If We Could Make it There

Tears Fall Fast

Caylie POV

Alex runs to Jack and wraps her arms around him. As tear drops fall onto the ground, I notice something else is too. Red, muddy blood seems to be falling from Jack's side, and Alexandra hugging him is making it worse. But she can't tell.

"Stop!" I exclaim. Alexandra jumps back from her brother, and gasps. Jack collapses on the ground, and it doesn't look very good. His breath is rattly, and his blood and the thick layer of dirt on him are now falling onto the ground. Alexandra runs to his side, as do I and Kate.

Kate takes one look at his stomach, turns to me, so only I can see the slightest shake of her head. WHAT? The whole reason we came here was to save Jack from disapearing, and now, here he is in Kate's opinion, that's his certain sentence. But, she could be wrong, right? She was wrong about my arm, wasn't she? She could be mistaken. Alex looks up at her.

"So?" she says "What do we do?" Kate looks at her, obviously not wanting to tell her the truth. She says awkwardly "Er... Alex I don't think there's much for us to do..." Alex looks horror struck.

".....Except... Wrap him in bandages!" Kate says, clearly a last minute save. Alex nods, not detecting the lie in her time of need. We wrap Jack's side in bandages, but then everyone falls silent. Jack is twice the size oof all of us, being about 4 years older. How the heck are we supposed to carry him? I look around awkwardly.

"So... Erm.. What now?" I say, confused. No one but Alex seems to have an idea. She says, "Well, we need to bring him somewhere safe! Then we can... I dunno, actually. We need to make sure he's okay before we go home."

Home? Of course we need to go home. I forgot all about that. Jack was all that we came for, after all. Home! The word is sweet and fresh in my mind. After all of this, I yearn for home. But none of it will be the same. Half the people we started with have these wacky powers going on with them, so of course they'll probably act different. You don't even have to say anything for Ashlyn to understand, she just knows because she can see it etched into your mind. Cheryl will forever be telling us abouut the properties of the nearest device, not knowingly annoying the heck out of the rest of us. Kate might out-do our doctors. No one will need to go to them, if they can just go to Kate for free. She'll be busy. I look at those three, whom are sitting together by the bags. I'm just sitting here, taking them all in, when Cheryl stands up and says, "Well, we can't just sit here and do nothing. If we all try to lift him on a blanket, I'm sure we can. In fact, if the four strongest people here can each take a corner of the blanket, the rest of us can probably just carry the bags. So... How about it? Who thinks they can probably...?" She looks around for volunteers. Kate and Seth raise they're hands, and I do it with them. My arm's fine. Alex puts her hand up, making four of us, and probably the four stongest of us. Personally, I probably would have had Cheryl in there somewhere, but whatever. Ashlyn's arm is still a bit messed up, no matter what she says. And Grace... Well, Grace isn't really the strongest person I know.

We take the corners of the blanket, and all together, heave Jack to under a nice Birch tree. It's only a few minutes later, when he wakes up. His pupils are dialated, which I'm guessing isn't all too good. He looks around confused, before staring up at Alex.

"Bruxa." He says. Oh! So that's what those long 'oo' sounds I heard him making were from. He still stares at Alex.

"Why are you here?" he continues "Y-you need to go home. You'll be safe. Take care of... of Marissa. Don't tell mom I'm here. She-" He stops, and looks horror -struck. He covers his eyes and says "Alex! You have to..Can't tell mom, she-" But Alex cuts across him, probably trying to relax him.

"It's okay Jack. I- I know... Everything'll be okay. J-just don't worry... We'll both be home in no time. Kate can help us! She'll cure Marissa, I know she will... Right Kate?' she adds, looking towards Kate. Kate nods, obviously trying to help.

"You bet I will! I'll try my hardest. Jack, you need rest. You really need rest. So.. Just go to bed. When you wake up, you'll probably feel better. Go to sleep."

Rather relectantly, Jack lays his head down. I stare at him, dumb-founded. He has never, as long as I've known him, seemed this distressed. Then again, I have never seem him when one of his sister's is incredibly sick, and the other is trying to make her way down a dangerous road filled with attacking weird thingy-majigs. And he's never had a big cut in his side while I've known him. After a minute, you can hear his heavy breathing, and a snore comes out of him. He's asleep.

"Well," whispers Kate, "I really don't want to relive what happened to Caylie's arm. But I really don't want to say this either. But I know I have to." She looks at Alex. I look down. I already know her words before they escape her mouth.

"Jack's wound is bad. Really bad. And.. I know I was wrong about Caylie, and I still don't know why, but.... But I really don't think Jack'.. His side is bad. I'd say he has.. A little under a week." She finishes, her eyes teary. Alex puts her hands on her face, and starts to cry. I completely understand. If whomever was disguised as Cheryl didn't save Marissa, I'd feel as if it was 100 percent my fault. But, like Alex, I would be crying just knowing what was going to happen. I can't tell anyone. But didn't I kind of tell Ashlyn? She could read it out of my mind. But I wasn't thinking of it! I was thinking about what Ashlyn said... But what if I've been thinking about it after that and I just haven't realized it? Marissa won't be saved! And it's all my fault....

I let out a sob and feel tears running down my face. Great. I'm such a.. a weakling. A coward. I'm afraid of something that might not have even happened yet! What's wrong with me? I think of Marissa again, how she is like a sister to me, and the sobs become larger. My hands are on my face, I don't want to see anyone in this moment of weakness. I can hear Alexandra's sobs mixed with mine, and then some new crying joins us. Oh my goodnes. How are we ever supposed to be able to face any of this big forest and it's horrors, if we're all crying?

I look up for a second, and see Grace crying into Seth's shoulder. He akwardly pat's her back, and put's his arm around her. She sobs silently, but the top of Seth's shoulder slowly becomes wet with her tears. I look at Kate, who looked as if she was choking back tears as she told Alex the bad news, and see that tears are silently rolling down her face. Kate's supposed to be the tough one! Come one... Hold on Kate...

But she puts her palm to her face and her breathing is fast. Tears fall onto her lap. I almost want to laugh. Look at us! We're all pathetic! But I keep thinking about Marissa's sweet, bright face and I let out another yelp of despair. I take a deep breath.

Trying to think of the good, and only the good, I look up at Cheryl and Ashlyn. They are the only two of us girls whom are holding up in this pool of crying. Cheryl looks awkward, but Ashlyn looks at us with pity. She sits up, her shoulders perking, and says, "Oh my goodness. You guys are going to make me cry!" She shakes her head.

"Guys, look at us! This whole thing is tearing us apart! Mentally and, well, physically! Okay. We need to handle this. Alex, Kate says he has under a week. If we can get him to the doctors in town in a few days, we could still save him! for the rest of you, I.. I really don't want to see why your so upset. I don't want to look. So I can't provide any comforting words. I just..." she stops and her eyes fill with tears. No! Please Ashlyn... don't cry... Not another one...

She takes a deep breath.

"Okay. We need to put our problems behind us for now, and go and get Jack home. We need to plan while he's asleep. He obviously can't walk... That's our main dilemma." Cheryl looks up.

"I was just thinking about that. I think we should carry him in the blanket in turns. Really depending on the person's injuries, how strong they are, and how long it will take for them to get tired. Shifts, kind of. We all need to help. Seth, I know none of us have really gotten along all that well, but please help. We need all the help we can get." He nods at Cheryl.

"Good. So We should spend the night, and then start." Seth says. We all nod in assesment, wiping tears away. We still have a few hours before nightfall, and I'll take that as a few more hours to plan.

Oh, Jack. Please last us a week... Please...