The Sound of Silence - Yellowjackets

13. Wolves 2

That's it! "Everyone! Make a bunch of loud noise!" I scream at the top of my lungs. The forest erupts in a cacophony of noise as everyone begins screaming and shouting. "Ah!" I hear a scream behind me. My head whips around and I find a wolf standing over Van with its jaws ripping into her shoulder. 

"Van!" I shout. I rush forward. "Andi, no!" Taissa screams as I use my shoulder to tackle the wolf off of Van. Van screams in agony beside me as blood gushes out of her shoulder. It's hard for me to make out her face through the blood from the scratches on her face. "Gah!" I shout. The wolf sinks its teeth deeper into my ankle. "You fucking mutt!" I shout. 

I clutch my knife in my hand but before I can stab it, it rushes beside me. "Taissa!" I shout. Damnit! Why would she try to sneak up on a fucking wolf!? The wolf rips and scratches at her legs as Taissa tries to crawl backward, screaming in pain. "Fuck you!" I shout, running forward. I ignore the immense pain in my ankle and jam my knife into its throat. It stumbles and chokes. 

After a few moments, it drops dead. I look around and find that all the other wolves had been scared off. Good. "Andi! Chrck on Van!" Taissa tells me. I nod. I run to Van's side and kneel. She's quiet. "You better not be dead, Van!" I mutter to myself under my breath. I press two fingers to her carotid artery. After a moment, I feel a small thump under my fingers. "Thank god," I mutter. 

I lean back and take a deep breath, ignoring the pain in my ankle. I stumble over to Taissa. "How is it looking, doc?" Taissa jokes, her face covered in sweat and her hands shaking. "Not good, Tai. Not good." I tell her. Suddenly, Van starts choking. "Van!" I shout. I rush to her side immediately. She starts crying and screaming out in pain. 

She's losing blood. We need to get her back to camp ASAP! I looked down at my ankle. "Fucking hell," I mutter. I rip a strip of my shirt off and tie it tightly around my ankle. I bend down and put one arm under her upper back and one under her legs. I lift her into my arms. Damnit! Thank god the adrenaline is still rushing through me. This is going to be absolute hell when I've calmed down. 

"Taissa, Van needs medical attention immediately so I'm going to run back to camp with her. Did you bring that flare gun with you?" I ask. She nods. "Yes, but Andi, you're hurt-" She starts but I interrupt. "Send up a flare. The others at the camp are hopefully still awake and will see it." I say. "Be careful, Andi. Make sure she doesn't die, okay?" She says. 

I nod. I take a deep breath and start walking, slowly building to a jog and eventually, a run. Every step I take, it feels like someone is stabbing my ankle with a knife. Every step I take, I wonder if my arms will give out. Every step I take, I wonder if Van will die. After fifteen minutes of running, I finally see the cabin. Everyone who stayed behind was outside, arguing. 

"What if that flare means-" I hear Natalie argue. "Andi!" Misty shouts, being the first to spot me. I stop dead in my tracks, heaving. My legs finally fail me and I collapse to my knees. Everyone runs over. They all talk and ask questions. I can't hear any of them. Suddenly, my body lurches forward and my eyes shut.

***Twenty minutes later...***

"Andi, you piece of shit! You better wake up now before I murder your ass!" Someone screams in my face. I bolt upright and blink for a moment. "Misty?" I ask, confused. "Yes, me! If you don't get the hell up and help me with all these patients you brought with you, I will fucking murder you!" She shouts. 

She storms over to the kitchen table where Van lies motionless. I look around me and see all the girls who went with us on the trip. They were all injured in some way or another. The girls who stayed helped them the best they could. I look down at my ankle and wince when I see the blood-soaked bandages. "We got one more!" I hear a shout. I turn to my left and see Natalie walking in carrying Taissa in her arms. 

Taissa looks like she's about to punch Nat. Misty glances over. "She's second priority. Set her next to Andi." Misty replies. I stand up and Nat sets Taissa down where I had been lying. I limp over to Misty and Van. "Her shoulder was bleeding the most so I started with that." She tells me as she stitches up Van's face. I undo the bandages on her shoulder. I grimace. 

"T-That's.... you did a good job Misty," I tell her. The wound looks rough as hell. That wolf didn't hold back on her. Looks like Misty fixed her up pretty well though. I examine the wounds on Van's face. "They're pretty deep cuts. She was lucky you got her here as quickly as you did. With her shoulder wound... she might not have made it otherwise." Misty tells me, patting my shoulder. A weight I hadn't known I was carrying lifted off of my shoulder. 

I made the right decision. "Under normal circumstances, I would tell you off for walking on that ankle. Especially after all that cardio you just got in. However, these circumstances are anything but normal. While I work on Van, can you work on Taissa?" Misty asks. I'm about to say yes when I hesitate. "Actually, can you work on Taissa and I finish up on Van?" I ask. She nods. 

"Sure." She replies. She walks over to Taissa and begins inspecting her wounds. The door opens and a figure walks in. "Has Andi woken-" Shauna begins, talking to Misty. Shauna turns in my direction and when she sees me, her eyes go from worried to pissed. What's going on now? She storms over to me and grabs my arm. She walks outside and I struggle to keep up with my ankle in tatters. 

"What the hell, Shauna?" I ask, confused and a little pissed. "Why the fuck are you in there working, Andi!? You just got back twenty minutes and passed out! What the hell is wrong with you?" Shauna asks. The sky rumbles and it's only then do I realize it's raining. Despite the rain, I can see a tear fall down Shauna's cheek. "Those people in there need medical attention, Shauna. Did you even see Van or Taissa?" I argue. She clenches her fists. 

"Yeah, I saw them! I also saw Misty, who is helping them! You are as much a patient as any of them!" She tells me. She storms off into the woods. I stand there for a few minutes. Fuck her. Seriously, I get that she is worried, but I have to help those people. She just doesn't get it. I turn and am about to walk inside the cabin when something clicks on my head. The woods. She walked off into the woods. The wolves! I ignore the pain and take off running into the woods. All of a sudden, I hear a howl.