The Dead Zone

━ 03 | after

"So what do we do now?" asked Henry in a tone that was far too calm for the situation but laced with just-barely-noticeable nervousness.

Everyone was turning to Fray to make the decisions, and his head was starting to hurt. "I don't know. I don't know. Somebody knock him out so he stops screaming; it's giving me a migraine."

"We're gonna have to sew it up."

"Do I look like I've got a fuckin' needle and thread, Max?"

"Uh... we're supposed to wrap it, right? Henry, take off your shirt."

"What? Why me?" He made the mistake of glancing briefly at Jay's severed limb and immediately turned away, covering his eyes with a hand. "Oh, God, I'm going to throw up."

"Fine, Sam."

"First Henry, now me? What do you have against Brits?"

"Your accents are annoying and your food is bland. Hand it over. Let's go."

Yadiel lifted an eyebrow. "You're aware he has a gun, right?"

Max shrugged. Reluctantly, Sam unfolded his arms, wrenching off his denim jacket and pulling his t-shirt over his head. He crumpled it into a ball and tossed it to him.

Rosalynn shoved through the crowd of boys, snatching up the soaked shirt and pushing Fray out of her way to crouch down next to a whimpering Jay. She wrung it out to get it as dry as possible before tying it tightly around Jay's leg to halt the bleeding. "You idiots shouldn't have done this without consulting someone with a higher IQ than a gym sock," she hissed to the others. "You have to stitch it up and bandage it with something dry. And in case you dimwits haven't noticed, there's only water for miles—water that could give him a serious infection."

"He would've drowned," Max snapped, and she drew back slightly.

"He'll be fine," Fray said, although he wasn't really feeling it. "He's alive. For now that'll have to be enough. Where's Kal?"

"Mr. Kalani's awake, gathering everyone together. We're going to go ahead and move uphill to the parking garage." She eyed Jay, who was rocking softly back and forth. "Good luck getting him to move. But I'll let you deal with the consequences of your actions."

Fray made a face. "Thanks."

"It's fine, he doesn't need to walk during the apocalypse," said Sam as she left, nodding as if he was attempting to reassure himself. "We can probably carry him. He's not that fat."

Max shot him a glare. "I held him up for however-the-hell-long and he felt pretty fat to me."

"You have skinny arms."

He leaned forward. "Then I'd like to see you carry him several miles on foot. Go ahead."

"Everybody relax," Fray growled. His eyes flicked to where Jay's breathing had become shallow and quiet. He snapped his fingers in front of him, making his eyes snap open. "Hey. You've gotta stay awake, dude."

"I don't have to do shit. I'm tired, and hungry, and we never ate lunch, and I'm the only one here who has any right to complain because you guys cut off my leg!"

Though this would likely only be classified as pretty ticked off for anyone else, Fray had never seen James Sloan this angry. He was one of the school's most notorious stoners—not exactly known for being expressive. Yadiel flashed a soft half-smile that made Fray realize that they were all trying to mask the horror and shock by acting normal. It was unlikely that that would make this whole situation easier for Jay, but it probably made things easier to comprehend for the rest of them. "Glad to hear you're feeling a little better."