Until The End // Phan

Chapter 6

*Phil's Pov*

I heard a loud crash but I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes. My body twitched, yet I still remained in place. I could feel Dan tugging fiercely at my arm. That's when I finally forced myself to sit up.

"Stay back!" I heard a man's voice yell behind me. I turned around to see a normal sized guy with tattoos covering his arms. He was wearing a blood stained, white tank top and baggy blue jeans. He was holding a fairly large pocket knife, and was waving it in mine and Dan's direction, his hands shaking.

Without a response from neither of us, he ran into the kitchen. Dan and I sat there, speechless. I wasn't sure if I was really awake or just dreaming. Dan grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. Before I could squeeze it back, I could hear the quiet creaks of the stairs and saw Alex coming down. As she got lower and lower down the steps, I could see that she had a gun in her hands, her finger resting gently on the trigger. I heard the sound of wooden cabinets slamming and aluminum cans clanking against each other and the granite counter top. Alex reached the bottom of the stairs now, and she started to make her way into the kitchen. She began to raise her gun. Every step she took got quicker and quicker, my heart beats doing the same.

Dan's grip loosened as he stood up, slowly dragging me up with him. Alex was out of view now. I started to breathe faster in panic, each agonizing second feeling longer and longer. We heard a loud clanking noise, the sound of a bunch of cans hitting the floor. Suddenly, the man came running into the livingroom, his pocket knife dripping with blood. He ran out the front door, not even glimpsing at Dan and I.

We stood still as we heard a car speed away outside. Then, it hit us. Dan sprinted into the kitchen and I followed.

"Alex!" He yelled as he bent down over her, blood gushing out of a single wound in her abdomin. I could feel my hands shaking as I reached out to touch Dan's shoulder. I tried to say something, but my throat was tight.

"I- I couldn't do it" Alex choked out. "I tried, but I just couldn't pull the trigger." Dan leaned closer to her, whispering to keep things calm. "It's ok, it's alright-"

"I froze" Alex interrupted Dan's comfort. She began crying. I don't think she was crying out of pain though, as she seemed like a pretty tough person. I think she was crying because she felt weak, because she couldn't kill the man. I don't blame her, really. I can't even slap Dan if he asks me to. How could I kill someone? How could I end someone's life, just like that? I hope I won't ever have to. However, in this world, hope doesn't really mean anything.

"Phil!" Dan yelled at me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "W-what?" My throat finally allowed me to speak. "Towels? Bandages? Bathroom? Please!" He spoke quick, his eyes misty. I'm suprised he didn't shut down like he did in the city. It's probably because this time, it's a matter of life and death. Not for him, but for someone he could save- and he was going to save them.

I ran out of the kitchen and darted up the stairs, trying not to trip like I always do. I hadn't been upstairs yet, so I didn't know where the bathroom was. I opened the first door to my right and luckily, it was it. Rumaging through the cabinets, I grabbed anything that I thought might help. I had no idea what to do in this kind of situation. What if I mess things up somehow? What if something happens to her, and it's my fault?

I can't think like that. I have to focus on helping her. I grabbed an ace bandage and a towel and some other things I thought would be useful that I didn't quite recognize. I darted out of the bathroom and down the stairs, trying not to drop anything in my possession.

"Phil!" Dan called to me as I reached the bottom of the steps. "She passed out." Dan put his two fingers on her wrist, feeling for a pulse. "How do you do this?" He asked me, not looking up from Alex. Before I could tell him that I didn't know, Alex coughed, a small amount of blood trickling from her mouth. "Come on!" Dan almost yelled at me, grabbing the supplies I was still holding.

I almost vomited at the sight of all the blood. I wanted to help Dan, to save Alex. However, at this moment, I proved to be useless. I ran to the other side of the kitchen, unlocking and sliding open the glass door to the back porch. I had to get outside before I puked all over the scene, leaving even more of a mess for Dan to clean up.

I slammed the door behind me and made my way to the porch steps. I sat down slowly, listening to the birds chirping and the faint sound of the lake washing up against the dock in the near distance. Now that I was in the peace of the outdoors, my mind was clear for thoughts to flood through it.

How am I supposed to protect Dan, to protect us, if I can't even be near this poor woman as she bleeds to death on the floor? How am I going to live in a world where this is happening around every corner? It's only the beginning of this new life, and something unspeakably horrible already happened right in front of us.

I tried to push the thoughts from my mind, but it only left worse thoughts. My family. My parents. Martyn. What's happened to them? I haven't even thought about them since this started. How could I forget my family?

I stood up from the front steps, turning around to head back into the house. As I opened the door, Dan spoke to me as if I hadn't left. "She needs stitches, Phil. She can't go without them. She won't make it." I closed the door behind me and locked it. Dan cleaned off his hand with the towel and put it out for me to take it. I intertwined our fingers and sat down on the floor next to him, resting my head on his shoulder. "She may have internal bleeding, but I don't know how you can tell that kind of stuff."

I looked down to see that Dan had cleaned the blood off of Alex and put towels on the wound. I hadn't noticed before that he was holding down the towels to slow the bleeding. "What are we going to do?" I picked my head up to face Dan as I spoke to him. "It's not like we can call an ambulance or take her to hospital. The phones probably don't even work anymore." As I said that last sentence, my heart sank- I thought of my family again. Without responding, Dan wiped a tear from my cheek and pulled me in for a half hug, his other hand still holding the towels on Alex. I didn't even realize that I had started to cry.