Freedom

Awake

I woke up in the back of the van surrounded by everyone. As soon as I opened my eyes Zu jumped on me and wouldn't let go. Chubs and Liam looked relieved, I tried to sit up but they urged me to stay laying down.

"Someone shot me." The first words that came out of my mouth were one's I had tried to say as soon as it happened. I could tell Chubs and Liam had so much they wanted to say but Chubs spoke to cut off their thoughts,

"Yeah" He signed. I looked over to Zu,

"Zu cover your ears." She did, "That hurt like a mother fucker." They let out a small laugh and smiled noticing I had to not be in too much pain to be making jokes. Zu uncovered her ears. I tried to move my injured leg. I noticed the heavy bandage job and the patch cut out of my jeans.

"I got everything out of there." Chubs said looking at the bandages, "No bullet left or anything in there. You better thank me for that, it was not a fun job." Chubs reached out to something out of sight. "Two Tylenol now, two in three hours. We obviously don't have any heavy duty pain meds so your just gonna have to tough it out for a bit." I smiled half heartedly.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that my leg is gonna be messed up for a bit." I reached down and winced at my hand putting pressure on the stitched wound.

"Considering the fact a burning hot metal bullet went into the side of you leg and through your muscles, you're gonna be down for a bit." Chubs passed me a water bottle and two pills. I took them and sat up for the first time in a while. Light headedness hit me and I started to stumble. Liam and Chubs stuck out their hands and caught me. They sat me up, and Liam spoke for the first time since I woke up.

"Chubs you and Zu are driving I'm staying back here. Someone's going to have to stay with you now. Make sure you're not dying." He smiled a bit but I could sense the realness to his voice. 

"Now I'm helpless." I tried to joke but I was legitimately upset about this whole ordeal. "Did the bullet hit bone?" I hoped the answer would be no, but the pain was leading me to believe the answer was yes. "No, thankfully. It didn't go in too deep, but I bet a lot of nerves were damaged. That's why it's going to hurt for a long time. Hence the drugs." Chugs shook the Tylenol like maracas. I laid down for a while and looked out the window. Chubs and Zu had taken to the front seats. They started to continue Zu's schoolwork, it had taken a backseat during the recent chaos. Liam laid down next to me, he seemed so tense. I could imagine why, but it was a weird adjustment I was making recently. In the span of the almost two years I'd known him, he had gone from a happy go lucky kid to a realistic adult. He still had his signature charisma and great sense of humor, but overall . he was just more serious. He had grown to look more like an adult . now too. Chubs as well. We were all leaving out teen-hood behind us and moving into the scary world of becoming adults.  But now in a world where there were no adults to teach us how to become like them. Zu was getting taller recently too, all the chaos and confusion of getting shot really shook me into realizing the gravity of our situations. Soon we wouldn't be teens, exiled from society and called sick and diseased. But we would be adults, in a world where the other adults were afraid of us because of our past. Would we still be exiled from society, we weren't kids anymore. No one could capture us and say it was because they were afraid us kids were dangerous. Who knows what the future would hold for us.

"How are you doing? I feel like this whole ordeal has been about how I'm doing." I tried to lighten the mood and make small talk. 

"Thats because you were shot yesterday."I was expecting him to come up with a witty way to combat my prying into his emotional side, but his response was flat. A standard one phrase was to explain his perspective. No charisma or charm.

"Well yeah, but you don't seem to be doing so hot." I looked at him and tried to use the most sympathetic look in my eyes possible.

"Well, I had to carry you, bleeding out, to the van through gun fire, sit by while Chubs dug in you leg with tweezers, and wait hoping you would wake up. You lost so much blood and you're already so small." I couldn't imagine how scary that would be, If it was Liam, or Chubs, or Zu I would be a mess. I didn't say anything. I just wrapped my arms around him and stayed still. I didn't cry, neither did he. He just sat there stone faced as I buried mine into him. I stayed like that, ignoring the pain searing through the left side of my body. He eventually caved and pulled me close to him, he stroked my hair and we napped there. I had to wake up every once and a while to take more pain meds, but we just stayed like that. Neither of us wanted to leave, even move an inch. I'd never felt more grateful to be awake even with how tired I was.