Chapter 21：Ouch

Trigger Warning: Blood

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"How is that not fair, Ralph?" Vincent smiled, leaning his head back on the interior of the vehicle.

"Come on! He definitely cheated, right Rosalind?"

"I don't-"

"Don't drag Rosalind into this." Adena frowned at them.

"Ok! Ok! I believe it's my turn." Louis looked out the window. "I spy with my little eye, something . . ."

"If you say brown one more time, Louis. I'll wring your neck myself."

" . . . Uh. Of course I definitely wasn't going to say brown." Louis laughed and nervously looked around.

"You were going to say brown weren't you?" Vincent laughed.

Louis shrugged her shoulders. "I can't help it if all we're seeing are brown, barren lands with only a few trees here and there. But this is the safest route at the moment so guess you'll just have to put up with it."

"We really need to come up with another game."

"How much longer do you think it'll take, Louis? To arrive?" Vincent stood up as far as the vehicle allowed him to and stretched.

"Hopefully not that much longer. What's making me feel uneasy is the fact that this journey has been smooth so far. A little too smooth. You guys though, keep finding ways to entertain yourself."

"Of course, Louis. It's the least we can do, for now."

"How's Rosa doing, Adena?"

Rosalind lay groaning on Adena's lap, motion sick. She is trying her best to fall asleep but with every twist and turn and bump, she could hardly close her eyes long enough to drift off. But she put a thumbs up when she heard Louis's question.

"I haven't thrown up at all so that's great." She peaked out, smiling weakly.

"I am really sorry that we don't have any thing we can give you for the motion sickness, Rosa."

"There's gotta be something in all that."

They glanced at the boxes of supplies the doctors and nurses brought with them to take to the frontline.

"I'm alright. Don't worry about me." Rosalind mumbled, tugging at Adena's coat sleeve. "Adena. Sing me a song."

Adena patted her head and said, "What song?"

"My favourite one."

"The one about the warrior?"

"Yes."

"Would you all like to hear it as well?" Adena asked the rest of them.

"Hell yeah!"

"Sure."

"Of course."

Adena began to sing the story of an warrior that fell into a debt with a ravan, owing it his life.

Ralph, Louis and Vincent listened with confused interest. An hour passed by like that.

"But the story does not have an end."

"Aww~ why not? There should be an end." Ralph complained.

Adena smiled. "It is supposed to be a way for each generation in our tribe to tell of how life was like at the time. So each generation adds their own tale to the neverending story."

"That's really smart. A way to pass down history." Vincent remarked. "May I write it down?"

"Yes."

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Rosalind tossed and turned on Adena's lap. Her stomach felt queasy and her heart couldn't calm down.

Everything was so loud, they hammering at her. She couldn't settle down at all. The pains at her waist and hands did nothing to help her.

Pulling herself up, Rosalind covered her ears with her hands, tucking her head between her thighs. Loud noises pierced into her skull making her want to drill a hole into it.

Something's not right! Look around!

Several gun shots could be heard as the truck picked up speed.

What?

Gasping, Rosalind stood up and shouted, "Wait!" Jolting everyone awake just as the side of the truck exploded and flipped to the side.

"What the fu-?!" Louis shouted in pain.

"Louis! Get down!" Vincent jumped on top of her as they fell to the ground, shielding her from the bullets that came flying in.

"Rosalind." Adena wrapped her in his arms as the others braced themselves for impact.

The truck rolled down the slope, sending all the people and items inside tumbling around.

Rosalind clung onto Adena, feeling all the impact as they crashed into boxes and each other.

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"-ind. Rosalind!"

Rosalind opened her eyes. Seeing nothing. Her body felt slightly numb.

"Adriel?" She wheezed.

"Yes. I am here. I am here." She was on top of him, his hands still protectively around her.

The feeling in her stomach still didn't leave her as she pushed herself off of Adriel. She gripped her head as everything around her spun.

"Are you ok?" Adriel grabbed a torch and shone the light on her, checking for injuries.

Her face had cuts and bruises but nothing more than that.

"Yes. What about you?" He had a massive cut running down his arm, blood trickled down.

"Oh, Adriel. Let me heal you." Rosalind reached for his hand but he pulled away.

"I am fine, Rosalind. I'm not human, remember?"

"But, you're bleeding."

"I can just heal myself. But we got to have some injuries to not make anyone suspicious, right? Let's look for the others."

Rosalind nodded. "Where are we?"

"I believe-" he shone the light all around them. There were boxes that haven't been destroyed in the fall scattered around them. The seats they were sitting on not a minute ago hung above them now, with dangling seatbelts"-that we are still inside the truck. Look, there's an opening there."

