Beneath the whispers

Chapter 54

A flash of blurry lights hit my eyes and dims down again, the throbbing pain in my head slowly increases and a banging sound erupts in my head, I raise my hand to hold my head but my arm hurts too so I let it lay still. The light comes back clearer and leaves again

“How many more are still alive?” I heard Harper say

I struggle to open my eyes but my whole body aches and I grunt lightly, a hand scoops me up into some huge body, the scent is familiar so I sniff harder and it is mixed with smoke and blood – blood!

I shoot my eyes open but it only slowly breaks apart and I am looking at Tony, there is blood on his head and his arm has a deep cut that is bleeding. I gasp and try to get up but he holds me down

“stop, you are hurt” he says

“where?” I manage to say, my whole body aches so I cannot pinpoint where exactly is hurting

He looks at my head and smacks his lips reluctant to answer my question “just stay still, we are trying to get the survivors out before they figure out how to climb down the ditch we just fell into” He says and pecks my nose. Yep, we are still on the island, and we had just been involved in an accident.

Wait – accidents hurts people and there is blood on Tony’s head, I panicked and raise my hand towards his head but he stops me “its not mine” he says and I look at his arm “the wound is not serious” he continues and I blow a breath of relief

Harper comes into vision, his is stained with so much blood that you cannot know where his wound actually is. He drops a girl he was carrying and heads back into the bus “I have to help him, we don’t have much time”

“I want to he –” my voice comes out weaker

“nope, you are badly hurt” he says and makes to lean me on the tree. The pain in my head suddenly intensifies and I grunt reaching for my head again, that is when I realize that my palm is covered in blood, I place my hand on the aching region and –

“you have a nasty cut there, don’t infect it” he pulls my hand away “stay here” he says and gets up, he looks at me for a while before hurrying towards Harper. How many people are hurt? How bad is it? how many people are still living? We had old people in that bus, that shouldn’t be in this kind of situation at all, and kids?

I try to look but my aching body betrays me and I am caught struggling to barely breath without my diaphragm aching so much.

“what about the teenagers?” I hear willow’s weak voice ask, he grunts in pain after the words

“I don’t know, Mira is not breathing and I am too scared to check the rest” Rose’s voice is panicky but not weak or grunting in pain

Another person that might not be badly hurt. I blow a breath from my mouth and try to move again, I manage to turn my head to face them, the bus is almost squeezed and it is dropping a liquid while smoke oozes from some parts of it. isn’t that what vehicles do when they wants to explode?

I try to get up but my body weight weigh me down and only my hands barely move, I watch Tony and Harper drag out an old woman from the bus, people were already lying down on the floor near the bus.

“The bus is going to explode” I try to shout but my voice comes out weak. Oh God, how do I make them hear me, they never would with the huge strain in the strength of my voice

My eyes land on Olivia who also was leaning on a tree stem some few feet from me, she is grunting and grasping her tummy but she doesn’t have much blood on her except her hand that she cannot seem to move

Thelma is with Rose, patting a girl and trying to help her as the girl vomits blood and they struggle with her. The youngest among the teens is just standing over the girl crying, a fire starts and is slowly heading to where the liquid is dropping

“the car will explode!” I attempt at a shout and it works this time with me paying for that with a pounding headache that has me dizzy but relieved

Tony and willow hurries to the girls and they say something amongst themselves. My sight is not only poor but my ears has this wee sound that doesn’t go so I cannot hear them properly

The four of them rushes towards us and Tony scoops me in his arms and heads first, I feel his strong steps underneath pound one after the other on the floor as the trees swirls beside us. his tears drops on my face, I thought they were sweat until I looked at his eyes

I couldn’t stretch to look behind and catch a glimpse of how many people were following us but I know they were not much from the few steps I may have heard behind us through the wee sound that seems to intensify with the shaking from Tony running

We get to some place and he places me on the floor and bend down above me, I feel other do the same and wait

“I am sorry, I put you in a very deadly position when I let you stay on my lap” he whispers to me

I smile “I would have died before the accident if I carried you instead” I say weakly and he forces a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes

“How many are we now?” I ask

“We were so jam-packed in the bus, we couldn’t get so many out. Except the ones closest to the door and –” A wild explosion interrupts him and I feel the ground shake and some forced wind swirl past us. Tony shuts his eyes and tears stream down them. my sight blur with tears too and I pull him by the neck for a hug “the villagers …”

“shhhhhh” I tell him “we did all we could” I softly push him away from me cupping his cheeks “ we need to survive, so they don’t do this to another people”

He looks at me in tears “you are hurt badly” he says

“believe me, it doesn’t hurt as much as it looks and I am not going anywhere” I say through the throbbing headache with a weak smile that doesn’t reach my eyes