The Oblivion

the venom

BRIAN IS NOW immobile.

Face buried in the snow, arms covered with horrible, bleeding blisters, he lay on the ground.

The swarm of wasps had slowly lost power one by one. Every time I looked back there seemed to be less wasps following us, but I was so afeared that I couldn't be sure. Even though the GPS had lost its battery I just ran ahead, too wan to give my companions any notice. I broke the news to them just after every single wasp gave up and determination had ebbed away from their tiny bodies. We had kept running until we were sure the last one gave up the chase and fluttered to the opposite direction. I don't even want to explain the fear of the traumatic event that scarred us all. Thankfully, they were now out of sight, not even a single wasp remaining in the cold air. They were now a heroic story left as history.

Brian's face was hidden in the snow, but his skin twitched with spasms. Brook whipped out her med kit bag, worry and fear implanted on her face.

"We need to get the stinger that is embedded inside him out. Now." Brook gabbled. "Cimber, hand over your knife."

Horrified, I gave her my knife that was fastened around my belt. We all watched Brook examine Brian's painful wounds.

"I'm sorry, Brian. This is going to hurt a little. Actually, real bad."

She slowly edged the tip of the knife into the first sting at the top of Brian's arm. I covered my eyes, wondering what Brook was doing, but we all trusted her. Brook only inserted the tip of the knife, and then resurfaced it. I dared look. My knife was covered in bright red blood, but a small black needle was visible on the pool of red. I realized that she took out the stinger from his arm.

I couldn't help but selfishly wonder if that was how Brook removed the bullet from my shoulder. If the dangerous bullet had sunk too far into my body there was no way Brook could get it out. So that resulted in a shallow injury, thank goodness.

Brian's howl was drowned from the snow that was on his face. He was too weak to lift it up. He released a gurgling sound.

"I'm sorry," Brook repeated, eyes brimming.

"Wasp stings are alkalis," Ariana said to distract her quickly. "I remember learning it on my Monday schools back in Corpsejay. That means you need to treat it with an acid."

She never told me she was schooled, a thing that I always wanted to be. But there was no time to question it.

"Thats right," Brook muttered breathlessly. "But before that, I need to clean the wound. Do we have soap and water?"

"We have sanitizer," Ariana said, bringing out a small tube of watery soap.

Brook applied the sanitizer on the same sting, then she put handfuls of snow coats onto every single injury before returning attentions the medical bag.

"I have an antihistamine. I think its Benadryl," Brook held up a transparent tube with a strange looking medicine inside. To me, Brook was uttering totally nonsense words to me. Before I could ask her where she had learned all this, Ariana spoke.

"Yes. Does it say it's a diphenhydramine on it?" Ariana asked.

She was right. Diphenhydramine was printed on the bottle, only visible to me after several attempts to read it. An acid, obviously. Brook applied some of it onto the wasp sting, making Brian shake.

"Don't worry. That one is over," Brook tried to sooth him.

My mouth fell open as I perceived that she was going to clean all the wounds down his arm.

Brook worked swiftly down his arm, nipping with the knife here and there. Brian stopped moaning, and we all knew that he blacked out from the pain. While he was unconscious, we turned him around to his back after placing a blanket underneath him and over him. His face was blotchy, even though it was numb with icy cold. Dried tears were streaked on his cheeks and his breathing was shallow. When she finished and we had memorized the sound of Brian's pitiful shrieks of pain, Brooks hands were covered with her brothers blood. Without hesitating she reached for the last of bandage we had and wrapped it all around his entire arm like a cast.

We spent the night in that area. We all knew that there was nothing we could do but wait until the medicine kicks into his body. Brook explained that in those cases, a special injection had to be inserted into some if he got stung to save their life.

It was official and obvious. Brian was on the verge of death. One wasp sting was extremely fatal, but eight was death.

Brook took watch, not looking tiered at all. She said she needed the whole night to absorb the shock.

I knew that she was shocked for Brian, but I was even more shocked of what Arch did. Without reluctance he just decided to detach the hive to the ground.

"Why would Arch give us away?" Ariana said aloud, echoing my thoughts.

I shrugged, not in the mood to talk about it. Instead, Ariana did. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"Do we really want him to?" I shot back, and regretted it as soon as it came out. Ariana stared at me with big puppy eyes, and then looked away from our locked gaze.

"I'm sorry," I said, taking a deep breath, "I do want him back despite what he did."

Maybe I was lying to myself.

"Me too. The forest seems so empty without him. Remember how he saved us from that pack of dogs?"

How could I forget? "Of course. Maybe he will come back." But I didn't believe it myself. I don't think I would be able to forgive him after what he did.

We were lost, frightened, and shocked. Without the guidance of Brian and the GPS, we were never going to get to Cliffton. We passed around the last of the cranberries that we had and settled down to sleep. Night fell over us as dark as a shadow, and today no stars were willing to hang in the sky as they usually did. The moon did its job frequently, but it seemed to be on the other side of the world today.