36. Parched

Note: Hearing "Dark Room" from Foreign Figures and Johnny T - on repeat

Hunter woke up from the rusty smell. As he moved his whole body felt sticky, he took a while to remember where he was. He looked at Jack or what should be Jack. His body was nearly shattered, the face not recognizable as a face, the skull cracked. His hands started shaking badly. 'No, that wasn't Jack, he repeated. If this was the state this body was, then it couldn't be Jack, no way'. 

The insects chirped beside him, he didn't know when an animal would find them, he had to get out here and find Jack. But his delusions only brought him so far, so he tremblingly touched the wrecked body, he found a few rocks and branches stuck in his body so he removed them, then he tried to position his leg bones in a position that would seem more like what legs should look like. He turned his body, and found a few more branches stuck and he found the axe that was half stuck in Jack's back, and half in the earth.

His shoulders shaked as he half-mad laughed "Jack, I found your axe!" He chuckled as he teared up while pulling the axe out of the cold body. He didn't even notice that his own hands were healed, not even a scrape in sight.

Then he pressed Jack's skull together, luckily he didn't find his brain matter scattered anywhere, or maybe the moonlight wasn't strong enough.

"Now heal." He commanded and waited. As nothing happened his black eyes narrowed as a blue current fluctuated in them.

"HEAL!" his voice broke as he released Jack's cracked skull. He started to perform CPR on the mangled body, pressing on Jack's chest. The air wavered around them, and became dry. The water condensed around Hunter, the blood on Jack dried and his body looked as if he was covered with red powder. 

Then finally something happened. While Jack was still dead out, a "crack" echoed through the forest, his leg bone snapped back, and connected itself again with the rest of his leg. Hunter backed away stared in wonder at the twitching leg. It looked as if an invisible force put Jack back together, his arm jerked up, turned and "snap" set itself back in position. His neck made a 90 degree rotation and set itself. It looked unbelievable. Then there was a chatter and Jack's deflated rips popped back up in place. After a bit his body looked human again. Hunter saw as his destroyed foot grew the shattered bones again, and after a while he laid in the bloody powder seemingly unharmed in tattered clothes. The air returned to normal as Hunter released a breath, breaking down on all four and breathing rapidly. He was covered in sweat, this time he thought it was really over with Jack. He took a long while to calm down, forgetting every breathing technique he had learned. Only relife was washing over him. Suddenly he heard a sharp raspy intaking of air, and he could swear it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard in his life. 

He gathered himself crawling back to Jack, who had his eyes wide open and stared at the sky through the trees. Jack looked as if he was not there so Hunter patted his cheek. Still, Jack just stared ahead and tried to control his breathing.

Hunter let himself fall beside Jack and took his hand, interlocking their fingers as he, too, looked above them. The sky was dark, they could see the diffused lights of the star and moon but not the celestial bodies themselves through the sand hundreds of kilometers above. Hunter felt parched before but now he was perfectly fine, and the scars from his two accidents that brought him both times into the hospital had completely disappeared.

His body felt in a better condition than ever before. 

"What the fuck" Jack mumbled and Hunter sat back up starring in the blue brown eyes. He lowered his head, lowering in on Jack. When their noses almost touched he moved sideways to Jack's ear, whispering.

"Welcome back."