salute [james conrad] 1

Chapter 9

Theres ringing. Nonstop. Blackness envelopes her, and even though she is awake, her body is asleep.
Charlotte looks around her. Everything she hears is muted.

But theres one hing that isnt.

Tyler stands there. Motionless. He stares at her with determination.

"Tyler?" Charlotte wonders. Her voice echoes in the darkness.

 She starts walking towards him, her steps becoming faster until she is jogging. But it is as if he is only getting farther away.

Tyler cocks his head looking at her. His face becomes a curious one.

"Why?" He asks merely. His face holds no emotion. No joking, no goofiness. His eyes are dead.

Charlotte stops. The black void around her forces her to focus on him.

"Why what?" She asks exasperated. 

"Why?!" He asks again, louder this time.

"Why what?!" Charlotte exclaims, holding her arms above her  Then he walks towards her, pure determination on his face. And a tint of something else.

"Why did you kill me?"

Charlotte wakes up with a gasp. She chokes on her breath and looks frantically around, her eyes wide. Panic starts to creep on in the back of her throat. What happened? What was that? Why was Tyler there? and what did he want? 

"Hey, shhh. Don't move" Conrad says, stepping up to her and crouching down in front of her.

She looks at him and heaves out a breath of relief.

"Oh thank god" She breaths out, looking around at the deep greens of jungle around her and gaining her breath "What happened?" She asks, turning back to him.

"That" he pauses, tilting his head to the side, trying to find the right words "creature brought us down" Conrad says with an expressionless look.

Charlotte nods. She waits a second, taking in her surroundings , and then makes a move to stand up from the dirty ground, but then screams when she feels an excruciating pain on her shoulder. She grits her teeth and leans her head back, trying to hold it in.

Then she looks at her shoulder, and panics when she sees a metal pole rising out of it, blood surrounding the wound.

Her breaths start to become laboured as she keeps on staring at her shoulder. Conrad sees this, and knows he needs to distract her.

"Wilson" Conrad calls her name. Charlotte takes a moment to look at him, but when she does, she stares into his deep blue eyes and heaves out another breath.

"It's Charlotte. You can call me Charlotte. I think we're kind of on a first name basis" She says after a moment, staring around again at all the people who survived distractedly, trying to keep her mind off her shoulder wound.

Conrad laughs for a moment, looking at the ground, and then gestures to her wound.

"Well, Charlotte. We need to get that out" he says, looking at her wound.

Charlotte nods.

"Yeah. uh. Just. Give me a second to be ready" She whispers. Conrad nods, and Charlotte stares at him for a moment before she closes her eyes and swallows.