"Though we may not survive it..."

[LadyMakaze†]

Waiting patiently as Hawley continued tending to the wound, Madelaine smiled a bit as she quietly listened to him, still holding onto the blazer. She winced slightly as the alcohol met her wound with a piercing sting, but she pursed her lips, not making a sound. She relaxed a bit, feeling relieved.

"Well...for all that time spent, it seems like it turned out to be not-so-useless after all," she murmured a bit, smiling. "Far from that in fact. I guess that makes you, me....all of us actually, pretty lucky. Then again, I'm not a believer in fate."

She hesitated a bit before continuing, just after Hawley had applied the bandage. "Medical school, huh? You could actually be a doctor someday, you know. I mean, you should be. You can pull it off, I know it."

Now that she thought about it, perhaps it was a bit brazen of her to talk about the future like this, given the circumstances. Still, even after seeing a boy being shot dead in front of her, running away from the middle of a shoot out, getting injured in the crossfire(just how many people get a bullet stuck in their shoulder at the age of sixteen?), she just felt that just being able to have a normal conversation about the future was more than she could ask for in this dangerous time. Who knows how much time she had left, until she would no longer be able to even think about a future anymore.

Seeing that he was done taking care of the wound, she gingerly pulled up the collar of the shirt, redoing all of the buttons. She minded a bit to redo fasten her uniform tie, but she decided that there was no point.

Still holding onto the blazer over folded hands, she turned around to face him fully, smiling in appreciation at him.

"I think...I'll be fine for now. Thanks....for everything, you know? Thank you."

[Slayer†]

While this was going on, a bored David was keeping himself awake by messing around with the collar on the corpse of Rais' neck. He was actually getting the hang of it's systems, or so he thought, not exactly being the most experienced with electronics. Of course, around the time Madelaine's injury was taken care of, he flipped the wrong switch and detonated the collar.

"Shit!" he yelled, jumping back holding a hand gashed from middle knuckle to wrist.

"Guys, I think we should go. That explosion may or may not attract unwanted attention." he told the main group, trying to conceal the large cut while picking up his gun.

[LadyMakaze†]

Madelaine was nearly startled into a panic again, as she heard the explosion not so far off from where the group was resting. Thinking it was a gunshot, she looked towards the direction of the sound...and saw David jumping back from the corpse of a boy nearby, clutching his hand. A ring of blood had splattered from the neck of the boy and onto the ground. This Madelaine tried her best to ignore.

It took a while before Madelaine registered what David was trying to do. She raised her eyebrows, pursing her lips slightly in thought.

"N-Nice idea, actually..." she murmured in approval, though unsettled by the sight of the corpse and his no longer attached neck. "But be careful, alright? In case they get suspicious while watching us. Let's just check on Amanda quickly before we leave okay?" She looked over in concern towards Amanda and carefully made her way over to the other girl. She noticed that Amanda had been rather silent for a while, and looked on in concern.

"Hey...Are you alright?" Madelaine asked gently. "We should take a look at that wound on your leg."

[Cactus]

Amanda had been completely absorbed in her own thoughts for a long amount of time - almost enough time to completely zone out, and for the sole purpose of trying to ignore the wound on her leg. As an explosion rang out and thundered throughout the area, Amanda was snapped out of her thought in a sudden burst. Giving her head a half-shake, she glanced up at the worried look of Madelaine, standing over her.

"Uh...sorry, what?"

Following the other girl's glance, she looked at her leg and actually realized again that it was bleeding.

"Oh...my leg, it hurts, actually."

[riserugu†]

Hawley glanced up from his spot of ripping up more bandages when what he though to be a shot rip through, and echo in the still air. Eyes casting off toward where David stood near one of the corpses along the river, the throat of that corpse now missing. Blood coating the area of skin, clothes, and ground near it…

He blinked somewhat listening to David’s words of leaving, and that probably would be best for them to leave. He had to admit he was probably right, but Amanda’s wound still had to be taken care of before they could do anything more.

“Let me bandage Amanda’s leg and we’ll leave, while I’m doing that you two can figure out where we should head next alright?”

Moving once more, he moved to sit before Amanda, grabbing at what was left from the bandages in this kit.

[LadyMakaze†]

Madelaine nodded to Hawley and slowly got up to her feet. It was something of a struggle, probably due to the fact that she was still recovering from blood loss after all. She steadied herself for a moment, and, deciding to let Hawley take care of Amanda for the time being, walked over to David.

She took out the map from the covers of her pocket diary and held it up to show David, indictating to places on the map with her finger as she did so.

"So...the current Danger Zones were the caves and the well, right? I think that the Lookout point looks good actually. Since it'll give us a good view of who might be coming, and it's also nearby, it'll be safer for Amanda, I think. Not as secure as the Lighthouse but...probably safer, since that other guy might probably still be there-" She stopped short as she noticed David clutching his hand.

"Hey...Is your hand alright?"

[Slayer†]

"Piece of shrapnel got it when the collar blew, it's just bleeding a lot, no other danger." David dismissed, knowing the cut wasn't too deep, just ugly, though he couldn't stop from wincing in pain, trying to stop himself from crying. Keeping his hand on the cut in an attempt to hold off the bleeding, he nodded.

"The Lookout Point sounds good, we could head there as soon as Amanda gets patched up.

[LadyMakaze†]

She nodded in reply to David. Peering at the cut a bit, Madelaine winced slightly. But all in all, after looking at the detonator's devastating work on the corpse's neck, she knew that David had gotten off lightly.

