F*** Cancer, This One Did Us All In.

33. I should probably start naming these chapters

  Eric was right.

  He was so right.

  We should have split up, should have gone our own way. But we were scared. I was scared. I didn't want to leave Amelia and Mfundo. I didn't want to be by myself. However, I should have been. That way - that way nobody would have died. That way -

  I don't know what to tell you. There was an explosion from the kitchen. Heat and fire splashed against my back. Concussive force was enough to make my ears bleed and cause my head to crack against the floor.

  I don't really remember much else.

  I was conscious, I knew that much. I could move, even if it was slow and sluggish. I remember blood. I was bleeding  . . . Everywhere. Pain flared all across me as I remember trying to move. Trying to run and make sense of the situation.

  I don't remember how I got out. I'm pretty sure Lucius helped, because I remembered collapsing into his arms as I stumbled out of the hospital. I remember looking back, to see everybody else also running out. The hospital was on fire.

  Wait.

  The hospital was on fire.

  Oh my god. Amelia! Mfundo!

  I tried to move, turn back and run into the hospital, but Lucius had a tight grip on me and I was too weak to resist. My head was pounding, a goddamn marching band going off in it, accompanied with a sreeching whine the sliced down my back and vibrated my skull.

  Pain was a constant reminder on me, that blurred my vision and clouded my headed. I was certain I saw other people come stumbling out, those who were gasping and smoking and burning.

  I remember falling onto the ground, the pain a massive explosion in my head that made me cry, and bleed, and grunt, and I just wanted to lay there. Lay down, and do nothing and think about nothing and be nothing.

  But there were hands, hands that grabbed me and pulled me. People speaking but I couldn't even hear them, I was only half conscious, half aware of what was going on as I was dragged to the bakkie. The bakkie that stood there, perfectly fine, perfectly normal, as if the entire world wasn't crumbling around it.

  I think I got into the bakkie, people shoved me in and laid me down on the back seats. I had no idea why, though. Everything was happening too fast while nothing moved, colours blurred and shapes solidified. The world turned on its head and made no sense, made only pain, and I had the vague sense that somebody was screaming but I was so far, too far and

× × ×

  The bakkie was moving. It was bouncing, and heaving, and lugging around and I had no idea why. I had no idea of anything, actually. Just my headache. It was hideous and throbbing painfully, consuming my mind with its fire.  I didn't want to move, didn't want to aggravate it, so I stayed still. I stayed silent and said nothing and looked at the roof of the bakkie, not even realising my tears till they touched my ears.

  I let out a gasp as a pulse from my headache brought pain crashing in me. I heard ruffling in front of me, just barely, more of a far away sound, and I turned to see Sierra looking back at me.

  She didn't smile, didn't brighten up her face, but instead relaxed it into relief.

  "Oh thank God, Theodore." She said, but only just barely.

  I frowned, realised I was whining as my hands touched hy head, and the bandage that wrapped around it. Shocked, I felt around my head,  feeling the bandage that wrapped around me. I looked at my arms, which had also been bandaged and coughed, just a little, but my headache raged on.