RADIO

chapter 24

The teen girls quickly bolted for the exit door as some of the wanderers broke apart from the crowd and chased after them. 

Duchess pushed Jane forward a bit while running so she could catch up with Tris who was faster than both of them. Their wet shoes against the slick floor caused Jane to slide into the stairwell and trip into Tris. 

Duchess grabbed onto the doorframe to stop herself and just barely brought herself to her feet. She grabbed the door handle but the wanderers had already reached the door. One clawed at her and she put up her arm to block its hit and unintentionally sliced its forearm off. 

She pulled the door shut completely and the arm fell beside her feet. Panting harshly, she looked over at Jane and Tris only to see them already halfway up the flight of stairs. 

"Gee thanks for the help" Duchess scoffed sarcastically. She wiped the blood that splattered over her face and groaned in disgust, "this is exactly how hepatitis happens" she huffed. 

"Let's get to the roof, there's gotta be a way out up top" Tris said, panting harshly from the adrenaline pumping in her blood. Tris burst through the door and found exactly what she was looking for, the roof. 

She held the door open for both Jane and Duchess and from below she could hear the hoard burst through the metal door. "hurry, hurry, hurry" she squeaked. 

Duchess finally got through the door and they closed it behind them. "What now?" Jane asked, looking around. There were no more buildings that they could get to in one jump. The rain was loud and almost flooded the roof. It splashed and filled their shoes. 

"Uhm" Tris looked around for anything that could help them. 

Duchess panted and struggled to catch her breath. Then the banging reached the only door that separated the wanderers and them. "They're gonna get us!" Tris squeaked. 

"That's it, we're done for" Jane huffed and looked over at the door worryingly. Duchess looked over the edge of the building. "Cars parked pretty close, no dumps near by…" she listed underneath her breath. 

"We have to jump" she told them. 

"What?!" They yelped in unison. "It's the only way" Duchess grabbed their hands and guided them to the edge. "We can try to land on the cars, that's the only way to break the fall" she informed, pointing at them. 

The screams and moans of greed from the walking corpses finally became clear as they broke through the metal door. They sprinted and ran through the inch of water towards the teens. Tris and Jane bit their tongue and held Duchess's hand tight. 

They followed her lead and leapt off the building. The three of them screamed as they plummeted towards the ground, landing on a black car. The ceiling caved in and Jane slipped off the car, hitting the ground as well. 

Tris screamed in pain. 

"Tris! You okay?" Duchess gasped, quickly crawling over the top of the car to get to her. "My arm" she whimpered. "Fuck that hurt" Jane groaned, rubbing her side. Adrenaline pumped through their veins. 

"We need to go" Duchess said, helping Tris off the car. Tris groaned in pain and sobs shook her chest. Duchess hopped down from the damaged car and a wave of pain rang out in her right leg. 

"Agh fuck" she hissed through gritted teeth. 

"You okay?" Jane asked. 

"I think I sprained my ankle," she confessed. Jane helped her to her feet and threw an arm over her shoulders. "I told you this was a bad idea" Jane huffed. 

"Yeah it was either this or being torn apart, which one do you think is more favorable?" Duchess spat. 

Jane just rolled her eyes and continued to help the girls back through the small town and to the others. 

Meanwhile, haze paced around the room. Dibs was fast asleep and Monty was dozing off. "Agh it's been at least an hour, where are they?" He groaned. 

"Do you think they ran into someone?" Rider asked. 

"Who is gonna be around here? It's desolated as fuck I think they all attempted to leave for Oregon" haze scoffed. 

"Well you never know," Rider shrugged. 

"If something went wrong then they would've contacted us by now" he spoke, trying to comfort himself. Then the door behind him opened up. Everyone turned towards the door and Tris stood in the doorway. "Finally" Rider let out a soft sigh of relief. "You guys are soaked" Monty chuckled. 

Tris held back her sobs of pain as Rider shot up from her seat to go help them. She guided Tris to a seat and Jane helped duchess walk through the door, holding her right leg up like an injured dog. “What happened out there?” Monty gasped as Haze bolted to her side, putting an arm over his shoulder and helping her sit. 

“There was a swarm in the store,” Jane informed. 

“But! The good news is, we brought food” Duchess said, revealing the canned and boxed goods from her backpack. “That doesnt look too good” Haze said, noticing her swollen ankle. “It’s fine, its just a sprain, hopefully” Duchess sighed through gritted teeth. 

She looked over at Tris to see her arm draped over her lap, limp and lifeless. It started to bruise at the shoulder underneath her short sleeve shirt.  “You okay?” Duchess asked tris. Tris shook her head, removing her cat eyed glasses. 

“Let me see” Duchess said. Tris stayed still while Duchess scooted over to her, dragging her injured ankle behind her. She gritted her teeth as waved of pain fell over her leg. 

The shoulder looked off. Duchess tilted her head slightly at it, “its dislocated” she said. 

“What makes you say that? I thought it was just sprained” Tris gasped. 

“Well first off your arm is limp and its bruising” she informed, pointing out the familiar features. “All i have to do is pop it back in place” Duchess said, reaching for her arm. 

“Dont touch it!” Tris yelped. 

“I have to Tris” Duchess said, trying to comfort the sandy-haired girl that was just as drenched as she was. “Monty” duchess looked over at the tall man that stood beside haze, worriedly biting his nails. He walked over and had to grab Tris’s other arm and placed a knee over her legs to keep her from squirming. 

“No, i-i cant do this” Tris cried. 

“Two seconds” Duchess spoke kindly to try and keep her calm but nothing was working. Duchess gently grabbed the woman’s limp arm and shoulder. Tris let out a groan of pain as drops of water fell from her cheeks. Monty felt his heart wrench and his chest tighten, not able to tell if it was tears or rainwater from her darkened hair. 

She popped the bone back in place and Tris let out a loud whine of pain. 

"Done, it's over" Duchess said, immediately comforting Tris. She grabbed some of the extra cloth from the clothes in her duffel bag, ripping them in half and tying them together to make a makeshift sling. 

"There" Monty let out a soft sigh of relief. 

Duchess brushed a few strands of her wet hair out of her face and slicked it back. "I think that's enough for one day" she sighed.