Afflicted

I hurried forward to put pressure on the wound so that Lincoln could check Tommy’s chest.

“I need water and tweezers. Bandages if you've got them or tear some clean sheets if not,” Lincoln commanded. “Lacey, take over from Kaitlyn, she'll know where to find it.”

Lacey’s hands covered mine momentarily then I pulled mine free. I staggered back, glancing at my palms which were stained red with blood which dripped from my fingertips.

“I'll get the bottled water from the kitchen,” Reese said as he ran past me, forcing me to look away from my hands and concentrate on what I had to do.

I bolted out of the door and up the stairs leaving a trail of blood as I went. I made it to the landing before heading into the bathroom. My foot caught on the tiles in my haste and I slipped, grabbing hold of the doorframe to steady myself and leaving behind a bright red handprint.

I ran to the sink and fumbled with a bottle of water until I got the lid off and poured it over my hands to clean them.

As soon as the blood was gone, I opened the cabinet above the sink and started grabbing anything that looked helpful. There were bandages and pain killers and a pair of tweezers too. I bundled them all in

to my arms and ran back down the stairs.

Lincoln had washed Tommy’s chest with the bottled water, revealing four round holes where the slugs had pierced his skin.

I handed over the tweezers and Lincoln poured my dad’s vodka over them followed by the wounds.

“Hold him down,” Linc commanded. Reese, Spencer, Shilo and Rose all grabbed a limb each. “Don't let him go, no matter what.”

I backed into a corner, trying to keep out of the way.

Lincoln leant forward with the tweezers and Tommy screamed. He bucked his limbs, almost knocking Reese to the ground. Ryan rushed forward to join the others and helped by pinning his shoulders down. Tara started crying again and Chloe quickly led her from the room. Kristen and Ella followed suit, giving Lincoln more space to move.

“Take this,” Lincoln directed me and I automatically held my hand out for him to deposit the shotgun pellet. It was slimy and slick with blood that pooled in the centre of my palm. I stared at it, my stomach turning over at the thought of it having just come out of Tommy's flesh.

I was still staring at it when Linc tossed a second pellet into my hand. I flinched slightly, not expecting it and made sure to pay more attention as he continued to work on removing the remaining three.

Every time the probing tweezers entered the bullet holes, Tommy roared with pain. The sound was deafening and I clenched my teeth, trying to block it out of my mind. As Lincoln started work on the fourth bullet, Tommy passed out.

Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the same moment and Lincoln quickly fished the bullet out.

“Has his arm stopped bleeding?” Lincoln asked Lacey.

She pulled back the wadded piece of shirt experimentally and quickly shoved it back down when blood tried to spurt out again. “No,” she gasped.

“I need a belt,” Lincoln said, glancing around at the guys.

“Hang on.” Reese sprinted out of the room and the sound of his footsteps thundered up the stairs outside then quickly back down again.

He held out one of our mom’s thin belts as he reappeared and Linc grabbed it. He slipped it around Tommy’s arm above the wound and cinched it tight.

Lacey removed her hands slowly and this time the blood didn't pulse from the wound. Lincoln removed the final bullet and tossed it into my palm with a satisfied smile.

“Alright, get out of here and give him some space while I patch him up,” Linc said as he started cleaning and bandaging the wounds.

Everyone filed out silently and moved to gather in the kitchen.

“You realise you all just got bossed around by that guy and we don't even know the first thing about him,” Demi said. “His next instructions could have been to stab yourselves in the eye and I think you'd have all jumped straight to it.”

“I'm glad we had Lincoln to take control,” I replied. “Because none of us knew what we were doing and I wouldn't have liked to have dug these bullets out of Tommy.” I showed her the slugs in my hand and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. I moved past her and tossed them in the trash before using the bottled water to clean my hands in the sink.

“And we'd probably all still be walking around in circles in the forest without Lincoln,” Lacey backed me up.

Demi ignored us and opened the fridge and started rummaging in it. My stomach growled at the thought of food and I hurried across the room to take over from her.

“There isn't much here,” I said apologetically as I looked at the shelves. “Mom had trouble getting her groceries this week. There was some kind of stock issue at the store.” I pulled out some cans of soda and handed them out before heading to the cupboard and finding a multipack of chips.