Chapter 4
Liam's P.O.V
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU JUST HIT HER AROUND THE HEAD!" Ruby screamed from the front of the van, still swerving, trying to outrun the League.
"Chubs! Chubs listen okay! I need you to tell me what I need to do now!" I was trying to be calm.
"WHO THE HELL IS SHE?"
"CHUBS! NOT NOW I NEED HER ALIVE!"
I look over at Elise and her pain throbs in my own gut, deep and warm in the worst possible way. I had no idea how to help her, how to make it all stop.
"Well if you wanted to save her, giving her concussion probably wasn't the best idea" Chubs continued.
"SHE CAN'T FEEL ANY PAIN IF SHE'S UNCONCIOUS!" I screamed back at him, glancing at Elise for a split second. Zu was beside her, staring in terror at a puddle of blood that was starting to drip onto the floor.
"YOU CAN'T JUST BRING RANDOM PEOPLE BACK HERE AND EXPECT ME TO CLEAN UP THE DAMA-"
"SHE'S NOT RANDOM!" Ruby yelled "One look at his face tells you that Chubs. Just do something!"
Chubs looked at me for a moment, a question appearing on his lips. He started into my eyes, which were brimming with tears and widened in alarm. His features softened. And then his eyes glowed green.
"Okay! Okay! Zu, shut the doors!". He'd snapped into action. "LIAM! We're going to need direct pressure perpendicular to the entry, elevation 95 degrees at least, pressure bandage the area, maybe a tourniquet as a last resort– in that order!"
"In English Chubs!" I shouted back, a warning anger in my voice "You're not making any sense!"
"Fine! Just let me do it!"
"Ruby! How far away are we from them?" I shouted to the front of the van instead.
"Not far enough!"
She kept driving as blood soaked into Elise's sleeve, radiating outwards. Chubs stripped the fabric away to show the dark hole puncturing her upper arm. The bullet wound was a mess, as if she'd been hit with two different kinds of weapon at once.
Chubs looked at the wound and narrowed his eyes, panicking and gulping loudly.
Elise was in so much pain her complexion was ashen. Her natural golden skin had sunken in tone to something so lifeless it scared me just to look at it.
I grabbed her hand and laced my fingers through her.
"It's going to be alright darlin'. You're going to be fine"
"Hey Chubs," Ruby tried, her voice softer and calmer than I had been "You've got this okay? You're the smartest person I know. Deep down you know what to do,"
But he stepped away, shaking his head
I threw my hands against the side of the van, punching it harder and harder until my fists ached, until every ounce of frustration was out. It was eating me up inside, the guilt, it felt as though someone had their hand in the pit of my stomach squeezing my organs as hard as they could. I only stopped hammering the side of the van when I saw Zu run up beside her. She was pointing at her chest frantically, slamming her hands against her torso, tears appearing in her eyes. I rush over to Elise, calling her name, giving her a little shake, thinking Zu was trying to say she was waking up.
Only she wasn't.
She was still prodding at her chest, only more vigorously. She was unresponsive. My fingers fumbled across Elise's lips.
There was no warm breath.
Suddenly my stomach dropped with dread.
I finally understood what Zu was trying to say. I pressed my ear to her chest as Chubs ran beside me.
"NO!" I screamed, shaking her harder. There was no strong steady beat of a heart, all I could find was silence. I even resorted to slapping her face, but it was no use. Her heart had failed and I was slapping emptiness. "Elise!"
Black Betty juddered and slammed to a halt, propelling us all forwards. I watched Ruby throw herself into the back of the van rushing over to us all.
"I've got this!" she yelled "Zu! I need your help!"
She pushed me out of the way and pinched Elise's nose shut, sending me reeling into hysterics.
"It's CPR idiot!"
She tilted her mouth open and blew air into her lungs, Elise's chest rising and falling again. This seemed to throw Chubs back into it too, who pushed hard down on Elise's shoulder, applying so much pressure to her arm wound, that the sheet he wrapped around it became crimson within seconds.
"You need to do the same on the leg wound, okay Liam?" he said to me and I nodded, ripping away at the material and pushing down with all my body weight.
I was back in control of myself.
Ruby started to pump over the spot over Elise's heart with the heels of her hands and at some point, Chubs must have found a needle and thread, because he had started to stich up the hole in her arm. I watched him turn it over, whilst I pushed harder and harder on her leg, and stitch up the exit wound on the opposite side.
There was so much blood. So much blood.
But things suddenly seemed manageable.
"First bullet wound should be okay!" he says to me and I let out a sigh of relief. "You keep her arm elevated and we'll swap. Wrap a few bandages around it if you can"
"Not now," Ruby said, letting go of her "Everybody let go of her and stand back. Zu are you ready?"
Tiny little Zu nodded, throwing her gloves over her shoulder, electricity sparking in her palms. We sprung backwards as she pushed her palms into Elise's chest and she jolted backwards, the current surging through her. And Elise gave a small cough and I was beside her, sweeping strands of hair back from her forehead. Her lashes fluttered open and her eyes met mine.
She looked confused.
Confused but alive.
"Oh, hi Elise, such a lovely introduction" Chubs said in a tone that was anything but friendly, craning over and glaring at her.
"WHAT THE F-" She was cut off when Chubs wedged a thick pair of socks into her mouth and got back to work with digging around in the leg wound.
Her screams were muffled at least.
Her eyes had frozen over like the surface of winter puddles, robbed of their usual warmth. I knew she was in pain that whole time, but now that it was visible on her face, tears squeezing from the corners of her eyes, I wish it would go away. I knew it was selfish, to not want to physically see her suffer, because she didn't ask for it. The pain had appeared like a gift she never wanted
"Liam" I think she muttered but it was hard to hear for the material in her mouth. She reached a bloodied, shaking hand towards my cheek and looked at me, properly looked at me.
Then the pain pulled her back under.
Zu had retreated back into a corner and Ruby was helping me wrap her arm up in the closest thing to a bandage we could find.
But Chubs had gone silent. He had gone silent staring at her leg.
"Everything okay Chubs?" I asked calmly.
"There's erm- there's no exit wound" he said, looking down at his blood-soaked hands.
"And..."
"And there should be one!" He continued "It means that the bullet must be implanted"
"Okay okay," I said "Well let's get it out then. I mean I can do it, you know with my power and I-"
"You don't want to remove an implanted bullet" Chubs continued as if he hadn't heard me "It's almost impossible to find and it might be lodged in a major blood vessel,"
"Fine," Ruby says, "Then stitch it up with the bullet inside,"
"I can't do that either. It's more damage in the long run if we leave it in"
There was a second of silence.
"So we take it out,"
"We can't take it out Liam! Didn't you hear me!"
"But we can't leave it in" Ruby insisted
"Chubs, we don't have time for this. In or out?" I was pleading in my voice.
"We'll take it out." He said, suddenly certain "But you better hope and goddam pray that that bullet isn't corking up the Niagara Falls of blood loss"