Chapter 72: Unexpected Attack
Meanwhile...
Alicia's Point of View
I glanced across the circle now and then, keeping an eye on Zak as I set up the static-x camera. All I could really see of him now was the glow of his flashlight. I felt uneasy and anxious at being so far apart from him, but figured most of it was the forces of the circle affecting me.
Just as I was double checking the settings on the static-x camera and hit the record button, I faintly heard Zak's voice calling my name. I looked up and in the direction his voice had come from.
Where's the glow of his flashlight...?
"Yeah?" I called back.
He must not of heard me, because I heard Zak nearly yell my name. His voice was full of fear, which instantly filled me with fear.
"Zak!" I called back, louder, as I grabbed my handheld camera from the ground – I wanted the extra bit of light the camera provided to go along with my flashlight - and started running across the circle.
~*~*~*~*~
I reached Zak a few moments later - out of breath from running - to find him standing just outside the circle. He seemed fine, other than the fact he was staring into the woods and breathing a bit hard. But he wasn't moving at all, it was like he was frozen in place.
I aimed my camera in the direction he was staring, using the night vision of my camera to help me see further into the darkness. I was expecting to see a large, wild animal, prepared to lunge at us. Or something paranormal and unknown.
But there was nothing.
"Zak...what-" I started, and nearly jumped out of my skin when the Mel-Meter alarm sounded for a brief moment. I also heard some sort of subsonic sound off in the distance for almost the same amount of time that the Mel-Meter alarm sounded.
What in the hell...
Zak suddenly turned and grabbed onto my upper arm with one hand. He was gripping my arm so tightly it hurt.
"Zak-" I started, reaching up with one hand and grabbing onto his bicep of the arm that was holding onto me, but he cut me off.
"Something's happening to me..." Zak said.
I noticed his breathing was becoming faster and more laboured.
"Come out here," I said, thinking maybe the surrounding trees were making him feel claustrophobic. But somehow I knew it wasn't that, because I started to feel some sort of strange energy too, unlike anything I had ever felt before.
"No..." Zak said, his voice shaky, weak, and full of more fear than I've ever heard come out of him since I had met him. He sounded like a lost, scared little boy.
I was really starting to get scared now. Zak didn't scare easily, and for him to be behaving this way...it was terrifying.
"Zak...come on, come out here," I said, gripping the sleeve of his jacket and trying to pull him toward me and back into the circle. But he was rooted in place, as if his feet were cemented to the ground. His hand was still gripping my arm, painfully. I tried not to grimace in pain, but I knew I'd have a bruise later.
Zak didn't respond to my coaxing, and I noticed his breathing was becoming even more quickly, in a very bad way. He was wheezing.
It suddenly dawned on me that regardless of what he'd seen or heard, regardless if this had started out as a paranormal attack, he was now having an asthma attack.
He suddenly let go of the camera and Mel-Meter, letting them drop to the ground, and reached up and grabbed at his chest with his free hand.
Oh Jesus...
I managed not to panic as I let my own camera drop to the ground, and grabbed onto him with my second hand and managed to help him move so that he was sitting on the ground. He was still holding onto my arm, but not nearly as tightly now.
"Where's your inhaler?" I asked, managing to sound calm despite my rapidly increasing heart rate, starting to pat one hand over the pockets of his jacket, trying to feel for it.
"A...T...V..." Zak wheezed, his face starting to grow pale.
The ATV!?
I could feel my panic taking over.
By the time I ran halfway back across the field to the ATV, found his inhaler, and got back to him, it would probably be too late. His attack was getting worse by the second.
I felt my eyes start watering when he suddenly started gasping for air, the little air he was managing to suck into his lungs causing awful, scary, rasping sounds.
No...no...Emily! Help me! I thought.
I had just started breathing heavily myself out of panic, when something came to me. A memory of a scene from a TV show called "Lost", which I had watched years ago.
The show was about a group of people that were flying to the States from Australia, when their plane suddenly crashed onto a mysterious island. One of the characters had asthma, and she had started to have severe asthma attacks on the island, not having her inhalers on hand at the time. Another character - luckily a doctor - had managed to essentially talk her "out" of her asthma attack, and she had calmed down enough to breathe fairly normally again, until they found her inhalers.
The logical part of me knew that it was a TV show, and I had no idea if it was realistically possible to calm someone out of their asthma attack.
If I can get Zak to calm down enough to give me time to run to the ATV and back...I thought.
It was the only option I had.
I reached up with both hands and gently rested them on the sides of his jaw and neck, forcing him to look up at me. Despite the panic and fear I saw in his eyes, I felt some sort of wave of calmness come over me as I spoke to him.
"Zak, listen to me. I know you're panicking, but I can't go and get your inhaler unless you calm down some," I started.
Zak looked at me with fear, and oddly, pain – emotional pain - in his eyes.
Why is he upset, other than the obvious distress...?
I ignored my mental questioning of the pain in his eyes and focused on calming him down.
"I need you to take deep breathes in through your nose, okay?" I said.
I saw Zak try to take a deep breath, but he ended up doing it through his mouth and not his nose, and he just ended up coughing.
I stroked the sides of his jaw to try to comfort him, and did my best to keep calm.
"No Zak, like this," I said, before closing my mouth and taking a deep breath through my nose. "You can do it," I added.
Please...I can't lose you...
I knew the act of showing Zak what I was asking him to do would help him during his panic, plus, it helped me calm myself a bit too.
I saw him press his lips together and then saw his chest rise fairly steadily as he took a deep breath through his nose.
"Good...now slowly breath out through your mouth..." I said, keeping my eyes locked on his.
I saw his lips part slightly as he breathed out through his mouth, and I saw a bit of colour slowly returning to his face.
"That's great, now again," I said, taking a deep breath through my nose again.
He repeated the action again, and his wheezing eased up slightly.
"Go get the inhaler...now!" I suddenly heard Emily's voice from somewhere nearby, but I had no idea where it came from. I couldn't see her anywhere.
I reached down with one hand and picked up one of the flashlights from the ground - relieved it was still working - and reached back and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans, so that the light was shining up on my back. I hoped that as long as Zak could see the light on my back, he'd remain as calm as possible.
I then positioned one of our cameras - which miraculously was still working - toward the ATV, so on the way back I would be able to see the camera's light as a reference to find Zak again. Once I had it placed, I picked up the second flashlight, and looked into Zak's eyes.
"I'm going to go and get your inhaler...but I need you to keep taking deep breaths through your nose, and try to stay as calm as you can, okay?" I said.
I saw some of the fear return in his eyes, and his breathing became more unsteady again.
I reached up with my free hand and cupped one side of his face with my hand.
"I'll be right back, I promise," I started, and turned slightly to show him the flashlight shining up over my back from my waist. "You'll be able to see me the entire time. You can do this. I need you to do this..." I added, not meaning to let my panic show, but some of it slipped out in my voice.
It felt like an eternity had passed before I saw Zak nod his head briefly, and he took a deep breath in through his nose again, as if to signal for me to go now.
"I'll be back," I promised, before forcing myself to stand up and start running as fast as I could back toward the ATV.
Authors Note: I hope what happened to Zak in these chapters is realistic. I did a bit of research about asthma to learn more than I already did know, and I feel it's okay.