Into the Darkness

Chapter 4 - Darkness

I could barely see anything when I finally woke up.

The darkness surrounded us and all I could do was rely on my alternative senses whilst my eyes adjust and my mind processes.

The musty smell of damp and soil ran through my nose, enough to make me want to sneeze.
My torso lay on a mixture of small rocks and what could either be dirt or sand; whilst my lower body was wet.

We must've landed in a shallow pool of water.

The sound of James next to me whimpering and screaming in agony shook me from my daze.

"James?"

I asked in the general direction of the sound, although after a few blinks of the eyes I could see him slightly using the small gap of light we had just fallen through.

"Marie, ah!"

I managed to sit up, pain piercing through my head and arm causing me to grasp in desperation at my head hoping to relieve the pain.

"We've fallen! Straight through the ground Marie! I- I think I landed on something hard. Please, I need you to help me."

My hand fell from my head to look more directly at James. Squinting my eyes to see him through my dizziness and the darkness.

A tangled mess of a body lay before me, the glistening of what I could only hope was the water; shining slightly from the light above.
As well as a medium to small sized, what I could barely see but assumed to be, a rock on which James had fallen.

"James, I think you may have hit a rock- are you- what hurts?"

I slowly crawled my way over to him, pain searing through my right arm - my good arm.

"My back! M-my head Marie! I don't- I don't think it's good, please, you- you have to go get someone!"

His voice broke and tore through the cave easily, he was in trouble, we both were.

I finally managed to get over to him, my eyes had adjusted to the few meters in front of me and I could see most of James in a monotone of colour.

He had landed arched over the rock, body draped over it. On inspection of the rock, it seems as though after the initial landing, he had slid down leaving a blood slide and  landing half on the rock and half in the water.

My eyes widened and watered slightly, this was not good.

"James I think we need to get you out the water. Y-you're bleeding."

I could be wrong but if he didn't get his wounds out the water, the blood will not clot and he will continue to bleed out.

"It's too painful, I can't move! Please go find someone!"

He knew as well as I did that no one would come to the island for another 5 or so days, nevertheless I had to try.

"Okay yes I'll get us out of here I promise. Do you have the torch?"

I crawled further into the water to find his bag which held our only torch.

"It should be in my bag, please be careful."

James was carrying an over the shoulder bag holding most of our samples and a few pieces of equipment such as the torch.

The bag floated in the water solemnly, completely drenched and I knew the outcome of the torch before even pulling it out the bag.
The battery was drenched and I only got a few flickers of light out before it died.

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