I was frozen to the spot, but he kept walking, and the fear of being left alone drove me forward. I ran after him.
“Riot!”
“I’ve got this Elean—” His words were cut off by something ripping him forward into the darkness.
“Riot!” A scream burst from my lungs and I lunged forward. I sprinted after him. “Riot!”
But there was nothing. No screams, no cries, no howls. He was just gone.
I kept running, desperately trying to calm myself.
Riot underestimated me. I could save him. I had to save him. It was that, or be on my own, navigating the darkness that was Mercury Mile.
I stopped running and took a deep breath.
What had I been trained to do?
I pulled my backpack off and dug through it, finding the gun he’d given me. He insisted I pack it, instead of carry it, because he thought I’d never use it. I loaded the clip and zipped my bag back up. Hoisting it back on my shoulders, I started my trek again.
I racked my brain, trying to think of songs I’d learned since being up here. My jaw shook as I opened it, but slowly, I began to sing ‘All the Small things’.
With each word and each step forward, I grew braver. My voice grew stronger, and I belted out the song, and then another. Riot had been right. Every once in a while, a human voice would sing a lyric back. I felt safer moving forward.
I walked for an hour, maybe more, before finally hearing Riot’s weak voice.
I’d been singing ‘Too Hot For Teacher’, and he sang it back.
“Riot!” My heart stopped and then started pumping hard and fast. I ran toward his voice. Tears streamed down my face as I sang one line, and listened for him to sing the next. I sang for half a mile, until I found him.
He was collapsed against the wall and had large gashes on both his sides. His shirt had been torn off. I ran to him, falling to my knees.
“Oh, Riot. What happened?” I reached out, looking at the wounds. Not only did he still have the large scratches from the etgar on his torso leading up his face, now he had four large slashes on both sides of his middle.
“A bitter got me.”
“A bitter?” I shook my head.
All these new beasts. I’d never heard of any of them. Did the bunkers know about them? Or had they purposely hide the true horrors of the wastelands from us.
“A spider/bat hybrid.” He wheezed. “They’re black. They’re large. They fly, and they have eight claws that are razor sharp.” He pointed to each gash.
A spider bat?
I shuddered.
“Is it still here?”
He shook his head, beads of sweat dripping onto his shoulders.. “No, I managed to get it to drop me. But it’ll probably be back.”
“Okay, well let me clean you up and then I’ll go find it.”
His hazel-green eyes popped open. “Eleanor, no.”
“Stop me.”
I slid my backpack off and pulled out a PHUCK box, quickly working to clean and dress his wounds. They were deep, butthin. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was working with, but Riot was able to direct me on what medicines and tools to use. Once I was done, he sighed deeply.
“I’ll heal in a day or two. I just need to lay here. Stay with me.” He reached for my hand, but I pulled away and stood.
