I'll Bring A War

A scream makes me sit bold upright in my sleep; I don’t know whether it was in the nightmare I was currently enduring or in real life. My senses are on high alert as I look over my camp mates. The cries continue and I realise they are coming from the injured woman in her thirties. Other members of the group start to awaken as she pleads for help. Kneeling down to check on her I see that she is covered in sweat. The next thing I know she grabs my hand and cries “It hurts, please.” Her eyes are full of pain and I check her wounded leg. I gasp at what I see. Only then do I realise that Ashley is beside me, already asking Jinxx if he can produce a concoction to clear up the infection. I stumble around trying to help but all I can see behind my eyelids is her puss filled, swollen, black wound. She coughs and only then do I realise that she is choking. I help her to sit up as she vomits blood into her lap. I look up at Ashley and Jinxx, simultaneously they shake their heads and look down sadly.

We move her outside of the cave, so that the other people can sleep but also so that she can enjoy the starry scenery above us as she spent her final minutes on Earth. “Shall I get your friends?” I ask her. Like many of the campers they had awoken, but in their confused and groggy state and with Andy telling them to go back to sleep they had done so without noticing the absence of their friend. She shook her head and instead asked me if I’d mind spending her final moments with her. I agreed, wanting to make her as happy as I possibly could. We converse about the good times, when she was younger, when she met her husband and she tells me the tragic story of how her and her husband were forced apart by F.E.A.R when they took him. I sympathise with her, but she doesn’t let the mood stay sad for long, before I know it she is cracking jokes and I am laughing, more than I have in months. I turn to receive a canteen of water from Ashley and he raises and eyebrow and my surprisingly happy face. I shake my head at him as I continue to shake with uncontrollable laughter at Mandy.

We get quieter as Mandy’s breathing gets shallower. I know she hasn’t got much time left, yet we continue to giggle to ourselves as she remains happy. Eventually we end up gazing at the stars in a comfortable silence, holding hands. I start to talk to her as the stars turn my mood reminiscent. “My brother used to tell me stories about the rebels. Every night before I went to bed and whenever I had a nightmare. I listened wide eyed, sat on the edge of my seat, leaning forward waiting for the next plot twist. The Wild Ones were what kept me going. All those years we’ve lived in darkness, waiting for the next attack; always running. But the stories and the rebels were always there, I dreamt about becoming a Wild One ever since Ali first mentioned them.” I sigh looking down at Mandy who is glancing up at me listening intently, “Now I’m here and I can’t quite believe it. Ali even left me a pentagram and kept me safe even though he wasn’t there. I can’t believe I’m doing this without him.” Mandy’s arms wrap around my shoulders and pull me down to her level, a short while later her grip around me loosens and I know she’s gone. Ignorantly, a part of me thinks that if I shake her hard enough she’ll wake up. “Please Mandy, not you too” I cry, trying desperately to shake her awake.

A pair of muscular arms wrap around my waist and pull me away from Mandy’s lifeless body. “No, she’ll wake up if you let me try!” I say to them, “Please.” The arms wrap tighter around me and my legs are lifted into the lap of the person as we rest against the other side of the cave. Not knowing what I’m doing I grab hold of the persons’ body as tight as I can and sob angrily into their chest. I wake up disorientated as I feel the heat of another human against my own body. My head ponds from dehydration as I look around, attempting to regain my bearings and I hold my head to steady the pain. Feeling my movement the person underneath me jolts and begins to wake up. Managing to focus what I am seeing, I realise that the person who grabbed me last night and who I subsequently slept on was none other than Ashley. I suddenly remember just how emotional I had been and quickly attempt to get up from Ashley’s body. However, in my attempt to move Ashley’s arms wrap around my body, again, and pull me back down. His face rests peacefully in his half asleep state and his jet black hair falls over his shoulder messily. I grudgingly fall back asleep, feeling safe in his arms.

Notes

I promise it speeds up as the story progresses, I'm quite excited to get to where I've written and write more of this story because I've been writing this for months every now and then. Any feedback appreciated and I hope everyone is having a good day :)