Chapter 58
-Farley-
The world was blurry, my head and body ached. I didn't really know where I was, or what I was meant to be doing. I felt the need to continue fighting, but was there an enemy? Of course, there was, everyone had been knocked out. I think.
But Pax wouldn't have been knocked out. The thought caused me to fight more against the weight which tried to shut my eyelids. Pax would have been awake and able to fight. What had he done? There was the opportunity to tear everyone to pieces. Everyone would have been helpless against him if he tried to fight his way out of the situation. Would I need to find him again? Did he leave me?
"No!" a voice yelled, and several loud bangs rang in my ears. I was alarmed, but my movement was minimal. I was so heavy. It took all of my effort to lift my head.
"Pax, Pax. Are you okay? Did it hit you?" Channon, or Channing, asked frantically.
The words seemed to fill me with strength. It was something that I didn't have time to question as I lifted myself on my two front paws. I dragged my body to where the noises were coming from and where there was something light on the floor.
The room was filled with the metallic stench of blood. The light on the floor was Iris and Rowan, crouched by Pax's side. At least, I assumed that the mass of darkness by my feet was Pax.
He was whimpering in pain, his body shook, and his eyes were clamped shut. My paws were wet with his blood, despite me only being there a moment.
I started to see red. The energy that Pax's name created had increased tenfold. My eyes rose from Pax's body to meet the eyes of the woman who hurt him.
I slowly approached her, a deep growling in my throat. I didn't know what came over me, but I ignored the gun which was pointed straight at me and dived for her middle.
I tore and bit down on anything which I could get a hold of. It didn't matter anymore that she was in her human form, it didn't matter that I had the upper hand, it didn't matter if it went against what I believed in at that moment. Nothing mattered other than the fact that Pax was bleeding out because of her. She pulled the trigger and fired the bullet which could potentially cost Pax his life.
I pushed her to the floor so that she couldn't get away and continued until I no longer heard her heart beating.
I was breathing heavily and my left hindleg was in so much pain, I couldn't feel it properly anymore. I dragged myself towards Pax again and looked over his wounds. He had to go to a hospital immediately, but how could we get him to a hospital? He couldn't shift back into his human form, and I certainly didn't know how to treat bullet wounds.
"They're waking up," Oran said anxiously.
"Quick, we've got to move," Channing said, looking around frantically. "Where can we move to?"
"We can't move him," Iris said after I had whined. "We can't move Pax, and Farley's injured."
I was? Well, I knew that I was in pain, but I didn't think it was that bad. I was too focused on my actions, rather than what harm they could potentially cause me.
"Who's waking up?" Lowell asked. "Our side?"
There was a moment of silence as Iris looked over the crowd. "Both," she replied begrudgingly. "We need someone's help."
"You know, all you've got to do is ask," my mother called from the other side of the room, where the others had come from. She had a canister next to her. "Stay in your human forms and try to wake up as many wolves on our side as you can." She put the canister down and started to fill little needles with it.
"What are you doing?" Channon asked cautiously.
My mother looked up, her face as stern as ever, and said, "they poisoned my husband. I'm not going to let them get away anytime soon."
I wanted to argue that some of them were innocent, but that wouldn't really benefit me at the moment. We could have a very long discussion about morality later.
"Okay," Channing said as he rose to his feet. "I'll get mam and our aunties; you get dad and our uncles." He told his twin before racing off to find the familiar wolves.
Oran and Lowell sighed and shook their head. They also left our side to wake up as many wolves as they could recognise.
"What are we going to do?" Rowan asked quietly. "We need help."
A hand rested on my head, causing me to snap at their fingers. My father chuckled weakly. "Make sure the bullet's not in the wound," he said slowly. He sat down next to us and bent over Pax. "I can't see it too well."
After a few moments, he declared that we should put pressure on the wound and then dress it if we could. His clothes were still to the side, so I grabbed those and used my teeth to help Iris tighten it, so that there was hardly any blood oozing out of the edges.
"Iris, help me put him in the recovery position," my father ordered.
I sent him a strange look, which he waved off.
"Yes, Farley, the recovery position works on wolves too. Four limbs, one head, and chest. It all still applies."
I tried to stand up, so that I could shift back into my human form and help more, but I was pushed back down by Rowan. "You're not going anywhere," he told me. "You should deal with your leg."
I had almost forgotten about that. I whined and tried again, but I was pushed back down.
"He's right," Caspian's groggy voice said from above me. He had cuts littering his chest, and his head was bleeding. "You can't change back when you're wounded like that."
I huffed and nodded upwards, indicating that he was one to talk when he had a head injury.
"I'm the alpha, I can do what I like." He bent down next to me and bent over my leg. "Sit still," he commanded with a huff. "We've got to be quick; I don't doubt that this floor is horrendous for infection."
I whined as I was pulled away from Pax. Clementine and Caspian helped me with my wound, but apparently it wasn't looking too good. I didn't quite know what kind of bullet wound looked good, but the way they were talking, it filled me with a cold feeling of dread.
