Ice in the Desert Chunk 12

White Ghost goes through a painful experience which actually brings him and Black Ice closer together than ever before.

 Poison comes around to us eventually, and crouches down next to Ghost to see what's wrong. It isn't that hard to see that Ghost is in a lot of pain. He tells Poison how bad his arm hurts, and Poison nods. “Dislocated shoulder.” he says, as if it's obvious. “We'll just need to pop it back into place.” I have no idea what a dislocated shoulder is, but I do have an idea about the second part. “Get over here, Ice, you need to push it back in while I hold him down.” he orders, and I stand there, stunned. “Well, what're you waiting for? Come on, the faster we get this done, the better!” he says. I manage to stammer out a confused reply.

“Why am I the one pushin' his shoulder back into place?” I complain.

“Don't question me. I don't think you'd be the best person to restrain him, and trust me, we'll need someone to. You aren't stronger than me by the looks of it.” he states, and while I don't like it, I see his logic. I go over and crouch down next to Ghost,inwardly cringing at the worried look on his face. It made me uncomfortable to see him in pain like this, and I reasoned that I was going to take the pain away. Poison said, “Ghost, we're going on the count of three. It won't hurt much, I promise.” Ghost nods, still looking nervous.

“Okay, one...” Ghost shuts his eyes and tries to relax. “Two...” I don't think I could back out of this if I wanted to. “Three...” I take a deep breath and push upwards with his arm. Ghost's eyes fly open and he screams, an awful, wounded sound that I'd never heard before. Poison tells me to keep going, keeping Ghost pinned down. I keep pushing, hating the cries of pain from Ghost, but it doesn't last for much longer. There's a sickening sound as his shoulder is pushed back into place with one last scream. Then Poison relaxes his grip, and Ghost settles down, face streaked with tears.

“I... I don't hurt anymore.” he says, more than a little surprised. He moves his arm just a little to test it, and seems quite pleased. Looking up at poison with a sort of grudging respect in his eyes, he says in disbelief, “It worked! A little sore, but it worked!”

Poison rolls his eyes. “Of course it worked, I'm no idiot. Now, don't work it too much. It's going to be weak for a while. You don't want it to get hurt right after it's been healed, do you? I've got to know something if I don't want people dying on me all the time. Now rest up, and I hope you like this cave. You're going to be seeing it a lot real soon.” he says, then walks away. Ghost switches his gaze onto me once he leaves, and he looks impressed.

“You actually just saved me,” he starts. “You didn't chicken out. You were real brave there, Ice.” I glow from the praise, hard-won when it's from him. He relaxes against the wall, enjoying the absence of the pain. “Hey, don't tell anyone that I cried. I don't need that.” he looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Got that?” I nod and don't bother telling him that the whole cave could here that. I just don't think anyone paid much attention. There had been lots of screams all day.

“No worries,” I say, humoring him. “Your pride is safe with me.” I sigh and lean up against the wall, which is what most of us seem to be doing right now. The injured kids look pained and the healthy sit in an awkward silence, unsure of what to say to one another. Heck, I can't even think of something to talk to Ghost about. I just stare at the others in the cave. Dust is throwing rocks against the wall next to him, not daring to get up. I smirk, finding it amusing to see him reduced to our prisoner. Then my smirk fades away when I remember that for a while, we're practically prisoners too. Great.

Turning my gaze away from him, my eyes come to rest on Scorch. Much to my surprise, she's actually staring back at me. Our eyes lock for a moment and a chill runs down my spine, forcing me to look away. I poke Ghost in the shoulder, and he turns to me. Bewildered, I seek my partners guidance.

“Scorch is actually glaring at me. What did I even do?!” he stares at me like I'm an idiot.

“Are you seriously so thick? Can't you tell?” is his reply, looking exasperated. I shake my head, thinking he's crazy.

“What am I missin' here that everyone else seems to get?” I say, and he shakes his head.

“Never mind. You'll figure it out eventually, and it looks like we got some loudmouth's speeches to sit through.” He looks behind me and I turn, seeing Poison in the middle of the cave.

“Hey, he's the only reason you aren't still cryin' right now.” I remind him, and he doesn't say another word. Poison starts talking anyway, so it wouldn't matter if he was going to say something.

“Okay. Is there anyone injured that I haven't seen?” No one moves. “Moving on. I feel there's something you should all know. Now, that attack wasn't just a random run-in with a patrol.

 There was more of them then a random patrol. It was planned. By someone supposedly on our side, at that.” My eyes flick to Dust as he speaks, who's bright red in the face and glaring.

 Most of the others have caught on by now. I mean, how hard can it be to figure out? “I won't name names. I don't feel that I need to. But someone felt that making a deal with those monsters,” He spat the word out like it was poisonous. “Called the BLI was better than helping the good of the free-willed desert-goers know as the Killjoys.” Wow. Poison looked ticked.

Everyone booed. This is their nature, they're loud, reckless, and bold. That's why we're out here after all, out in the desert. We didn't fit in with Battery City, didn't want to lose our souls. The whispers were already starting, and Dust had already disappeared to a back corner.

“I just felt that you, all my fellow Killjoys, deserved to know that. After all we've been through, I'm not going to keep secrets from you.” Poison backed up, dismissing us. “Rest up now. The devil knows we need it.”

The circle loosens up and people fall back against the walls. It would probably become more organized later, but right now we didn't have the time or manpower. Nothing is happening right now, just a bunch of oddly dressed kids in a cave resting for a while. Not much talking besides a few whispers, not much action besides some people shifting in their spots. All is at an uneasy peace. For now.

Author's Note

Ignore minor grammar problems, watch out for typos, and I actually did a little research on dislocation, which may or may not be accurate. I have some focus problems and the articles make my mind wander, but I think I got it down pretty good.