Love, Blood and Wilderness | YELLOWJACKETS

Chapter 35

"She's dying anyway," Van argued.

"We have to survive," Taissa agreed.

"The Wilderness wants us to," Lottie claimed.

"We can't go any longer without food," Nat stated.

I tried to scream in protest but no words could escape my throat.

Shauna stabbed my abdomen with a giant fork. I attempted to shout in pain but I was mute. The girls all hovered around me, I could see their faces starving with famine, sunken with inanition.

Jackie, engulfed in flames, was waving to me to come with her in the fire pit.

I was thrown into the ember.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

    I spooked myself awake, the pain in my stomach feeling intolerable.

    I felt myself gasp as I pulled myself out of the nightmare, which caused Lottie to turn to me in fear.

    "Are you okay?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.

    "Yeah, just... Just a bad dream," I told her, hesitantly.

    "Well, here... Mari made this, uh, soup? You need something, anything, to hold you over," Lottie offered me a bowl of unpalatable boiled water. I tried to stomach it but it wasn't easy. I really made an effort not to regurgitate it back up, but unfortunately, I did, along with a puddle of blood.

    "Lottie...," I moaned, "I can't keep this up."

    "Shhh, shhh, don't say that. Nat and I will come up with something," she assured me.

    "You and Nat? What an interesting combination," I struggled to offer her a smirk.

   "Yeah, well," she gave me a sad smile, "we've kind of formed an unlikely alliance."

    That was the best news I could have possibly received.

    "How's Shauna?" I wondered.

    "She's fine. Here, you need sanitizer on your injury," Lottie responded, dripping the sanitizer onto my wound. I winced but the pain of the wound getting cleaned wasn't nearly as excruciating as the pain of the injury.

    I was still occupying a fever and realized I was still in the same dirty shorts and bra. I felt so disgusting and filthy. My skin was sticky with sweat and my hair was unbelievably sullied. The puddles of the rotting blood and vomit mixtures that stained the floor weren't doing me any favours either. I guess I had bigger things to worry about, but the grime didn't help my situation to be any better.

    "Lottie?"

    "Yes love?"

    Love. My heart fluttered.

    "I'm really scared."

    "I know, but we're figuring it out, okay? Everything's gonna be alright," she tried to convince me.

    It was no use though. I knew the outcome here. I knew that the endgame didn't look good for me, and I was getting better at accepting that.