Survival

•Twelve•

^The warehouse^

She laid on her side and wrapped her arms around small body, shivering slightly, "What's gonna h-happen to me now?" She asked in between the chattering of her teeth.

"You can rest here until you recover enough to get somewhere else, unless you wanna come with me to my work place." Arlo sat heavily down on the ground, wincing as pain shot up through his wrist.

Carren sat up slowly as she considered his words, "M-maybe could I c-come with you?" She leaned farther forward and a small cry escaped her lips. Grasping her left foot, she gripped it, tears beginning to fall from her tired eyes. Arlo crawled over to her on his knees, and inspected her wounds. He walked out to the car, and opened the trunk for his first-aid kit. Arlo closed the trunk and walked back into the house with the kit.

He rummaged around in his kit until it hit him that her foot should be the first thing to take care of. "Can I see your foot?"

She eyed him for a moment, trying to decide if he could be trusted. Then, she moved it over to him, biting her lip the whole to time to keep from crying out. Arlo made sure not to touch the foot to hard. As gently as he could, he rotated the foot slightly to each side. "If you do come with me, you shouldn't tell them that you're the niece of," he hesitated, then his shoulders slumped, "my assignment." While he was talking, he quickly twisted the dislocated foot back into place. As much as Arlo was trying to help by distracting her, it didn't do much. She cried out loudly, but once it was done, it instantly felt better. She breathed deeply and gingerly touched her foot.

Looking up at Arlo, she said, "T-thank you...I guess. And...don't worry. I won't tell anyone that I am related to Gerett."

Satisfied that he had done all he could to help her, Arlo pulled a tweezers and cloth from the kit. He then put the cloth in between his teeth, lifted his wrist, and rested it on his knee. Using the tweezers, Arlo carefully pulled the bullet out slowly, gritting his teeth on the cloth. After the bullet was out, he dropped it and the tweezer to one side, and used the cloth that had been in his mouth to staunch the bleeding. He leaned his head back against the wall and took several deep breaths.

Carren looked at him sympathetically, "Do you want some help?"

"In a minute." Arlo hit his head against the wall, barely containing the scream that wanted to come out.

After a few minutes when he had his pain under control, Arlo glanced at Carren. "I think I'm ready if you could take the bullet out of my right shoulder," he asked heavily. She took a deep before nodding. Carefully, after grabbing the tweezers, she placed her right hand on his shoulder. Holding it steady she dug the tweezers into the small hole, feeling around for the bullet. Arlo gritted his teeth in pain, barely managing to keep the cries of pain out. Carren glanced at his face before going back to her work. After much effort, she managed to find the leftover bullet and picked it out. Then, she sat back on her heels, breathing heavily.

Arlo breathed heavily. "Thanks," he managed to say, still gritting his teeth. Carren didn't answer and just grabbed some gauze from his kit that she had noticed. She pressed it to the hole that was now bleeding heavier and held it there. He nodded and leaned back against the wall. She sent him a faint smile and kept applying pressure. Every few minutes, she pulled the gauze off to see if the bleeding had stopped, even though for the first three times it was still bleeding heavily. After the fourth time, the gauze was completely soaked and Carren rummaged through the first aid kit for more.

When she came up empty handed, she tore off a piece of her shirt and used that instead. She fastened it so it would stay without her holding it and stepped back, her body completely exhausted.

They both fell asleep soon after and slept fitfully the rest of the evening.