I Was Born for This(91)

I shine my phone torch on him. It isn’t just mud all over him. It’s blood too.

‘No no no no no.’ Jimmy’s voice breaks through my frantic thoughts as he scrambles to reach Lister. ‘Why-why did he have the knife?’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

I start patting Lister’s face. Need to keep him awake, right? I don’t know. I’m running through all the thriller films I’ve seen in my head.

Lister stirs and his eyes flutter open. There’s a small moment where he might just be waking up from an afternoon nap, but then it hits him all at once. He makes a horrible screaming noise in the back of his throat and tears start rolling out of his eyes.

‘It’s okay, we’re here,’ I say, but he’s started shaking violently, and nothing is okay at all.

‘H-hurts …’ His voice is so small it’s almost inaudible over the rushing water.

Jimmy crawls to the other side of Lister so he’s sitting in the creek. He starts stroking Lister’s hair, saying, ‘It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay,’ but his voice is shaking and he doesn’t sound sure at all.

I shine my torch over the rest of his body. His leg seems to be twisted at a strange angle. It makes my stomach lurch just looking at it. How long has he been lying here?

‘I think he’s broken his leg as well,’ I say, but this just seems to panic Lister more.

‘Do we take the knife out?’ says Jimmy, looking at me wildly.

‘Won’t that just make him bleed more?’

‘I don’t know!? It can’t be good that it’s in there! He’s shaking; it’s cutting him!’

He’s right. Now that Lister’s awake, every time he moves, the knife is digging into him a little harder.

There’s no time for us to argue.

‘We can’t take the knife out,’ I say. ‘He might bleed to death. Just keep him calm so he doesn’t move too much.’

Jimmy takes Lister’s face in both his hands and turns it slightly so that Lister is looking at him.

‘P-please, p-please,’ Lister stammers, his voice little more than a whisper. His whole body is trembling from the cold, and I realise suddenly that it’s because he’s partially submerged in the icy water of the creek.

‘You’re gonna be okay,’ says Jimmy, lowering his face towards Lister. Lister’s eyes are wide now, wild, trying with all their might to focus on Jimmy. ‘Just keep looking at me.’

Jimmy flashes his eyes at me.

‘We-we need to get an ambulance,’ I say. I frantically wipe the rain off my phone with one hand and dial 999, but I can’t get a signal. I try again, and again, but my hands are shaking, and it won’t work. It’s not working, and I don’t know what to do.

Lister starts crying. It’s nothing like I ever imagined. It’s scrunched up and painful and makes me angry.

‘S-sorry,’ he croaks, rolling his head so that he’s resting on Jimmy’s legs. ‘I’m sorry … an accident …’

‘I know, I know. It’s okay.’ Jimmy keeps on stroking Lister’s hair.

Lister’s breathing gets a little calmer, and I realise he’s passing out again. Jimmy slaps his face quite hard, and Lister’s eyes spring open again. ‘Stay awake, Lister, please stay awake.’

The sound of shoes slapping against mud interrupts him. I turn round and look up, only to see Rowan, Bliss and Juliet, staring down at the scene from the top of the bank.

‘Someone call 999!’ I shriek up at them, and Bliss whips out her phone without another word.

‘I j-just … wanted t-to help …’ Lister mumbles, his eyes starting to shut again. He’s losing too much blood. ‘You said … y-you hated y-yourself … Didn’t want you to … d-do anything … b-bad …’ His voice dies away into nothing.

‘I can’t get any signal!’ Bliss screams. Juliet gets her phone out too. Rowan skids down the riverbank and joins us at the bottom.

‘Why did he take the knife?’ Rowan breathes.

Jimmy shakes his head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Ambulance!’ Juliet yells into her phone. She must have got signal. Thank God.

Rowan pushes me aside as he crawls towards Lister’s face. ‘Come on, Allister, stay awake.’ He shakes him a little by the shoulder, but stops as soon as Lister lets out a high-pitched whimper. ‘We need to get him out of the water!’

‘We can’t,’ Jimmy snaps, ‘we can’t move him when he’s losing this much blood!’

‘M-my friend, he’s fallen down a slope. He’s broken his leg and he’s … he’s been impaled by … by something,’ Juliet stammers into her phone. The word ‘impaled’ makes me want to throw up.

‘Where are we?!’ Juliet shouts. Rowan shouts back the name of the area.

I stand up and step back. I’m just in the way, really. The rain is already cleaning the blood and mud from my hands.

‘They’re sending an air ambulance!’ Juliet shouts down at us.

Jimmy kneels in the water and lies down next to Lister, sliding his arm underneath Lister’s head. ‘There’s an ambulance coming. You’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna be okay.’