"It's still not a good idea," Clementine muttered. She looked at me, with a pitiful stare. "We should work on getting the injured out of here."
Caspian sighed but nodded and rose to his feet. "Help me with him?" he asked Channon and Channing, who returned once their aunts and uncles were awake.
"Sure," they said in unison.
I made panicked and displeased noises as the three of them lifted me up and took me out of the room, and then out of the building. I was placed outside, with my wound exposed to the cold air, making me whine even more.
"You'll be fine," Rowan told me. He had followed us outside, par my mother's orders. He and my father weren't allowed to help carry people out, due to still being weak as a result of the poison. "Pax will be fine."
I made a low noise, but I couldn't do anything. I was helpless and speechless. All I could do was watch as more and more wolves were brought outside, being carried by their loved ones or complete strangers.
Growls erupted from the hospital; wolves started to run out at a much quicker pace. Some of those who were helping the wolves escape turned back into their wolves and continued the battle. Yet, the enemy was outnumbered at this point. Their leader was dead, and a lot of the wolves had become sedated by my mother.
My mother ran out of the hospital as quickly as she could, but a wolf was chasing her. She couldn't run quick enough and was tackled. I tried to stand up, but I couldn't. I made a loud whining noise, catching several people's attention. They all ran over to help her, shifting as they went. But that was the moment where my head dropped. I was faintly aware of Rowan needing help to stop me from falling out of the car. Then there was nothing.
I didn't know where I was when I woke up. It was dark and cold. I tried to stand, but I hit my head on something. I whined and started to panic. My back leg was aching and stinging, I couldn't put any pressure on it, or else it would ignite into flames.
"Farley? Are you awake?" Clementine's voice called from behind me.
I tried to turn, but I couldn't. The room I was in was too small.
"It's alright, you're still in the car. Sorry, there's not a lot of room." A light then turned on, providing me with nothing more than a view of the road behind us.
It was a dirt road which I didn't recognise. I couldn't see quite well, but there were several other cards following us, all with their headlights on.
"Tell him where we're going," Iris said. "I think he'd want to know."
"But what if people are following us?" Rowan asked. The twins' voices were comforting. It meant that they were safe, or at least able to talk. "They could hear and then go ahead of us."
"If anyone were following us, then they may as well just follow us," Caspian commented.
That meant that they were all okay. But the memory of my mother being tackled, caused me to whine and shake a little.
"Your dad's okay," Iris told me. I couldn't see her, but I could tell that she was just behind me by how close her voice had become. "Your mam's got some cuts on her legs, but we think it's nothing. She might also have broken her nose."
"It's not broken," Rowan argued.
"Yeah? How do you know?" Iris asked.
I wanted to laugh, but I also wanted to cry. My mother had gotten hurt, people have probably died, my leg feels like it's about to drop off, Pax had gotten shot...
I didn't notice the tears that were running down my face until I struggled to hold back a sob. But then, what was the point in holding it back?
I sobbed in the back of the silent car. My body continued to shake until the car stopped. I didn't know where we were, but I was carried inside. I couldn't see many of the room's features without seeing an injured wolf.
"This is the Quartvear packhouse," Caspian explained to me as he sat me down on a blanket. "We thought that it would be a temporary place to rest until some wolves could turn back."
I nodded, there were still tears leaking from my eyes. I tried to look around for a familiar patch of black fur, but I didn't spot it anywhere.
"We haven't moved him from the car," Caspian continued. "It's not looking good."
My heart became cold. The tears became warmer, and the sobbing resumed. I tried to curl into myself as much as possible. I wanted to see him. I needed to see him.
I tried to stand up, but my leg and Caspian held me down. "No," he said in a commanding tone. "Farley, your leg is already in enough danger. Don't try to see him."
Danger of what? My breathing became heavy, and I became dizzy. I fell back to the blanket, my head hitting the floor hard as I tried to make sense of what he could mean. Was it really that bad? Could I...
I didn't want to think about that, the very inkling of acknowledgement made me want to be sick.
"Go back to sleep, everyone will be in here when you wake up," he told me before getting to his feet and moving towards the door.
I had the suspicion that he told Rowan and Iris to make sure I stayed there, as the two of them soon joined me on the floor. They muttered quietly to each other and stared at me with sad eyes. I wanted to slap them, to tell them to stop looking at me as though I was already dead. But all I could manage was a weak pawing at their knees.
"He'll get through it," Iris said again. I didn't know who she was trying to convince. "He's a fighter. It'll just take a while for him to recover."
He shouldn't have to recover. He shouldn't have been shot in the first place.
I lay down with my head on top of one of my paws and stayed there until I became unconscious. The adrenaline which I still felt and the worry surging through me made it tricky, but I managed eventually.
Hello lovelies!
Hope you're all doing good :D
The question of the chapter is, how many books have you read this year?
I've read 60 at the time of writing this- and my goal was 5- but I've had a lot more free listening time recently! This seems like a lot, but it includes The Witcher series, How to Train Your Dragon series, and most of Rick Riordan's books...so it doesn't feel like too much