Blackwood

XLIX

            I couldn't bring myself to look at Mason's chest the next day, I couldn't bear to see the darkening bruises that labored my own breathing. A wave of guilt crashed into me every time I caught sight of the bandage wrapped around his body.

Harry was drumming the small notebook he took everywhere with him against his leg as we tried to decide what to do. I had spent the entire night seeking something to kill, encountering more than enough dead to sate the blood lust drumming through my veins.

I had been covered in blood when I came back, waking up Harry to take the shift and then went to wash up at the river.

With all the noise that we had made the day before, we had attracted quite a few groaning dead who wanted to take a closer look at what was happening.

With the snow melting, it meant that they were thawing out as well. We would soon have to deal with them again. It had been nice to not have to worry about them in the winter months, but come Spring, the ground will be crawling with them again.

We had been shoving water from farther up the stream into Mason's body as much as we could, he was unwilling to try and swallow any pills, so we had to dissolve our dwindling supply of aspirin into his water.

For us to even have a chance of moving him at a somewhat normal pace, we would have to drug him up as much as possible until we got to the meeting point where he could heal properly.

He didn't stand a chance out here, the minute we put him on the makeshift stretcher Amelia was working on as she continuously stopped to rub a certain spot on her stomach, he would be jostled and in pain.

And if his rib pierced his lung or nicked an artery, he was dead.

None of us had any experience with that, only Red did and her knowledge was limited, she had only been a nurse. Regardless, moving Mason was going to take a precarious amount of concentration for Harry and me not to jostle him much.

I turned my eyes to the ashen boy whose breaths were harsh as his forehead had perspiration beading up onto it. I didn't let my eyes drift down to his bandaged chest as I cleaned his head wound that was extremely jagged as Harry's hands shook as I went into an unresponsive state as Amelia held her hand over Mason's mouth to silence his screams as he thrashed.

We were lucky he didn't pierce a lung then.

When I saw Red again, I wasn't going to let her believe that I could ever watch either of the kids on my own again. I was terrible at this, why we ever risked bringing another child into this world blew my mind.

I didn't regret Ember, I regretted the world I brought her into.

I couldn't deal with this, if something happened to Ember or Mason again, I don't know what I would do.

I wasn't going to have any more children.

Red and I were lucky that Ember was born healthy considering the circumstances. We considered ourselves lucky that she is fine after all the near misses in her life.

While I loved Red with my entire being, I couldn't give her any more children, I physically wouldn't be able to handle it if something happened to them.

As much as I love Mason and Ember and how rewarding it was to be their dad, I wasn't willing to put another child through what they would be going through.

We just had to get to the meeting point.

I repeated the mantra in my head as I got up after rebandaging Mason's head up, he was going to have a scar. Something I never wanted him to have.

I cleared my mind and helped repack up the dry belongings into the bags. Amelia had finished the stretcher and was massaging her stomach as I could visibly see the movement shifting inside of her swollen stomach, I moved my eyes away and focused on the topic at hand.

Surviving.

We were ready to go as the sun was setting, dangerous time to travel but we had no choice. Resting at the riverside for a day had given us time to recover and prepare for our next movements.

We would continue hiking alongside the mountainside, keeping them to our left as we make our way North. We were getting closer.

Wrapping my hands around the thick tree limbs we had found to hold the towels that currently tried to cushion the limbs that Mason laid on, I looked back at Harry. Nodding my head, ensuring him I was ready, and as he nodded back, we lifted simultaneously.

Mason had been going in and out of consciousness from the pain, only after did the medicated water enter his system did it level out as he forced himself to sleep.

When he slept, he didn't feel the pain.

But its hard to sleep in a world where you trained your body that sleeping would get you killed.

The plan was to move as long as Amelia could without overexerting herself, she would lead us, walking carefully through the forest.

Her bow and quiver were on her back, the rest of our supplies strapped onto the stretcher wherever we could fit it. Many bags were hanging off of the handles.

We were all on high alert as we started walking our lips closed as our eyes and ears were peeled for any sign of something moving or disturbing the area around us.

Where our sight failed us, our hearing made up for it.

We gave wide berth to shuffling, not willing to need to drop everything and fight the dead. The weapons were all hung on my belt, ready for me to unsheathe them at any moment. But the consequence would be dropping Mason to the ground.

A consequence none of us could make.

So, we all stayed silent, our footsteps careful and precise. There was no room for mistakes.

We weren't expecting it.

The sudden ambush from darkly dressed figures.
One moment Amelia was in front of me, the next she wasn't.

As the other side of the stretcher dropped down, I cursed setting down my side as I quickly went next to Mason who was harshly coughing. I held my hand against his cheek, my heart accelerating at the splatters of blood dotting my arm as he coughed.

"Son of a bitch," I growled lowly at the figure coming up to my side.

I wasn't going down without a fight this time.