Alternate (Phan)

33*Good things from bad

Phil

As soon as I realised I was on the street where Dan was, I ran. The sudden weight of the backpack on my back and my body on my feet was lifted, turning into nothing but a mere concept of gravity.

'Dan!' I shouted, shoving the bag onto the floor next to him, kneeling beside his out-stretched legs. He smiled, holding my hand in his. I could tell by his face and movements that he was in pain, which quickly reminded me of why I brought a bag back. I reached to my side, unzipping the contents and spread it out across the floor. I sighed, looking pitifully up at Dan, then towards his leg, 'I'm sorry if I hurt you Dan-'

'Phil, it's fine, just ignore me.' he interrupted, to which I nodded in reply.

'If it's too much-'

'Just do it.' I nodded again, biting my lip as I made my first decision. I thought it best just to cut the fabric from the side of his shin straight off, I could see if it was salvageable and not glued to his wound with dry blood, but that only had the risk of hurting him more. I took the pair of scissors, cutting around his calf until the leg was completely separated from the rest of his trouser.

'Breath in.' I muttered, briskly peeling the material off of his wound. I heard him clench, letting out a sharp breath. It was then that I truly saw the wound. It was deep. There was skin consumed by the creature, but in some form of luck, it was mostly still there, 'Grab my shoulder.' I turned to him, commanding him to do so. He scrunched his eyebrows at me in slight confusion, preparing his other hand against the base of the wall that his back pressed against to support him. I lifted a chunk of his leg upwards.

'Fuck!' he shouted, a tension added to his voice. I instantly felt a tightened weight against my shoulder as he clenched it to control the pain. I brushed the small amount of dirt away from underneath, using tweezers to pick out a tooth that lied between the layers of muscle. I allowed the part of his leg to return to its place, much to the relief of both Dan and I.

'You alright?' I asked as he returned his hand from my shoulder to his thigh. His chest was rising up and down quickly and visibly, recovering from the sudden excruciating amount of pain.

'Yeah...' he breathed, continuing to control his breaths. I waited until he opened his eyes, nodding at me to continue as his expression remained emotionless. I used a wipe to clean away the blood, then an anti-bacterial wipe to cleanse the surrounding area and on top of the wound, both of which were painless. I took out a needle, placing the stitching thread in its eye. I hooped through the separated parts of his leg, pulling the needle out through the other end and tying the stitch, snipping the end before I repeated this around the entire wound, taking care to re-attach the muscle.

'Finished stitching.' I sighed. He chuckled, most likely from disbelief as he look at my masterpiece. He then smiled, re-adjusting himself in his sitting position, making sure his leg moved as little as possible. I took out a sticky dressing that was large enough to cover the damaged area, peeling off the protective coating and placing it over his wound. I then wrapped a bandage securely - but not too tightly - around his calf, tucking the end in. I wasn't confident it would stay, but I was most likely being overprotective. In any case, I applied a liquid plaster over his bandage to seal it all together.

'Thank God, done?' he sighed. I nodded.

'All done.' I kissed his forehead, before returning to the floor, 'But is your ankle still hurting from the fall?' his face fell from relief and slight happiness to dread and are you actually fucking kidding me you bastard?

I squeezed the top of it, earning a wince of pain from his mouth.

'Tell me what position it hurts least in.' I spoke to him, he nodded in reply. We eventually found the position, where it was almost fully ninety degrees upwards, but slightly less and more relaxed. I kept it there, wrapping it in a bandage before going over the material with a sticky bandage and plaster, making sure he wouldn't move that thing.

I sat by his side, his head fell onto my shoulder as he made as much of an attempt of cuddling up to me as physically possible for himself in that moment.

'Give it a couple of hours before we get going, we don't need to rush.' I whispered to him, stroking his hair as I did so.

'Okay.' he whispered back.

***

After a while, I stood up and then crouched back down again. I took Dan with my arm, lifting him from underneath his left shoulder and back. He slowly hopped up, using the wall as a support to stand upright.

'Hold onto the wall while I put the backpack back on.' he nodded, breathing to control the sudden onset of pain again. Once everything was back on me, I returned to him, with my arm around his back and Ev in my left arm.

'Okay.' he spoke confidently, pushing himself forwards with his good leg to support his damaged one. I looked at him to confirm that movement was alright, to which he nodded, so we continued.

It took ten minutes to reach the end of the road, but after that, we picked up the pace and moved on at the speed of if we were pottering down the street.

Another hour later, darkness began spreading itself as a dark shade of brown across the red sky. The temperature of the wind dropped to a cold breeze, sending shivers along one's arms. I noticed Dan shiver, to which I giggled slightly.

'What?' he whined at my laugh.

'Nothing, do you want my coat?' it was his turn to chuckle as he shook his head, sighing into the distance.

'You gonna do one of those cliché moments on me, now?' he asked, turning back to  me and smiling.

'I didn't mean it like that! It's not a bad thing, anyway, it's cliché for a reason. You just shivered and I've got double the amount of layers than you. I'm cold for God's sake!' he sighed.

'Fine, Phil. I'll have your coat.' he sighed, again.

'My coat of arms more like!' I grinned, pulling my arms up as if to be showing my muscles, which were impossible to view under the sheets of clothing, which Dan was so reluctant to take one of. I peeled one off, helping it over his torso, to make sure he didn't fall over.

'Thanks Phil.' he whispered, briefly placing his head on my shoulder before we continued off.

'You love cliché anyway.' I smirked, nudging him carefully with my elbow in his side.

'I do love cliché you spoon. However, me limping with my leg literally falling apart is not very cliché.'

'You called it.'

'Touché.' he smiled.

'I love you Dan.'

'Yes Phil.' he sighed jokingly, as if dealing with a child. I pouted, furrowing my eyebrows at him, 'Fine, I love you too, bastard.'

'Hey!' I complained as we continued walking towards our new camp.

Our new home.