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Eggchan had just been walking through the woods, mostly looking for wildlife to take some photos of. The bird chirping, the wind softly blowing past him. It was a nice day out. Warm despite the snow, the cool breeze keeping you grounded, and the forest silent. The perfect day in Egg's humble opinion. Though, when he saw the trail of a crimson fluid covering the ground, deciding to follow it in case a deer had been wounded, or worse. Safe to say, he wasn't expecting to see his best friend, Wemmbu, bleeding out of the ground. He briefly froze, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach — he-he had known Wemmbu was going out for a bit, but holy fuck, who did he fight this time?!
Egg snapped himself out of his original shock, rushing over to Wemmbu quickly and dropping to the floor, sitting on his knees as he assessed Wemmbu's state.
"Wemm—?! Bro what happened?!" He spoke, maybe a bit too loudly, but in his defense, he was pretty sure his best friend was about to die.
He pulls away from Wemmbu, quickly turning to his bag and rummaging through it, pulling out medical supplies, just enough to bandage whatever wounds had Wemmbu in this state. Egg had always carried random stuff with him, Wemmbu yelling at him about how he was wasting inventory space— but now look! His random stuff was useful!
"Wemm, can you hear me bro?" Egg added with a panicked tone. His usually deeper and slightly monotone voice turning into one of panic and fear. He couldn't lose him.
He couldn't lose Wemmbu.
Egg had an expression of panic, his usual nonchalant demeanor nowhere in sight as he started to bandage the worst wound on Wemmbu, a gash to his abdomen. He felt like he was going to be sick, unbuttoning Wemmbu's shirt as fast as he could to get to the wound— it was Wemmbu's favourite shirt, he couldn't cut it..—
He opened Wemmbu's shirt, wincing as he saw the full wound, his best friends' blood now covering his hands simply from touching his abdomen a few times. Egg had tears in his eyes, his hands quickly working to put pressure on the wound, one hand pressing a rag against the wound while his other hand rummaged through the supplies for proper bandages.
He found some, thanking whatever god was out there for having let him randomly decided to bring them. He let go of the rag, seeing how the blood had slowed down, probably having started to clot to keep Wemmbu from bleeding out. The body's way of trying to keep his best friend alive even in this state.
Egg felt slightly reassured as he saw the bleeding slowing down. Wemmbu would live, wouldn't he? Egg swore he couldn't live without Wemmbu. He was nothing without him. His best friend who treated him like a little brother — he couldn't leave him.
He shifted how Wemmbu was lying, his hands violently shaking as he started to bandage the wound on Wemmbu's abdomen, looking as if he was about to throw up from the sight of all of the blood. He really had forgotten how much blood the human body held, this looked like so much more than 6 gallons.
"Wemm, just— stay with me bro— please. Just- just stay awake—" He rambled out, voice shaky and quivering as he cleaned the wound and began covering it with bandages. He couldn't lose his best friend.
The wind blew by him, cold and harsh, a reminder that the world kept spinning no matter what was happening.
Even the reminder felt like a cold slap to his face, knowing that even after whatever were to happen here today, the world would keep spinning, eventually moving on and forgetting both him and Wemmbu. The thought sent a small shiver down his spine.
He hated this, his knees cold and his pants wet from the snow, his hands drenched in his best friends' blood. This was so screwed. He just wanted to go back to his dumb adventures with Wemmbu, exploring random parts of the server, Egg wanting to simply look around and learn more about the server, while Wemmbu wanted to train and fight.
Wemmbu's ambition was really going to be the thing to kill him, huh? Had he really flown too close to the sun?
Egg shook those thoughts away, continuing to bandage the wound to the best of his abilities. He felt like any bit of his medical training and knowledge of first aid had been completely wiped from his memory. The adrenaline flowing through his body just forcing him to keep going. As long as the bandages worked, he'd be happy.
"Bro— stay awake- please. Wemm, I can't do this without you bro—" He spoke again, basically just talking to himself as he patched Wemmbu up. He didn't even know if the man could hear him, and that fact hurt him. He wanted to know that if Wemmbu were to die here, he could at least hear how much Egg had loved and cared about him. His best friend since the beginning.
He needed Wemmbu to know how much he meant to him, how important he was to him. He couldn't let Wemmbu die without knowing. That thought alone made Egg feel even worse. He swore he was about to be sick.
"Wemm, please—."
Egg was going to be sick, he swore he was. He'd see Wemmbu in bad condition before, but this was so much worse. He could see Wemmbu getting more distant, looking more out of it, showing clear signs that he was about to lose consciousness. The thought made tears well up in his eyes as his hands kept frantically moving to patch up the wounds.
What would Wemmbu's last words to him have been? Wemmbu hadn't been able to utter a word to him this entire time, so would it have been the quick goodbye Wemmbu had given him before leaving to go — 'try something'? Had Wemmbu said more to him besides that? Egg didn't remember, he hadn't been paying full attention to whatever Wemmbu had been saying.
