90 DEADLY DAYS (WEEKLY UPDATES RETURNING THIS DECEMBER)

Chapter 7.5

Again, I realized this chapter was way too long so I split it up. I really like long chapters, don't I?

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Chapter 7.5

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"Third shock administered," a familiar woman's voice says.

I writhe, suddenly registering pain.

"Shock successful."

My eyes snap open. A dimming sky glows above. The colors pink, orange, and a blueish-purple swim before me.

Kerry loved to watch the sunset.

We four, Jewel, Adonis, Kerry and I, would sit outside, cups of coffee and hot chocolate perched in our laps, and watch the sun disappear. When the stars emerged, Kerry would name each one by heart, constellations and all. His excitement and interest with it was so contagious, it spread to even me, who found most things about nature uninteresting.

"Where are you Kerry?"

I lift my hand as if to touch the sky. The fingers drip with water. Surprised, I sit up to investigate, plunging down instead. Brown water floods my sputtering mouth and nose, the taste of it bitter and poisonous.

I must have floated downstream.

I thrash to reach the surface, clawing at the water as it consumes my lungs. For barely a second, I manage to shove my head above water and suck in a gulp of hair. Hot air fans my face and I catch the sound of voices shouting before I slip under again.

"Hey there's someone in the water!"

"Where?"

Water chokes my lungs fully when a hand tugs my right arm and grabs under my shoulder. My rescuer proceeds to haul me to the surface, where I gasp for air between wrenching coughs.

"You okay?" A masculine voice asks. I shake my head and cling desperately to their arm.

He glides us both to the riverbank where a girl and another boy help drag me up it.

"Thank you..." I wheeze, clutching my belly.

"It's no problem. Can you breathe okay?"

I nod as he squeezes water out of sleeves of his Fortunate uniform.

"How long have you been floating out there?"

"I don't know," I rasp. "I fell in when the water rolled off this edge..."

"You mean the waterfall upstream?" A female voice interrupts.

"Yeah. I guess you could call it that."

The second boy analyzes me incredulously, cocking his head.

"You fell off it? How are you not dead?"

"Jake!"

"She's lying Lola. No one could survive that."

"No I did!" I catch my bearings and whirl, my eyes narrowing. "Everything went black and this shock brought me back—."

"One shock couldn't have done that," the swimmer interjects.

My lips part as I prepare to refute his statement. But then I realize it's true, the woman had said third shock. But how did I end up with three shocks? Didn't I only have one?

"I had three shocks."

The one named Jake snorts.

"Now you're really kidding us. No one has three shocks by the second day."

"I did you insufferable--."

"Whoa now!" The swimmer interrupts, holding up his hands. "Way to treat the people that saved you."

I pause, faltering as words escape me.

"Thanks for your help... but I'm not a liar. It really happened."

"This is why you don't become a do-gooder in the ninety days, Fahim." Jake clucks his tongue and shakes his head.

"Shut up."

Fahim cuts his eyes to Jake and then to me.

"Before I change my mind, all the Fortunates within a mile radius are camping out a little ways from here. Since you're one of us, ya might as well join... and hurry up before you say some more crap that makes me regret saving you."

"No thank you." I sniff, my stomach filling with fear. Me? Staying with a whole pack of Fortunates? "I prefer to be on my own."

"Well good luck with that," Lola grins. "I heard some of the others mention that Raiders were prowling in the underbrush around here."

The hair on the back of my neck raises.

"Oh..." I clear my throat as nonchalantly as I can. "Then I guess if the offer's still open..."

"Yeah it is," Lola laughs. "As long as you get rid of that stupid accent. Doesn't she sound like that Dana guy? The Entitled who made it through the 90 days five years ago?"

"Yeah, she does!"

They all look at me.

I gulp.

The camp is a bit farther than Fahim made it sound. As we walk the aches and pains of today reemerge. It's all I can do to keep from hobbling. But the three aren't even breaking into that much of a sweat, though the state of their clothes suggests they've had a day like mine. If not worse, if the deep wound on the back of Jake's head is anything to go by.

For once, I'm thankful to be sticky and wet, it hides how much I am actually sweating.

When we arrive at the meeting point, the "camp" is little more than people gathered around a roaring fire. I smile, rubbing my arms as I notice the temperature drop. At least tonight I won't be cold.

Lola, Fahim, and Jake sit on the left side of the fire, near some comrades they seem to know. The comrades have the same curly sable hair, brown skin, and dark irises. If I didn't know any better I'd say they were siblings.

I slip away when their attention is elsewhere and sit on the opposite side of the flames near a short girl. She smiles, her green eyes shining in the firelight.

"Do you need some help with that?" She points to the wound the beast inflicted.

"No," I reply hastily. "I'm sure it'll heal itself."

"Or the open flesh might draw gnats and maggots to it."

I wince. She laughs and sets to work cleaning it, finishing by placing torn fabric from her tunic over it to protect it from the elements.

"Thank you," I say.

"Yeah whatever," she shrugs, leaning back against the tree behind her. "Don't sleep too soundly tonight."

"What? Why?"

"Trust your neighbor not yourself," she grins. "Don't you remember the rule?"

I mask my confusion with a forced smile.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, the head wound's making me forget things."

She laughs and crosses her arms comfortably. Her attention moves from me to the Fahim, Lola, and Jake gang across from us. 

"It's not fair," she murmurs. "They found their whole family and I'm still looking for my sister."

"Whole family?"

"Yep."

I grunt in agreement. "Yeah I'm still looking for my family too."

Secretly I smile, realizing that Jewel, Adonis, and Kerry are my real family. Well maybe not Kerry, thinking about him like that and then another way feels wrong.

"Well let's hope we find them, eh?"

"Yeah," I whisper, watching the Fahim gang laugh together. "Let's."