SEVEN HELP ME

So this was how Wes ended up on a fucking camping trip with Grizz Visser. This was ridiculous and he didn't even have any of his friends with him to complain about it with. He couldn't believe this was what his life had come to. Maybe he was being a bit dramatic, but he didn't really care. If the shoe fits, he supposes. He bats leaves and branches away from his face with a grumble as they walked, everything in his vicinity making it their personal mission to irritate the hell out of him.

"Okay, so five day's worth of food," Grizz was explaining, "that should be enough to get us past Greenwich, Stamford, and all the way up to New Haven."

The group was silent as they walked, Wes doing his best to stay a safe distance away from Grizz. Alas, he could never know peace as the boy seemed to deliberately fall behind so he could match pace with the boy.

"Dude, immediately no," Wes mumbles before the boy can even get a word out of his mouth.

"Dude!" Grizz exclaims, "You didn't even hear what I was going to say."

"I don't need to," the blond shook his head, "I am here as a favor, not to mend fences. And because you guys would probably die without me."

Grizz took offense to this, "Yeah, if I wasn't here maybe, but we'd survive just fine without you. It's just nice... to have help. I'd rather have two people who know what they're doing than just me. Don't think you're any more special than you are."

"My presence is a gift, excuse you," Wes teased, but there was no malice behind it. He tried to will himself to be genuinely angry, but he was mostly just annoyed, which, unfortunately, was lessened the more Grizz took what Wes was throwing at him. He wondered if maybe he wanted to see Grizz angry, but it felt like more than that. Maybe it was therapeutic to get to lash out and Grizz and have him throw it right back to him like it was the easiest thing in the world. Their dynamic didn't use to be so weird. Now, Wes never understood what was going on between them. What he did know was that he very much hated Grizz. That wasn't going to change in a million years.

"Yeah, you're right," the boy spoke softly, which caught Wes off guard. Before Wes could respond, he cleared his throat and addressed the group, "If you guys want we can stop and maybe set up for some lunch, I know everyone was... exerting themselves last night."

"Thank God," Luke muttered as he began to find some logs to sit on. The reason Grizz must have said this was because they had come across a small clearing in the trees and there was no telling when they would get another chance at space to set up a small camp like this. Still, they had a lot more progress to make.

They settled down in the clearing and began to sort through the food they had. Wes was admittedly starving since he hadn't eaten since last night at the party and even then the food was mostly drowned out by the sheer amount of alcohol he forced into his system. He happily took the food he was offered as he settled down on a log next to Grizz. It wasn't on purpose, of course, it was just where they had ended up.

"All right, here you go, I'm Dr. J," Luke was exclaiming as he tossed one of the boxes over to Grizz who caught it with ease.

"Nice toss," Emily cheered him on from the seat next to him, a wide grin on her face. Wes had to admit, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood since leaving the stress of town. It was easier to manage the attitudes of five to six people rather than a whole population of juniors and seniors. It was nice to not be surrounded by the panic for just a few hours.

"Thank you, thank you," the boy muttered.

"Who's got the peanut butter?" someone asked from Wes's right and he began to look around for the object but he didn't see it.

Grizz looked around as well, mumbling, "I don't see it anywhere. Is it still in the pack?"

"I'll get it," Luke announced as he began to stand up, but Emily stopped him.

"No, I'll get it," the girl smiled flirtatiously. Wes seemed to pick up on what was going on there and he already knew Emily was stupid for it considering Wes had never seen anyone more in love than Luke and his girlfriend, Helena. Regardless, the girl stood and walked over to their backpacks to get the peanut butter.

"Listen, Wes --" Grizz began to say but was cut off by a yell from Emily.

The girl crumbled to the ground, shouting, "Ow!"

Immediately everyone was called to attention as they rushed over to her, Luke grabbing her before she fell as the girl gripped her ankle and shouted obscenities. Looking around, the leaves crunched beneath a cobra slithering away from their pile of backpacks. As soon as he saw it, Wes yelped and leaped backward, crashing right into Grizz who caught him by the elbows and stood him upright before he could fall. Wes cleared his throat and brushed himself off as if snakes didn't scare the shit out of him.

The moment passed as Grizz went into action, "Hey, clear the area! Lay her down, lay her down. Careful."

Everyone listened because Grizz had a way of commanding attention when he wanted to and he was probably the only one who knew what to do in situations like this. Wes knew vaguely, but he usually paled at the topic of snakes whenever it was something he had to learn about. Of course, the one thing he always zoned out on was going to the only living creature they encountered thus far.

Luke helped Emily onto the ground as Wes grabbed one of their backpacks and placed it behind her head, the girl muttering breathy exclamations of various curse words. He couldn't blame her, it had to hurt like a bitch.

