Endurance - Jack Kilborn [100]
Eleanor touched her nose, saw blood on her fingers. She quickly removed a packet of QuikClot from her pocket and shoved some of the powder up her nostrils. When the bleeding had stopped, she got in Maria’s face.
“For that, your last drop will be from your ankles.”
Then Eleanor reached down for the chains.
Kelly woke up and saw the sun peeking through the trees. She was cold and damp and in the forest, and her ankle and finger hurt like crazy, but her first thought was a positive one.
I’m still alive.
That brief moment of elation was wiped away by panic when she saw Cam was missing. Kelly looked around the woods, but he wasn’t anywhere around.
“Cam!” she yelled.
She stood up, her vertebra crackling, and did a slow three hundred and sixty degree turn.
Maybe he went to find water. Kelly couldn’t remember ever being so thirsty.
Or maybe…
Maybe they got him.
That thought made her skin crawl. She didn’t want to be out here, all alone.
“Cam! Where are you!”
“Hey, Kelly.”
Startled, Kelly spun around toward the voice. It was Cam. He had a weird look on his face, one that made him seem like a completely different person.
“I was scared,” she said, walking toward him.
“Me, too.”
And then his shoulders drooped and he began to cry. Kelly went to him, giving him a hug, feeling his whole body shake with his sobs.
“We’re going to get out of this,” she said, patting his back. “We’ll find my family, we’ll find your sister, and we’ll get to a road. It’s all going to be okay.”
Cam put his arms around her. “I keep hearing the screaming.”
Kelly wasn’t sure what he meant, but there had been a lot of screaming lately.
“It’s over now.”
Cam shoved her away. “No it’s not! I still hear it!”
Kelly was a bit shocked by how hard he pushed her. He almost knocked her over.
“Take it easy, Cam. There’s no one screaming right now.”
He put his face in his hands. “Yes there is.”
Kelly listened. She heard normal forest sounds, but no screaming.
“Cam, there’s really nobody screaming.”
Cam squatted, hugging his knees. He began to rock back and forth.
“I hear it,” he said. “I know it’s not real, but I hear it anyway. I just want to make it stop.”
“What are you talking about?”
Cam got a far-away look in his eyes.
“We were fourteen,” he said. “Me and my friend. When we went into that abandoned house. The autopsy report stated he was stabbed more than a hundred and thirty times. None of them were fatal. My best friend died of blood loss. I… I can hear his screams sometimes. Not just in my dreams. But when I’m awake. Like now. Sometimes I hear him. Screaming. Begging to be let go.”
He’s losing it. The poor guy is losing it.
She walked up to Cam, softly put her hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault. You were locked in the closet.”
His face drained of color. He appeared terrified. “Do you know what it’s like to hear screaming all the time, Kelly?”
“You can’t blame yourself, Cam.” She rubbed his back.
“Sure I can. I could have done something. I could have stopped it.”
Kelly squatted down next to him. “You were just a kid. What were you supposed to do?”
“I can hear the screaming right now.” Cam cast a frantic glance into the woods. “I can hear him, like he’s right next to me. Begging to live. And then, after a while, begging to die.” He put his knuckle in his mouth. “It took him such a long time to die.”
Kelly wasn’t sure what to do. He was supposed to be the adult, not her. Lost in the woods, being chased by freaks and a mountain lion, wasn’t a good time to have a nervous breakdown.
“That’s over, Cam. Now you’re here with me. You need to be strong. And we need to go find help.”
Cam looked at Kelly like he hadn’t realized she’d been there. “There’s no help. Not for him.” A darkness came over his face. “And not for you.”
“Stop it, Cam. You’re scaring me.”
“That’s what my best friend said.” Cam said. “After I tied him up.”
Kelly felt the world start