Washed Up ≫ A.I

Chapter [32]

"Please. . . you are stronger than you think." He mumbled through clenched teeth before diving his head forward and tucking my chin up into his shoulder.

I squeezed his sides and buried my face into his shirt as the tears flowed down my face. His sighed into my own shoulder and tilted his face to kiss the side of my temple as I shook and trembled in fear. I felt much more weaker that Ashton could ever imagine. That was my rock over there and she was quickly crumbling under my feet.

+

I squeezed my eyes shut of the dreadful scene, shaking my thoughts from the memory but seeing Emma's bruised cheeks pained me of the other night. I wanted a distraction but no one was brave enough to walk over and interrupt my peace with Emma. She was still alive but no one knows for how long.

Emma's shin was completely snapped in half, twisted between two rocks. How Michael managed to pick her up from the bottom I have no idea, but he did. I was grateful for his help but haven't allowed myself to thank him in person yet.

Settling Emma down back at camp was a disaster. She kept screaming every time she was shifted up against the dirt. Everyone was terrified of the noises she was making and not once did she open her eyes. That night was one of our longest ones. Emma was shivering one minute and then throwing up heated stomach vials the next. It was like she went in and out of consciousness and I feared mostly of her seizures whether she would encounter an episode during the twins operation. Nobody knows about Emma's seizures and luckily since our time on this island Emma hasn't fallen into an episode once. I vowed to protect her on this island and the last thing I do is push her down a sinkhole.

Emma coughed a little beside me and I snapped back into reality. "Em?" I asked curiously but then she stopped. Her chest slowed back down into a weak wheeze as her bruised ribs rattled into her unnatural breathing pattern.

Denise had diagnosed that Emma had broken a couple of ribs and there was nothing we could do to set them like her leg. The amount of blood loss she had endured made her too weak to heal around the damaged tissue. Basically this was the end.

I didn't want to listen to any of that doctor bullshit. I was not going to stand here and wait for her to just die. I was weak but not that weak.

Foot steps shuffled through the grass behind me but I didn't jump to look at who it was. It was most likely Ashton, coming over to feed me or see if I was okay. I obviously wasn't okay and don't know if I'll ever be.

"How are her bruises?" I heard Denise's sweet yet pained voice as her shadow stepped aside me and knelt down to the grass. She twisted onto her butt and brought her legs up into her chest as I peeked at her from the corner of my eyes, "Still no signs of bleeding?" she asked again.

"None that I've seen."

Emma was topless, lying down in her red swim suit top which was no longer the color bright and lively but dull like the color of her stained blood. The permanent purple stains on her ribs cover the bumps and scratches of leftover blood easily. She was almost nothing but a beat up looking rag doll. I reached over and played with her caramel hair, brushing my fingertips through her short tips. Her hair now reached the base of her neck and stuck outwards in dirty sweat.

That night before she fell she was covered in mud and rough dirt. It was all seeped into everyone's clothes in fact. That night too, everyone helped to pull her body through the jungle; a long struggle of endless screaming, however one person was missing the entire time. Somehow during the mix of me wrestling off Michael and Ashton, Benson had knocked Tyson in the nose and ran off through the trees when nobody was there to stop him. Later after that, Ashton showed Tyson tricks with his bloody fist for being a screw up and letting Benson go so easily.