(UNDER A REWRITE) THEY KNOW FEAR AGAIN.
There's the smell of something burning and setting her lungs ablaze, the taste of sea salt, and the cold water splashing against her skin. Drowning into the blue sea. It overwhelmed and swallowed her whole and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
___________
CHAPTER SEVEN, left myself behind
SHE wanted to stay.
Watching the life slip out of Zoro's hands and his breath becoming shallower, Jie watched as death floated in front of her face once again. And she couldn't do anything about it but watch. In a blink of an eye, the strong swordsman grew weaker as his skin turned pale with a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Blood seeped out of his shirt, trickling onto the ground beneath him. The image of him burned into her mind.
"He's losing so much blood..." She mumbled.
Jie decided that she wouldn't leave.
"Come on guys, we have to help him as soon as possible!" Nami exclaimed, snapping out of her distressed state. Propping up one of his legs, she motioned the other two boys to pick up the rest of Zoro's heavy body. Their minds were filled with nothing but panic. All of his muscle made it much more difficult to carry him. "Jie, can you lift his other leg?"
Nodding, she held up Zoro's leg with a grunt and followed the crew inside their ship. Instead of feeling the warmth of someone's skin beneath her touch, the feeling of coldness met her fingertips. It made her shiver.
Please live.
"Easy, easy, be careful with him!" Nami warned.
"Sorry! His head is so big," Usopp said as he placed Zoro on the table. "Like freakishly big."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Nami groaned.
Out of the entire group, the loudest one became the quietest. With his eyes glazed over in a daze, Luffy couldn't peel his eyes away from the swordsman in front of him. His serious expression and silence was getting to everyone else too. Not even he could say something reassuring. Or something so stupid that it'd make them laugh.
"Zoro...? You'll be okay, right?" Luffy said softly.
Usopp left the table to search their cabinets, going up and down the room to see if they had anything that could be used as medical supplies. As strong pirates, they'd never thought about first aid kits or anything like that. Nami pulled the collar of his shirt away, revealing a broad chest with a terrible wound. Mihawk hadn't killed him, yet done enough damage to keep him just barely alive. Zoro needed to wish for his life.
"These are all I can find. Where's he bleeding from?"
Usopp asked as he gathered all of the supplies he could possibly use for first aid, dumping them on the table. Searching through the pile of items, Jie sorted through towels, papers and vials of random liquids. None of this would be enough. Not enough to save someone from bleeding out.
