An Unexpected Calm

Part 3

I slowly started to wake up. I felt groggy and somewhat stiff. I must have been asleep for a while. Shit I must have been asleep for a while!

I instantly jerked up into a sitting position at the realization. I knew better than to let myself sleep for too long. The longer I was asleep, the more vulnerable I became. I have heard way too many stories of zombies attacking whilst people were sleeping. My head jerked around as I scanned the cave, making sure that no zombies were inside. Once I scoped out the cave, I held my breath so that I was extremely quiet. I was listening to the sounds outside, checking to make sure I didn’t hear any peculiar noises.

That’s when it hit me. I couldn’t detect anything. No sound, no other being, nothing. I should be able to detect one thing: Perrie.

I couldn’t help but feel rage fill my body. Perrie knew she couldn’t leave me. She was the reason my foot was throbbing with pain right now. She had to stay and take care of me. I can’t even walk properly right now. How can she expect me to survive on my own? It’s official. Perrie is heartless. She has to be to leave me alone to fend for myself like this.

The fact that she had the nerve to leave me while I was sleeping is even worse. She probably knows just as well as I do how vulnerable a person is when they’re left sleeping for too long. I honestly thought Perrie cared about me a little bit after last night, but I guess I was wrong.

I hated to admit it, but I need Perrie. I realized that when I tried to get up off of the cave floor. I had thrown the blankets off of me angrily and then attempted to get up on my feet. I wanted to get up and search for Perrie. Maybe she hadn’t left long ago and I could catch up to her. I had a whole lot of things I could say to her right now.

The second I placed my weight on my injured foot, I let out a loud shriek. The pain was almost unbearable. I felt tears spring up to my eyes. I dropped down to my knees so I wouldn’t have to endure any more pain.

Once the pain subsided slightly, I shifted back onto my knees. I knew it was going to suck getting around like this, but it was my only option at the moment. I slowly crawled towards the entrance to the cave, making sure to keep my injured foot up in the air as I did so.

Once I made it outside, I glanced around the clearing. The air smelled fresh, but there wasn’t any dew on the grass anymore, so I’m guessing it had to be around ten in the morning at this point. I sighed out because I realized I had been asleep for such a long time.

As I glanced around the empty clearing, anger filled me again because there was definitely no sign of Perrie. She just left me in my time of need. I let her into a place I hadn’t shown anyone before and she just used me for a place to sleep before she was back on her way to her ‘I don’t give a shit about anyone’ lifestyle. I should have expected this to happen. Perrie was somewhat predictable at this point.

I sighed out, pushing Perrie from my thoughts. All of these negative and angry thoughts would not help me recover. Instead of wallowing in anger and self-pity, I should be thinking of ways to move around. I should be rewrapping my foot in new cloth. I should be doing something to keep my mind off of the pain and the blonde girl who had betrayed me.

I gingerly reached down to my foot and slowly unwrapped the cloth Perrie had put on it the previous night. I hissed out as the cloth fell to the ground and I saw my foot. It was even more swollen than last night and now the bruising had gotten so bad that it almost looked black. I looked at one of my toes and realized that a toe nail was missing. Great.

After I had enough of looking at my terrible foot, I slowly peeled my pants off, making sure to be extra careful with my foot. Once my pants were off, I crawled until I was at the brook. I slowly slid my legs into the water. I let out a happy sigh because the water was the perfect temperature and felt great on my foot. I could sit here all day, just relaxing. I straightened up and scolded myself at the thought. I couldn’t be here all day. I needed to be productive. How many times do I have to tell myself not to let my guard down?