Third In Line

Chapter Thirty - Aftermath

"Ellie! Ellie? Are you okay?" Alex called down to her, but her voice seemed miles away.

Ellie slowly opened her eyes and realised how far she'd fallen, so far that the idea of surviving that fall uninjured seemed impossible. She raised her head, having to push a little harder than normal because the mud and soggy leaves seemed to cling on to her. The dryer leaves around her crackled as she tried to sit up, making her briefly fear that she'd broken something.

"Yeah I think so" she shouted back, gradually raising herself out of the mud. "Ah-fuck!" she screamed immediately after putting pressure on her right hand. The pain shot through her like wildfire, making her drop back into the mud with a splash.

She could hardly remember hurting her wrist, it was just one of the many events that seemed to be squished together in the space of a few seconds. She couldn't help but feel like it had all happened hours ago, like she'd just woken up feeling tired and half awake.

How could I have slept with half my body hurting?

"What!" Alex yelled back at her, somehow even more startled than they already were. "What's wrong?"

"It's my... my wrist." Ellie answered, slowly coming to her senses.

"Does it hurt bad?" Alex asked.

The question made Ellie's blood boil, "Yes it bloody well hurts!" she yelled back angrily.

Her sister looked away, hurt and obviously on the verge of tears. Alex always seemed to use that move to get their parents to give her stuff, but this time Ellie knew it was for real.

"Alex, Alex! I'm sorry!" she shouted back whilst sitting up. Her quadbike was upside down, but the arch of the seat neatly went around her leg so she wasn't crushed.

Carefully avoiding touching anything with her right hand, she slid her leg from under the bike and pushed herself to her feet. Leaves and dried mud fell from her arms and legs, but lots more was still clinging to her skin or tangled in her hair. It was hard to tell if anything was bleeding or broken other than her wrist, but she was guessing there was more.

"Alex, are you okay? Is anything hurting?" she called up to her sister, who was sitting at the top of the ditch above her.

"My leg is bleeding really really badly" Alex replied, staring down at her with an intense fear in her eyes.

It was hard to tell how serious Alex was. Ellie knew that her sister's belly did somersaults at the sight of blood, no matter how wild and foolish she could be. Something bleeding 'really really badly' could just be a small cut, or it could be a lot worse.

"Can you walk?" Ellie asked.

"My leg goes all wobbly when I try to" Alex replied after quickly glancing at her leg again. Ellie could almost see her sister's lip quivering when she turned back to look at her.

"Okay.. .just um, stay there. I'm gonna try and find a way up"

"Are you sure? It's reaaally steep" her sister replied.

Ellie wanted to say something like "You think?" or "I really hadn't noticed that when I was falling" or something along those lines, but in a rare sign of maturity she knew it would probably be bad timing.

"Just stay there, and um... do what you can to stop that leg from bleeding" she said, trying to sound commanding. She was dizzy and confused, which just made her sound more uncertain than sure of herself.

"I don't want to touch it, it's so gross Elle" her sister whined.

"Do it Alex, please. You could like, bleed out or something" Ellie answered back irritably.