Diamond
Her heart pushed up against her sternum, pounding against the bone mercilessly. "Ren!" She screamed as she searched every inch of the compound. She awakened just as the shadows receded, snapping out of reality within the next moment.
She remembered touching the bleeding spot on her head, having taken some kind of impact to it. The silence which followed told her that something was very wrong. She tore through the confused crowd of guards in the entrance, dead or alive. She coughed from the onslaught of dust and smoke, which caked most of her aching body as she ran around without any kind of useful strategy..
"Ren!" She called out again to no avail. "Rocio?"
"Diamond?"
The faint sound of Rocio's response made Diamond come screeching to a halt. At this point, she had just passed the midway point of the bunker, which was around the kitchen. "Rocio! I hear you! Call out. I'm coming."
"I'm here. I'm here. I'm here."
Diamond strained against the door as it didn't give beneath her urgent movement. There was something pressed up against it. "The door is stuck."
Her voice was too weak, alluding to something being very wrong with Rocio. "Please, help me, Diamond."
Diamond's heart broke as she imagined the worst injuries Rocio could have sustained. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Can you help me?" She grunted as she pushed all of her weight against the door.
"I'll try," she hissed through her teeth and cut off her own pained cry. "It's hard for me to move."
"Is Ren in there with you?" She needed to be sure first before she got lost in this new mission to save the woman she...loved? "What happened? Are you okay?"
Her tone of anguish turned panicked. Her sounds of struggle raised in volume, as though she was pushing her harder to get up, which only spoke of how hurt she really was. "You haven't found her yet?"
Diamond empasized with her urgency, but Renata would have to wait until Diamond helped Rocio, who was clearly in dire need of assistance now. "Not yet. Now, answer my other questions."
Of course, this was the time Rocio chose to show off her stubborn side. "No, leave me." She couldn't have been more hardened in resolve than in that moment. "Go find her. I'm fine."
Luckily, Diamond didn't give a damn about Rocio's steadfast heart. "We'll find her together." She braced her feet and pushed as hard as she could. "I can't just leave you trapped here."
"You can, because I won't be all that helpful to you right now anyway. You have to find her and make sure she's okay."
"Stop arguing with me and help me," Diamond snapped and paused for the smallest chance to catch her breath. "Is there something pushed against the door?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"A body."
Diamond's heart skipped a beat. "Whose body?!"
"One of the guards, they were killed by those fucking demon things. Oh god, what are those things?" The sentiment for those shadowed creatures was shared. Diamond still couldn't quite grasp what she had witnessed and ran from. The monsters which she feared would return any second.
"They're gone now," she tried to comfort her. Diamond was just glad that Rocio managed to survive combat against one of those things. "It's going to be okay, I almost got it!"
"Stop wasting time and find my sister!" Rocio yelled, but still sounded alarmingly weak.
Frustrated, Diamond yelled back, braced against the door. "Rocio, shut up!" She shouted out her frustration and finally moved the door just enough to fit through.
When she finally took in what went down in the kitchen, her whole body elivened with horror and shock. "Oh my god, Rocio!" She ran across the room, where Rocio sat across the way, propped up against the wall. She sat in a growing black and red puddle. Her golden brown skin paled to a chalkier shade.
She attempted to wave Diamond off but didn't get far. "I'm fine." Diamond examined her calf, where there was a deep slash. Though it was bleeding crimson, the wound was surrounded by black, and the inky veins to it reminded her of the monsters that attacked the bunker. "One of them slashed me with their fucking blades. It's not too deep."
"No, you're not," Diamond argued as she looked directly at the wound and realized, "Rocio, it's spreading."
"Really?" She sighed and leaned her head back. Her locs fell around her aimlessly. "That sucks." Her eyelids fell lower.
"Heyâhey! Don't close your eyes," Diamond begged, as it finally dawned on her how bad Rocio's condition really was. Who knew how long she'd been bleeding out at this point. "Stay with me." Rocio nodded along, but it was becoming obvious that she was fading away.
"What do I do?" She demanded as she watched the darkness taint the skin of her calf. It's spreading so fast. Fuck! Somebody help me!" She screamed out toward the entrance of the kitchen, but there was no answer.
"I'm dying, aren't I?"
Rocio's quiet question broke Diamond down further. "You're going to be fine. We justâwe just have to stop the spreading somehow." She spotted the black strip running across her belly. "Here, give me your belt."
Diamond practically had to rip it off her. She wrapped the upper thigh, trying not to jostle her. She twisted the other end together, and Rocio screamed in surprise. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I need to try. Hold it, Rocio, hold it." Rocio complied slowly, but her grip on the twist was frail.
Diamond watched as cutting off the bloodflow did not stop the spread of the black, presumedly death. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, it's not working." She felt her throat tight and her eyes begin to burn. "No, it's not working. What should I do?"
"Cut it off," Rocio mumbled, not quite looking anywhere anymore.
"What?" Diamond had to have heard her wrong.
