Stay alive

Chapter 8

Yoongi couldn't deny it anymore. He was tired, no, he was exhausted. He didn't have a great night of sleep before they went on their plane, but adding a full day of constant worry and taking care of the members was becoming too much for the little eyes of the rapper. He fought to keep his eyelids open and he caught himself dozen off a few times before he jolted away when he heard another twig move in the distance.

He knew he had to wake up someone. It was dangerous if he fell asleep because he was the only one awake of the group. It wouldn't have been a problem if they were currently safe in a warm house, but they were in a jungle, the home of a lot of dangerous animals that could attack at any moment. Thankfully, the fire had scared away most of them so far, but it was still no guarantee that all animals would stay away.

So Yoongi looked at Taehyung who slept on the other side of the fireplace where he was clinging to Jimin's uninjured side like a koala. He looked comfortable and Yoongi hated himself for not being able to stay awake a little longer to give the boy some more rest, but his eyes weren't cooperating anymore. He needed to close them, even if it was just for two hours. So the rapper sighed and carefully wrapped a hand around Jungkook's head who had fallen asleep against his side. The maknae did stir at little bit when he was being lowered to the ground, but it didn't seem that he had woken up. So once Yoongi was able to move around again, he stood up and went to Taehyung's side.

He knelt on his knees and his hand went to the boy's shoulder to wake him up, but he stopped when he noticed how Taehyung was shivering. It was odd though, since Yoongi could feel the heat from the fire and even Jimin and Hoseok had a slight blush on their faces because of it. So why was Taehyung shivering then, while he was one of the least injured? The rapper then noticed how his clothes were a bit damp, but only at the front and not at the back. Curiosity took over and Yoongi gently started to peel away layers of clothes to reach the bandages underneath it and that's when he noticed how bad his wounds had been leaking with wound fluids. It wasn't bleeding, but yellowish clear liquid kept coming from the wounds since the high humidity wasn't the best circumstance for a wound to close. And since the skin of Taehyung's whole front of his body was damaged, large parts of his clothes were getting damp and the cold air had won over the warmth of the flames.

Yoongi sighed sadly at the state of the second youngest and silently scolded himself for not checking his wounds more frequently. He had cleaned the wounds after taking care of the most injured members, but after that he hadn't paid attention to it anymore. He had assumed that the boy was doing fine, and he probably had been doing fine during the day but the coldness of the night was maybe their new enemy. The rapper looked at the medical bag that was lying next to Taehyung and decided to get to work immediately. First he made sure to remove the damp clothes, and then he carefully peeled away the dirty bandages. Taehyung however kept sleeping like a baby as the heavy sleeper he was known to be. But changing the bandages didn't seem to hurt him too much since none of the gauze was sticking to his wounds, so maybe they were a bit lucky for once.

With skillful hands he then started to disinfect the wounds like he had done earlier, and it was only then when he finally got a reaction from the second youngest. Taehyung's brow frowned a little a bit and his eyes were moving behind his closed eyelids before he started to mumble

"Hmm hyung?"

"Yeah I'm here. It's okay, I'm just cleaning your wounds, just sleep okay?" Yoongi whispered and continued to dab the wounds with a gauze drenched in skin disinfectant. Taehyung winced a little bit when the gauze hit a particular spot, but then sleep took over again and let himself guide into dreamland again. Yoongi smiled softly how the boy could sleep so easily, but to be honest it was making his job a little easier. Within a few minutes he had completely cleaned the entire front side and he only needed a few more minutes to cover the wounds again. He purposely didn't dress the younger one with sweaters again, but only covered him with them so he could have easier access to the wounds if needed. He also had a blanket so it would be enough for him to get warm again.