Alternate (Phan)

42*Months not inches

Dan

'Dan?'

I could say that I was rendered speechless and that I'd given up on hope that he'd come back. I could say I threw my arms round him and cried into his collar bones every last ounce of water my body held. I could say the relief that flooded through my body felt as if my entire chest was ripped out and crushed while still inside me. I could say all of that because they're all true; words can't describe true emotions. Nothing can but the actual emotion itself.

'Hey...' he gently whispered into my ears, his own voice sounding threatened by the tears that welled up inside him. I leant backwards, looking into his eyes as our noses were pressed together and he looked back at me. My chest was heavily drumming back and forth in attempt to breathe. We both had tears in our eyes that neither of us acknowledged through the array of colours that flooded our irises with every emotion we could humanly contain. In all honesty, I don't think you could humanly contain everything I felt in that moment.

I collided my lips with his, wanting nothing more than the confirmation he was breathing. Truly breathing. He hardly could have been with the amount of force I put onto him without allowing either of us to take a breath.

We stayed without movement for ages, purely content with being in the presence of the other, before he spoke up, 'We should go and meet the guys.' there was an edge of disappointment in his voice, almost disheartened with the fact we needed to continue to live our life.

'Phil, I think we should contact them to help us get there.' I tried to sound as relaxed as possible in my voice. I had my body over his, holding him down for him to not suddenly glance downwards. I bit my lip, looking down towards his stomach.

'Why...?' in his voice, you could tell he knew, but not to the full extent. It was as if he wasn't asking 'why', but instead 'how bad is it'.

'It's bad Phil: swollen and purple. I'd say badly broken, I don't know if it's dislocated or anything; I'm bad at medical stuff.' he nodded, so I backed my body off of him and offered him a hand to help him raise his upper body upwards in to a sitting position. He continued to hold my hand as he stared at the incident, examining his ankle with no emotion across his face.

'Okay.' he stated. It wasn't anything but the acknowledgement he'd understood the accident, 'It doesn't hurt anywhere near as bad as that.'

I pulled out my phone and contacted both Pj and Chris to help us back, knowing it was better to get help sooner than later. Pj was first to reply, Chris responding with the fact Pj had answered me.

Hey Pj, Phil's badly fallen and was unconscious for a good fifteen minutes. He's messed up his ankle and I can't support him alone, let alone Ev as well. Not guilty tripping you, get your ass over here to help.

Haha, sure mate. Where are you?

Literally five minute walk from the train, we were chased.

Oh shit. Chris and I have set up in a good spot. Small house on the outskirts north-east of mk. There's a small garden which has ground that was protected so we can set up a plant. I'll grab Chris now and we'll make our way over, any landmarks?

There's a weird tree trunk to our left with no other trees around it?

Okay, we'll try and find u guys.

***

Phil and I sat with his legs over mine in the middle of the field. His ankle started to hurt more, most likely due to the adrenaline draining out of his system. I was holding Ev, Phil complaining about his ankle as he lied on his back on the grass.