"Just cut it off," she said louder, and it came out as more of a whine.
Her heart raced in fear and her stomach squeezed, threatening to remove any of the contents it may have contained. "I can't do that. I can't do that to you." She began to hyperventilate. "Somebody help us, please!"
Her voice returned to desperation and resolve. "Nobody's coming, Diamond."
"No!" She shouted and felt bad for going so. "I can't. Please, don't make me." She began to sob. There was no way she could handle this kind of situation.
She slouched further and her eyes shut again. Diamond hated the look of Rocio almost giving up. "Maybe if I just go to sleep..."
This lit a fire beneath Diamond. "No! No. Okay, okay. I'll do it." She looked around, wishing there was someone else to instruct her, guide her in some way. But Rocio's life was in her hands. "I needâgood god, I need something sharp enough."
Rocio whispered.
Diamond leaned in, breathing hard. "What did you say?"
"Emergency axe," she spoke up, breathing in a similar fashion. "down hall on wall. Hurry."
Finally, something to do, even if it was to locate a weapon meant to cut off a limb. "Okay, I'll go. Stay awake! Just the belt in place, for me, please." She stormed out of the room and in the direction Rocio's trembling finger pointed.
"Where the fuck is it!" She raced along the blank walls and tried not to have a breakdown, until she finally saw the shelf in the wall, where a fireman's axe was. She used some debris off to the side to shatter the glass. She shouted in victory and snatched the weapon into her hands. She raced back down the hall, certain she looked like a complete maniac.
"I'm back, Rocio," she announced, only to be plunged back into unforgiving reality. Rocio was more still than ever with her eyes closed. "Rocio? Hey, wake up. What did I fucking say? Wake up!" She didn't care how much her yelling was annoying. "I can't fucking do this," she cried as she looked down at the wound. Knowing full and well there was no time left to deny the task awaiting Diamond, she slapped herself in the face. "Yes, you can, get it together. Just calm down. What do you need? What do you need?" She looked around frantically in the kitchen, which she realized was almost the perfect room to amputate a limb in. "A clean pan. Yes!" She jumped up to enact her quickly-formulating plan. "Heat." She turned on the electric stove. "Towels. Alcohol, alcohol, alcoholâyes!" She was never so happy to find a big bottle of vodka.
"Okay," she breathed out after washing the pan and placing it on the bright red stove top. She ripped off Rocio's pant leg to get a better look at what she was dealing with. "Clean the blade." She doused the axe in vodka. Next, around her knee, the easiest spot, she assumed from movies and tv shows. "Clean areaâokay."
Diamond hesitated as she crouched near her. "Rocio, are you sure?"
"Hmm." That little sound gave her hope that Rocio wasn't completely doomed.
"Fuck me, I can't do thisâshut up, yes you can." She took a deep breath. "Okay, just swing." She trembled as she lifted up the weapon only to heistate again. "Fuck!" She screamed at the top of her lungs in frustration. She felt like a complete failure as she watched Rocio continue to slip away.
Rocio's one word was pleading and the last straw. "Diamond..."
"I won't let you die," she responded and lifted the axe again, but this time when she swung, she made contact. Rocio screeched awake and looked down to see the blade embedded into her flesh. The sound of the impact against the cartilage made Diamond want to collapse, but there was no going back. She ripped out the blade, feeling terrible for what she was putting Rocio through, who once the axe was removed, blacked outâat least, Diamond prayed she had only become unconscious from the pain.
She was delirious at this point, in the kind of mindset she didn't recognize as she swung and swung and swung. Blood flew about, hitting everywhere, including Diamond's unhinged profile.
Finally, the thick blade made it all the way through, hitting the floor.
"I did it!" She exclaimed, only for it all to overwhelm her, and her stomach couldn't take it anymore. She zipped toward the sink and puked into it. She cried as she washed her hands and returned to Rocio who was bleeding out even more than before.
"Alright, Rocio, stay with me...stay with me." She moved the lower half of her leg away to see the crude cut she made. She grabbed the vodka bottle, having no idea what she was doing as she poured it over the open area. She raced toward the pan that was hot to the touch. She grabbed it and returned to Rocio. Fearing Rocio would not survive anymore of this, she pressed the flat, metal bottom of the pan against her leg.
The sizzling sound made her gag, as did the smell that soon followed. She didn't know how long to keep it there, and did so for as long as she could stomach it. After however many seconds, she pulled it away and quickly tied several towels around the wound, securing it with the belt.
"I did it," she said again and looked at the still unconscious Rocio. She leaned forward and kissed Rocio's cold lips. "Stay with me, please. I need you. I love you."
Diamond pressed her fingers to Rocio's throat and felt the faintest of pulses.
She sighed, but knew the fight was not over. She still needed to get Rocio some real medical help. And fast.
Or else Rocio would be lost forever, just like the others, a sneaking and horrifying suspicion Diamond was too devastated to contemplate.