HEARING DAMAGE
TEEN NOLA - CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE !

          "GUYS, I FOUND A FUCKING MOOSE!" Desperately bellowed open the wide eyed, frantic looking Natalie Scatorccio. She came stomping into the cabin, bulldozing open the door so aggressively she nearly took it off its hinges as it swung open and collided hard against the wall. Her heart was pounding violently against her chest and her side hurt so badly from the race back to the cabin.

          The sudden explosion of panic from the blonde had everyone rushing to their feet, their own eyes filled with intrigue at the prospect of having a moose of all animals to feast upon. The sound of their feet clattering against the wooden floorboards mixed with the haggard sound of Natalie's breathing.

          "Wait...found but didn't kill?" Travis asked the returning hunter as he sidestepped past those who stood in front of him and manoeuvred his way towards the oxygen deprived Natalie, who was urgently gasping for air.

          Natalie shook her head. She hadn't been the one to kill it but did that really matter when they could be eating this animal in a few hours. Contest be damned at this point. "No, it's dead. It's frozen in the surface of the lake. I'm gonna need a lot of help to get it out of there."

          It appeared that everyone was on board with the idea. It was food after all. Who really cared where it came from? This holy grail of an animal could be the difference in whether they survive the rest of winter or not.

           Coach Ben had risen to his feet, crutches perched securely under his armpits. "Here, take this." The man, who had spent much of his time dazed and blurry eyed in the corner, uttered as he handed the bleached blonde an axe. "And everyone dress as warmly as you can."

           Mari's eyes narrowed. As she stepped forward, a frown on her lips and her arms folded across her chest like a stroppy child, her annoyance at the situation came spewing out. "Hey, I thought the rule was no assistance."

They were attempting to break the rules of the game. This angered her greatly. It was as if they were belittling Lottie and everything she represented. Would they have provided help if Lottie had been the one rushing back to the cabin asking for assistance?

"Oh my god, Mari, this is food!" Coach Ben harshly scolded the girl. He barely even looked her way as he snapped at her, the man finding her behaviour and belief in Lottie incredibly childish.

Though she didn't really need to explain herself, especially to Mari who had been ready to place all of the blame of them nothing been able to find food on her, Natalie still did the courteous thing and spoke to the girl. "If we can get it out, this Moose will probably feed us till Spring."

"Misty. You literally set the fucking rules." Mari continued to aggressively attack as the bespectacled, curly haired blonde ushered past her clutching the large axe that was used daily to chop wood for the fireplace. "I'll tell Lottie."

"Go for it. Tell her I didn't want us to fucking starve." The Quigley girl sharply retorted. She then spun on her heel and followed the rest of the group out of the cabin, not giving Mari any opportunity to continue bitching.

Nola, who had grabbed hold of the hammer from the hunters toolbox, let out a sigh as she turned to face the pissed off brunette who looked seconds away from yelling after them all. "Mari, just stop, okay? This is a Moose, yeah? Lottie will never bring back something as big as this." She calmly but strongly stated, her fingers tightening on the hammer. "I know it and you know it, so stop sulking."

        She then also turned away from Mari, refusing to give her a chance to complain further. Mari shook her head in disbelief as her eyes followed the Rilke girl who walked towards the opened cabin door. Her body jostled ever so slightly as the door banged closed behind Nola, who had slammed it hard enough that it caused the cabin to shake.

          Once they exited the cabin's welcoming warmth and journeyed out into the blood chilling, teeth chattered cold, Natalie rushed to lead them all down to the frozen over lake. The group was careful as they stepped atop the ice, each moving to distribute their weight across the surface. The Moose's entire body was encompassed in the freezing depths of the lake with the only visible part being its ghost white antlers, which had gotten trapped in the icy layer that sat atop the water.

Anyone who held onto an axe or hammer quickly got to work, slamming and banging the metal ends into the ice in an effort to break past the barrier and crack open the ice to give them an opportunity to pull the animal out. With all their strength that they could muster up, the tools were brought down hard against the ice again and again, slowly but surely chipping at the surface. With each crash of metal against ice, the Moose's bright white body came more into view as they scrapped away all the broken ice.

