Amnesia

VI.

"No shit," Jimin countered, though his eyes gave away his concern. Then again, his best friend was currently bleeding to death, which might affect one's state of mind. Remy wouldn't know.

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Namjoon, who was officially the most observant boy in the group and Remy's new favorite, asked.

She pointed at the dark clouds. "There's a storm coming in, and quick."

"I thought it didn't rain in the desert," Jeongguk said at the same time Yoongi said, "Water sounds nice."

They're hopeless. "Oh my God," Remy said, covering her face with her hand. "It usually doesn't rain in the desert. But when it storms here, it storms like you wouldn't believe. And considering the storms come with some amazing lightning displays, I personally don't wanna be outside when it hits."

"Oh," Yoongi said with a nod, and then they all started running for the house.

While they were running, Taehyung started yelling in pain. Remy winced, wishing she could cover her ears. But she had a gun in one hand, and she did not want that thing in any way pointing towards her head. Then, a soft and shaky voice started singing something.

Remy glanced over. Jeongguk was singing a quiet tune in Korean. It must have been a tune that they all knew because several of the others began singing along as well. Remy wished she could understand what they were saying, or be able to sing along because it seemed to work in calming Taehyung.

But all she could do was keep going, and try to keep the gun out of the rambling boy's sight.

It seemed Lady Luck decided to give them one thing: the house wasn't too far away. An old rusty mailbox lay out a distance away from the house, which Remy found almost amusing. What kind of person who wants to be on the grid would live in this barren wasteland? At the base, a small ant hill was making a home in the dirt. Remy saw that there were a few ants still crawling over it, meaning it wasn't going to start raining just yet. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. She remembered the wiry man's gun again and thought about the relatively weak walls of the truck. It was probably a bad thing.

In the gravel driveway, a similarly old and rusty pickup truck sat silently. Remy looked at the plates as someone went and frantically knocked on the house's door. It had a barely visible California plate on it. So they were still in the state.

No one was answering the door. Still, Remy was a little surprised when Seokjin punched through the glass on the door and unlocked the latch from the inside. It looked like Yoongi was the one who needed to punch something. Then she heard another shocked yell, and the urgency made sense.

"Remington!" Hoseok yelled.

"Coming!" she shouted back, taking one last look at the desert around them before running inside.

The house smelled old, like no one had been in there for a long time. A thin layer of dust covered a mirror that Remy passed by. She made a point of not looking at her reflection. She didn't think she wanted to see what it had to show her.

Taehyung was placed on an old wooden table in a badly vintage kitchen. He was back to howling despite Seokjin's attempts to shush him.

Namjoon looked at Remy. "What do we do?" he asked.

What, did he think she had a fucking clue?

Keep your head on your shoulders, Remington, she told herself. It had been something her therapist told her to think when she felt overwhelmed. Don't let the brave idiot bleed to death. That was more her. But head on shoulders. She knew some medical stuff from her Pre-Med classes. She could help enough.

"Did the bullet go through completely?" she asked, making her way over.

Jimin went even paler.

"Uh," Namjoon ran his hand over Taehyung's back. "I don't think so."

"Shit," Remy swore. "We need to get it out. We need a pair of tweezers or something like that."

"Need what?" Yoongi asked.

Remy's brain was going to explode. "Something to get the bullet out."

"Ah."

They all rushed to old cabinets and drawers. Jeongguk ripped the handle of a drawer straight out of the rotten wood. Eventually, a tweezer-like tool was given to Remy. She held it in her hand like it was some sort of actual medical tool, then realized how much her hand was shaking.

"Do any of you do your own eyebrows?"

They all stared back at her incredulously. "Now isn't the time for a fan question!" Yoongi yelled.

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I need someone with the steady hand," she said. "And if any of you actually do your own eyebrows, you've got a steadier hand than I do."

Seokjin visibly gulped before he raised his right hand. "What if I mess up?" he asked as he took the tweezers.

Remy didn't want to entertain the thought for a second. "Just don't mess up," she said.

Unfortunately for the entire group, saying 'don't mess up' was a lot easier than actually not messing up. The injured boy was completely out of his mind. He screamed and fought away as the older boy tried removing the bullet, making it an impossible task.

"What do we do?!" Jeongguk asked, doing his best to hold Taehyung down by the shoulders. He was failing, shockingly. Then again, distressed people in pain tend to have a surprising amount of strength.

Remy was at a loss for what to do. Then she glanced up then saw an old red barn behind the house. "Find something that makes fire!" she demanded, then went to look for a door to the outside.

"What?" Jimin shouted, his voice almost ear-splitting.

Remy found a battered patio door. "Just do as I say! Get a match or lighter or something!"

Dried-up grass scratched her feet as she ran to the barn. Her arms burned as she threw one of the doors open and ran inside. It was dark inside, and there was the strong if faintly pleasant smell of old hay decomposing.

She spun around until finally, she found a wood cabinet on one of the walls. The cabinet door nearly broke off the hinges as she ripped it open. She allowed herself a sigh of relief when she saw two small glass bottles and three syringes. There was another particularly loud yell from the house, and Remy scooped up two of each and went running back.

By the time she made it back to the kitchen, Yoongi had found an old cigarette lighter somewhere. Remy took it and tried to light it, but found her hands were still shaking too much. Head on shoulders, head on shoulders, headonshoulders, headonshoulders-

Someone wrapped their hands around hers and she looked up to see Jimin - still pale-faced, eyes still red, but with a cold determination in his eyes. The two of them stared at each other for just a second before Jimin took the lighter and brought it to life with a click. It was such a small thing, that flame. Yet it seemed to mean something then, something much bigger. Remy cleared her throat, then ran the syringe through the flames. Hopefully, the heat would sanitize the metal, which would clear up one of the problems they had. It seemed this much the boys understood, though it was obvious a few of them wanted to ask what was in the bottle.

They didn't get to ask, though, before they heard the footsteps.