"All right, get back, get back," Grizz was directing as he went to inspect the girl's ankle. "Let's try -- hey, I'm gonna try and calm you down, all right? You wanna slow your heart rate down so deep breaths. Yeah, one more. That's good, okay, so squeeze my hand."

Wes knew now wasn't the time, but he was mildly impressed by the way Grizz was handling this. He was so calm when everyone else was freaking out and Wes didn't miss the way he knew how to direct others when he wanted to.

"Big squeeze," Grizz instructed her, "Wes can you adjust the pack so she's more elevated? We want her heart above it."

He nodded, fixing the pack and motioning to Luke, "Hey, give me another one. There, that's good."

Grizz was still speaking to Emily, "All right, slow down. Good, big squeeze. Here, Luke." He passed her hand over to Luke while Grizz went to inspect the bite. "Oh, yeah, that's -- that's a good bite. Okay."

"Is it supposed to hurt this much?" Emily muttered, sounding more out of breath than she should.

"Only if you're lucky," Luke joked in an attempt to cheer her up and the girl let out a weak chuckle. Wes noticed how pale her skin was.

"Grizz," he whispered, leaning above the boy, "She's pale. Really pale."

"I know," the boy responded, sounding worried before speaking to the girl again, "Okay, deep breath, and hold --" he tied a strip of fabric around her leg, "--Okay, let it out."

Luke was still trying to cheer her up, "It's gonna be a badass scar. You okay?"

Wes watched the scene along with the others, his heart beating quickly. Something was wrong here, he knew it.

"Yeah," the girl responded to Luke's question, her voice faltering as she spoke.

The boy holding her nodded as he looked around at everyone else, "You guys good? Everyone's doing okay?"

They all nodded, no one daring to speak.

"Mouth is tingling," Emily spoke suddenly, "Mouth is tingling. It's weird."

Just then, Wes noticed that Grizz had stopped what he was doing. He met eyes with Luke and Wes had a bad feeling. His heart sunk as the girl's breathing became more labored.

"Please," the girl wheezed, gripping onto Luke's shirt, "Help me. Help me."

"It's okay," Luke tried to comfort her, but it was no use. They were hours away from anything that could help them. "Grizz?"

"I can't --" the girl's sentence cut off as she struggled to breathe. Her throat would close up any minute now. She whispered a plea, "Mom?"

Luke pulled Grizz away to say something as the rest of them surrounded Emily. Wes panicked and went to support her head as the girl held onto him. Her hands were freezing, her eyes deep-set and dark. He shot a desperate look to Grizz who, despite his otherwise stoic expression, had a tear rolling down his cheek.

"Luke, we're so fucking in over our heads here," was all Wes picked up from their conversation. He could barely hear over the tortured sounds of Emily struggling to breathe. One hand was gripping Wes's shirt while the other clawed at her throat.

"Hey, hey, I don't think she's breathing," the girl next to Wes exclaimed.

"Give her mouth-to-mouth, one of you," Luke shouted in a panic, pacing.

The girl nodded and Wes began doing compressions, giving her the nod to start doing mouth-to-mouth. Nothing. They tried again.

"Tilt her head back," the other girl said.

"And block her nose," someone else offered. They tried once more. Still nothing. "Does she have a pulse?"

Everyone panicked and Wes grabbed the girl's wrist and checked while someone else checked her neck. There was nothing, but Wes didn't know how to tell them. Luke pushed the girl out of the way, Wes moving away before he could get shoved as the boy started doing compressions so frantic he was probably risking breaking one of her ribs. Not that it mattered anymore. He shot a desperate look over to Grizz, his hand still gripping Emily's pale wrist. Wes shook his head, the words trapped in his throat.

"Come on, Emily, stay with us, come on," Luke was shouting, but it was no use.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God," Gwen was muttering as she took a deep breath and stepped back.

"We need to decide whether to bury her here or take her home," Grizz finally spoke, his voice controlled. If we knew the boy at all, he knew he was doing everything in his power not to freak out. "The rest is out of our hands."

Luke was still in denial, "No, no, no, fuck that. We can still do this, come on. Come on."

"No, no, no," someone else was muttering.

Wes forced himself up off of the ground as he walked over to Grizz. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he collapsed into the boy. Without a second thought, the boy caught him in a hug, slapping his back. It was as much comfort as either of them was going to get in the moment.

Finally, Luke sat back and collapsed away from the girl -- pale white and blue against the autumn leaves. Her eyes were frozen open, a hand still clawing at her throat. Wes wanted to puke. He was never going to forget this.

Wes looked around at the group, swallowing the lump in his throat as he forced himself to say, "Come on, let's take her home."