A mouthful of sand.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:12 pm

Tom stiffened at the contact, but struggled up. "If there's a river, then it'll lead out onto the beach." He stared with thinly disguised fear at the dark dense jungle.

I wish this wasn't so difficult. I wish we could talk like we used to. I wish we could act like we used to. Where did it go wrong?

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:24 pm

William felt Tom stiffen under his touch. It wasn't always like that, he thought. Yet he had missed that kind of proximity. But how could you tell someone how much you had missed them after you had purposedly thrown them out of your life?

"If we get salt in your wounds it's going to hurt like a motherfucker." He managed to properly raise Tom on his feet. "We need to make sure the water is clean. If there's a river, then it's clear rain water." He smirked. "Don't tell me you're actually afraid of going there?" He patted his back.

It felt awkward; the conversation was clumsy.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:30 pm

"Don't you remember?" Tom looked at him with a wry smile. "I'm scared of the dark. Have been since I got jumped."
But he leant into William's touch.
God, I missed you

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:50 pm

William didn't want to make it seem like he was clinging to Tom's shirt, but he couldn't help it. "I had time to forget a lot of things." He wanted to remember, to learn everything again. He wanted to know Tom by heart by the time they'd be rescued, if only to make up for what he had done to him.

"I'll protect you," he said, tempted to take it back when he realized how cheesy it sounded. "I mean, I... well, if you don't trust me, you can always stay with Gabe while I go get water." He waved at Gabe with a fake and exasperated smile.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:54 pm

Tom tilted his head back, looking at William with clear grey eyes. "Gabe talks too much." He informed him, smiling slightly. "I will never get over having to talk up to you."

I don't want to leave now. I want to go back to how it was before.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:05 pm

"Ah! Well that's true, Gabe does talk too much. But when you want him to shut up," he leaned closer to Tom's ear and whispered, as if Gabe could hear them, "all you have to do is insult his sense of style." He grinned. "It works. He gets really pissed off and stops talking to you for...well, a good fifteen minutes."

He started walking in direction of the jungle, really slowly, to make sure Tom could follow without having to push him.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:20 pm

Gabe looked over the other end of the beach. He had heard screaming. Lots of it. But he hadn't moved. He was sick of waiting.
"Son of a bitch, making me get up with this- FUCK!" He fell back down, making a big splatter of water around him, rendering the colour of his clothes one notch darker.
"I CAN'T FUCKIN' GET UP!" he yelled.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:27 pm

William shook his head, both out of disbelief and exasperation. Tom was in his arms and relied on him to stay up. On the other hand, Gabe probably - well, obviously - needed his help. A decision had to be taken.

"CAN'T YOU JUST CRAWL OVER HERE?"

Giving up, William told Tom, "I'm sorry, I...I'll be back in a minute. Keep your arm up so the blood flows properly and the swelling goes down."

Not exactly running but walking fast, he reached Gabe. "What the fuck, man?"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:35 pm

"Dude, my leg is killing me. I think something's stuck in i- who was that over there?" Gabe said, looking over William's shoulder in the distance, unable to make out the silhouette that was too far for him to see.
"I can't move, man. I mean, this kinda seems like ping-pong, but you'll have to tell him- or her- that they'll have to wait. Who is it, anyways?" he asked again, feeling a hard pulse under his scalp revealing to him the possibility of some shock to his head.

((Ha long sentence xD))

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:41 pm

William cleared his throat. "It's, uhm, Tom. You know, Tom." He put particular emphasis on the name, hoping Gabe would understand all that was implied. "I told him to wait, but be quick. He's in really bad shape."

He took a second to catch his breath, and quickly changed the subject. "Any idea what's wrong with your leg? I know it hurts, but can you be more specific?"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:51 pm

Gabe looked over William's shoulder again. "Tom? As in, the guy who used to be in your ba- oh, sorry" he refrained, seeing the look William was giving him.
"Well, uh. My leg. Yeah, see the thing is... I just felt it, in a wrong way, for the first time a couple of seconds ago. I haven't got a freakin' clue what I've got" He eyed his right calf.
"I'm getting the feeling something is stuck in there" and he pointed a rather sharp piece of steel, with, at it's base, a circle of blood. It wasn't deep into the calf, but deep enough to make hemorrhage possible if removed.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:31 pm

"Oh fuck!" William covered his mouth with a hand. "You could have...warned me, at least. Said it was serious. God, that's just disgusting. Err, sorry mate. Didn't mean that. But wow."

The injury itself didn't look pretty bad, minus the fact that, you know, a piece of metal was stuck in Gabe's calf. It was the thought of having to take it out that repulsed William.

"Please tell me you've had first aid class. I'm not sure I know what to do." He looked at it again, frowning. "You have to make a bandage around it, and then take the person to the nearest hospital...or something like that?" He smacked his head with the palm of his hand. "First part is easy, but where the heck am I going to find a hospital?"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:22 pm

Gabe grinned. William was so cute at times.
"Look. Don't wet yourself. I just think we shouldn't pull it out right now. And finding a hospital is obviously plan A we gotta skip-"
Gabe eyed William who was looking towards Tom. He snapped his fingers two inches of Will's face.
"Will, attention here for a sec' will ya'?"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:35 pm

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Letting Tom leave one time had generated a constant paranoia in William's mind, apparently. He hoped he wouldn't be mad for waiting.