He regretted that now. Now as he finished with the bandages on the main wound. Now that Wemmbu was basically unconscious. Now that he was covered in his best friends blood. Now that Wemmbu's breathing was slowing down. Now that he could see the colour draining from his best friends face.
Why hadn't he just said goodbye back like any normal person would have? He regretted everything, a sudden sense of hatred pooling in his gut as he thought to himself.
The sight of his hands, red and wet — it felt like he was being mocked. He couldn't explain the feeling, but it was sort of like the gods above were laughing at him. Like all his efforts were stupid. There was one clear ending to this situation, wasn't there?
Wemmbu would die here. In the cold snow. On the floor. In his best friends arms.
He couldn't stop the thoughts from coming, not even making the conscious decision to pull out a healing potion before he was getting Wemmbu to drink it. His body wasn't his body right now, his mind not thinking before he acted, it didn't even feel like his brain was alerting his body to move. Every movement he made felt like a complete instinct, no thought behind it except for the simple rule of —
'Keep Wemmbu alive.'
Well, he had finished bandaging the man, and he had even given him a potion of healing. Wemmbu wouldn't wake up though. Fuck.. was he too late? The thought made Egg shudder, he might actually be sick by the time this adrenaline wears off. Whatever, he just needed to move Wemmbu somewhere less in the open, besides, Wemmbu was literally just lying on the snow covered ground. Not very comfortable.
Then again, Egg wasn't a particularly strong guy. How the hell would he get Wemmbu back to some place like their base or the end? He couldn't carry him!
I mean, Egg had one idea but it really didn't do much.. though he supposed it was better than nothing. He quickly stood up, taking off his jacket and throwing it onto the floor, laying it out in front of a tree to be a makeshift cushion to sit on.
He let out a small, shaky sigh, the cold air hitting him in a way that made him shiver. God, it was cold out today. He could deal with it though.
He continued to quickly work, buttoning Wemmbu's shirt back up and finally moving the man to lie down on the jacket. This would have to work for now.
He finally got Wemmbu to be lying down on the jacket, sitting down next to him on it as leaning back against the tree. Egg held his knees to his chest, staring straight ahead with a numb expression. His entire being felt hollow and empty, his mind blank as he listened to the silence around them. Even with the only sounds being ones from nearby birds, the noises felt deafening to Egg.
The silence felt like it was swallowing him whole, he eyes staring at the pool of blood in front of him, locked onto it like he wasn't able to look anywhere else. The sight was sickening. He held onto his knees, holding them as close to his chest as possible, ignoring the way his blood covered hands stained his pant-legs and his sleeves. His white shirt forever stained along with his memories of Wemmbu.
Forever flooded with the image of Wemmbu covered in his own blood. Blood pouring out of a gash in his abdomen, enough to make Egg feel sick to his stomach. Wemmbu hadn't been a saint, but he didn't deserve to die like this.
Egg sat in silence next to Wemmbu's body, staring straight ahead into the dense trees, trying to keep his gaze off the pool of his best friends blood. This wasn't real. It didn't feel real. The body's next to him wasn't Wemmbu's, it was a stranger's. Wemmbu was back at their base, brewing some more strength pots and training, like he always was. The man Egg knew wouldn't die. He couldn't, even if he tried.
He'd go home and tell Wemmbu all about the stuff he saw, going over some freshly written pages in his book of the servers lore. He'd show Wemmbu the photos he got and he'd tell him everything he needed to know about them. He'd go home and everything would be fine.
Wemmbu would be there and he would comfort Egg, telling him that his imagination was screwing with him and he needed to ignore it. This body didn't belong to Wemmbu, it was a fake. His eyes were lying to him. It-it couldn't be Wemmbu.
His grip on his knees tightened, his chin dropping to rest on top of them as he finally allowed his gaze to wander over to the pool of crimson that covered the forest floor. His first aid supplies sat scattered next to the pool, bandages sprawled out on the snowy ground, alcohol wipes in a small pile nearby, gauze torn and ripped, lightly swaying in the wind. It was cold out today.
Maybe he was just dreaming? Maybe he'd wake up and he could go tell Wemmbu all about the crazy dream he just had! He just... just didn't want to believe this was real. He wanted to go back, back to when Wemmbu had been getting ready to leave their base to go 'try something'. Egg had assumed that meant Wemmbu was going to fight someone, but fuck. He didn't expect this outcome. He wanted to go back, tell Wemmbu to stay in the base and train some more, patch up his gear some more. Anything.
Anything other than this.
Everything would be okay. Egg told himself over and over again as he sat there, barely moving, barely blinking, barely breathing. He listened to the sounds of the forest, the bird chirping, the wind softly blowing by. The world still spinning.
And Wemmbu would wake up soon. He was sure of it.