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"Guys!" Jay screeched and fell to the ground, he knew what hit him immediately, which had him frozen in place for a few seconds, temporarily halting any pain from hitting him.
That didn't last very long, because as soon as he called out for Kai and Cole, walking around the forest, everything shot up at once, and he fell onto his back. His scream was immediately defeaning, the speed at which the two came running to him showed that, it didn't calm him down any more than he would like.
But there wasn't much time to think about staying calm, he had stood in a bear-trap, a large, deadly, clawed, and unbearably painful bear-trap. No pun intended, there was no time for puns.
"Oh, gosh, oh gosh!" Kai raced to him, jumping to the ground and didn't do a thing beside shout nonsense while his screams continued. "Cole, it's Jay, he—" the other was already there, just as panicked as the other, his teeth clenched, sweat already running down his face, but not shouting nonsense, at least.
"Oh, shoot, I—" he leaned closer, staring at his leg. It was already so bloody, the grass and dirt was mixed with the blood already spilling onto the ground, making it a clumpy mess. It was so much, too much, and Jay's screams wouldn't stop. "We need to call—"
Kai leaned closer, his hands flailed all around the air, pointing to the trees, the dirt, his own sweaty face and then to the bear-trap crushing Jay's leg. "An ambulance?" he grabbed his phone, "There's no signal at all out here, and we're not even that deep into the forest!"
It was meant to be a quick mission, a case of weapon smugglers in a forest just outside Ninjago City. They'd already dealt with them, kicked them down in one swoop, but they didn't know that traps would be coming for them after!
They were planning to call the authorities to get those guys to jail once they got out of the dense forest, it wasn't too much of a problem then, the ropes they'd tied them in were thick enough to keep them at bay.
Though not being able to call the police meant not being able to call the ninja, in case an emergency arises, and most importantly, an actual hospital, because Jay sure needed one!
"I'll attempt to send a message through our comms, but—" Cole quavered, and was interrupted by a louder scream from Jay. Through all the squirming of his upper body, his leg stayed completely still; it kept the bleeding at bay just a little more than if he was kicking it around, but him, Jay, not doing that worried him even more.
"Right, Jay, just—" Cole groaned and looked around the forest, "just stay still."
He stood up and Kai grabbed his arm, "What're you doing?" he shrieked.
"We need a tourniquet or something, like- like those ropes we used on the dealers, we could-"
Kai gripped him harder, his face quickly rummaged through the many things to look at, like the blood on the floor, Jay's face, Cole's sweat dripping down his temple, or the…spikes digging into Jay's leg. He couldn't look at that for long.
"Those ropes are way too big, they won't do anything!" Kai yelled aggressively, Cole took in a sharp breath, like the ones Jay did between each curdling scream, and kneeled back down. He took his belt off and went to wrap it around his leg.
He positioned it just above the trap, why were there even those out in the forest? According to Zane, bears aren't indigenous to the areas around Ninjago City, this was— He took a breath, "Jay, this is gonna hurt, but—"
Kai screamed into his face, "Just get on with it!" Cole nodded, closed his eyes tight and wrapped the cloth securely above the wound, well, there were so many spikes, at least five digging right into his skin, through way too many layers.
This was a total emergency, the bleeding had slowed, but it was still there, and with Jay's screams getting quieter rather than louder after the painful tourniquet, it shot their heart-rates through the roof.
He continued to groan and raked his fingers through his hair, his back arching at every movement that came when they tightened the belt. Sweat stuck to every inch of his face, the hair he dig his hands into now stuck to his forehead.
"Right, we need to get out of here." Cole huffed, and leaned back away from Jay, his hands flopped into the grass, a few specks of blood flickered onto him. With the roughly done tourniquet and clunky trap still trapped in his leg, he was unsure how he would be getting out of here, but he looked to Kai, hoping for an answer.
To rely on Kai for this ordeal meant that things were truly serious. They both panicked, breaths heavy and ragged, but nothing could compare to Jay.
"'Kay," he kneeled up and crawled to Jay's side, his head twisted and turned, his cheeks rubbinginto the dirt, and the awful sweat as he turned to the other side made blades of grass come up with him, stuck to his cheek. He grabbed his arm and Cole did the same, "We gotta carry him out of here."
Cole hoisted Jay's arm around his shoulder, making Jay moan even more, his face contorted, "He can't walk like this, shouldn't one of us just carry him?"
Kai snapped forward and accidently jolted Jay a little too hard, he cried out and nearly thudded back to the ground, "The huge bear trap in his leg will just get in the way!" he shook his head, pointing at the trap as if it wasn't disgustingly obvious, "We don't have time for this, just come on!"
Cole pressed his lips together and nodded, finally hoisting Jay's arm over his shoulders until he sat up, quickly, they had to get him standing, or at least just vertical.
"Right, Jay, you gotta work with us, buddy. Hop along." he warned, then got him standing on one leg through many groans and whimpers, and then his torso flopping forward. Kai made sure to keep a hold of his arm and front after that. "Great, great, let's get out of here." he relieved, then tried his communicator one more time, hopefully it would catch any signal sometime.
Jay groaned with each hop, he must be in unbearable pain: every few seconds, his head would fall forward, twisting around like he was dizzy, and they'd both rush to steady him. Things would be faster if they encouraged Jay to push through any and all pain and run out of here, but that pace would mean more blood loss, but…there was blood slipping out either way, judging from the trail behind them.
