Forgotten

Chapter Thirteen: Shard of Broken Memories

Ringing silence filled my ears. I struggled to open my eyes, but my brain wouldn't cooperate. I didn't want to wake up...I wanted to sleep forever, that was a reasonable request, I should think. Why shouldn't I be able to do that? I'm dead, after all.

Dead...

I'm...dead?

I tried to breathe, but only accomplished to fill my lungs with ash making me cough until my lungs hurt and tears streamed down my face. I was lying on my back, and I could feel small pieces of something falling on top of me. I gripped the ground and felt dirt, shards of wood, and burnt grass in my hand along with shards of other things, but I didn't know what they were, I don't think I even wanted to know.

I shot up quickly and opened my eyes, the sudden light caused me to shut them again and bring my hand up to my head. It felt like an entire civilization of soldiers were trying to beat their way out of my brain.

"Ahh! Jesus!" I gripped my head tightly in my hands, the pain brought unwanted tears to my eyes. It was weird to talk and not hear your own voice. I tried to stand but my legs refused to move, like they had been turned into macaroni and cheese.

I opened my eyes, slowly this time, looking down so as not to be blinded by the light. I was completely covered it black ashes and dirt. There were ashes all around me, falling from the sky like snow. It was silent, but maybe that was just because I still couldn't hear properly.

I looked around some more and saw Jess sitting ten feet away from me. She had a blank stare on her face and was holding her knees up against her chest, staring into space. There was blood on her face and she was completely covered in ash and dirt like I was; otherwise, she looked ok.

I tried to get up again, and found more success than last time. I managed to almost stand before falling back down with a sharp pain in my right leg. I fell on my back again, and my head hit the ground-hard. My skull felt like it was about to crack open.

"Ugh, oh, god," I mumbled, placing my hand on my head again. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked at my leg. "Agh, damn it," more profanities crossed my mind, but I wasn't interested in saying them aloud. A broken shard of metal was sticking out of my calf. The skin around it was completely red and swollen, and a trickle of blood was dripping down my leg. It wasn't pretty.

I bit down on my lip and gripped the piece of metal. It felt cool and sharp against my skin. Touching it sent more pain up my leg, but I didn't let go.

"Ok, ok, you can do this," I gave myself a pep talk, "you've gone through worse."

I shut my eyes closed tight and bit my lower lip in preparation of the incoming pain. I squeezed the shard tighter and-

"What are you doing?!" Jess's familiar voice sounded in my ears. She pulled my hands off the piece of metal and I reopened my eyes.

"Don't pull that out like that, you'll bleed to death, idiot," Jess scolded. She was kneeling next to me, close enough for me to see the tear streaks on her cheeks where the ashes and dirt were washed away.

"But-" I protested.

"Shut up," Jess interrupted. She ripped the sleeves off of my shirt and tied the fabric tight just above the shard cutting off the circulation of blood.

"You need stitches," Jess said.

"Good luck finding a needle and thread," I told her.

"I don't want to take it out unless I can stitch it up." Jess looked around, as if she could find anything in this wasteland. She sighed, "If my mom was here..."