The Next Generation

Chapter 19 - Kas

"Zara?" I asked again, my voice muffled as I stuck my tongue out while examining his cells, with a neon green light. Not good. Not good at all.

"I'm okay.... I think. But...." She looked in Ethan's direction, where I was digging in my pack for the medicine needed to heal his cuts. "Ethan's here too, and he needs medical help right now!" I didn't think she could see me kneeling beside him, because she started to tremble. If I wasn't preoccupied with the scary fact that I was about to sew a head close, I would have given her a hug. Suddenly, the earth trembled, and as I put a hand out to steady myself, the bones shrank away, until the only sign that there even was an igloo in the first place was the scars in the dead grass, where the ground had opened up and swallowed the marrow like it was nothing. Zara seemed to notice that I was actually a foot in front of her, and the girl sucked in a breath, squinting. "Kas!" She gasped, and I muttered,

"That's my name, don't wear it out,"

"What happened? Where are the others?" I didn't reply, preparing myself for my first stitches treatment, wringing out my hands. For some reason, the only thing I could think of was the part in The Order of the Phoenix where Mr. Weasley was begging Mrs. Weasley to let him get muggle stitches. Gods, I was going insane. Zara looked down, and examined the grass in confusion. I guess I owed her an explanation. It was the least I could do, I was currently getting ready to sew her soon-to-be boyfriend's head up.

"Everyone's okay, um, we aren't sure what happened to the grass or any of the other living things, also, all of the street lights are dead. We were hoping you would know," Her head shot up from where she was staring at Ethan.

"We?"

"Thankfully everybody's alive-" I trailed off as I gazed down at the teenaged boy in the pool of blood, my anxiety eating me away. -For now," Was the end of that sentence. Oh, I hated the uncertainty. I hated not knowing what would come next. I suppose that was the bookworm in me. Anyone who's a book reader will confirm that we hate four things and four things only.

Pages getting lost

Cliffhangers

People saying crap about our ships or favorite characters

Waiting for the next book in a series to come out

Those are the ways to torture a bookworm, I tell you. I was snapped out of my thoughts by Ethan, who's heartbeat increased, letting out the smallest puff of breath. Flicking on an indigo light, I examined his chest (ew, not in that way) before pursing my lips. His heart had been speeding up for the past few seconds, but now it had slowed down. I had to move faster.

"Jeez, what happened? Is he...," I muttered, forcing myself to swallow all of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thoughts. Zara must have heard me, because she spoke up.

"He's alive. At least I think. Usually I can feel when death is around," As she said this, Ethan drew in another ragged breath, like the only medicine for him was her voice and her touch. Frantically, I checked his chest again, before scooting over to his head area. "See?" Zara rolled her eyes, somehow so calm in this situation, where my worry and anxiety was eating me inside out. I wish I had her confidence, her sereneness. It would be so useful right now. Finally, I found what I was looking for. Drawing scissors, a mild disinfectant, water, a wipe, dissolvable stitching string, and some medical tape from my bag, I tried to reach for his head, to make sure he didn't have a fever with my other hand, and hissed at the pain. I completely forgot about my broken arm. Apparently the ambrosia had worn off, which was odd. It's fine. I could do this with one hand. Right? Maybe. Okay. Straightening my glasses and wiping beads of sweat off of my forehead, I asked Zara briskly,

"Could you help, please?" I hoped it wasn't too strict, but she answered without a problem.

"Oh, um, sure," Kneeling on the other side of Ethan's head, she grabbed nectar and ambrosia at my command and set it at my side. I took the small wipe, and carefully disinfected the wound, muttering to myself along the way.

"I wouldn't say this is less than a quarter inch, so you're going to need stitches. If anything, is three eighths, and that's really not good, so, best case scenario, you'll have stitches and a scar. I really hope you weren't dreaming of being a bald head model when you grow up," Finally, after a mild soap, and a lot of groaning and raggedy breaths from the soap, I looked at Zara.

"I'm starting the numbing, so if you can't stomach this, look away," She nodded, and, taking Ethan's hand, she tore her gaze away as I took a needle out of my pack, and, it being already full of numbing medicine, injected the fluid into two spots, careful to make sure it was the exact spot.

This was the head, after all. If it were a limb, I would be more confident, but the head? No. So many things could go wrong with this, and this was my first time!! What if I messed up and gave him brain damage? What if I put him in a coma? What if he didn't make it, and it was all my fault and everyone would hate me and I would lose my friends and family and-. I sighed. I was rambling.

Time for the stitching.

Though Zara seemed sick as I put the needle in, she seemed unable to tear her gaze away from the process as I neatly pulled the string through with tweezers, the laceration closing nicely. She held his hand, and whispered encouraging nothings to the boy, even though he felt nothing because of the stitches, while pricks of blood, from where thread exited skin. As soon as it was done, he rested his head on her lap and fell straight asleep, snoring like heck. I smiled. What a power couple they would be. Then I realized Charlie was probably getting worried. I'd been here for twenty, maybe thirty minutes, and she was probably searching all over for me. But I didn't want to tell Zara that. She hated Charlie with a passion for what she did to Ethan, and she seemed so content that I didn't want to bother her. So, with a pit of guilt in my stomach, I lied.

"He should live. I'ma go back to -, uh, check on the others," I smiled nervously, barely waiting for her to agree before darting away, to find Charlie.

Okay. Maybe I hid behind a building and watched them for a second, but tell me Zara stroking Ethan's hair and murmuring to him wasn't totally worth it!! What can I say? I'm a fangirl at heart.

*~*Time skip brought to you by Kronos*~*

After speaking with an annoyed Charlie, she told me that she'd talked to Emmi, and they'd agreed that if Zara was in good enough shape, she could shadow travel us as far as she could go. Of course, I argued that that was basically using her for her powers, and that we had patients that could very possibly get hurt or get a set back on their injuries if we took them so soon, but Charlie pointed out that there really was no other way, and that we had to get out of here as fast as we could.

So, I jogged back to Zara, trying to keep my voice cheerful, as I interrupted her deep thinking with,

"Zara!! We have a plan!!" Glancing over at me, she seemed a little dazed, and I fed her some ambrosia, along with Ethan and myself, while explaining the plan. The red haired girl tapped a pale finger to her chin.

"Shadow travel doesn't set back injuries, you know," She commented. "I don't think I'll be able to get us very far, only a few states, but I can try," And so, I helped her and Ethan up, and, slinging his arms around our shoulders, we carried him to the room where the rest of the demigods were, including Charlie, all huddled. Emmi brightened as soon as we came in.

"Thank the gods. We thought you guys were dead, by the amount of time you were gone," Zara set Ethan down on a couch, that was surprisingly poofy.

"Hardy har. Now, everyone, let's get in a circle. Hold hands with the person next to you, and if they're unconscious, hold their hand anyways,"

"We're leaving now?" Riley asked, surprised. CJ rolled his eyes.

"No, stupid, we're leaving in a week, after we've done all of the rides. Of course we're leaving now!" Riley hit him, but I couldn't help but notice a blush on her face. Did she....? Nah. Probably not. Everyone joined hands, CJ and Riley hobbling to make our shape more like a circle and less like a weird blob. I grasped Sammy's warm hand and Zara's ice cold one, preparing for the journey.

"Ready?" Zara called, and we all nodded. I blinked,

And everything went black.