camp || hemmings au

seventeen

"Oh, my God."

We all snapped our heads in the direction of Luke's voice, our eyes wide as we stared.

"Luke!" Ashton called, trying to get him to speak again so that we could be sure of exactly where he was. I wasn't sure that I actually wanted to see what made Luke say those words though.

There was no response from Luke so Ashton began to walk toward where his voice had come from. Elizabeth and I followed behind him hesitantly, I guess Elizabeth didn't want to find out what Luke's words meant either.

We walked in silence for a few seconds before Elizabeth pointed Luke out.

"There he is." She said quietly, as if she was too scared to mention him. Luke was standing there motionless, his white shirt and dark jeans visible from where we were standing. I could see We all walked over to him slowly, all of our hearts pounding in our chest. Well, I know mine was so I figured Ashton and Elizabeth's were too.

"Luke, is everything..." Ashton reached his hand out to touch Luke's shoulder, but as Ashton caught a glimpse of what was in front of Luke, his sentence trailed off and he dropped his hand. Elizabeth and I couldn't see what the boys saw, we stayed a few feet behind, Luke blocking our view.

"Oh my God." Ashton repeated Luke's words and I cringed, thinking of what might be in front of them.

The boy was dead. Oh Jesus, he's dead.

Ashton stepped forward quickly and beant down, disappearing almost completely from mine and Elizabeth's view.

"Luke, go get help!" Ashton shouted, his voice cracking slightly. Luke took a few steps back, but made no effort to officially leave.

"Luke, now!" Ashton shouted again, and this time Luke turned around and ran past us quickly, almost as if he was in a daze.

And Elizabeth and I finally saw what the fuss was over.

Bradley was lying on his back by the rock, his right leg twisted in an unappealing way. His eyes were closed, his brown hair stuck to his forehead from sweat.

"Is he dead?" Elizabeth gasped, her face slowly turning pale.

"No, he's just unconscious," Ashton shook his head, brushing Bradley's hair from his forehead. "He probably passed out from the pain, but he's gonna be alright."

I took a couple of steps forward toward Bradley and Ashton, suddenly becoming suspicious. I felt Elizabeth following me, probably becoming curious herself. The minute I was right beside Bradley and Ashton, I regretted walking over. Bradley's bone in his leg was bulging in the skin. I could see from afar that his leg was messed up, but I didn't think it was that bad.

I closed my eyes and drew in a sharp breath. Elizabeth clasped her hand over mouth and grabbed my hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

Ashton looked up at us and nodded, seeing our facial expressions, "Yeah, his leg is pretty messed up."

"I-I just," Elizabeth shook her head and dropped my hand, walking away from the three of us and going to stand by a tree.

Ashton sat down from his squatting position and crossed his legs, watching Bradley as if he was waiting for him to wake up.

The poor kid looked as if he was dead, though I knew he wasn't. His face was pale, just as Elizabeth had been a few minutes before. His orange shirt was dirty and his swimming trunks looked to be still damp from when he and his group were at the lake. I felt bad for him, he had to have been a lot of pain if he fainted from it. I could only imagine how what had happened to him.