"We're through." Travis announced as they finally broke through the ice to the water below. Their fingers finally touched the freezing water as they continued to scrap away the chipped ice.

"Okay, go again." Natalie commanded of them with a nod of the head. She then quickly tied the thick rope around the Moose's antlers, knotting it several times around the antlers tightly to avoid it slipping free and coming loose when they began to heave it out from the water. All the while, the others continued to hammer away at the ice to create a bigger opening they would need to pull the Moose free.

Once it was secured, she called out for assistance. "The rope, come on." The blonde called, feeding back the two ropes up to the group as they jumped up and grabbed ahold while she and Travis remained by the opening and held onto the ends that were closest the animal.

Once their feet were planted as firmly as they could be in the snow that lay atop the lake's frozen surface, they all began to pull with all their might. The animal's body shifted with just the first exhaustive tug, causing the ice crack further and Natalie to desperately yell out. "Pull! Pull harder!"

Teeth were gritted and knees were bent as everyone tried their damndest to follow her command and pull as hard as their bodies would allow. The antlers, that had sunk further just moments before suddenly peaked out at them, seemingly responding to their desperate yanks. Unfortunately, no amount of planting their feet could fight against the slippery surface of the lake. Like a series of dominos set up to fall, one-by-one all of them slid and tumbled hard to the ice as their body weight proved too heavy for the snow to support.

       Natalie, who had refused to let go out of sheer desperation, was yanked towards the man made opening in the lake's surface. Her upper body was immediately enveloped in freezing cold water as she still refused to release her hold of the rope. Travis rushed to rescue the blonde from the water while the rest sat red in the face atop the ice covered lake, out of breath and out of hope as they watched the Moose vanish from sight.

"No!" Natalie sobbed out, her voice coming out slightly gurgled sounding as water spewed from her mouth. She was completely drenched as she struggled to break free of Travis' hold and get back to the opening she had just been pulled from. At that point, she was willing to dive deep into the lake if it meant she could get the Moose. "We need it! We need it!"

           "It's over. It's gone." Travis comforting murmured as the blonde continued to wail out. The rest of the group dejectedly rose to their feet, watching on at the pair with misery. Their chance to obtain enough food to sustain them until the Spring had just slipped away, right from their hands as it disappeared into the depths of the lake, fated to settle along the bottom and remain there forever.

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THEIR HEADS HAD BEEN hung low when they returned to the cabin. The depressed expression upon their young faces, the hope that had left their eyes had been enough to tell Coach Scott that they had been unsuccessful in their retrieval of the Moose. Natalie's cries had faded into sniffles as she shuffled past them all and made her way to the room where the bathtub sat. Buckets full of snow had been quickly heated up and brought into her as she numbly shedded her clothes piece by piece and entered the tub.

       Mari and Akilah, who had stayed behind at the cabin, had been gone upon their arrival. Coach Scott had explained that once the sun began to set and there had been no sign of Lottie, the girls had headed out into the snow to find the brunette before she got trapped out there.

            Barely a word had been spoke amongst the group. They simple kept their gaze low and their mouths closed. All of them sunk to the floor in front of the fireplace, basking in the heat that welcomed their achy and frozen bodies. Just then, the cabin's door burst open and questions began to blurt out as Mari and Akilah returned with a lifeless looking Lottie in their arms.

            "Is she okay?" Misty hurriedly asked as Shauna tugged one of the chairs closer to the door to help the girls get Lottie seated faster.

           "Not really, no." Mari answered with a shake of the head. Once Lottie's body was thrown on to the chair, the girls began unwrapping and pulling off all of layers of clothing upon the Matthews girl.

          Akilah's teeth chattered loudly in her mouth as her body shivered. "We followed a trail of blood and found her passed out. She was right where the hunters plane used to be."

          "Let's get her jacket off." Shauna said as she began unbuttoning the fabric wrapped tightly around the girl, who weakly attempted to help though was only able to move her body about slightly.

          Nola dropped to her knees in an instant to pull the boots from Lottie's feet. Just as she did, Natalie appeared from the bathroom, now dressed in some warmer, dryer. clothing. "Get her back here. We can get her to the tub." Natalie said, gesturing towards the back room.

