new_ophelia | For Jack and Duck

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For Jack and Duck - Dated March 12th

When Kate had set out on her run, she probably should have taken light debris into consideration. This is one of two thoughts that goes through her mind right at the moment a dinosaur crosses the path. The other is a strangled fuck. It is too late to slow down her body's momentum and as her foot hooks on a fallen branch, she goes skidding across the ground, pain shooting up from her scraped arms and legs. She claps a bloody hand across her mouth as a yell escapes and pushes up, scrambling to get off the open path. There are dinosaurs. There are dinosaurs and they shouldn't be here? They're supposed to have collars? What happened to the collars? And if they're here, they could be anywhere. She crouches behind a tree, far enough off the path to be partially covered by the thick foliage. Shit, shit, shit. She needs to get back. She needs to get back to Jack who could still be sleeping...

A hiss makes its way out as sweat runs into the long scrapes. Blinking hard, she tries to steady her breath which between the exercise and sheer panic is completely out of control. After a few long moments she starts to push herself up, ignoring the throbbing of her muscles before an almighty *crash* sends her flailing. All she sees before she starts running is that it's big, it has teeth, and it looks a lot quicker than the tree eating dinosaur. Her heart hammers in her chest as she crashes through the dense jungle, hoping to hell that the beach is in the direction she's heading. The dinosaurs on Jurassic Park didn't go to the beach and that's pretty much the only reference Kate has to go on. She keeps her eyes straight ahead, not wanting to see what is behind her. The distant crashing noises are plenty and that's part of the reason that she doesn't see the narrow, shallow ravine until her leg hits it with a sickening crunch and a searing flash of pain. Pressing her face into the damp ground she tries to breathe through the pain until she lifts her head only to see a bamboo shoot sticking a few inches out of her calf. She wrenches herself up, gagging when she tries to put pressure on the leg and begins to move as quickly as she can towards the bright sand. Only when she gets near enough to the water to feel the cold breeze does she sink onto her hands and good knee, panting. Her eyes screw shut as she fights down both an almighty freakout and the need to vomit and lie down.

[ooc: Tagging order: jack, duck, kate. This post is meant to piggy-back Jack's post. She looks worse than she actually is right now. Most of the blood is from the superficial scrapes. obviously slow-timed]

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Jack's good at hand to hand, but he doubts that a dinosaur is going to let him get close enough to punch it, so he nods as they approach. The nearer they get, the more and more certain he becomes that it's Kate on the beach and he casts a glance at Duck, then speeds up, walking faster.

"Kate," he says again, seeing that it is her, then breaks into a run, which probably isn't safe, but she's there and she's alive and he needs to see that she's okay.

It is Kate, and Duck's driftwood falls forgotten to the sand when he sees the red on her arms and legs. With a furious "Goddammit," Duck reaches them and drops to his knees on her other side, fingers pressing against her in search of broken bones.

Before the voices can register Kate feels something grab at her. She quickly flails away, a choked scream escaping as the movement jars her leg, triggering a wave of nausea and pain.

"Kate," Jack says quickly, dropping to his knees and reaching out for her, trying to grab her hand as he looks over at Duck. She's obviously hurt, but he's more concerned with the fact that she seems sort of out of it. Like she's in shock or something. "Hey, Kate, it's okay. Me and Duck are here."

"Kate," Duck says sharply. She needs medical attention, and they don't have time for this. "You're safe, we're gonna get you to the Compound." He takes a look at her impaled leg and winces, turning to Jack. "We gotta move."

Kate's eyes fly open at the sound of Duck's sharp voice. "Jack," she hisses through clenched teeth. "Duck. Oh god. Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Jack says, mostly dismissively because right now he's way more concerned with Kate. His gaze goes to Duck and he asks, "Can I carry her? I won't hurt her any more, will I?"

"That leg's gonna hurt no matter what you do," Duck answers with an apologetic look at Kate. He trots a few feet away to break off a piece of driftwood. "Pick her up gently. Kate, honey...you might need to stick this between your teeth." She's bound to cry out, and if the carnivores hear..."You get tired, you pass her to me."