Gripping his arm tighter, Kai looked away from the deep red blood, and had Jay hop along a little faster.
"We're nearly out, we can call soon-" Cole sighed deeply, a smile tugging at his face when the situation got a fraction better. Suddenly, a scratch rang through the comms, and Lloyd's voice blasted through.
"Hey, you tried to get a hold of us, you three okay-"
Cole slammed the button to his mic and yelled inside it, "Jay's really hurt, meet us outside the forest, where you dropped us off, hurry!" he heaved, then grabbed his torso again when he toppled over with a huge cry that must be heard through the comms.
Online comms meant there was signal, they could call an ambulance, finally! Zane popped into the call, and explained he had emergency services on their way, without having been explained the extent of the damage.
"Hurt? How?" Lloyd asked, his voice shaking like theirs.
"He's been…" Kai joined, but stayed gripping on Jay, walking faster each second until the trees got less and less dense. "He stepped in a trap, he's losing a lot of blood and in a lot of pain, but we can't do much for him out here!"
"Right, we're on our way too, an ambulance should be here before us, but—"
Jay's head arched back and he let out another scream when a piece of the trap skidded the ground, but finally, they were out of the forest, and Cole pointed to the closest tree to prop him up there.
"Okay, thanks, bye Lloyd, but we gotta calm him down!" he finished abruptly, then muted his comm link. He didn't want any more distractions and could hardly handle speaking anymore, talking about what had happened to him.
His head flopped to his side once they got him by a tree, and they both huddled around him, but his eyes were closed, gripped shut like glue, and he wouldn't stop squirming.
"Jay, can you hear us?" Cole shook, but tried to keep calmness in his voice, it didn't match the screams very well, and could barely be heard over them either. There was no change in his response, they both looked to each-other and shook their heads, but Kai had an idea.
He pulled his hand out and tapped Jay's, light and calm, then took a breath to will his voice to do the same. "Jay, just squeeze my hand, okay?" he did so immediately, and the two instantly released their tense shoulders an inch. The squirms were getting slower, "Right, just stay awake for me, 'kay?" His eyes opened, and Kai leaned in closer. The others were likely hearing this on the comms.
Right, okay, they were sat, an ambulance was coming, and so were the others.
So it was time to utilize the first-aid training the ninja had received. This time, comfort, he could do this, right?
Jay squeezed his hand tight and pushed his head further into the tree, scratching his cheek with the bark a little, "Jay, just squeeze my hand," Cole offered his too, taking his hand first and letting Jay notice, "yeah, and Cole's too, keep breathing through that pain, 'kay?"
Finally, a croak escaped his mouth, "I- I won't do—I don't wanna hurt…"
"Jay, feel free to break my hand right now, I don't care." he interrupted with a quip, and fell back forward with a manufactured calm demeanour he put on for Jay.
"Help is coming, Jay." Cole assured, bringing his hand to his leg, the un-trapped one.
He opened his eye again, finally, and trembled as he dragged his head up, "N-Nya?"
"Yeah, Nya's coming, and an ambulance, you're gonna get some help soon, Jay." he assured once more, squeezing his hand tighter every-time he said his time, he made sure to repeat it for him to have important words to hold onto to keep him awake. At that, Jay grinned and pried his eyes open, but no amount of love for Nya could make him look much…better, at this point, he looked half-dead.
Cole continued talking into the mic he had not yet muted, while letting Kai continue with speaking, he made sure to move his hands, squeeze it every few seconds to make sure he would squeeze back. Whoever Cole kept talking through on the comms, it was probably all of them combined, all screaming worried questions at him with no break. At least he had the urgency to ignore them after a moment, and went back to Jay.
"Jay, okay…um, I need a question, Cole?" Kai panicked.
He hummed in thought, but Jay was quick to say his own thing. "Hey…" he squirmed and squeezed their hands unbelievably tight. They yelped, but dealt with it. "thanks for…helping me, why were there- there bear traps in there?"
Cole shrugged and rolled his eyes, "I don't know, but if it was those guys I'll be having some words when they're in prison."
Jay chuckled, "Heh, thanks, yeah-" he flinched, another squeeze, "yeah…give 'em hell!" he mumbled wearily.
Sirens blared behind them, and a shadow crawled over the three huddled around the tree, sat on the dirty forest floor with blood, grass and dirt staining their pants. And they just got new suits.
"Hey, they're here, do you hear the sirens?" Kai turned back around, ignoring everything else, like Lloyd shouting from above.
"Yeah…" Jay yawned and let his head flop forward. Cole and Jay leaped forward, had he…? He opened his eyes again, his pupils rolling around aimlessly, but that was relief to them at the moment. "Yeah, I hear 'em, Nya…here?" he pulled his hand from Cole's and raised it to the air, it twirled around sloppily.
He never saw a greater sight when the ambulance parked by them and three EMTs leaped out like superheroes from a comic book. They rushed, and he knew he had to give them space, but Jay's grip got tighter. "Please," he hicupped, "stay."
Shaking his head, he tried to get up, "I can't do that, they need space to work."
His words didn't work, no words could beat a woozy mind, "No, please." he gripped even tighter, and Kai sighed, "Just for- just for a-" he struggled to get the words out. Behind were the ninja sliding down on ropes to rush to the three of them, and the EMTs were right by him now.
Kai sighed and kneeled back down on the bloody patch of grass, then let Jay squeeze his hand as much as he wanted. "Right, just for a little bit."