natcat

This Means War

It was a while before the bleeding began to slow. I sat back on my heels, lifting my hands gently off of Daisy's leg. "Okay, Spencer you can get off, thanks. Could you grab another top to replace this one?" I asked as I gestured down at my now deep red shirt, soaked in Daisy's blood. And so were my hands.
I looked over at Daisy, who had tears running down her face. I hardly blamed her, all of that was a lot to take. "Are you okay?" I asked as I sat beside her leg, my bloody hands resting in my lap.

This Means War

Spencer was done quickly and lifted his hands off of Daisy's leg, holding them up in the air as if he was being arrested. "Sorry, sorry, sorry." He said quickly to Daisy.
I held my hands down, placing pressure onto her wound, it was all I could do to help stop the flow of blood. If we stopped that we could get moving and hopefully find the others. "Stay still, Daisy." I said through gritted teeth. It wasn't easy hurting her, even when I knew it was for her own good. Her legs jerked again and my hands slipped off, more blood ran down her thigh. "Spencer, you've gotta do something."
Placing my hands back into position, I held the white top firmly, though it wasn't white anymore, it was red. Spencer looked between Daisy and I, hesitating before I widened my eyes at him, telling him to hurry up.
"Sorry." He apologised once more, before he practically lay across her body, holding her still.

This Means War

I jerked my head back in suprise. "Sorry!? Are you kidding? You are ridiculous." I rolled my eyes, relieved that her breathing was back under control, one less thing to worry about. "Spencer, how's that leg?"
"I'm getting there." He said, as I looked around I noticed he was in the process of taking off his belt. He looked at me and shrugged. "It was all I could find. I think Joe took the bag with all the medical equipment in it."
I swallowed and nodded. "Okay. Okay, good, keep going."
"Uh, Sam?"
"Yes?"
"I just tie it around?" He knelt by Daisy's thigh, his belt in his shaking hands, looking increasingly nervous.
I sighed and turned back to Daisy. "Stay still, this will hurt." I went over to Spencer and looked down at Daisy's leg. The blood had soaked her whole pant leg. Reaching down, I gripped her pants and ripped them open where the wound was.
"Tie it just here." I pointed just above the bullet wound. "Make it tight."
He nodded as I began unzipping my uniform down to my waist. I gingerly pulled off my white undershirt, revealing the large number of bruised ribs and bandages I had never gotten redressed. Spencer gently lifted Daisy's leg and slid the belt underneath. He looked at me once for reassurance, before he went ahead and tied the belt.
At the same time, I balled up my undershirt and pressed firmly down onto the bullet wound. Sorry, Daisy.

This Means War

"Sam!" He looked at me panicked as I reached them. "I- I think she's been shot." He said pointing at her leg that was drenched in blood. "But she can't breathe either... Give her the inhaler!"
"I know, I know!" I knelt down beside Daisy who was desperately grasping at her chest. "Here, take it!" I shoved the inhaler into her hand, folding her fingers around it. "Use it, Daisy." I told her, guiding her hand up to her mouth. "Breathe!"
Spencer was just sitting there, looking stunned. "Spence, find something that we can tie around her thigh, we need to stop the bleeding, then put pressure on the wound."
"But we don't know how bad it is-" He broke off as I interrupted him.
"It doesn't matter, we just need to stop the bleeding. Can you do that?" I asked not waiting for an answer as I turned back to Daisy. "Breathe Daisy, please just breathe."

This Means War

"It's Daisy's. She must be around somewhere around here." I said as I stood up, holding the inhaler tightly in my hand. "Look around, see if you can see anything else."
Spencer nodded and stepped away. It was a dense forest and before it had been useful, but now it wasn't. If Daisy was here, if she need the inhaler, it wasn't going to be easy to see.
"Daisy." I called out, pushing aside branches as I walked, scanning my surroundings. "Daisy!"
"I couldn't see anything back th- Wait, what's that?" Spencer pointed over to one of the larger trees in the area, not far from that was what looked to be a body.
"Daisy." I breathed, panic racing through my veins. "Daisy!?"
We raced over, all pain momentarily forgotten as I ran desperately hoping it wasn't too late. Spencer reached her first and skidded to his knees beside her. "Daisy, are you okay?" I heard him ask.

This Means War

We walked in silence. A heavy silence. One that I hadn't experienced before.
Spencer strode ahead of me, still walking too fast for my liking, I was grasping my ribs as I fought to keep up with him.
"Spencer, slow down." I gasped, the exhaustion and pain were beginning to be too much.
He ignored me, his arms tight at his sides as he began to speed up.
"Spenc-"
He whirled on me, fire in his eyes. "How could you?"
I blinked at him in shock, then fumbled for an answer. "We weren't going to make it, Spencer. We were moving too slow."
"I don't care, Sam. I do not care." He was breathing hard, his chest heaving as he jabbed a finger in my direction before he spoke again, cold and slow. "You killed them all."
"I had no choice."
"There's always a choice!" He shouted. "You could have wounded them. You shot kill shots. You weren't aiming to wound, you were aiming to kill. How could you do something like that?"
Spencer was young, he didn't know what things were required of you when it came to war. I took a deep painful breath, trying to ignore the guilt that was starting to crawl up my throat.
"This is a war Spencer. There are some things you have to do. Hopefully you'll never have to experience that, hopefully we can get you out while you're still-" I broke off, my eye caught on a small object half buried in the dirt.
"Still what? Sam." He said irritated as he watched me crouch down and reach out, uncovering what looked to be container of some sort. I felt Spencer come up behind me, looking over my shoulder at the object as I picked it up, brushing off the rest of the dirt. "What is that? Looks like an inhaler."
My heart clenched. "It is."

