𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 - 𝘋𝘌𝘈𝘛𝘏 𝘊𝘜𝘙𝘌

6 ~ wishing for sunrise

Lottie

"Julian!" I gasped when his hand contacted Jorge's face.

"It'll work, trust me," Julian replied, lifting his hand for another.

"Don't." My hand clasped around his wrist. "It'll do more damage than anything-"

"But look," Julian pointed smugly at Jorge. I flashed my light at him, and to my surprise, found him stirring. Jorge groaned and brought a hand to his wrapped head. "Careful," Julian warned him. Jorge's eyes flew open as if he was surprised at our presence. He began to struggle sitting up. Julian and I hurried to help him.

"Donde estan todos...?" He mumbled. Julian and I exchanged a look, and Jorge seemed to realize that he was speaking Spanish to us. "Where is everyone?"

"We don't know, we've only found you and Frypan so far-"

Jorge suddenly became very alert. "Not Brenda? Thomas?" I shook my head sympathetically. He tried to stand then, obviously trying to search for the others. Julian and I kept him down.

"No way. We're not even sure how serious your head is; you have to stay here," I scolded, then handed him one of the flashlights I'd managed to grab from the wreckage. "You wanna be helpful? Try to wake Frypan up. Holler if you need help. We're going to find the others, okay?"

Jorge was only able to respond with a grunt, which made me question leaving him alone with just an unconscious boy to help to defend himself. But then I reminded myself that we wouldn't be gone long, or far.

Julian and I set off, searching for the other half of the Berg. I wished the sun would come up; now that I wasn't focused on the crash, I was becoming nervous with being in the middle of the woods in the dark. Who knows what was out there? Especially in the state of the world. Any sound would set me off in a panic, I assumed.

And so it did. I heard a faint noise coming through the trees; a call. From a human. I couldn't make out what it was saying, which sent chills up my spine. "Did you hear that?" I hissed.

"Hear what?" Julian replied. I shushed him and motioned for him to stay still. All I could hear was our quick breathing, until:

"Lottie?"

It was very faint, but I understood it nonetheless. "That!" I told Julian.

"Lottie!"

I couldn't tell who it was yet, but I knew it was one of our friends. "Hello?" I shouted back. "Over here! Follow my voice!"

"Where are you?" The voice was clearer now, and I swore I could hear leaves crunching under someone's feet. I could tell the direction they were coming from. Without warning, I snatched Julian's wrist and dashed through the trees with him in tow.

"I'm comi – umph," I grunted when my body made impact with another and ricochet backwards.

"Geez."

"Minho," I sighed in relief. "Are you okay? What happened to you after the crash?" I felt Minho's hand on my wrist as he helped me off the ground, and Julian's hand on my back. I think he was beginning to get scared of these woods as well and wanted to be as close as possible to us.

"Nothing... I mean, I was unconscious. We all were, weren't we? Then I woke up, and I was alone inside the cockpit of the Berg. Jorge wasn't there, but there was a hole in the windshield. I think he must have gotten thrown..."

"He did. He's back there-" I jerked my thumb back where Julian and I had come from. "So's Frypan. They're the only ones we've found so far." I couldn't see Minho's face exactly, but from his body language I could tell that he'd paled.

"No Thomas?" He demanded. I shook my head. He swore under his breath. "I thought I would have seen him around me somewhere, if he wasn't near you..."

"What if he and Brenda woke up and then went the wrong way? Away from us?" Julian asked.

"I think... we should head back to Jorge and Frypan. Then come up with a plan," I answered. As we were turning to head back, there was another voice.

"Who's there?" I jumped at the volume and closeness of the voice. It was clearly female... clearly Brenda's. "I'm warning you! Who's there?" She sounded strained. Quickly, I shone the flashlight at myself and the two boys to show ourselves to her. I knew that she would have probably fought us otherwise.

"It's us, it's us, it's okay!" I reassured her, speaking in the direction of her voice. I heard her sigh in relief.

"Come help me, quickly." I shone my flashlight at her to find her nearly hunched over, with an unconscious Thomas slung over her back. Minho immediately rushed to carry some of the weight, and Julian followed. Brenda straightened up, her back cracking. "My God, he's heavy."

Minho chuckled. "Let's hurry. Frypan and Jorge might be dead by now." He didn't realize how heavy his words were until nobody responded. "Sorry," he added, and we set off.

When we were reunited with the other two, we saw that Frypan had woken up. Jorge, who was still seated and resting weakly against a tree, was trying to dab away the blood on his face at an awkward angle. His face broke into a smile when he saw who was accompanying Julian and I. "Ah, hermanos," he began. "You are all alive."

"We are," Brenda replied, almost in shock. She shook her head. "We must be the luckiest people alive; no normal person could have survived that crash."

"Yeah, well, I don't think we're normal," Minho replied. He and Julian lowered Thomas onto the ground. "What are we supposed to do now? Our Berg is gone, we're stuck in the middle of the woods, we've sustained injuries-"

"I think all we can do right now is sleep, hermano," Jorge replied. He looked as if his eyelids were already drooping. "We should figure it all out when we wake up."

"I'll take first watch, then," Minho volunteered. No one responded. Half of us were already asleep on the forest floor. 

A/N

2 chapters in 1 week?? What?? Hopefully I can get more done once Christmas break starts! Don't forget to vote :)

- golden habit