World Without Souls

Chapter 7: Kevin

Ivory's hair is a spread out fan around her pale face streaked with blood, her eyes glued shut. Kara and I desperately try to find a wound on her other than the cuts and scratches, bruises and blood. In our first aid kit there are several long bandages that we hover above her, trying to find the source of why she is passed out.
Suddenly she opens her eyes and screams a chilling scream, fists clenched into balls and teeth biting down on her lips, so hard it makes little droplets of red fall out and dribble down her chin.
"Where? Where is it?" Kara shouts at Ivory, hands on each side of her head trying to get Ivory to look at her. Ivory shakes, her body thumping against the cold ground.
"He shot me..." She whispers, staring off into the distance with a glazed look. Her brown eyes are clouded over, yet filled with the sharp, strong feeling of pain. "Charles." She gasps his name as if running out of air, with heartbreak clear in her voice, and finally tears start streaming down her cheeks, fat and wobbly, shining in the morning sun. I want to ask her who he is but I know we have more pressing issues at hand.
"Where did he shoot you?" Kara asks, using her mum voice.
"Here." She whispers, pointing to her inner thigh. Suddenly she screams again and her eyes roll back into her head, replaced with whiteness. I stand there shell shocked, unable to process what just happened. My feet seemed glue to the ground, face white as a sheet of paper. Kara' head shoots up and glares at me.
"Damn it Kevin, get me the fucking tweezers and bandage!" She screams at me. Somehow through all of this she has managed to keep a clear head, still she looks on the verge on a panic attack.
I look around for the first aid kit, trying to shake myself out of the scared feeling that is overtaking me. Seeing it a couple meters away from where I stand, I scramble over to it, falling onto my knees letting the dirt coat them and sharp stones dig in, drawing blood. There's too much blood, it follows us around like a menacing shadow on a hot summers day.
I look up and see Trent standing a few feet away, back turned staring at the rising sun. I feel mesmerised by the sight of the sky for a few moments until reality comes crashing in.

Rushing over to where Kara leans over Ivory's limp body, nearly throwing the first aid kit in her open arms. Using the tweezers, she pulls the bullet out of the wound and washes it with disinfectant. Using a long bandage, so white it looks abnormal, she wraps it around and around her thigh until we can't see anything left of the gaping, dark red hole in her flesh.
She lies on her back, bruised eyes shut and mouth open in an o, her hair messy in it's ponytail with wispy hairs astray and tears drying on her cheeks. Occasionally another escapes from her red, puffy eyes and she moans in pain, and something else too.
"I don't know what else to do.." Kara says shakily, eyes widening in fright. I shake my head and look back at Trent, still looking at the sunrise. Kara and I exchange looks. Trent looks kind of peaceful, standing there looking up at the sky, a black silhouette against a whirlwind of colours. After a few minutes, Kara breaks the silence.
"Help me lean her against the tree." She says, and after a moment, I follow her to where she struggles with Ivory's limp body. She hugs her arms around her chest while I grab her legs, and together we struggle her over to a tree and lean her against it carefully, her head rolling. We place her hands, dried blood and broken nails, in her lap and get a blanket from a bag and wrap it around her. She shivers uncontrollably, goosebumps standing out on her now pale skin, white as a sheet.
We sigh and lay down on the soft grass, looking up at the now blue and white sky. Eventually, Trent comes and joins us.
"Is she okay?" He asks calmly, but in a faraway voice, as if asking to be polite but he is only here physically. His mind is on another planet.
"I don't know." Kara asks, and the stress in her voice is evident. Her voice cracks with hopelessness, I feel the grass moving with the quake of her shoulders as she silently cries into her hands.
"Who do you think Charles is?" I wonder, half to myself. This guy obviously means something to Ivory, and if he shot her... He's a threat to all of us.
Silence greets my question, and I don't think there could be any better answer. We are all as clueless as the next. We have no idea what to do.
A realisation strikes me. This can't be good. If an infected came along, we would be defenceless. We could stay and try to fight, but Ivory is the best shooter, we only learnt yesterday. If we left, Ivory would certainly die. We could carry her, but we'd be too slow...
Yesterday. All of this happened yesterday, but it feels like a million years ago that I was sitting in the morning watching the T.V, sipping on my hot chocolate, the scent floating through the room like a fog. It was only yesterday that we were attacked by Infected, only yesterday our lives were changed for the worse. And I know, right here right now, I'd give anything to go back in time and hug my brothers when they got up in the morning, kiss my mother on the cheek as she hands me a cup of chai tea, laugh with my dad until we had tears in our eyes and our stomachs hurt.. I'd do anything to have my life back again.