𝙼𝚊𝚡 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛-𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚖.

Chapter 22

The only thing you could hear other than your sobs was the burning fire that raged right in front of you.

"There there, Y/n.." Neil places a soft hand on your back and attempts to comfort you, but you whack it away in an instant.

"This is all my fault, Neil! I did this to you! It was me!" Continuing to sob, Neil's face goes from pitiful to worried in a matter of seconds.

"N-no, Y/n..you..it was all of us." He exclaimed, making you even more sorrowful.

"But it was my  idiotic driving that caused us to crash! Don't you get it, Neil? I crashed the car! I caused this! It was all me!"

Neil's only response was his shaky breaths.

"Y/n, either one of us would've crashed the car. Statistically speaking, it would've been the same scenario depending on whoever drove."

You lift your head.

You still felt immensely guilty, but Neil's remark made you smile. "Thanks.", you sniffled. He then stands up and walks up to Nikki, who had made a slightly better recovery. Of course, the bruise was still there, and it would be hard for her to walk, but she was tough - and you knew that. 

Watching Neil help Nikki made you smile. Despite the hell you just witnessed, you were still able to care for each other.

Then you turn your head.

Max is learning against a tree, not a word spoken. He's holding his leg, however, because it was probably the most damaged body part out of all of them. There was a small-ish cut that inched from the bottom of his knee all the way down to his ankle, and it wasn't pretty. It wasn't immensely bleeding, so he wouldn't die of blood loss, or anything - but you couldn't even imagine how painful that would be. Forcing yourself to stand up, you go and plop down next to Max.

"You alright?" You say, forcing a smile.

He turns away.

Wh?-

"..What's wrong? Did I do something?" You say, placing a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, he whacks it away.

"Go away."

"W-What? No..! I didn't do anything, did I? Why are you so mad at me?-"

"Go away."

You stop trying to talk to him.

Okay, he's really mad at you.

But why?

After a moment, you lift your head and look upwards.

It's the sky.

The beautiful night sky.

There's stars everywhere.

If only you could've enjoyed it back at camp.

Wait..

..back at camp.

"We need to get back to camp..!" You say, and Neil turns towards you.

"Wasn't our whole goal to escape, though?" He said, gulping.

"Do you see any other way of getting help?"

There's a moment of silence.

"..You're right. Everyone, we need to start walking back to camp if we want to have any chance of getting help." Neil exclaims, and Nikki forces herself to stand up. Neil gets up without effort, as do you - and now all that's left is Max.

He looks up at you with a bored, almost cynical expression.

He stands up without a word and begins to walk past you, not daring to look at you.

"Wait, Max, lets be smart about this and not walk in random directions, okay?"

He stops.

"Do I look like I care, Neil?"

Ouch.

Nikki, now standing up, tries to take a step forward, but she falls to the ground.

"A-ahh—my leg—"

She couldn't even walk.

It hurt to see her like that.

Neil runs to comfort Nikki and turns back to you and Max.

"Nikki can't walk. We'll have to split up."

"How is that gonna work? What if we find David and Gwen?"

"Get them to follow you back here and we'll go from there."

"..So..you're staying here?" 

"If it means I can try and help fix Nikki's leg, sure."

You gulp.

Alrighty.

"..Okay, let's go, Max.."

You turn around only to see that Max is already in the forest, not daring to wait up for you.

"H-hey, wait up!"

And you were off.

Off on a journey back to camp.

Off on a journey that could take forever.

Off on a journey with your crush who is really angry at you for some reason.

And you had no idea how you'd pull it off.