The wheezing stopped, leaving the wind scraping against the roof to be the only noise they heard inside the cabin over their breathing. Jesse rocked in place and still succumbed to an inadvertent cough while finally regaining the last bits of his composure. Daron kneaded his hands and curled his lips over the repulsive sensation of blood congealing in his hands - he still was unsure if the blood was his or Whitney's, but knew that he couldn't take the risk to find out while the room was dark. They were both rankled and paralyzed by the sudden attack and resolution, and sat in darkness on opposite sides of the moonlight shining upon the floor. The only reminder that Whitney's corpse lay somewhere between them was the smell which clung to their nostrils.
"Now... now what we gonna do?" Jesse shook his head sharply after speaking. He was still winded and dizzy. There was a long pause before he received an answer.
"Only thing we can do is get him out of here and wait until sunrise. Light the lantern."
"I don't know where-"
"Feel around for it. It's by the bed. Hug the wall and crawl over to it. Matches are by it."
Jesse nodded and took a moment to summon the strength to rise to his knees and kneel upon the ground. He threw himself off balance in the motion and lurched forward. Instinctively, he reached out in front of him to prevent himself from falling to his face, and planted his hands upon Whitney's body. The surface of it was already cold to the touch. The sensation caused Jesse to recoil backwards and his stomach to churn as a wave of dread tingled throughout his veins. The motion threw his back to the sodden wall of the cabin, which allowed him to quickly reorient himself and go about to find the lantern. He crawled on his hands and knees in the darkness, reaching for the edge of the room and not wanting to return to the middle of it. After inching forward nervously and finding no further obstruction, he ambled on all fours with his body scraping the wall until he came upon the wooden frame where the lantern was standing. Jesse wrapped his hands around it and then reached up to feel at the top, and found the glass of the lantern with his fingertips. He pawed around the base of the lantern and found the slender box where the matches were kept. He thanked the Lord that it was still there and pulled his body up from his hands as he anchored them into the stand. He slid the box open and struck a match and turned his head directly towards it to assuredly light the wick with the first attempt.
Though their eyes adjusted to the light, neither Daron or Jesse were able to comprehend the horror in their sight. Red blood coated Whitney's torso and glistened in the lantern's glow. Specks of shattered glass which protruded from the open lacerations in his neck caught reflections from the illumination. Jesse snapped his vision away in a horrified reflex and absently dropped the lit match to the ground, but still had enough sense to stamp it into the dirt. Daron squinted at his hands and expanded his fingers to inspect them, but was not able to see anything beyond a smudged coating over the digits. He flexed his fingers in and out, and finally was able to discern a few flaps of flesh which bent around the rest of his hand. The adrenaline rush still prevented him from feeling pain, but he knew to not wait for that circumstance to arrive before addressing the issue.
"Jesse, get a shirt. I need you to wrap it around my wrists."
"Okay."
Jesse kept his head away from the center of the room and walked back to the side of his bedding where a loose shirt was laying on the ground. He took it up and walked over to Daron and held it out to him.
"No, you gotta do it. Tear it up first."
Jesse pulled at the shirt from a hole in the middle and clenched his teeth as he pulled away at it from the sides until it split apart in his hands. He finished separating the pieces and knelt down in front of Daron, wrapped one of the halves around his right wrist, and tied it into a knot which he pulled as tightly as he could. Daron stood up after he had both wrists tied down and reached down to pick up Whitney's arms, then pulled sharply upon the body to inch it closer to the door. Daron only had enough strength in his grip to drag the body out with one protracted lurch at a time.
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