This Means War

They weren't letting up. The soldiers on our tail were stronger and clearly had more endurance. I doubted Spencer had been in the training camp for more than a month or two, no where near enough training for what we were both facing now.
It was up to me, as it apparently had been for the last week. Sam, The Plan Man.
But I couldn't do anything but run, and even that was becoming difficult. I had no plan. Run, hide, survive... Even that wasn't enough for now. These men wouldn't let us go.
Spencer was inching ahead now as I began to drop back, unable to match his pace. "Sam, come on! Let's go." He shouted as he noticed me slipping behind.
"Keep going, I'll be right behind you." I breathed out raising a hand to wave him on.
"No. We're doing this together. Remember? Together." He came over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, helping me along. "You're not leaving me alone out here."
I looked at him then. He was determined now, his fear clearly driving him.
But we were still too slow. We weren't going to get more than fifty meters before they caught up with us.
I had promised to deliver him back to his family. I had promised myself I would find Daisy. I had promised too much, but unlike my father, I refused to break promises.
I stopped walking and held my hand out to Spencer. He looked at me, alarmed.
"Spencer. Give me your gun."
"Wha-"
"Give it to me." I demanded, shaking my hand.
He fumbled within his clothing and pulled out a hand gun, handing it over with a trembling hand.
"What are you gonna do?" He asked quietly, almost not wanting to ask the question.
"Go and stand behind that tree." I told him as I turned around, facing the oncoming soldiers.
"Sam-"
"Go! Don't make me break my promises."
Spencer scurried off behind one of the larger trees as I raised the hand gun as I had been taught. Pulling the safety back, I aimed, standing calmly as I waited for the soldiers to come into a clear shot.
I breathed deeply and pulled the trigger.
One, two, three, four... five.
Lowering my arm, I looked down. There was blood every where, each soldier lying still.
I could hear Spencer breathing heavily behind his tree and when I looked over at him, he had his hands over his ears, crouching low to the ground.
"Spencer." I said gently, waiting for him to look at me. He didn't. "Spencer. I'll collect their guns, but then we've got to keep moving. Okay? We can take a break when we are out of sight."
He didn't say anything as I went around to each soldier, pulling their guns off of their bodies. They had nothing else on them that would help us, so I turned away and headed over to Spencer who was still sitting there in shock.
"Let's go." I reached out a hand, about to rest it on his shoulder, when he stood up. Without looking at me, he fixed his bags on his shoulders and continued on.

This Means War

The sound of the gun shots were loud and shocking, though I should have been expecting them. I grabbed Sam's shoulder and veered to the left, dragging him into the denser part of the forest, the trees making it difficult for the Jeep to follow through behind us.
"Stay low." I told Spencer as he darted desperately through the bushes, panic all over his face. I glanced over my shoulder to see five or six soldiers running after the two of us. They held large guns in their hands, but the thick undergrowth made it difficult for them to shoot and chase us at the same time.
"Keep moving Spencer. Don't stop." I breathed heavily as we ran together. "We need to lose them."
"We lose them, we lose my brother and sisters!" He puffed angrily. "And I can't lose them."
"We already have. It's too dangerous to try and find them now, besides if we all split up the higher the chances of more of us surviving."
"More of us!? I want all of us to survive!" Spencer half shrieked in irritation.
"Look, you stick with me, I promise I'll get you back to them. It's better we do that together though. You know that right?" I asked breathlessly.
Spencer looked over his shoulder at the soldiers shouting orders at each other, then back to me and nodded. "Yeah, I do."

This Means War

"Go! Just keep going!" I yelled, as everyone raced after Daisy. Spencer fled past me and I was straight on his tail. "Go!" I encouraged hitching my bag onto my shoulders. Spencer ran ahead, his gun tight in his grip. "Don't worry about shooting, just run." I told him, we had come this far we couldn't be caught now.
Ahead, I could see Daisy in the lead, Nina and Emma right behind her, none of them looking back. Good. Just keep running. Joe wasn't that far ahead of us but somehow he had ended up with most of the bags, slowing him down, though he was still faster than me.
I was beginning to ache, each step sent a horrible throb up through my legs and into my gut, but I couldn't let it slow me. I refused.

This Means War

"I guess as soon as he comes back." I said to Daisy then looked at the others. "He won't be too long, right?"
Joe shrugged. "Sometimes it can take him a few minutes to want to see any of our faces again, other times it can take a lot longer."
"Well, we don't really have a lot longer unfortunately, so he better try for the minute thing." I glanced over to where Spencer had left. "It's just we need to stay together and keep moving."
"He's just being a sissy. Spence won't be long, he knows there are more important things than himself." Em said.