Light entered inside from the back of the truck. A voice called out frantically for either of them. Following the light source, they both carefully crawled out of the truck to see-

"Ralph!" Rosalind ran as fast as her injuries would allow her to.

"Rosalind! Adena!" Ralph ran and hugged them, breathing heavily. "Oh, thank God. Thank God you are both ok."

"Ralph. I'm so glad you're alright too." Rosalind pulled away. "What about Vincent and Louis?"

"Vincent is ok as well. But . . . Louis."

"What happened?"

"She got shot. Rosalind, it's really bad."

They made their way to Vincent, Rosalind gasped when she saw Louis on the ground. Vincent had wrapped her waist in bandages but the blood wasn't stopping and was staining the land.

"Louis." Rosalind kneeled beside her.

"Rosalind. Adena. I'm so glad you're alright." Louis looked so weak, Rosalind couldn't imagine that she would ever look like this.

"Hey! We decided by ourselves. Don't always try to take all the blame, every fu*king time!" Vincent shouted, anger clearly evident in his voice. "We knew what would happen and we still chose to come. Just tell us 'thank you' and be over with it."

Louis laughed. "I'm sorry, you're right. All you dumbasses chose to come by yourselves. I have to commend on your bravery. Thank you. So, see that there?" She pointed to an old, broken landmark. "The main camp isn't too far off from here and that's a shortcut that can only be accessed on foot. You may be able to reach the camp soon."

She took out a piece of paper from her breast pocket and gave it to Vincent. "Show this to them. They'll let you in."

"Why are you talking like you're not going to be there with us?" Ralph spoke through clinched teeth.

"Look at me, you're going to have to leave me here if you are to make it in time."

"We're not leaving you." Rosalind was now getting mad. "Vincent, Ralph, can the both of you make your way to the camp and bring back help?"

"But . . . what if they're still here? They could attack at any moment."

"If they were, they would already have attacked by now. They only want to disrupt the flow of medical supplies and personnel to the camp. It's a miracle that only I got injured this badly." Louis muttered, her voice getting low as her eyes grew heavy.

"Adena?" Louis stretched out her bloodied hand which Adena took a hold of. "What time is it?"

"I am not sure. All I know is that it is evening."

"Its dark right? If you take that route, nothing will happen."

"Trust me. Please." Rosalind begged them. "I'll take care of Louis."

Vincent and Ralph exchanged an uneasy look then nodded. "Ok. We'll be back as soon as we can. Adena. Look after them."

"Wait! Here." Rosalind took out the ring from her finger and gave it to them. "For luck."

Ralph pocketed the ring and they both took off into the darkness. Disappearing around the landmark.

"Rosalind. I know what you're planning."

"Are you going to stop me?"

"You know I can't. You won't listen anyway. Just . . . be careful. I'll go see what I can salvage."

Adena walked to the front of the overturned truck where the driver hung from his seat. Dead. Gunshot to the head.

He crawled in through the door and took the gun and bullets from his belt.

Crawling back out, he picked up all the boxes that were still intact and carried them back to Rosalind, who was covering Louis in her coat.

"So?"

"She's sleeping. I did it." Rosalind didn't look very well, sweat flowed down her face as she took out her gloves. It is spreading.

Rosalind looked at her trembling hands, the veins popping out as her head swam and her stomach churned.

The veins in her neck also peaked out as she desperately held in a cry of pain. She opened her mouth, only a whisper of a scream came out as tears rolled down her face, mixing with the sweat and blood.

Adena only stood there, staring. He knew that touching her, will only make her feel more pain so he didn't move a muscle. No matter how desperately he wanted to.

He was so focused on her that he didn't hear the gun until it was too late.

This time, the scream came out, echoing throughout the vast empty land.

Without missing a second, he took of the gun and shot the man.

One shot. Arm.

Two shots. Waist.

Four shots. Legs.

Several vehicles pulled up and stopped him right as he was about to shoot the man in the head.

Rosalind felt bile rise to her throat as she looked at the blood. Luckily the bullet went through her shoulder, so she didn't have to worry about pulling it out.

From her seated position, she fell to her face onto the ground, gasping and wheezing, as she tried to calm down. Her lungs felt like they collapsed on her

Everything is just too loud. Why is everyone shouting so much?

"Excuse me. Are you ok?" A painfully familiar voice filled her hears.

Slowly getting up, Rosalind looked at the man and smiled, tears streaming down her face. "Titus."

Titus's eyes widened. "Rosalind?! Why-"

Rosalind quickly crawled to where the lights from the vehicles didn't shine and puked her guts out. She felt her body burning up, like flames that covered her, threatening to consume her whole.