Alligator Eyes

Chapter 3

"And I thought you said you wouldn't sleep" Mark wakes to the sound of Jinyoung's voice, close to his ear. "Like a little sunburned retriever"

He feels fingers tugging on his hair and leaps up, slapping Jinyoung's hand away from him in indignation. He falls onto another bale of hay and in his effort to put as much distance between him and Jinyoung as possible he falls onto BamBam with a thud. He tries to get off of him, worried about hurting him, but he gets caught in a tangle of limbs which are all trying, at different angles, to push him off.

Jinyoung just laughs above them, collapsing onto the nearest bale. Jaebum, in all his mercy, grabs Mark's arm and pulls him up, saving him from being bucked out of the open cart. He releases Mark just as swiftly as he had grabbed him, going back to the front seat of the cart, and grabbing hold of the horses reigns.

"Come on," Jinyoung says once he stops laughing. "Get out, Alligator Boy, you need to push the cart."

"Why not everyone else?"

"We need them to weigh it down"

Mark had noticed the noise of the river, but he didn't pay it much mind, now he looks over the side of the cart sighing as he sees how fast it's running.

"The poor horse can't do it all by himself" Jinyoung pouts, but it seems that no expression he makes can possibly hide the wry smile in his eyes.

Mark takes a deep breath and reminds himself what this is all for. If he has to help a horse push a cart, it won't kill him. Probably. And even if he does get sucked away by the river, he will have more important things to worry about than whether or not Jinyoung is just being racist. He takes off the boots that Jinyoung gave him and puts on his own, which don't hold water like the other boots do then hops down off the cart, readying himself.

The horse goes slowly into the river and Mark instantly feels the shift of the current fighting to take them under. He shivers violently as his feet hit the water, bracing himself as the ice water climbs up his body. The strength of the river is not quite what it had seemed on land but its still intense, and Mark knows that they would have needed someone to brace the back of the cart, even if it seemed that Jinyoung was just being an ass about it.

He starts to think that perhaps it should not have been him, however, when the water reaches his neck and the mud starts to suck at his feet. " Yugyeom—" He gasps when a wave overtakes his head. "I think I'm too short for this, you'd better—"

He doesn't get the rest of the words out as one step sinks him deep into the mud, submerging his head completely as he loses hold of the cart. Under the murky water, he tries to pull his leg free but its stuck, and there are no rocks that he can feel to give him any leverage. He pulls himself further into the water and feels around the bottom with his hands, looking for a stone or a log or anything but he comes up with nothing and although he can hold his breath for a decent amount of time, his lungs are beginning to scream at him.

Giving up his search, he claws desperately at the mud now engulfing his knee and lets the current pull at him until finally he is able to wrench his leg out, and kick towards the surface. Once he surfaces and gasps in some air he realizes that the current has pulled him down stream and away from the cart. He finally gets his bearings and can see so he swims to shore, furious to see that Jinyoung had gotten out of the cart when he let go, but only to push it the rest of the way onto shore. Yugyeom is at least in the water, looking at where Mark was lost.

"See, there he is, I told you he was fine!" Jinyoung yells, pointing down the river at Mark. Mark is seeing red, as he marches up the bank, squeezing at his clothes to wring the water out of them. He gets to Jinyoung and he can't help himself, he shoves him so hard that he falls back, hitting his head on the side of it.