Blackout • NH

Chapter 49

We ride through the forest at full speed. Jumping over fallen trees and debris.

My heart is pacing rapidly and my hands are shaking. I'm honestly terrified on what I am about to see. I hope Niall is still alive. Please let Niall be alive.

We come up towards the camp, or what used to be the camp. I see Louis and Liam being tended by Marion, blood stained the tan forest sand from where the tower once was. I look over and see Ellen kneeling near an unresponsive body. Niall.

I jumped off the horse without even pulling it to a halt and let it continue trotting away. Gemma jumps off and chases to retrieve the horse. I ran towards Ellen when a pair of arms grabs me by the shoulders, stopping my sprint. Harry.

"Let me go!" I screamed and shouted. I thrashed and pulled trying to break free.

"Jodie." Harry says in a calm voice.

"No!" I scream, still pulling and tugging. Tears began to form in my eyes as I watch Ellen cover Niall's entire body with a blanket and sit back staring at the ground. Tears in her eyes. She gets up and sees me, shocked.

"Niall!" I scream, tears breaking from my eyes and running down my face. I continue thrashing in Harry's arms when I become pissed off and elbow Harry in the stomach, jam my heel onto his toes and grab his arm and bend it backwards until I hear him squeal in pain and then let go of me.

I take off running again and make my way to Niall. I fling my backpack off and plop down next to him and I slowly uncover his face from the blanket. I gasp at what I see.

His face had so many cuts and gashes. Blood was painted onto his extremely pale skin. His whole face was sunk in, almost like he hasn't eaten in weeks.

I begin to uncover the rest of his and body and screamed at what I saw. A large piece of wood was impaled through his torso. His body looked so mangled. His clothes were shredded to pieces and there was blood everywhere.

I quickly unzip my backpack and dig around in it until I find my knife. I begin to cut all of his clothes off. Cuts, gashes and bruises were painted all over his body. This person didn't even look like Niall. I quickly grabbed a military first aid kit from my backpack and started sorting through its contents.

Tears began to roll down my face more and more now. I fully broke down crying. But I continued to grab ointment, gauze and medial wrap to try to help Niall.

"Don't leave me Niall. Please don't leave me. Be strong for me. Be strong for our baby. Please." I cry.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around. It's Marion. She doesn't say anything but she sits next to me and begins to clean the blood up from Niall using a towel and some bottled water.

I put my hand up to his neck to check for a pulse. It's faint but he's still alive. That's all that matters.

I hand Marion the ointment so she can put it on the cuts. I begin to grab a suture kit from the side pocket of my backpack and a lighter. I pull out a needle and medical thread and use the lighter to burn the end of the needle to sterilize it and tie the thread to it.

Ellen comes and sits on the other side of Niall, leaving harry to tend to Louis and Liam who are pretty hurt as well. She had a huge gash on her face but she wasn't too worried about that.

Ellen asks for a needle, thread and the lighter and I hand them to her. Our father taught us how to put stitches into a wound when we were younger. We questioned why at the time but I'm glad we learned.

I begin to clean and stitch up any wound that could be more susceptible to getting severely infected. Ellen working on the other side.

After I finish cleaning and fixing a few gashes I look at the wooden plank that's ripped through his skin. Pondering what to do next. Tears still running down my cheeks.

If I remove it he could bleed out and die since he's lost so much blood already. If I don't remove it he can get a bad infection and die. It was a dead end. But I had to do something. If I were to pull it out and stitch it up as fast as I could, maybe he'd have a chance of survival. But his intestines are impacted too and I don't know how to fix that since I'm not a doctor.

"Jodie." I hear a voice break me from my thoughts and I look around.

"What?" I ask.

"Huh?" Ellen says.

"Did one of you say my name?"

"No, we've been quiet since you've gotten here." Ellen replies, still tending to Niall.

I shake the thought and continue to think about what to do with the plank. When I'm shaken from my thoughts again.

"Jodie." I then feel a hand on my shoulder.

I look around again, nobody is there besides Ellen and Marion. I am a little freaked out now. But I remain brave and bold, not wanting the others to fear.

"Jodie. What is one thing you value in life that isn't someone you love?" The voice asks. I know who it is.

Flight. I sit there in silence and think about it. Not wanting to talk aloud I respond back mentally.

"There's a lot of things I value." I say in my head.

"There's one thing you hold at this moment that can save him. It's not you but the earth itself." Flight responds.

I sit there and continue to ponder. Trying to figure out what that is.

Suddenly, a light shines into my eyes and I look up at what is blinding me. I gasp at what I see.

Niall's half of the geode lays a couple feet away and it's glowing. Wait. The geode.

I get up and stumble my way to it and pick it up and head back to my back pack. I dig out my half and see that it's glowing as well.

Ellen and Marion stop what they're doing and stare in awe.

"For many years, it's been believed that geodes and crystals held different forms of healing powers." I say.

"The voice I heard was Flight. He led me to the crystal."

Suddenly, I felt like I knew exactly what I had to do.