I turn around to see that Jared had his hand on top of his head as he was in clear distress. His face was morphed into nothing but stress. The phone was up to his ear and ringing. His sunglasses were off his face and in his hand. I turn back around to see the girl.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I whisper to myself, my body and adrenaline once again kicking in. I pick her up gently, moving her out more into the open away from the mud. Her arms and legs were complete dead weight. They moved wherever they wanted to freely, along with her neck.
I lay her down the softest I possibly could and put my ear next to her chest. I calm down the best I could and listen for a heartbeat. I couldn't hear anything. I panic once again. "Ugh, no!" I look her up and down. What do I do?
"Ben! They'll be here soon. Ah, they told me to give her CPR until they get here," he throws his phone against the ground and jumps down onto the wet mud with me. We look at each other, pain growing in both our faces.
"She's... I think she's dead," I mutter. A huge, painful weight drops into my chest as I look down at this poor girls face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth laid a bit open. She looked like she was in a deep sleep.
"No! Don't give up. We heard this happen! We have to try!" He yells back at me, lifting her head up and putting her mouth to his ear. We sit silently as he listens for her breathing, his face covered in determination and fear. He continues to listen before shaking his head. "Fucking nothing," he says quietly, but with immense anger.
"I'm gonna, uh, do CPR ok? Keep her next to your ear," I say before pumping her chest. I go hard, and with true determination to get this girl to breath again. I look up to see Jared keeping his ear close to her mouth, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.
For minutes straight, we tried and tried. The only sound we heard was small rain drops hitting the leaves above us. I continue to push in and out of her chest, almost certainly breaking a rib.
"She's breathing! She's fucking breathing!"
