Hatchetfield Stories

Roommate

Am I the CEO of helicopter crash fics yet?

TRIGGER WARNINGS:
-Injury
-Blood
-Medical stuff
-Gun violence
-Death

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Pain shot through Emma's body with every breath she took. Of course, the helicopter had to crash. They would've been too lucky if they got out.

Paul was shouting her name. She managed to weakly say "Here." The footsteps came closer.

"Em, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, hurry up," she said. She was holding a piece of metal up with both her arms so it wouldn't fall on her. She had fallen forwards when the helicopter crashed and she was now stuck. Her leg felt like it was on fire and she was pretty sure she felt blood trickling down.

Paul started to dig into the ravage of the helicopter. After a minute the metal got lifted from her hand and she saw Paul's concerned face above her. "Emma, I'm going to pull you up."

Emma nodded and grabbed both of his arms. She screamed in agony when he tried to pull her up.

"Emma, what's wrong? What hurts?" Paul asked, letting her go.

"My fucking leg! It's stuck."

"Okay, I'll just dig some more until it's freed."

Emma nodded and Paul started to free the rest of Emma's body.

"Emma..." Paul said softly after a few minutes. "You might not want to look at your leg, just saying."

"What? What's wrong?" She looked down. Her leg was covered in blood and a metal pipe was sticking out of both sides of her thigh. "Holy shit." That was when the pain came. A pain so bad it made her nauseous took over every inch of her body. She bit her lip in an attempt to stay quiet.

Paul grabbed her by her arms and carefully pulled her out of the wreckage. "We have to get out of here." He thought for a few seconds. "My house is not too far from here. We could go there and I could help you with... that," he said, gesturing to her leg.

Emma nodded, untying her bow. "What are you doing?" Paul asked.

"Making a tourniquet."

"Right. Need any help?" Emma nodded and Paul grabbed the bow out of her hands and tied it tightly around her leg. "Let's go," he said after he was done.

He lifted her in his arms, her face scrunched up in pain and she let out a short scream. "Shhh, I know it hurts," Paul whispered. Emma buried her face in his chest, looking for comfort as the burning pain in her leg got worse with every step he took.

"Emma..." he whispered after they had walked for a while. "Don't say anything, just grab the gun out of my back pocket."

Emma turned around to see what was happening. A small boy, probably not much older than 7, stood in front of them, his eyes were glowing blue and blue shit oozed from his mouth. Emma did as Paul had said and pointed the gun at the boy.

"You will not win," he spoke, "We are too strong. We will-" He got cut off by the sound of a gunshot.

"Oh my God," Emma shouted. She had killed someone. She had killed a child.

"Shh, Em, be quiet," Paul whispered. "We're almost there."

When they arrived at his house, Paul helped Emma stand on one leg so he could unlock the door. After locking the door behind them, he guided her to the couch and gently put her down.

"Wait! I don't want to get blood on your couch!"

Paul chuckled. "We're in the middle of the apocalypse and you're worried about staining my couch? It's fine, lie down," he said. "I'm getting a first aid kit from upstairs, hold on."

Emma looked around the small living room. It looked just like something she would expect from Paul. The walls were white and there was an empty coffee cup next to the laptop on the dining table.

The stairs creaked as Paul came back. "My roommate was always so paranoid, he had this huge first aid kit and I always joked that we could survive an apocalypse with it. Guess today is the day we find out."

He searched through the box, pulling out some alcohol. "I'll have to pull it out first." Emma nodded slowly, hoping he wouldn't notice how scared she was. "You can hold my hand," he said, though it sounded more like a question.

He offered Emma his non-dominant hand and she gladly took it. "Okay," she mumbled, her voice shaking. "Let's get this over with."

Paul's fingers closed around the pipe. "You can squeeze as hard as you need, okay? Ready? 1... 2..."

She closed her eyes as Paul pulled it out of her leg. The pain was unbearable. She screamed her throat raw and when she opened her eyes, her vision was blurred by tears.

