Chapter Thirteen
“Is he okay?”Tears are streaming down my face as I fight against Max’s hold to get to Hudson. Bryce is kneeling over him, checking him over. He has a huge graze along the right side of his body where he smashed into the rock, but that’s not my most pressing concern. He’s outcold.
Lots of people are gathered around watching the scene unfold. I want to scream at them to get back, to get help, but I can’t stop shaking. Bryce looks up at me, then at Max. I don’t like the look he’s givingus.
“We need to get him to Krabi International hospital. He hit his head pretty hard,” Bryce says, pulling his fingers back from Hudson’s head. There isblood.
“Oh my God, oh my God.” I shake myself free from Max’s hold and kneel beside Hudson. “Hudson, can you hear me,” I say, pressing my fingers lightly against his cheek. Of course, there’s no response and I have the sudden urge to throwup.
One of the locals hands Bryce some wadding and a roll of bandage. Bryce gives it tome.
“Press this against his wound, while I wrap the bandage around hishead.”
I nod, doing as heasks.
“Hang on, mate,” Bryce says as he finishesup.
A low moan escapes Hudson’s mouth and his eyes flutter open, but they are unfocused. He rolls to his side and throws up. I smooth my hand over his back, alternating between being relieved that he’s conscious and absolutely terrified that he’s got some kind of bleed on thebrain.
“Hey, Hudson, we’re here. You’re going to be okay,” I say. But his eyes roll back in his head and he loses consciousness onceagain.
“Fuck!” Bryce exclaims. “Max, get over here and help me lift him. We need to get him on a boat and across to the mainlandnow.”
Max snaps into action and helps Bryce lift Hudson. Half a minute later, we are all in a boat speeding across the water to the mainland. Max has his mobile phone out and is giving instructions to Calum. He flips itshut.
“Cal will be waiting for us at the resort with a stretcher and a car to take Hudson to Krabi hospital. He’s going to see if there are any doctors staying at the resort who can travel with us there. Fuck man, what happened?” Max asks. His hands are shaking as he looks down at Hudson, who is laying on the floor of the boat on some sun lounger cushions. I’m sitting beside him, holding his hand and feeling completely useless. His head is still bleeding and it’s starting to seep through the bandages, red blooming across thewhite.
“He slipped, that’s it. There was a rock sticking out from the wall… Fuck,” Bryce says, scraping a hand across his face. Under his tan he lookspale.
“You should have been wearing helmets. You should have been more careful,” I say angrily. Bryce flinches. He doesn’t respond, but the guilt on his face tells me he knows I’m right. Hudson moans, this time his eyes focus on me. He moves to sit up. The relief I feel to see him awake again isimmense.
“Hey, don’t try to move, okay. You’ve had a nasty bang to your head. We’re taking you to ahospital.”
Hudson groans. He looks from me to Bryce, who is gripping his otherhand.
“Hey, bro. How are you doing?” he asksgently.
A stream of unintelligible words slips from Hudson’s mouth before his eyes flutter shut onceagain.
“Can you speed the hell up?” Max shouts over his shoulder at the driver of thespeedboat.
“Five minutes,” he responds, pointing to the familiar shore of AoNang.
It’s the longest five minutes of mylife.
On the beach Cal and Nisha are waiting for us. Standing next to Cal is a middle-aged woman in a pretty summer dress, a leather satchel at her feet. He runs over to us as soon as he hears Bryce calling hisname.
“Have you found a doctor?” Bryceasks.
“Yes, she’s waiting on the shore. I told her what happened. She’s happy to travel with him to the hospital.” Cal peers over the side of the boat. Thankfully the sea is not as choppy here, and between the three of them they manage to get Hudson out of the boat and on to shore relativelyeasily.
“He’s falling in and out of consciousness,” I say to the doctor as we settle Hudson down on a stretcher the hotel staff have brought out for him. The doctor kneels down next to him and does some quick checks. She lifts up his eyelids and flashes her pen light inthem.
“Let’s get him to the hospital asap. He’ll need a scan to check there isn’t a bleed on the brain. Once we can rule that out, he’ll need to stay in hospital forobservation.”
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Maxasks.
“Let’s get to him to the hospital, see what the brain scan shows. We’ll go from there,” the doctor says gently. We all exchange worried glances. It doesn’t soundgood.