He blinked. "So you can't walk, right?" He didn't wait for an answer because he was only stating facts out loud. "Unless someone miraculously appears to help me, I guess that implies I have to carry you? I can't just let you sit there by yourself."

For a second, he thought, or can I?, but tried to focus on the main issue - being the infection that was prone to appear in Gabe's leg if he didn't find a brilliant solution.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:48 am

Gabe looked up at William with a semi-grave look in his eyes.
"Will, d'you think... d'you think maybe you could just bring him over here? Maybe things will be more easily decided if your head doesn't have to swing every three seconds" at those words William's head pivoted back to Gabe.
"I think the main idea here would be to desinfect it properly. And we've got the perfect solution in front of us. A billion of gallons of it"; he eyed the sea.
"Salty, eh?"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:37 am

Using his best 'smart guy' voice, William recited: "Doctors say you can't put salt in your wounds. Or, well, you shouldn't." He raised both hands in sign of defeat. "If doctors say so, you know."

He sighed. "I hate to have to do this. I really do." His back facing Gabe, he kneeled down. "Climb and stay there. I was going to find some clean water anyways. You need to come with us." He pointed the jungle, eyeing Tom at the same time. "There."

He shook his head and smiled inwardly, not quite believing he was doing this. Only a few minutes on an island and he was already in charge of everything.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:29 pm

What was he doing? Tom leant his arm on his knee, like William had told him to. His eyelids felt heavy and he splashed salt water in them. "Oh fuck!" He swore. "That hurt!" His knee knocked his arm, and suddenly, he was falling...

blackness.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:16 pm

Michael sat up suddenly and thrashed a bit as if he was waking up from a bad dream. He looked around and blinked a couple times because he wasn't supposed to be surrounded by sand. He was supposed to be drifting off to sleep in his seat. He was supposed to be making jokes with... Who had he been sitting next to? He couldn't remember.

He reached a hand up to his head and blinked several times when his fingers were met with a sticky substance. That wasn't supposed to be there. "My hat," he looked around frantically because what was supposed to be there was definitely missing.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:48 pm

darkness.
Waves crashing against something.
Against him?
Was he going out to sea?
Where was William?
Was he... dead?
darkness.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:54 pm

"My hat," Michael repeated and stood shakily.

He put his hands on his head and started to walk aimlessly, tripping over his own feet a couple times. In the back of his mind he knew he had to find the person who was sitting next to him, whoever it was, and make sure he was alright.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:25 pm

No...
Please leave me be!
Tom scrambled backwards. It was dark.
So dark.
He shuddered.
The body on the beach moved suddenly, and the whole weight of Tom's body rested on his arm. The unconscious guitarist was shocked back into consciousness briefly and he screamed again, before falling back into the trance he'd created.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:30 pm

Michael turned sharply towards the direction of the scream. Screams meant pain. Pain wasn't good. That's all Michael could think about. It worried him that whoever it was in pain might have been the person sitting next to him. He needed to remember who was sitting next to him.

Michael rushed towards the voice, hoping that whoever had screamed wasn't dead. He wasn't sure he could deal with that right now. He needed answers, not more problems.

"Tom Conrad?" Michael blinked down at one of the last people he would have expected to find himself stranded with, the man he had replaced.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:32 pm

Gabe looked at William's ~~ass~~ back and sighed.
"You really think I'll manage to climb on? How the hell are you plannin' to hold me? You need leg-grip" Gabe said bitterly.
He looked in the distance.
"Hey, you still haven't told me who that was over there. Whoever it was, though, there's someone else with him now"

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:46 pm

((I seriously lol'ed at that. Damn you. xD))

William raised his head before he could fully pay attention to Gabe's words. Indeed, Tom wasn't alone. Whoever was with him didn't seem to mean him any harm - in fact, his presence could probably take a weight off William's shoulders - but Tom's condition seemed to have worsened in a matter of seconds, and that alone worried him to no end.

"What the fuck!" William got up in one swift move, accidentally knocking back Gabe in the process.

"Sorry, I..." he started, but his tone changed before he could finish his sentence. "I'm taking care of you for a second and the next thing I know there's a stranger taking care of..."

He breathed. "Tom. That's what you wanted to know. Tom Conrad." He gesticulated with his hands, trying to quote whoever had already blamed him on the matter. "The guitarist I 'nicely' threw out of the band. There. But we're over it now."

It wasn't exactly true, but he figured it was none of Gabe's business. The less he knew the better it was.

Subject: Re: A mouthful of sand. Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:56 pm

(Really? Glad you found it amusing xD; )
Gabe coughed.
"Tom Conrad? Seriously?" he looked up at William.
Seeing the look on William's face, he started again.
"Ok. He's with someone else. Maybe I could-" and he leaned on William's shoulder, gave himself one good kick from the other leg and stood, peg-legged.
"If I don't have to jump around like an idiot for hours, I should be oka- FUCK! WHAT THE HELL!" he looked down, the object previously stuck in his leg was in the sand; his limb gushed of blood. Gabe's face twitched.

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