“No,” I gasp. “What do I do?”
“Okay I’m going to talk you through some very quick and dirty ways to help him, but you need to act fast, Aerin.”
“J-Just tell me what to do. I can do it.”
“Do you have a belt? We need something tight that can loop around his shoulder and be pulled so tight that he’ll stop losing so much blood from his arm.”
“Okay. Okay. A belt. A belt?” My mind goes blank for half a second, then I remember the belt included with a pair of shorts I brought with me.
Leaving Falco’s side is terrifying, but I’m away just long enough to haul open the drawer in my dresser and find the shorts.
I slide to my knees back beside Falco, rip the belt out of the shorts, and thread it under Falco’s limp, bloodied arm.
“Tie it high up near his shoulder and pull it as tight as you can. Even if you’re scared it’s too tight, just keep pulling okay?”
“Okay,” I gasp, glancing at where my phone rests on Falco’s slow-moving chest. “I’ve never been more grateful for extra holes in a belt.” The leather slips against my bloodied palms. I grit my teeth and sniffle, threading the leather through the clasp and throwing my weight backward to pull it as tight as I can.
“You’re doing great,” says Pidge, raising his voice over a hum that rumbles in the background. “Can you secure it?”
“Y-yeah, let me just…” I loop the belt twice, pull it as tight as I can, then force the clasp closed. Thankfully, it stays. “I got it!”
“Okay, next I need you to find gunpowder.”
“What?” Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I return my palms to the heavily bleeding wound on Falco’s abdomen.
“We need gunpowder or anything that will burn hot and fast. Do you have any guns in the house? Shotguns, preferably, but we can make anything work.”
“Uh… I think there’s an old hunting shotgun, but I don’t think it works anymore.”
“That’s fine. Any ammo?”
“I don’t know!” I cry. “I haven’t been here in years!”
“That’s fine.” Pidge vanishes from the screen for a second, leaving me staring at the reflection of myself in darkness while Falco bleeds out beneath me.
“Pidge!”
“I’m here. Falco will have ammo. He’ll have brought a bunch with him. Do you know where he stored it?”
“No!”
“Where are his bags?”
“Next room I think. The next room.”
“You need to get to his bag and find shotgun ammo.”
“I can’t leave him!”
“Aerin, you have to if you want to save his life.”
“What if there’s more out there?”
“You said Falco shot the man in your room. Where’s the gun?”
“Uhhh…” I wildly scan my surroundings until I spot Falco’s fallen gun a few feet away. “I have it.”
“Take it. Use it if you have to. You need that ammo, Aerin. It’s the only way you and Falco will survive.”
