Help Me Not Die (Interactive)

31. Kill the Turtle

Peter takes his knife out of his pocket and drives it into the sensitive parts of the turtle (anything not covered by its shell). Peter is soon screaming in agony. Peter soon learns that when a snapping turtle dies its jaws clamp down even harder. Furthermore, since it's dead, the turtle can no longer release its grip. Peter is now stuck with a snapping turtle dangling from his leg, and it hurts like no pain he's ever experienced before. Except maybe that time his girlfriend of five years left him at the altar. He's in more physical pain than he's ever been in.

Panicking and acting both recklessly and desperately, Peter tries to rip the turtle off his leg, but it only takes an enormous chunk of his leg with it. He screams as his leg starts bleeding. He steps out of the water and tries to stop the bleeding with his shirt. It's no use. He's lost too much of his leg. Peter takes off his belt and fashions a tourniquet as best he can, cutting of the circulation to his leg.

Peter drags himself away from the water miserably. He lies on the ground collecting himself for probably an hour. The bleeding stops; the pain doesn't.

Peter grabs a convenient nearby stick that looks large and sturdy enough to use as a cane to help him stand. Once he's on his foot (the foot of his good leg of course), he uses the string he keeps in his pocket to tie a smaller stick to the big stick in a T shape. He then wraps the top with his t-shirt. He's made a crutch.

Peter limps away to his camp, carrying the fish he caught in his free hand. When he gets there, he cleans the wound as best as he can with the pot a purified water. Then, he sits and contemplates life. How am I going to keep the hilltop fire burning? How am I going to survive like this? He looks at his torn up leg. I wish I knew how to fix this. He regrets killing that snapping turtle. I'm so close to making it out of here, too. I can feel it.

He's right. It won't be long until the helicopter returns, but because he can't walk very well, he may not be able to signal it . . . or go to meet it.

Peter decides to chill at camp the rest of the day and try to give his leg a break. He eats the two fish he caught before he was attacked that morning throughout the afternoon. At night, he sleeps.

Please proceed to the next part: Fuel the Fire (35).