From Crutchie To Wheels (And a Little Les Trouble)

Found

Les had been screaming his head off for an hour now, but the thunder had been drowning him out. His headache was getting worse, and so was his cough. It still pained him to cough, so whenever he coughed, he cried a little bit. Wheels took notice of this.

"Hey, Les. I think you should take a break from screaming. Your voice may go out, and then we'd both be really screwed."

They laughed a little bit until Les started coughing more. Between coughs he was gasping for air.

"Les? Are you alright?" Wheels got really worried.

Les was coughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face.

"Les!" Wheels whispered as loud as he could.

Then Les started coughing up blood. He tried to cough it to the side, but it still got all over him. When he finished, he slumped forward.

"Les? Les! Are you ok? Les! You better not be dying on me!"

Little moans came from Les, as his way of saying he wasn't dead.

Soon after this, they heard footsteps coming down the alley. Wheels wasn't sure if he wanted to try to scream for help or if he should stay silent. Then he heard a familiar voice.

"Race! Race! It's me and Les! Help!"

There was no way that Race had heard him, but the footsteps grew louder until they saw each other. Race ran over to Wheels and Les as fast as he could.

Race took in the sight all at once. The blood. The bruises. Everything.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" Race screamed, unsuccessfully trying to unhandcuff Wheels.

"I'll explain later." Wheels said, wincing. "Just hurry back to the lodge, get some boys, especially Jack and Davey, and get us out of here. Make sure you bring stuff to cut the handcuffs, and hurry. I don't think Les can hold on much longer."

"Ok!" With that, Race ran off to the lodge. He burst through the front doors screaming "I found them! I found them!" The squeaking of the bed upstairs stopped. Davey came bolting downstairs, followed by all of the other Newsies.

"You found Les and Wheels?!" Davey screamed.

"No." Race said sarcastically. "I found the other two people who have been missing. Yes, I found them, Davey."

"Is Les ok?" Davey asked concerned.

Race responded, "I'm not sure. He was slumped forward with fresh blood all over him next to Wheels."

Everyone could practically hear Davey's heart break.

"They're handcuffed to a wall, so we need something to cut it with."

Specs ran over to a box and pulled out some hedge clippers then handed them to Race.

They all bolted out the door, Race, Davey, and Jack in front of the group. Race led them all the way back to where they were. Wheels could hear the rowdy boys coming, so he tried to get Les's attention. Les looked up.

"Earlier when you said you didn't think I wasn't gonna make it, I didn't really know what you meant exactly." Les whispered. "Now I know what you meant. If I don't make it, tell Davey that I love..." Les started having a coughing fit again. This time there was more blood than the last.

The boys arrived just in time to see Les cough up blood one more time, then slumped forward again.

"LES!" Davey screamed as he bolted forward. He grabbed the hedge clippers from Specs and cut Les's hands free. Les fell forward into his own pool of blood. Davey picked up his brother and started sobbing into his shoulder. The boys decided that it would be best to give Davey his time.

Then suddenly, Wheels started twitching out of nowhere. Jack bolted forward and cut the handcuff off of his wrist. Wheels fell into Jack's lap and started to twitch more violently.

"Hurry! We've got to get them to the hospital!" Jack screamed.

Davey carried Les bridal style, and Jack found a long piece of wood to put wheels on. They ripped up a piece of cloth and tied his legs and torso to the board. They rushed to the hospital where Wheels's leg doctor worked.