Bleuler Institution

Bleuler Institution Part 12

Claudia slowly peaks her red head out from the rocky shelter, surprised to see the dark clouds clearing away. A smile begins to spread across her face, exposing her bucked teeth. The smile is quickly wiped from her face when she sees Hayley soaked to the bone motionless lying in a pile of wet soggy mud. She runs towards her scorched corpse-like friend and repeatedly screams her name upon approach, slipping and sliding through the bog. Hayley did not move- her eyes red and bloodshot with mud dashed across her deathly pale face.

"Hayley!" Claudia got down onto her knees and held Hayley's face directly in front of her own, "Hayley come on! Come on! look at me!" She held her head with panicked hands as she screamed into Hayleys face, "LOOK AT ME, GOD DAMN IT!!" her patience was wearing out and fear was quickly replacing them. Hayley's doughy-eyes did not change from their glassy, marble-like look. They stared straight through Claudia, looking at nothingness Claudia tried throwing water over her friends already soaked head, and even resorted to two or three full-forced full palmed slaps across her face, in hopes of bringing her back from the daze she had found her in. 

She is in shock, she will snap out of it she thought to herself. She wandered around in close proximity of her seemingly lifeless friend, and looked out for anything that could be of use to her. Things like berries to eat, and dry wood (which was not easy to come by after a storm like that one). Despite the ever-worsening mud dam, she was able to locate her, now very muddy, slightly cracked water bottle. She smiled as she used her hands and dug it out from under the sloppy mud and wet splintering twigs. As Claudia made her way back to her still lifeless friend, whilst cleaning the water bottle of with the hem of her dress, she quickly realised that Hayley was now shivering, uncontrollably. Concerned, Claudia wrapped her frail arms round Hayley's thin waist and began to drag her through the mude, to the cave she had been previously hiding in when the storm hit. 

Quickly, she realised she had to do something to warm Hayley. Offering her a blanket or a coat of some sort was obviously out of the question. She had to improvise. She propped Hayley up on a large rock that was slanted and fit comfortably, she imagined, to the shape of her slouching spin. Quickly, she got back to her searching and hunting, although this time remained only in the cave. She hoped she could find some dry wood or foliage she could use to start a fire. Claudia had always been a dab-hand at survival skills, although she would tell you she doesn't know why she knows so much about them -of course, coming from a privilaged background. After moments of searching, Claudia found some dry twigs and leaves that conveniently had been stacked neatly at the back of the cave. Quickly, she grabbed waht she needed in her arms and ran back to drop them at Hayley's feet. Some of the sharper edges of the twigs dug into her skin leaving small tears in her arms, allowing small blobs of bright red blood spill from under the skin covers. Once all of the materials were gathered where they were needed, she sat on the cold stone ground, grabbed two of the palm-sized rocks from beside her, and began clashing them together frantically. Hayley still sat their, motionless. The frantic battering of the rocks did not end quickly. Hours passed, but she did not give up. Shortly, the sky began to turn dark once more. In a panic, Claudia dropped the rocks and ran outside as she noticed the darkening doorway to the cave becoming more shadowed. To her relief, she realised it was not another storm rolling in but the sun was beginning to set and they would very soon be wrapped up again in the pitch-blackness of the night. 

The realisation that she must start a fire, and quickly, set in and she walked briskly back into the cave and again began battering the rocks. The night quickly filtered into the cave, and the small sparks flickering of the beating rocks were not enough to light the cave, or keep either of them warm. Hayley remained motionless. In a last attempt of frustration, she put the rocks on the floor and rubbed her hands in the dirt before slapping them together to get any excess mud off them. She panted and picked up the rocks again, smacking them angrily, much faster than she had previously, violently against each other. The sharp rock edges split her hands, and blood spilled onto her legs and dress, but she did not seem to notice. CLANK! CLANK! the ear-splitting slaps of the rocks being bowled off each other quickly stopped as sparks finally flew into the twigs and foliage. Claudia raced flat onto her tummy and gently blew on the sparks, encouraging them to grow into flames. She had done it. She had started a fire. 

Claudia looked to her friend to share her delight, but still she had not moved at all. Claudia pulled her closer to the fire and rubbed her arms to try to generate some heat. This is it. Claudia rested her head on her friends legs, she lay back and let the heat of the flames wash over her exhausted body and closed her eyes- praying silently for a better tomorrow.