From Crutchie To Wheels (And a Little Les Trouble)

Where Are They?

It has been 2 days since Wheels and Les went missing. All of the boys are panicking. They've sent out search groups to try and find Wheels and Les, but they all come back empty handed. Davey has been staying at the lodging house the past 2 nights just in case if they came back at night. No one has been able to get him to eat or sleep or even been able talk to him except Jack. He's been sitting on his bed, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth, looking out the window almost nonstop. Everytime he rocks, his bed squeaks and it can be heard throughout the entire lodging house.

Jack walked into the room and came over to sit next to him.

"How ya doin, Davey?" Jack said sympatheticly.

No response. Davey continued to look outside into the pouring rain.

"Look. I know exactly what you're going through right now with Les. Crutch, er, Wheels is like my brother and with him in his condition, he's probably not doing too good wherever he is. If he was on his own right now he'd be dead. No doubt about it. But he's probably with Les. And Les knows what he's doing. He can walk, and he knows his way around Manhatten. They'll get through this. Together. But until they get home, we've got to get through this. Together. They may have a couple dents on them, but they'll make it through."

Davey stopped rocking back and forth and hugged Jack, crying into his shoulder. Jack was a little shocked at first, but then he hugged him back. He was trying to be strong for the rest of the boys, especially Davey, but in this exact moment, Jack broke down crying.

"Where are they, Jack?" Davey muttered between sobs.

"I wish I knew, Davey," Jack whispered back.

A loud crack of thunder and lightning sounded from outside. They both immediately started to cry harder.

The lack of the bed creaking sound got the boys downstairs' attention. A couple of them came up to see Jack and Davey sobbing into each other's shoulders, and decided this was not a good time to talk. After Jack had gotten himself together, he went downstairs to go find some food for Davey. He thought to himself, "If Wheels and Les don't show up soon, Davey is going to drive himself insane."
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Wheels and Les had been handcuffed in the alleyway for 2 days. It had been thunderstorming all day now. The bruises and other injuries that the wall and the Delancys left were now set in.

Even though they were both soaking wet, they smelled disgusting. Their hair was all messy and gross, and their clothes were all ripped up and stained with blood and tears. There was no way to go to the bathroom anywhere, but luckily, no #2's were needed.

Wheels's shoulder was still dislocated. It had turned dark purple and his entire arm was completely numb. He could barely move his fingers. He had expected his cast to be ruined from the rain, but it was still in one piece. He just assumed it was waterproof. His leg was still hurting, but not more than it usually does. His knees were scabbed over and painful to bend. The handcuffs were turning his wrist into a bloody mess. He was sore everywhere.

The gash on Les's forehead had scabbed over, and there was dried blood all over his face. He had a pounding headache that just kept getting worse. His eye was blackened shut and throbbing. He wasn't sure if his ankle was just severely bruised or broken, but he was positive that he wouldn't be walking on it anytime soon. He had deep purple bruises on his stomach. They hurt everytime he breathed and whenever his stomch growled from hunger.

Wheels was used to going long periods of time with little to no food, but Les wasn't. It was a good thing they were gagged because if they weren't, Les would have complained nonstop.

Out of a nervous habit, Wheels had been chewing on the gag almost the whole time. Suddenly, it snapped and fell to the ground. He stared at the cloth in shock before looking over to Les. Les was inaudibly mumbling words frantically. After Wheels had come to terms with what had just happened, he tried to scream for help, only to realize that his voice was gone. He figured that it was from crying so much. Only little whispers could come out, but that was enough to talk to Les.

"Les!" Wheels whispered hoarsly. "Chew on your gag until it snaps. Then you can scream for help."

Les immediately started chewing. About an hour and a half later, his gag snapped. Before calling for help, he turned over to talk to Wheels.

"Wheels?" He asked, sounding very sad and almost sick.

"Yeah, Les? Wait. Woah! You can talk again? Scream for help!"

"I will in a minute. Why do you think no one's found us yet? It's been two days! Don't you think Jack and Davey would be freaking out by now? Looking for us? Where are they, Wheels?"

"I wish I knew, Les. Now call for help. Please. I don't think either of us are going to make it if they don't get here soon."

(Maybe I'm brainless, maybe I'm foreshadowing. Anyone get the wicked quoteish type thing in that? Eh? Nope. Ok.)