JOSH DUN VS THE WORLD ✓

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: I THINK I NEED A HOSPITAL

SAVING...

SAVING...

SAVING...

SAVING COMPLETE!

"Aw, look at the pretty couple," a voice taunts from behind them.

The air gets chilled. Josh grips his coke can, sends Tyler a look that tells him I'm so done with this shit, and spins around, yeeting his drink at Jenna.

Surprisingly, the blonde catches it in the air, giggling like she's high on laughing gas. "Why don't you fight your own battles, sugar and spice, and absolutely nothing nice?" She pouts, crushing the can in her fist and throwing it back to Josh with enough force to kill him.

Tyler pulls him out of the way. Jenna yowls in frustration and launches a spinning kick at him instead, but Tyler grabs her leg and throws her over his head. She comes crashing down onto a set of trash cans in the alley they were walking through, the metal crunching under her weight.

He reaches into his bag and pulls out the star mallet, planting himself between Josh and Jenna. Halsey appears out of nowhere and grabs Josh's hand, pulling him away from the fight.

"I told you I'd kill you if you ever tried something again," Tyler growls, pointing the mallet like a gun.

Jenna recovers and drops to the ground in some kind of battle stance, reaching for something on her back. "Aw, but baby lamb, you'll have to catch me first."

She jumps forward, slicing at Tyler's legs. Tyler blocks her with the mallet's handle and swings, but Jenna disappears in a puff of neon smoke. Josh and Halsey turn back to back.

Just as the smoke reappears somewhere to his left, Josh shoves Halsey back and feels the cold kiss of a blade grazing his cheek. Just as he recovers and throws a punch, which promptly misses, he sees several silver throwing knives shoot out at them.

His first instinct is to protect Halsey, so he quickly turns and puts his arms over her head, kissing her hairline. It all happens so fast that it takes a moment to process him and Halsey hitting the snow covered ground once the knives started hitting him.

His body keeps shaking out of pure adrenaline and a suddenly real fear for his and his friend's lives. He falls forward once he can't handle the pain anymore, taking her down with her. She grapples his jacket, yelling at him something he can't really hear.

Miraculously, only three knives actually hit him, two cutting his side and thigh, while the other is still in his shoulder. Josh feels around for one of the knives, handing it to Halsey.

"I can't... she's going to hurt him," he groans, trying to stand.

Halsey holds him down. "Stop, you'll just get more hurt. Tyler will be fine."

Josh can't fight her, so he takes in the scene around them. Hayley's joined Tyler in fighting Jenna with her tornado of fury, chucking beer bottles and drum sticks from behind Tyler. Josh tries to walk forward only for his body to turn into pudding. His head won't stop spinning.

"Ouch," he chuckles once the second wave of pain hit, knowing he can't make it better with humor but trying anyways.

Warmth runs down the back of his sweatshirt. It's not until Halsey touches his thigh and her hands come back red that he realizes that he's bleeding, and badly. Josh, with her guidance, presses his hands to his side, the gash nearly half an inch wide with blood gushing everywhere. Halsey shrugs her jacket and tears the one of the sleeves off, wrapping it around his leg and tightening it.

"You're such an idiot," she cries softly, hiding her face with her hair. "You know you could die, right?"

"Better me than you," he says, grimacing when she grabs the knife and pulls it out.

"No, you need to leave the knife in!" Max's face comes into focus. "Shit, we need to stop the bleeding."

"No shit, Sherlock, what do you think I've been trying to do?"

Tyler cries out when the- literally flaming- katana catches his hand, and he retaliates by slamming the head of the mallet into Jenna's stomach, sending her to the ground. Hayley slams Josh's bass guitar before Jenna gets the chance to stand back up, and there's an explosion of sickly green smoke and the clatter of coins.

Max and Halsey helps Josh to his feet. "Shit, he's losing a lot of blood," she says.

"Oh my god, Josh." Tyler goes to grab him by his arm, holding him steady. Debby and Max step back awkwardly. "Oh, god, of fuck. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid."

"I think I need a hospital," Josh says, slurring his words.

Tyler laughs through teary eyes and kisses him deeply. "Yeah, no shit."

Max calls an ambulance while Max and Halsey put layers and layers of napkins and towels from the bar counter over Josh's arm. He's dizzy and can't see straight, but his eyes focus on the thin bleeding cuts on Tyler's fingers that tap furiously on the back of Josh's hand.

"Hey." Josh slaps Tyler's shoulder. "You're hurt."

Tyler glances down at his hands and chuckles, flexing his fingers slightly. "I'll live. You, on the other hand, are really hurt and need to focus on your own injuries."

Josh just shrugs. "I don't know what the big deal is. I can't even feel my body anymore."

His boyfriend's eyes go wide. If he hadn't been scared before, he definitely is now. "Uh."

"I don't- I think I need to lie down." A wave of chills go up Josh's body. "I feel really cold. Did the temperature drop or something?"

"When's the ambulance going to be here?" Tyler asks, keeping his eyes trained on Josh.

"About fifteen minutes," Max says. "Why?"

"That's too long. I'm taking him." Tyler begins to stand Josh up, holding him up with an arm under his shoulders.

"Wait, I don't think that's a good-"

"Save it, Max! I can't wait to see if he dies or not. We're going and we're going now."

As soon as Tyler's fingers graze his side wound, Josh's mind seems to ascend to a new level of reality. The pain literally makes him astral project into an alternate dimensions. Josh keens forward, and hears someone scream. He can't tell if it's him or one of the girls, but considering the high pitch, it's probably one of the girls.

He wakes up in a hospital bed.