Survival of the Unfit

Chapter 42

Levi

Casey's eyes shined with tears, and her voice was weak and fragile. "Levi."

"Cut it," I snapped, feeling my anger boil, but focused on keeping it suppressed. "Cut the shit, Casey."

"Levi," she said again, wiping under her eyes and fully facing me. "Levi, it's not what-"

"Shut up!" I yelled, grip so tight on my knives, my hands shook. "Shut your goddamn mouth!"

"Levi!" she begged, tears mixing with the blood streaked across her face. "I, I need help, please, I don't know what I've done, I..." she looked around, and then down at her own hands. "What have I done?" she whispered to herself.

I put the switchblade back in my pocket and turned away from, bracing myself for the sight of April. Nothing could really prepare me for what I saw though.

I knelt down beside her and started to staunch wounds, but there were lacerations everywhere and I had no ice for the bruises on her face, and no towels to wipe the blood off either. "April, April, you're here right," I said, fishing around in her pocket for the first aid supplies. "April c'mon. Answer me."

She moaned in response, eyes still closed. I found gauze and pressed it to the cuts on her hands, on her arm, on her face. I mopped up the blood from under her nose, and the strange cuts on her neck. "No, no," she moaned again. "Not you."

"Yes me," I said, rolling her on her back and checked her abdomen for any puncture wounds, her legs, her shoulders for any gunshots, but nothing. Just had the shit beaten out of her, so it looked like. Jesus Christ.

Her mint eyes opened slowly, sadly. "Why did you come?" she asked sniffing, almost crying, but probably too beat up to. "Why did you come here?" she asked again. Her whole body was shaking.

I bit my bottom lip and continued tending to her wounds, glancing behind me to make sure Casey was still preoccupied in her charade of a breakdown. I looked back to April and her beat up face, and my heart seemed to crack right down the middle. "Because we do this together."

Tears fell down her face and she shook her head. "You can't. She'll kill you, Levi."

"She won't kill me," I said, wrapping gauze around her obviously twisted wrist. She gasped in pain and I apologized profusely, just trying to get her fixed up as best as possible. "She can't."

I picked her up in my arms and carried her into the soft grass at the beach's edge, laying her down gently. Her fragile, shaking hands grabbed my arms, and her watery mint eyes locked onto mine. "Please don't."

"I have to," I told her, squeezing her good hand lightly. I could see the simplistic beauty under all the pain and sweat and blood, it was still very apparent. Nothing could cover it up, and nothing would, and my mind was just going blank. "We fight together."

"This isn't together," she said, shaking her head.

I pulled her jacket a little tighter around her, messed with the hem of my shirt she was wearing. "You've done your part, Swanson. I can't let you get hurt anymore."

"You c-can't-"

"I have to try," I told her, taking her hand and giving it another squeeze. "I have to try for the ones I love." I let go and pulled the collar of my leather jacket, trying to give her the most genuine smile I could muster. One not laced with scary determination or fear, just, just normal. A normal smile. "Because that's all that's worth fighting for, Swanson."

I stood and she closed her eyes, curling up. A few tears leaked out and fell down the side of her face. I wanted to stay. I wanted to just kneel back down and hold her until she felt better, but I had a battle to fight. She didn't say anything and it was killing me to stand and watch her cry at my feet, it was killing me to slowly turn away and face Casey, but I wasn't dying. Emotional pain, I could take. I had to take it, if I had any inkling of being strong enough to beat Casey. She had really done damage on April, and April doesn't go down easy.