Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Both of them look like they would rather do anything else in the world, but they come over and kneel down beside Iris. They take her arms and she starts crying more, the sound hysterical. Rachel is sobbing now, back to us. So much for supporting your friend. I don’t have time to think about it.
“Take her other leg, you two,” I whisper to Tati and Aggie. “Hold on and don’t let go.”
They look terrified, but they do as I ask.
Ace and I take the injured leg.
Ace’s hands shake as he threads the suture line through the needle. He’s done this before, or something close, that’s obvious in the way he moves, not pausing to ask questions. But a part of him is somewhere else—a memory, maybe, or a fear he doesn’t want to name.
“Hold her steady,” he says, then looks to me. “Hold her, like, and don’t let go.”
I swallow down the nausea but do what he asks. Iris is screaming, but she isn’t thrashing, because deep down, she knows this has to happen too. I have to lean all my weight onto her thigh to keep it still. The skin beneath is clammy and sticky, and the blood wells up and starts to leak fresh blood.
“Ready?” he asks, but it’s not a question.
I watch as he drives the needle through the skin, and the scream that rips out of Iris is inhuman. I flinch, but he keeps going. In-out, in-out, inch by inch, tying every suture with the expertise of someone who’s sewn up skin before. The third time he drags it through her flesh, Iris faints. I know because her body goes slack and her head rolls back.
Ace doesn’t even look up, just keeps working. The guys release her, letting her body lay back in the sand. I count the stitches—one, two, three, five, nine, twelve. He works down the gash, dragging the purple line through the puckered skin, hands stained with blood but never flinching. When he knots the last thread, he sits back, panting, and looks at me.
“Pour more antiseptic on it while she’s out, then we will bandage it.”
I hand him the bottle, and he pours it on while I grab the bandage from the kit, and wrap it around her leg, firmly but not too tight. Then, we’re done. Ace and I are covered in blood, and sweat coats my brow, but I did it, and I did it without passing out. Tatiana places a jacket under Iris’s head, and then we cover her with a blanket and leave her to rest.
She will come to any moment, but hopefully she does so a little calmer.
Ace wipes his hands on his shirt. “She needs antibiotics, so I’m hoping it doesn’t get infected. If it gets red, or she gets fever, she needs medicine or...” He doesn’t finish.
We all know what he’s thinking.
Rachel sneaks a look, tears streaming down her face. “Is—is she going to die?”
Nobody answers her, because we don’t honestly know the answer to that question.
Kellen moves to the edge of the group. “We need shelter,” he says, his voice clipped but firm. “We can’t stay out here in the elements. We don’t know how long we’ll be here, so we have to treat it like we might be here a while. We need to go and see what resources we have on this island.”
Zeke stands, brushing sand off his hands. “I’ll gather branches, we’ll build a shelter using the lifeboat as a base, at least it’s going to keep us covered.”
Then suddenly, as if we’ve all been here before, everyone just kicks into gear. Adrian is still gone. Where, I don’t know. The good news is, he can’t have gone far. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten himself into trouble, because we just can’t deal with that right now.
“We should split up in twos,” Tatiana says, her voice more determined than I have heard it since we got off that yacht. “Scour around and see if we can find food, water, anything we can use.”
“Good plan,” Ace murmurs. “Grace, you’re with me. We’ll go find water. Tatiana and Aggie, you two can go hunt for food, anything, fresh berries, fruit, animals, it doesn’t matter. Zeke and Kellen will start a shelter, and Rachel can stay with Iris.”
“I’ll move her into the shade,” Kellen says, then he leans down and scoops Iris up as if she weighs nothing.
She is sobbing, but a lot calmer than she was a few minutes ago.
I take a deep, steady breath. “Let’s do this.”
Ace and I both turn, still covered in blood, and walk into the island, having no idea what we’re about to walk into.
“You injured?” Ace asks, as we enter the thicker part of the forest, where the trees are surrounded by shrubs and fallen branches, making it hard to get through.