May Dawney - Survival Instincts

During those minutes of recovery, Skeever limped over. He sighed and lay down by her side, muzzle on her arm.

Lynn turned her head slowly. A sob tore through her throat. “S-Skeeve.” She hissed as she moved her right arm, but it was worth every bit of pain to feel his fur under her fingertips. “Are you okay, boy? You saved our asses, y-you know that, right?”

He licked his muzzle. His eyes pleaded with her to make the pain stop.

“Sorry, Skeeve. I’ll have a look soon, okay? I need to find Dani first.” The moment she said it, adrenaline drowned out much of the pain. She’d been so consumed with her own suffering that she hadn’t realized that she should have heard from or seen Dani by now, and the fact that she hadn’t was terrifying.

Getting up was excruciating, but she managed. As she used the truck as leverage to push onto her feet, she also got her first glimpse of the spear tip sticking out from the bears back. It had gone straight through, ripping up everything in its path as the bear’s weight forced it on.

Lynn shuddered and swallowed down a rush of bile. How can I still be alive?

Skeever got up too. He lifted his left front paw—the one covered in blood—and kept it off the ground as he hobbled alongside her.

Lynn used the truck to make her way to the front of it, both eager to reach it and dreading what she would find when she did.

Dani hadn’t moved from where she had fallen. Blood smears covered the windshield and the hood, and a pool of it colored the asphalt underneath Dani’s crumpled body red. Her eyes were closed and her skin the color of chalk.

Lynn’s legs nearly gave out as she saw her worst fears become a reality.

“ NO NO NO NO NO!” Lynn fell by Dani’s side, instantly trying to find where the blood was pouring from. When she pulled up Dani’s shredded coat, five gashes of various lengths and depths appeared along Dani’s belly. It was hard to judge how extensive the damage was with the sea of red and the diminishing light, but it was bad. Very bad.

Skeever pressed his muzzle against Dani’s cheek and lay by her side protectively.

“Dani! Wake up!” Lynn rolled Dani’s limp body over and carefully pressed down on Dani’s abdomen to see which gashes were deepest.

Dani gasped, and her eyes fluttered open. “Wha—?” She tensed, and blood gushed from the wounds.

Lynn grabbed her hands and held them. “Quiet! Quiet! You’re hurt, okay? You’re hurt.” Her voice broke, and she realized she was crying.

“Lynn…” Dani’s voice was barely more than a whisper. She went limp again, but her eyes remained opened to slits. Tears streaked down her dirty cheeks.

“I’m here. You’re going to be fine. I’m going to take care of you. Just lie down and try to stay awake for me. Can you do that?” She squeezed her hands.

“T-Think so.” Dani sucked in a shallow, shuddering breath.

Lynn forced herself to focus. Her raging heart made her woozy. She was sure her shoulder was mangled, probably still bleeding, and the pain was only getting worse. She had to calm down and prioritize.

“H-How b-bad…?”

Lynn smiled despite the pain. “You’re okay.” Dani was alive; that was all that mattered. She would keep her alive. “I’m going to bandage you up, though. I like your blood inside your body, if at all possible.”

She didn’t quite manage to sell the cheer in her voice, but a ghost of a smile flitted across Dani’s lips. “M-Me too.” She took another shallow breath. “You?”

Me? “Oh, how I am? I’m good. Don’t worry. Nothing that can’t be patched up. Same as you.” She slid her backpack from her shoulders and opened it. Everything was wet, and glass shards had pierced every strip of cloth and leather. She couldn’t use any of it to bandage Dani’s wounds. “I’m going to find your pack. Lie still, okay? Don’t move a muscle.”

Dani hummed. Her eyelids fluttered shut.

“Hey!” She tapped Dani’s cheek softly. “Stay awake, remember? That’s your one job: you have to stay awake, or I’ll get really mad at you.”

Dani frowned and forced her eyes open. She looked around but seemed unable to focus her gaze on anything.

Lynn’s insides churned, but she didn’t have time to give in to her worry. Dani was bleeding to death right in front of her eyes, and the only one who could do anything to prevent it was Lynn. “I’ll be right back.”

“N-Not going… a-anywhere.” Dani smiled again. It was so weak that it spurred Lynn on to hurry.

As she retrieved Dani’s pack from nearby the cart, her mind kicked into overdrive, spewing out questions she didn’t have answers to: Where had the bear come from? Were there more? How was she going to get Dani back to health? When would they be able to travel on? If they missed the two-week deadline the Homesteaders had Dani under, would they come look for her? Would Dani survive long enough to wait for that? She shook her head to clear it. She didn’t have time for those questions.

Her gaze landed on the cart. The body could attract all kinds of predators, but she didn’t have time to think up a solution to that problem right now. She left it where it was.

Dani was half asleep by the time Lynn fell by her side again. She had started to shiver, and her jaw was set.

“Wake-up call, Dani.” She plopped Dani’s backpack down and angled it to catch the last of the twilight. She didn’t have time to make a fire.

“I-I’m here.” Dani turned her head sideways. “V-Very… s-sorry.”

“About what?” She finally found a pair of Dani’s pants and pulled her knife from her boot to cut it in half through the crotch and then lengthwise down the leg.

“W-Wolf.” Dani exhaled shakily and very slowly moved her hand until it touched Lynn’s knee.

“Wolf? What?” She looked around but didn’t see anything.

Dani’s fingers hooked behind her knee and applied just the barest hint of pressure to get her attention. “N-No.” She stopped for breath. “Before.”

Finally, the dots connected. Lynn shook her head. Do you really think that matters now? “Forget about that. I don’t care. You’re redeemed, if that helps. Just focus on staying awake, and I’ll never bring up wolves again, I promise.”

Dani managed a nod. “Tha—” She gasped and winced. “Thanks.”

“You got it, Settler.” She finished the work with two long, broad strips of leather. “Now, this is going to hurt. A lot.” Lynn folded one of Dani’s woolen sweaters into a rectangular package. “Ready?”

Dani nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. “Go.”

Lynn unbuttoned Dani’s jacket, pulled her sweater up, and pressed the improvised compress against the wounds.

Dani hissed and tensed, then settled again.

Seeing her in pain was hard, but Lynn had to push on. “Hold it.” She put Dani’s hand on the wool.

Dani gripped it lightly and pressed with whatever strength she had to give.

Lynn reached under Dani’s back and got both cut-open pant legs under her. She tied each down with a hard yank and a strong knot. Applying pressure was all she could do to stop the bleeding without shelter and light.

Dani cried out in agony as Lynn tied the knots. She arched off the ground, then crashed back down. Sweat pearled on her forehead.

“Shhhh… Shhhh.” Lynn ran her hand along the unmarred skin of Dani’s arm. She’d been carefully holding in her tears, but seeing Dani hurt so much shattered the dam again. “Shhh.”

Dani heaved for air. Fresh tears fell.

Lynn sat up and tried to focus. What was the next most pressing issue? She had many: It was getting dark, and she needed shelter. Her own shoulder was messed up and still bleeding, so she had to tend to that. Skeever was hurt, but she didn’t have enough light to look him over either. Everything in her pack was drenched and full of glass; Dani’s spear was stuck in a bear, and who knew what else was going on that she was forgetting about. There was a lot to think about, but the most important thing they needed was shelter and a fire. Without either, Dani wouldn’t survive the night.