He Was Dying

Chapter Nine

It was time. We said our goodbyes, because it is possible this is the last time we speak. I tried my best to remember something about each of them. I wanted to remember Luke's single black eye. A symbol resembling an owl on the side of Evan's neck. The small fabric patch of a teddy bear stitched on Delirious' sweater. And Bryce? I wanted to remember his smile.

   After sharing a few hugs, with sad smiles, the four marched down the stairs and out into the light of dawn. I sighed, looking out at the tall metal gate. Those two still stood their guard.

  My job was a lot of patrolling and staying watch. Every so often I would move to a certain area where I could see them at one door, then quickly hop over and to the other spot, same thing.

Didn't expect anything to happen. When I looped around to the second door, I stopped dead in my tracks. Trapper was missing.

  Panic flooded so quickly through my system I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. I bound as close to Hillbilly's door without being spotted, and squinted my eyes in hope to find any tracks. In process of that, I noticed a rusty bear trap right below the panel to open the gate.

Of course.

   It took me ages to find him. He was setting up traps all over the place. Centimeters from the ground, I dropped down low and crept towards an open trap. The metal teeth were intimidating as ever, and I've seen plenty of these before. Thinking fast, I rolled a small stone over to the trap and dropped it onto the trigger. The bloodstained teeth snapped shut above it.

Trapper didn't turn, seeming to not notice the disarming. I followed him around, shutting bear traps a few moments after he'd placed it down. Before I knew it, Trapper disappeared behind a maze of compressed auto parts.

  I turned a corner, curious and panicked about how I lost sight of him. And then--

SNAP!

A piercing pressure clamped around my ankle and my ears shot up. A whimper rumbled in my throat without me even noticing. Pain buzzed through my nerves, and a shriek echoed between the trees.
Tears dribbled down my jaw and splashed against my large foot, which was swallowed in a rusty trap.

  I tried my best to pry the device open, but the pain was overwhelming. A gigantic hand grasped the back of my neck and shoved me onto the dirt. My head shifted just enough to see Trapper standing over me, his mask of bone soulless and empty. "You thought I didn't hear you, rabbit?"

   His fingers curled around my skull and he yanked me from the ground. I was thrown over his broad shoulder, being carried to who knows where.

"Put him down!"

A sudden light created a shadow of us from my view, and Trapper became blinded. His arm lifted to guard his eyes, and I shook from his hold.

I dropped, spinning around to see Delirious waving me forward as he ran off. I bounded after him, wincing greatly in pain and a limp altering my movement.
A ways away from where I was dropped, Delirious sat me down against the crumbling brick wall, a buzzing flashlight beside his feet. He slipped a roll of bandages and a flask from his pocket, pulling his hoodie off his arms.

  He tossed the bundle of blue fabric my direction, carefully pulling my leg towards him. "Bite down on that."

"Why?"

  "Because this is gonna fucking hurt."

I gripped the sweater loosely in my jaws as he unwinded the cap of the stainless steel flask. My jaws tightened as he poured alcohol over the puncture wounds. A muffled scream shook in my throat.

  "Delirious! What are you d--"

My ears folded over in pain as he wrapped the beige bandages around my ankles. "Holy shit, Omega," Luke muttered. "What happened?"

  "He got caught in a bear trap, man," Delirious said for me. "Managed to get him off that bastard's back before anything happened."

He bit the bandage, tucking the end behind the wrapping. "That should hold for now."
I took his sweater out of my mouth, holes visible where I chomped down.

  "Watch out, alright, buddy?" Delirious stood, picking up the hoodie and pulling it back on. "The bite marks make me look badass, anyways." He lightly kissed my ear for good luck.

"Be careful, man," Luke said before patting Delirious on the back and the two running off.
  With assistance by the wall, I hobbled to my feet, hissing the first step. Damn.

I was off guard for too long. I put them in danger without even knowing it.

Darting around the yard, I tried to locate each of the others. I somehow managed to end up on the cabin roof for a better vantage point.

  It was difficult to find them due to the unexperienced brightness of the morning light, but I spotted them at some point. I could even see the humans. Thankfully, they were each a rather good distance away from them.

Trapper was setting up bear traps everywhere. Of course, that wasn't a surprise. I tried my best to memorize the location of each trap so I could disarm them later.

  It seemed that the Others had some sort of rotation. Nurse was now guarding both doors, Wraith and Hillbilly joining Trapper on the prowl.

I watched Nurse for a minute or so. Flashes of grey light blinked every now and then, giving the sign that she was teleporting between spots. Blood-curdling shrieks accompanied the movements, and it was damn terrifying.

  Couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through the humans' minds at that point.