Lost in the Wind

Chapter 8

Noah said that all we could do is to sleep out the storm so we all try. After a while I do dose off , though Chase holds me a bit to tight for my comfort. The storm doesn't stop. I keep on waking up because Chase turns around or fidgets. "Shouldn't we try to find our way back?" He asks, with an edge to his voice. "We would get lost." Noah answers shortly.Chase frowns and leans back again. Ever so often he fidgets or shifts.Suddenly he jumps up. I'm not prepared and my head hits the ground ungently. "I can't stand this any longer! I'm finding my own way back. Follow me!" He starts off with his back pack and I scramble up to follow. "He can't go alone!" I run after him. "Chase, wait!" I feel the sand scouring my face and I cough as I finally make out his silhouette in the storm. He walks determined into a for me random direction. I hurry to keep up as his legs are much longer than mine. I hear the others faintly through the storm, walking behind us. Chase doesn't turn to me nor even look back. He just marches on through the storm. My coughing fits get harder and harder and I can tell that the others aren't doing any better. Still I try to follow Chase though the distance  between us gets bigger and bigger by the minute. "Chase..", I plead coughing ,"please just wait for a minute. I'm not sure we can hold this pace much longer." He doesn't answer, instead he keeps walking with the same pace as before. Suddenly my foot slips into a hole and bends in the wrong direction. I fall to the ground hard as an intense pain runs up my leg. "Ahh!" I cry out in pain. Almost immediately, Keira is by my side. "Chase you idiot! Stop walking this second! Rose is hurt!" Hearing her words, Noah quickly appears and bends down with a worried look on his face. "Oh Rose. Wait a second I'll help you." He slowly edges my ankle out of the hole. Another whimper escapes my lips as it brushes the edge. Pain radiates throughout my foot and leg. "I'm sorry I'm hurting you but you're out of the hole now." I nod weakly trying to ignore the sharp pain. "Why are we stopping?! We need to go on!" I suddenly hear Chase's voice. Noah's face turns hard as he stands up to meet Chase. "Stop this nonsense right now." He almost growls. "You're leading us nowhere. All you did is hurt Rose! We're finding shelter right now. We won't endure out here much longer. Rose needs to rest so I can look at her ankle. You can follow us or go on, but I'm for sure not following you anymore." With that, he turns around and picks me up carefully. He starts carrying me and I'm dimly aware of the others following. "You ok?" He asks, looking ahead. That's starting to be his signature question for me."Yeah, I'm ok.. " We don't talk anymore on account of the sand. Finally we stumble into another little hollow surrounded by bushes. Lucky for us, it's even deeper and bigger than the last one, so the wind just blows overhead instead of into the hollow. Everyone drops to the ground and even Chase looks exhausted, though he pretends not to be. Noah carefully sets me down on the ground and then kneels down immediately to look at my ankle. He doesn't even glance at Jasmin, which somehow makes me feel good. No! Wrong, wrong wrong! I'm not supposed to feel that way! Bad feelings! "Rose?" I look back into Noah's blue eyes. "Does this hurt?" He gently bends my ankle in a direction. I'm very aware of his fingers touching my skin. It hurts quite a bit but I don't want to look like a crybaby."Nope." He bends it in another direction. A small gasp escapes my lips. "No. Not at all." I say trying to make it believable . He smiles a little. "You're a bad liar." I pout at him. "Fine. It hurts a tiny bit."He just shakes his head and gets out some bandages from his backpack.We all have first-aid kits with us. He wraps the cloth tightly around my ankle. "There. I think your ankle is just badly sprained so this should keep it from moving around too much." I look at my bandaged ankle. "Thanks, Noah." He looks into my eyes deeply. "Always a pleasure." I'm lost in his intense gaze when suddenly a voice interrupts us. "Noah!" Its Jasmin. She looks pretty annoyed. Clearly controlling herself she says:"Could I talk to you please?" I can see that she's pretty angry and I think I can guess why. I quickly try to get up. Bad decision. I fall back to the ground with a fresh wave of pain running up my leg. "I'm just gonna help Rose over to Keira. Then we can talk." Jasmins expression darkens even more. "I can walk on my own." I quickly say. "Don't be ridiculous. You can't even stand up." He says in a matter of factly way. And with that he puts an arm around my waist, pulling me up off the ground and he slowly walks me over to Keira and the other girls, well away from Chase, leaving a fuming Jasmin behind. "I think your girlfriend is angry." "She needs to calm down. She's way to possessive." He sounds decently annoyed himself and I keep quiet after that. Suddenly I realize that I'm extremely thirsty. As soon as Noah sets me down, I grab my backpack and get out my water bottle. Eagerly I drink the remaining water. More! But my bottle is already empty. I have more in my backpack but I know that that might be of lifesaving importance later on. Sigh. Suddenly Jasmin storms toward me, tears streaking down her face. I'm afraid but at the same time, I want to comfort her. I hate to see people hurt, be it emotionally or physically. She plumps down next to her twin. Lindsay stops chatting with Enna immediately and pulls Jasmin into a big hug. Wow! So she can be kind and empathetic too?I thought she didn't care about more things than her phone. I look at Jasmin again. What on earth did Noah say to upset her that much?