Kate bites her lip, hard before she can protest. She knows Duck's right. She knows they need to leave and she reaches a shaky hand out to grab the driftwood, biting it as stray tears start to escape.

This is going to to suck and this is going to hurt.

"I'm sorry," Jack murmurs gently, then lifts Kate as carefully as he can, one of his arms around her back and the other under her knees, trying to avoid hurting her further.

Duck's sorry, too, and he turns away before the urge to stand there uselessly and wipe at her tears overwhelms him. "Back the way we came," he says, grabbing up the rest of the driftwood and setting off.

In the back of her mind, Kate's grateful for the driftwood because it does hurt and she does yell. Jack is trying to be as careful as he can not to jostle her but they're hurrying and it's awful. She throws the wood to the ground, burying her face in Jack's chest. "Where's Geoffrey?" she mutters, trying to control her harsh breaths.

"He's at the Compound," Jack assures her quietly, wishing he could do something to make her feel better or take away her pain or anything, but he knows he can't. Instead he just stays close to Duck, keeping his eyes on the path and on the jungle, looking for danger.

If fear fueled Duck's pace before, anger makes it twice as quick, and he has to force himself to slow down for Jack and Kate. That this could have happened, that the dinosaurs had even gotten out, that they'd done god only knows what to Kate...He clears his throat and makes his voice even. "He's at the Compound, yeah." Until he notices Duck is gone, anyway...

Duck speeds up again.

"You sure you're okay?" Kate mumbles, adrenaline starting to wear off, leaving her feeling slow and dizzy. "Sunny and Lionel?" she asks, slurring just a little.

"They're okay," Jack lies, although he doesn't know where Lionel is and he can feel himself beginning to worry about his friend as well. At least he has Kate now and yeah, she's hurt, but she's alive and that's the important part. Lionel and Lilly could be anywhere.

Duck stays a few paces ahead of them by choice, now. He's the one with the stick, after all, and he can at least throw it ala Jurassic Park if something interrupts their journey. Every so often he looks back at them, nodding at Jack as though it might encourage him.

Kate nods against Jack's chest, glad for that at least. There's no way, no way that everyone will make it through this okay. And there's no way she could have made it back on her own.

As the adrenaline continues to fall, the unholy throbbing in her leg increases, the only relief coming from the fact that she can't feel her foot, which probably isn't actually a good thing.

"I can't feel my foot," she mumbles.

"It's okay, we're almost there," Jack assures her quietly, although he's not sure that they're that close at all. Duck seems to know where they're going and he keeps nodding at Jack, which Jack appreciates for some reason. Like Duck is approving of what he's doing.

That's either shock or nerve damage, Duck thinks, glad to focus on something other than the fact that none of them might make it back in one piece. "We'll go straight to the clinic," he promises Kate, jumping when the leaves to his left rustle. He hopes to god it's another flat-toothed whatever.

Kate is too out of it to notice the rustle but she sure as hell notices when Jack freezes up, tightening his grip around her. She clamps down on the impulse to yell and instead starts to shake again, knowing that if it's what was after her, they're all screwed.

"Shh," Jack murmurs, although Kate hasn't made a noise and then he picks up his pace a bit, willing himself not to look at the bushes. If it's something with big teeth, they're sort of fucked at this point and he doesn't want to think like that.

"Carefully," he murmurs to Duck as he reaches his side.

Duck debates never, ever moving again, which might be worth it if it means whatever's to his left leaves them the hell alone. It would also mean he'll never make it back to Geoffrey, however, so Duck puts one foot forward, and then the other, and when death fails to come crashing out of the bushes, they all move forward down the path unscathed.

Duck breathes a small sigh of relief and risks a glance at Kate. "How you doing?"

Kate opens her eyes when they start moving again, although she only manages about half-way. She looks over at Duck and decides it hurts too much to bullshit. "It hurts," she mutters, eyes falling shut again. "It could have been worse."

It could have been worse. There's a good possibility she could be dead now, but Jack doesn't say that, he just continues to walk quickly toward the Compound. They need to be there right now so that he can get Kate to the clinic and get her some help.

"We're almost there," he murmurs in what he hopes is a soothing voice.

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