Chapter Text
I audibly sighed when I saw Neo and Jay walking, or in Neo’s case, limping, towards me.
I couldn’t go back to sleep after that nightmare, so I decided to try to get some things situated, but right now I was sitting by a tree with my radio, listening to the one music station in all of Dema that mainly just shuffled Clancy’s music while also playing instrumental pieces here and there.
“What are you doing?” I asked, as the two got closer. I knew something was going on between them. They had become extremely close in the past few days.
“I need crutches,” Neo mumbled, having a death grip on Jay’s shoulder.
“How’s your leg feeling?” I asked, and he shot a glare at me. “I got impaled with a fucking arrow, Joshua.”
I put my hands up like I was surrendering, it was a stupid question now that I actually think about it. Maybe the sleep deprivation was getting to me.
“In all seriousness though it fucking hurts,” he said, and I motioned for him to take a seat on the grass.
“We’re supposed to change your bandages out every day, but because of our predicament we’re going to have to do it every other day,” I said, unwrapping the bandage around his thigh.
“I told you!” Neo said, looking up at Jay, who sighed. “I’m never believing a word Aria says again.”
“She is right, as it heals it’ll take less and less—” I cut myself off as the smell of what I could only describe as rotting flesh entered the air.
Fuck. It was infected.
I grabbed my water bottle and wet my hands before taking the packed gauze out. I didn’t even notice how much pus there was at first, but it was enough to make Jay gag. I’d dealt with infections like this before, so I had built up a tolerance to this kind of stuff.
I rinsed the outside of the wound with water before cleaning out the inside again, which caused Jay to put his hands over Neo’s mouth to stifle his scream.
I decided to ditch packing it. I just needed to clean it and rewrap it and hope that the infection dies down.
I wrapped it back up before securing it with tape.
“Did you lick my hand?” Jay asked, yanking his hand away, and Neo nodded. “Dude, that's gross!”
I hoped that Neo’s immune system would fight off the infection, and I also hoped that the mutual pining between those two would subside soon.
“Hey, Jay?” I asked, and he looked at me while helping Neo stand up. “Once you get him back under your tarp can I talk to you?”
He nodded before turning his attention back to Neo. “I got you,” he said, wrapping his arm around Neo’s shoulder while the other gripped Jay’s.
“You’re going to be okay.”
Once Neo was back under their tree Jay came running towards me.
“What do you wanna talk about?” he asked, sitting down, and I turned my radio down. “What do you know about the city?”
He paused before taking a deep breath. “There’s secret doors between district walls, I’ve used them to sneak out to the Necropolis gardens,” he said, and I nodded. “That isn’t what you dragged me back here for, is it?”
I paused, before finally deciding that I needed to tell Jay this.
“There’s always a chance that Neo’s body can’t handle the healing process due to how deep that wound runs, especially with that infection,” I said, and he looked at me like I knew what he was thinking.
“Is he going to die?” he asked, his voice breaking. He sounded so much like his oldest brother that my heart felt like it had shattered.
“I don’t know, if his leg gets worse it’s always a possibility.”
I couldn’t figure out what was going through his mind, and usually I was good at reading people. “Jay?” I asked, and he looked up. “What’re you thinking about?”
“I’m just preparing for the worst,” he replied, and I nodded. I was doing the same thing.
“Keep an eye on him, also can you tell Eliot and Brikka to get a fire started? We’re safe as of right now,” I said, and he nodded. “I’m going to go hunting.”
I needed to take my mind off of things, and getting my people food could distract me.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Clancy, and the fact that he could be dead because of me. I put my people and my lover at risk. He was being tortured because of me, being brainwashed to hate me. He wants to kill me.
If I ever saw him again he’d kill me, and I might just let him.
I’d rather die to hands that once loved rather than to hands that only knew hatred.