Foxes Den

Blood Painting the Ground

Everything burned, as his body screamed. Every piece of him cried out in pain as he felt something running down his head. Slowly, carefully he reached up with his right hand, his fingers lightly touching the area. He felt the sticky substance clinging to his skin, he didn't need to open his eyes to know what it was. Colby took as deep a breath as he could, pain erupting from his left side as he flinched. Had he landed on his side? He forced his eyes open, before slamming them shut, his head reeling and his stomach lurching. God, everything screamed at him to not move, but he knew he needed to. He wiggled his toes testing them and was satisfied once he discovered he could. Pushing himself off his side, he had to bite his lip to stop the scream from leaving his throat. Holy shit what was happening? His head swam as he tested his right arm, minor pain came from it, but when he went to test his left, his arm it roared back sending surges of pain tearing through him. He didn't want to look at his arm as another screaming pain came from his left side.

Blinking his eyes open, he noticed the falling dust and the faint light, leaving the hole that hung above him. Right, he fell. He could hear voices echoing from above, but he couldn't understand the words. He forced himself to brace his right arm under him trying to sit up to look at his injuries. Fire burned from his side and arm as he blinked his bleary eyes, trying to will the tears that threatened to escape away. Taking a shaky breath, he finally looked to his arm and side. Shards of wood were sticking through his skin from his wrist up past his elbow, blood was  dripping down the tattered arm and cloaking the ground. A much larger piece of wood was sunk into his side halfway gone from his view, as blood pooled down coating the cement under him.

Colby forced his eyes shut, trying to hold down the bile that wanted to come up. Taking another shaky breath, Colby struggled trying to get his feet under him. He couldn't stay here, he needed to get... where? A flurry of footsteps resounded from above, he ignored them as best as he could attempting to push himself up with his right arm. Blood rushed down the left side of his face, making it that much harder to focus and see. A painful whine escaped his lips as he lay down, letting the searing pain calm. He gasped for breath, slamming his eyes shut trying to focus on breathing.

"Colby can you hear us?" His head pounded as he moaned, a single word slipping from his lips.

"Fuck."

"Colby, holy shit are you okay?" He knew that voice, he knew it so well. He remembered it from his memories from years and years ago. They grew up together and the fear in the others voice made his skin crawl. Sam never sounded so terrified and he wanted to reassure him, but he knew that he couldn't.

"No." He managed to say as he clenched his teeth, trying to ignore that roaring pain from his side, arm and head.

"How bad are you?" Corey? He forgot he came with, it wasn't often that the other came with on xploration videos. A small whimper escaped him as he accidently moved his left arm.

"I... I... my... my arm... fuck... my side... I can't." Colby stammered his voice burning from the dust in the air, the mask could only block so much. He heard movement above and knew that someone was pacing by the sound of it, probably Sam. He was always the worrier of the group, you'd never see it on the videos but he was.

"We couldn't find a way down to you. Can you see anything?" Corey yelled as Colby blinked, forcing his good arm back under him. He tried to scan the darkness around him, but there was only so much he could see before his body told him he couldn't do that much longer. His head drummed as he bit his lip, stopping a cry from leaving him.

"It's dark... can't see much... I... my head..." His arm gave under him as his back slammed back to the ground a quiet scream slipping out.

"Hey, Colby. It's okay, we are going to get to you. But we need you to find a staircase, we can't find it. Please do you see anything?" Taking a deep breath Colby, moved his good arm under his shoulder rolling slowly, painfully onto his good side. His eyes trail the ground around him searching in what little light he had. He noticed the slowly growing puddle of blood under him but pushed it from his mind as quickly as he could. He couldn't get caught in his head right now. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, taking another breath before continuing his search thick black lines caught his attention. He scanned them as the lines circled around him before they turned back towards him disappearing under his body and blood. He knew what it was immediately.