"Take care of that, okay? Last thing you need is an infection," she advised him.

Madelaine wandered back over to the other two, sitting down next to Amanda.

"We're going to the Lookout point. Hopefully we'll be able to find Adam along the way," she murmured quietly, hoping to cheer Amanda up a bit. She nudged the other girl gently. "I'm sure he's fine... he seems friendly and likeable enough, he's bound to have found some allies." She smiled a bit to Amanda. "I bet he's looking for you, too."

Turning back a bit, she mulled over what she had just said, trying to cheer up a bit herself. It was hard to hold onto something as fragile and seemingly insignificant as hope, but...she could not just throw it away.

Pursing her lips slightly, she fell silent, deciding to watch Hawley work. Perhaps she might be able to learn a useful thing or two herself. So that she might be able to do the same, that was the idea.

[Cactus]

Amanda smiled weakly as Hawley worked on her leg. Madelaine's words rang true. Adam WAS likeable, and he was a friendly kind of guy. Hopefully he wouldn't meet up with any sickos, any freaks who would want to kill him and eat his insides, or some other sick thing like that.

This is REALLY starting to hurt....

"The lookout point is probably as good a place as any..."

Sighing, Amanda closed her eyes as Hawley examined the wound.

[riserugu†]

Hawley lightly looked over the wound, noting that it was similar to the one he had received from Adam the day before but somewhat deeper. Taking the small bottle of alcohol into his hand, he glanced up at Amanda lightly. “This is going to sting a bit… so try not to kick me or anything, alright?”

Looking back to the wound, he poured what was left of the body over the wound letting it sit for a minute before, before placing the bottle against the ground and reaching over and grabbing at the bandages. Wrapping it as properly, and as tightly as he could without causing much pain on Amanda’s part. “There that alright?”

[Cactus]

A sharp cry of surprise came from Amanda's lips as the bottle of alcohol was dumped all over her leg. She felt a sudden sting as the alcohol did its job, and as Hawley bandaged the leg, she felt some rather intense pain. That meant that the wound had been cleaned, but it also hurt like a bitch, as Adam would say. Fighting back tears, she flexed her leg as Hawley finished bandaging it.

"...looks okay...." was what she was able to gasp out, before trying to stand. Her wobbly leg didn't help support her and she fell back down the ground.

"Well, we should probably get going....in a bit..." she mumbled, still in pain.

[LadyMakaze†]

Madelaine watched quietly as the wound was cleaned and bandaged, though she noticed that Amanda was still rather quiet, no doubt preoccupied about Adam. Sighed inwardly, feeling pity for the other girl. Though Madelaine herself had never been close to any boy (deciding not to count her father), she supposed that it was the somewhat the same as worrying about a close friend or a family member. But perhaps it was also different. And perhaps she would never find out for herself.

Not that she ever worried about that sort of thing, but still...it was sad.

Seeing that Hawley was done, Madelaine stood up, then looked on concern as Amanda tried to do the same only to fall back down in pain. She crouched down a bit to meet Amanda's eyes.

"Hey...do you need help walking? I can help," she offered with a gentle smile, holding out her arm. "Go easy on the shoulder okay?" She looked towards Hawley and nodded towards him.

"You go on ahead, lead the way with David. We'll follow soon enough."

[Cactus]

Amanda smiled weakly. She wasn't used to seeing the sight of her own blood, and the fact of the matter was that she'd seen quite a bit of it. Her leg ached, probably from the alcohol, and she really needed to just sort of spill her insides to someone. Of course, being that Madelaine was the only girl around, and that (surprisingly enough, judging by the length of time they'd known each other for), Amanda trusted her the most. Perhaps it was a girl thing, who knew.

"Yeah, guys...we need some girl-talking time. You guys can go ahead and have some boy talk, chatter on about girls or whatever you boys like to talk about."

Amanda's voice was a lot weaker than it had been, but she playfully winked at David and Hawley. Though she was glad for their company, sometimes there were times that girls just needed to be girls.

[riserugu†]

Hawley glanced up from where he placing the first-aid kit back within his bag, eyeing both Amanda and Madelaine lightly as they spoke of him and David going ahead of the two girls. He lightly wondering as to how much blood the two of them had lost since they had received their wounds.

Girl talk, huh? He would never understand the inner working of a girl’s mind…

“Alright then…” He said standing upward from his crouched position and on to his feet. Glancing briefly to his sneakers before off toward David, “You heard ‘em, let’s go… you two stay safe alright?” He said lightly turning where he stood as he removed his map from his pocket, opening it as he began to toward where the lookout point was located not to far from the river itself.

((Continued in: On My Own))

[LadyMakaze†]

Girl-talk, hm? At first...given the situation, it did not seem like the right time for Madelaine. But thinking twice, she knew that it was the best time.

Madelaine smiled wryly towards Hawley and David, waving casually towards them. "Take care, yourself. Don't either of us catch you guys eavesdropping, hear?" she called out towards them. Though her tone was light-hearted, unusual for one of her demeanor, she personally hoped that nothing unseemly would happen to them while they were on their own.

Especially since they were both wounded, the two of them. She could only hope that they would be able to protect themselves without getting themselves even more injured...or getting killed.

Setting that thought aside for now, Madelaine helped Amanda up to her feet, looking to make sure she was careful about keeping her balance. She smiled a bit while waiting for her.

"So, I can tell you're bursting at the seams with things you want to say. Tell me what's on your mind."