Chapter 9: The Beginning of the End

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We woke up again to Adrian's cries for help in the morning. I immediately sat up which caused Felix to wake as well. "Adrian, are you ok? What's happening?"

"My leg. It's burning like crazy." he whined. I looked at Felix who looked as worried as I felt and ran over to where Adrian was. I looked at is injury and flinched. It was clearly raging with infection. I didn't know how it got like this. We had kept it clean. But I guess I wasn't sure about the safety of the water that we swam through. Adrian's face was pale and he looked tired despite the fact that he had slept through the night. "I'm going to die today." he cried.

"No you're not." Felix said, finally by my side again.

"Stop saying that, Felix!" Adrian yelled, suddenly getting angry. "You can say that all you want, but it's not going to change anything. I just didn't think that this is the way that I'd go out." Just then, we all heard a beeping and faced the waterfall. Felix broke off in a sprint to grab the sponsor gift that was floating down from the sky on the other side of the water fall. He dove through the running water and came back with the sponsor in his hands.

"Who's it for?" I asked.

"There were three." Felix said. "One for each of us."

"This is great." Adrian said between pants. His breathing was now permanently labored because of the pain in his leg. I glanced over and saw that his has multiple medical supplies in it. "But I have no idea how to use any of it."

"I do. Don't worry. I'll take care of you, buddy." I said while opening my own sponsor. It had another cream in it that I was sure was for the blisters on my skin from the blazing sun the day before. It also had a needle and thread that I was sure I'd be able to use to stitch Adrian's leg. There was a note tied to the front. Time to forget about Ben, huh? -Ifira I felt my cheeks turn bright red when I realized that she must mean because I kissed Felix last night. I had almost forgot about it because of other crazy circumstances.

"What does yours say?" Felix asked, leaning over my shoulder but I hid it before he could see it. He showed me his which said: Keep up the entertainment.

"Who's it from?" I asked him.

"Probably my mentor."

"Well that's embarrassing." I said, but Felix just shrugged.

"Maybe if you two keep eating each other's faces, we'll keep getting sponsors." Adrian chimed in. Both Felix and I turned to him, stunned. "Do you know how hard it is to sleep when your leg is like this? It's just unfortunate that I can't get one last great romance since I'm the one that's dying and all."

"Can we please stop talking about it?" I said, frustrated. I didn't want to even think about it because I knew the fate of what was happening.

"If it makes you fix my leg faster." Felix glared at Adrian but followed me over to him.

"Wow. We're really spoiled now." I said, pulling out a bottle of a liquid that would numb Adrian's leg while I stitched it. I tried to hold my breath as the smell of blood that was coming from Adrian's leg was really starting to make me feel sick. My hands were shaking and I was worried that I wasn't going to do the best job at this. I was panicking.

"Hey," Felix started, putting a hand on my back. "It's ok. Do you want me to finish?" he asked. Adrian had his eyes closed and turned the other way so hopefully at least he didn't notice how uncomfortable I was.

"You know how?" I asked.

"Yeah. I had to make and fix nets all the time at home. I can do this." he smiled reassuringly and took the needle from my hand. "Go sit down over there and relax, Mila. Everything's going to be ok." I looked at him skeptically but did as he said. If I stayed by Adrian any longer, I was definitely going to throw up or hurt him. I watched the water fall and tried to steady my breathing. I didn't know how many people were left. I had to get away from Felix and Adrian before it was just the three of us left because I could not kill either one of them. I wouldn't. I'd let them kill me. I thought about Ben. Was he still alive? I hadn't bothered to get in the water last night to check who had died at the end of the night. "Should we talk about it?" Felix asked, sitting down next to me once he was done with Adrian's leg. He had given him an antibiotic to take as well as a sleeping pill so he wouldn't have to be quite so aware of his pain. For a second, I had thought that Felix had read my mind.

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