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Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

Mesonii turned her head to the next screech, this time Odonto's, from yelling an obscenity. The father and son were still on the top of the wall.

She didn't even have to make any assumptions to know what happened. The E-Liter 3K was off to the side, but the bayonet attached was gone. She had let Inia get away with it all.

Hoping she could help, Mesonii climbed up the wall to the scant amount of space that had been left.

Peppie was lying down in the rest of it, a pool of darkly colored blood collecting from his leg and dripping off the edge- in the side of his chubby right thigh, the bayonet was lodged in in what had to be at least a three-inch deep cut.

His sudden distress was the first thing Mesonii noticed after seeing the gash. She couldn't believe it- one minute she was smiling at his presence, and the next, he's fallen victim to the incident she was supposed to die under. Naïveté had stricken again. The best thing she could do was to try not be obtrusive so as not to ruin it all once more.

"Mr. Cetacea, do you have anything you can tie the cut with?"

Odonto was already looking through a green knapsack, similarly stored like Inia's under his ink tank. "Already checked, I've got nothing."

"Dammit- sorry!" Mesonii caught herself before the exclamation could get out of hand. She couldn't let Peppie's father hear that.

His response, though, was not that of admonishing. "We're in a crisis. Just keep it appropriate."

The two noticed that Peppie was reaching behind him, wincing as the cut stretched with his arms. Soon, the red bandana slipped off and fluttered to his chest.

"Dad. Lift up my leg," he whimpered. "I-I know what to do."

He took his bandana in his hands as Odonto reluctantly pushed the leg upwards slightly. Peppie readied the piece of cloth meticulously, until it looked like a rope.

Mesonii noticed the blood flowing out of the cut was coming faster and faster. "Peppie, hurry! You're bleeding more!"

"Really?! F-frack!" He took no more care for the form of the cloth and placed it under his thigh, tying as tight of a knot he could above the cut. The bandana couldn't compress completely, but for now, this tourniquet was better than nothing- the blood receded slightly.

Odonto grabbed a squid-shaped device out of his bag; his phone. Quickly, he dialed a number and held it up to his ear, the ringing tone quiet.

The mint inkling contemplated her injured friend. Despite his calmness with handling the cut before, Peppie now looked to be on the verge of tears, the way he was at. Mesonii knew she had to make him forget about the injury soon.

"You're... You're actually handling this really well. Not much of a cryer, huh?"

Wrong button pushed. Peppie choked out some sort of laugh, a strained sob, an attempt to stop what was coming next, but the singular attempt was futile as a couple of tears fell down his cheeks.

"It really hurts."

She didn't know what to do next- she had already failed once and there was no way she could do it again. The firm voice of Odonto explaining the injury to the hospital gave her an initial idea. "Your dad's calling 911. I think your tourniquet can hold out until they come to get you."

Peppie sniffled, but then looked at his bandana tied to his thigh and laughed. "The internet teaches you a lot of things."

"Maybe you're your own medic. You'd do well on those survival shows."