"Okay, yeah, let's get her up." Everyone was quick to accept the offer. They all rushed to pull the cold to the touch Matthews girl to her feet that wobbled with each step she attempted to take. Travis and Coach Scott stayed behind as the girls walked her into the bathroom and removed the last of her clothing, leaving her body bare for all to see.

Mari and Akilah took it upon themselves to help lower Lottie into the hot water while everyone but Nola, who stayed to collect the soaking wet clothes, filed out of the room. A groan of agony became mixed with an exhale of relief as it trickled past Lottie's chapped lips as she became enveloped within the heat of the bath water.

          The words, "It's gonna get better." were comfortingly uttered by Mari as she gently patted Lottie's head, smoothing down the greased up, ice cold hair before breaking away to join Akilah by the door. Her eyes suddenly trailed over to Natalie who had gathered some bandages to cover up the large knife wound splashed across Lottie's palm.

          Just as Mari looked ready to pounce at Natalie in defence of Lottie, ready to say she should be the one patching the girl up, Akilah grabbed hold of her elbow and tugged her towards the door. "Just...let them have a minute." She quietly said, pulling Mari out the door and back to everyone else before she could protest.

As the two girls left, Nola cleared her throat to get Natalie's attention. She sent the blonde a small smile before lifting up the wet clothes she held to explain. "We'll be back with some warm clothes soon, alright?" Her words were met with a nod which allowed her to step out of the room and pull the door closed until she heard a soft click.

           By the time she had returned to the rest of the group, Taissa and Van had gone off on their own little adventure. The sky was almost completely dark as she wrung out both Natalie and Lottie's wet clothing. Nola had just begun pinning the articles of clothing on the little clothing line when the front door clattered open once again and in storming came the two girls but they weren't alone.

           Javi, who they all hadn't seen in months at that point and many had assumed had been caught in the blistering snow, lost and alone until he was consumed by the cold, came in alongside the two girls. The young boy looked totally shell-shocked. From head to toe, he was covered in grime and dirt. His clothes were tattered and covered in patches of moisture.

           Smiles of relief and gasps of disbelief filled the room at the sight of the Martinez boy. Everyone rushed to their feet, slowly approaching the boy as though he was a skittish baby deer. Questions such as, 'are you okay?' or 'how are you alive?' tumbled past their lips as they took in the dazed off look in Javi's eyes.

           Travis pushed past them all, nudging the girls out of the way to get to his brother faster. "How...how the hell are you alive?" Travis breathed out. He was in complete disbelief, shock and awe ran through him. He didn't understand. Javi was dead but yet here he was, alive and breathing, standing right in front of him. Travis found himself not caring in that moment, not when he could pull his brother into a hug.

          Javi didn't really even seem to notice his brother's presence. His gaze remained blurred as he stared off into the distance. Travis pulled back from the embrace with a look of concern etched upon his face. "Javi. Hey. It's me. It's your brother."

Javi stayed quiet. Not a single word left his lips, not even a grunt or sigh. It was like he had lost all capability to produce sound.

           Mari suddenly grinned. "This means Lottie was right. She's the one who said Javi was alive."

         "Three cheers for Lottie!" Misty giddily exclaimed. She grinned from ear to ear as she began to let out a cheer for the Matthews girl. "Hip-Hip..." though she quickly trailed off when the caught sight of the glare Mari sent her way. Her grin soon morphed into a frown as her gaze became downcast.

           A still out of breath Van huffed and puffed short gasps of air. "Lottie knew he was alive, but Taissa knew where he was." She stated, pointing over at her shivering girlfriend, who sat curled in on herself.

          "No, but I—"

           A flurry of red shook and brushed over Van's face as she shook her head. She rushed over to the girl, dropping to her knees in front of Taissa. "No, you can't deny this anymore. There is something deep inside of you that is connected to all of this." Taissa's pupils seemed to shake violently at the prospect. She didn't want this.

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author's thoughts.
chapter thirty-four. not proofread.
Javi's alive! obviously not for very long but he's here now and we love him. honestly rip javi, he deserved better. anyway i hoped you enjoyed :)