10
Chapter Ten
REESE
My focus swingsfrom JJ to Sin, pondering who might come to first. I pray for Sin, but my prayers usually go unanswered. I look around, taking inventory of what's around me, which is very little with the exception of the bag of food from Sin and the bag of berries from JJ. I grab both and hurry back to where Sin is lying. "Sin, can you hear me?" I whisper. "I have the food. I'll keep it safe." With my hand, I dig into the dirt, relishing the soft soil soothing and cooling my trembling hands.
It takes me several minutes to dig down far enough, creating the space needed to conceal the bags. Regardless of keeping the food safe, I know I'm running out of time. JJ is likely going to wake up at any moment. I lie down beside Sin, placing my ear over his chest, listening to the soft, steady rhythm of his heart. I need to see how bad his injury is, but I know well enough not to move a person who has a head or neck injury. I place my hand along the side of Sin's jaw, feathering my fingertips against the grain of his growing facial hair. "Sin, if you can hear me, give me a sign. Please," I beg.Anything.
"I don't want to stay here," he mumbles. "Not with him. He isn't right, Mom, don't you see this?"
"Sin?" I don't know what he's talking about or who he's talking to for that matter? "Can you hear me?"
"You promise you'll come back from me?" he asks. His eyelids crunch and his forehead strains. "Then why are you crying?"
"I'm not crying, Sin, and I won't leave you," I tell him, stroking my fingers over his cheek again, trying to keep him talking, regardless of his nonsensical thoughts.
A groaning noise grows ahead of me and I look over to where JJ is lying, or where he was lying. He's on his feet, hunched over, holding himself up against the tree. Panic reignites within me, and I question whether or not I have the strength to fight this man off again. I stand up, shielding Sin. JJ slowly cocks his head to the side, looking at me with a snarl. "You don't know what you just did to yourself," he says.
I hold myself back from responding and feeding his anger. He's still holding himself up which tells me he might not have the strength to fight me off either. "You just wait." He turns away from me and limps away toward the sheds. I don't know what his threats mean or if they have any validity, but in any case, we need to get the hell out of here. I drop back down to my knees and clutch my hands around Sin's arms. "I need you to wake up now, " I grit through my teeth. "We need to go." I don't know where we can go, but I have to hope Sin has more insight than I do.
"I didn't kill her!" Sin yells out. With firmness, I slap his face, feeling a slight sting itch over my fingers. His eyes flash open and he looks from side to side with only his gaze. He presses up on his elbows quickly and halts almost immediately. "Whoa." His head looks heavy and his focus seems disconnected. "What happened?"
Feeling my face crumble with despair, I look at him for a long moment, hoping he can fill in his own blanks, but when his matching stare holds strong against mine, I offer him my hand.You kissed me and."You passed out cold. I think you hurt your head." Holding himself up with one hand, he reaches around behind his head, feeling for proof. When he pulls his hand back around, blood coats his fingers.Shit.I move around behind him, taking a look at the injury. I can't help but recoil at the sight of a large open gash, oozing with blood. "Are there medical supplies anywhere?"
"At the hospital," he says, his words slurring a bit.
"This has to be stitched," I tell him.
He nods his head slowly. "They won't do that. They'll let me die or 'phase out' as they would put it."
I look at him with confusion, wanting more of an explanation, but, by the way he's looking around, it appears he has nothing more to say. "What do you mean by phase out?" Sin closes his eyes slowly as if he's fighting sleep, except his eyes open back up again.
"I mean, they wait for us to die so they can send more people in. It fixes their overflow problem." Again, his eyes close slowly and then reopen. I want to know who "they" are, and I want to know who everyone else is.
"So you're saying, we're here to die." I don't know how those words came out sounding braver than what I feel inside, but I'm losing the will to care. I only want to know the truth.
"Where's the food?" He remembers the food. Does he remember… "You have it right?"
I point to the lumpy soil beside the tree. "I buried it," I tell him.
He pulls himself to his knees and shoves his fist into the packed down soil, retrieving the two bags. "Where's JJ?"
I shrug. "He made some threats and headed back toward the sheds."
Sin's eyes widen as much as I think they can right now. He pulls himself up against the tree, stabilizing himself before he grips his hand around my elbow. "Let's go."
"To the hospital, right? Your head. It needs medical attention."
"I already told you know one is going to fix me, Reese."
"I can. Take me to the hospital," I demand.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Yeah, Sin. You're right. I don't know a damn thing about anything. It's because I'm too freaking stupid to comprehend anything going on around me. Right? That's what it is? Maybe. Just maybe if you spent less time being so pissed off at me and at everything surrounding you, you could take one lousy second to tell me what the hell is going on, or even where the hell we really are. Because wherever the hell we are isn't a place someone just ends up. I know that much."
Sin's leaning against a tree, his arms crossed over his chest with the bags tightly contained within his solid grip. This small shit-eating-grin tugs at his lips and part of me wants to smack it off. The other part of me wants to taste it again.Dammit, this is not the time to wonder what else I've been missing out on."I like you way more when you're feisty."
