“I’m okay, Kev.”
Kevin looked down at his legs and his stomach turned over. “You’re not. You’re losing a lot of blood and I need you to do something to stay awake. Sing or something.”
“Okay,” he replied weakly.
“Just keep singing until I get back.”
He stood up as Clayton began singingBridge Over Troubled Waters. It was the worst song he could’ve chosen, but Kevin didn’t care. He walked down the side of the road, but he only made it ten feet before he fell to the ground. The mixed smell of burnt rubber and blood, the sight of Clayton’s mangled legs,he couldn’t take it. He threw up, choking on beer and bile as it hurtled out his throat.
Clayton’s voice was getting softer and weaker.
“Sing, Clayton!” he shouted before hurling more vomit onto the sand.
Clayton carried on singing, but over that he heard a strangled gasp in the distance. He froze, trying to hear over his ragged breathing.
“Perry!” he shouted, standing up again. “Perry, where are you, man?”
“I’m here, Kev.”
Kevin followed the faint sound of his voice through the tall grass until he eventually spotted him. Again, the sight of his best friend made him stop dead in his tracks. A steady stream of blood oozed out of the open wound on the side of his head.
“Fuck!” Kevin ran both his hands through his hair, clasping them at the back of his head.
He didn’t know what to do. He was utterly helpless. Two working hands, so eager to assist. Two working legs, ready to run miles to find help. Yet he didn’t have one fucking clue what to do.
“Perry,” he said, his voice shaking with fear and panic, “help is on the way.”
He crouched down beside him and carefully lifted his head onto his lap. Whipping off his T-shirt, he used it to cover the wound, hoping it would stop the bleeding. But the red flow was relentless, instantly seeping through the material. The smell was nauseating and he felt more bile rise up from his empty stomach.
“Where’s my girl, Kev?” Perry was so weak, it was barely a whisper.
He looked around in a vain attempt to find Shandré, feeling even more helpless when his eyes couldn’t find anything in the dark. “I don’t know.”
“You have to find her.”
Kevin reached out and took his bloodied hand, squeezing it tightly. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Please…please go find her…She could be…she could be hurt.”
“Perry…Fuck!” He gritted his teeth, angry tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t know what to do. He was the only one with the power to do anything and yet he was powerless to do anything at all. “I don’t…I don’t know where she is.”
He took a second and tried to listen for Clayton’s voice and when he didn’t hear it, he shouted again. “Clayton, you’re not singing!”
He waited and only focused on Perry again when he heard Clayton’s voice again. “Help is on the way,” he told Perry reassuringly. “And then we’re gonna find her.”
Four hours went by and the paramedics still hadn’t arrived. And now his fucking phone was broken because it said it had only been six minutes. A few more seconds ticked by and it felt like another hour. It was then that he realized his perception of time was completely distorted.
His friends were dying around him and he couldn’t do anything to save them. Perry’s breathing became sharper and more staggered, his eyelids taking longer to open each time he blinked.
“Tell me what we’re gonna do in Florida,” Kevin said, tightening his grip around Perry’s hand.
Perry faintly squeezed his hand back. “We’re gonna…we’re gonna see Ariel…and…” He stopped, as if talking about it reminded him of their conversation from earlier that night and that reminded him of something else. “Where’s my girl, Kev?”
Kevin shut his eyes, but the tears came rolling down his cheeks regardless. “I don’t know! I promise…I promise…I’m gonna find her as soon as the paramedics get here.”
Perry’s fingers loosened around his and his shallow breathing began to slow, almost inaudible. His eyes drifted closed and Kevin tapped his cheek to wake him up again. “C’mon. Just keep your eyes open.” He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t even stir when Kevin tapped his cheek again. “Perry—”
He was cut off by the wailing siren of the ambulance and he exhaled a breath of relief. “They’re here, Perry. You’re gonna be fine.”