Paul cupped her cheek. "Shhh, it's over. The worst part's over." Emma calmed down a bit as Paul kept mumbling comforting words. But they both knew what was coming next, and neither of them was looking forward to it.

When Emma's breathing was somewhat normal again, Paul grabbed the bottle of disinfectant. "I'm so sorry, Em," he said, pouring some over the wound.

Emma hissed sharply. "Ow, that stings!"

"I know. I'm sorry," Paul apologized, moving her leg so he could clean the wound on the inside of her thigh.

"Y'know, you could've just let me bleed out. That would've been easier."

"I know, but I would never forgive myself if I'd let you die while I know I could've saved you." Paul screwed the lid back on the bottle of disinfectant and put it back in the box.

"This is the apocalypse, Paul. We'll die anyway."

"I'll keep you safe." Silence filled the room until Paul spoke again. "You're going to need stitches, you know that right?"

Emma nodded. "Can you do it?"

"I could try, but I've never done it before."

Emma sighed. "I guess that's still better than bleeding out."

Paul searched through the box and pulled out some thread and a needle. Emma looked away as soon as her eyes fell on it. She tried to push the thoughts of professor Hidgens away, that bastard. If he hadn't kidnapped her she wouldn't be sitting here with two huge wounds on her thigh.

"I don't have anything to numb the pain, I'm sorry."

Emma bit her lip, she was getting a bit dizzy from the blood loss and Paul grabbed her hand. "You'll be fine, okay? It'll be over before you know it."

"Yeah, let's do this."

Emma took a deep breath as Paul pushed the needle through her skin. He started stitching the wound on the inside of her thigh. He tried to do it as quickly as possible, while still making sure he'd do the best he could.

After only a few minutes, he cut the thread. "That's one," he said. "We're halfway done."

Emma frowned. "Those sentences rhyme. You're not one of them, are you? Fuck!" She tried to get away, but Paul put his hand on her good leg.

"Emma, it's just me, I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional. I promise. Don't hurt yourself more by trying to get away, okay?"

His voice was normal, so she relaxed again. She allowed him to stitch the second wound, and she was quiet, apart from an occasional pained grunt.

"Paul?" she asked after he was done, "We should go to sleep, it's..." She looked at a clock on the wall. "Two am."

Paul nodded. "I'd like to wake you up after an hour or something, you lost a lot of blood."

"And what if I don't wake up? You can't call an ambulance. Just let me sleep."

"Good point. Okay, I'll grab some blankets so you can sleep on the couch."

Emma nodded and when he came back, she lied down as he put the blanket over her and a pillow under her head. Paul walked away again. She was pretty sure she heard a coffee machine, and he indeed came back holding a cup of coffee.

"Dude, seriously? Go to sleep."

Paul smiled at her. "I'll stay up to fight off any aliens that break into the house."

"Whatever, goodnight."

"Goodnight, Em."

"Don't call me that, we're not there yet."

Paul blushed. "Oh. Okay."

Emma fell asleep soon after that, while Paul was typing something on his computer.

*** *** ***

Emma woke up to screaming.

"JOSH, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

"Come on, Paul. It's inevitable."

Emma sat up. "What the fuck?"

Paul pointed the gun at the other man in the room, someone who Emma didn't recognize. "Emma, meet my roommate, Josh," he said calmly, aiming the gun.

"You wouldn't kill me, Paul. You'd feel too guilty if you know you killed someone. You wouldn't be able to live a happy life." Josh kicked the gun out of Paul's hand and if flew across the room. "Say bye to your friend." He grabbed Paul's arm and punched him in the stomach.

Emma screamed. "NO!"

Josh brought his hand up in the air, a grin on his face. He ripped Paul's guts out.

Paul screamed, blood dripping from his mouth. Then, his eyes closed and he went limp in Josh's arms.

Josh dropped him on the ground and smiled at Emma. "Hi, sweetie. Come join us. It's inevitable." He grabbed the gun from the floor and aimed it at her head.

"No!" Emma screamed. "I don't want-"

Bang!