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Chapter 7 - After effects👽

[Some time in the Past]

"Elena?" I asked.

"Umhm?" She responded partially attentive.

"How do you do all this without gaging?" She was still concentrated on her work but I noticed a smile on her lips.

"Ann, you can interrogate your sister later. Right now, let her focus on my arm please." Caroline asked, wincing in pain.

"Girls, it's okay. Ann, all it takes is patience and practice. Dermatology isn't learned in a day. Caroline just endure a little more, your skin infection is nearly treated." Elena spoke without taking off her special medical goggles or stopping her hands from working on Caroline's arm.

"Your hands are so steady." I complimented.

"Thanks. This kind of infection needs special care for removal. If don't want any problematic organisms remaining stuck in Care's skin. Every step needs to be precise and thorough." Elena explained softly.

"Why are you applying it there, there is no infection?" I nearly jumped at them with alarm.

"Anara!" Caroline looked at me alarmed, "Stop, before She loses focus and applies rays where she shouldn't."

"Ann, get back to your seat. Care, relax, its going to take more than just an annoying sister to break my focus." Elena comforted Caroline, not stopping for even a second on her arm.

"And you answer your question, Anara, some infections aren't always visible until you look carefully for its signs under the skin. I'm the one wearing the goggles, remember? I promised Care will have an arm as good as new when I'm done, didn't I? Major infection is cleared, I'm just looking for any remnants under that skin that could manifest later."

We sat through the next half hour of the treatment silently trusting my elder sister in her clinic.

[Present Time]

It was a nightmare!

It had to be.

I felt like the night-hag had paralyzed me. I was conscious but I couldn't move. I was barely breathing. I tried to open my eyes and with a lot of effort, I was able to discern the gory situation I was lying in. The early morning chill, the icy wetness of the mossy forest floor underneath and lots of tiny creatures crawling on my frozen skin.

It wasn't a sleep-paralysis-demon, I remembered, it was those thorns of acorn-ish berries that rodent was throwing. When was that? It felt like I had stayed unconsciously paralysed for a major part of yesterday and all night. How did I manage to survive the whole night, this vulnerable?

I tried to move again, the insects' stings were starting to gain feeling and were painful now. I had to move, my fingers tingled as I used all strength I could muster to make slightest of movement. It took me almost an hour, or that's how it felt, to regain partial control of my limbs. As I sat up, the sight that greeted me, released an involuntary shriek from my lips. My body was bloody and covered with creatures of all tiny sorts, none identifiable.

Caterpillar-like, slimy slug-ish, worm-like, giant centipede-ish, huge crawlers of multiple legs, ants and many more of all colors and sizes, possibly poisonous, eating my live body. I had open wounds all over my body and holes through most of my clothes. I had liquids of many colors and awful odours dripping on my wounds. I used my hands to pry the scavengers off of me as much as I could. Some were stuck like leeches and others had almost penetrated my skin, all I could see was the painful bulge.

First thing first, I had to relocate myself. So I dragged my still semi-paralysed body a few meters away from my to-be grave soon. The movement sent all those that could move quickly, away from me. The rest I had to pry out myself manually. I could see my backpack lying close to the carnivorous tree that I was almost food of yesterday. I needed the knives in there to cut out my insectious parasites.

The pain was now becoming unbearable but and so I had to move fast. My legs were now almost functional. So as quickly as my legs would take me I limped to get the backpack without getting tangled in the monstrous roots. And returned to my previous site to operate on myself.

Easier said than done.

It was a tedious and extremely agonizing task. Some creatures were just too fond of my body to leave. My hands were shaky and I couldn't place the reason for that. Thorns of acorns? Some insect's by-product? My general lack of proper rest or that of food and water? The that kept coursing through my body and I couldn't even pin point the origin? I had no idea but it made the task I was trying so much more frustrating and painful, especially when I started seeing twos and threes. Oh, I had never hated jungles this much ever before.

It was almost evening again when I was finally done using whatever I had to rid my body of as many creatures as possible. I still needed water, disinfectant, antibiotics and lots of painkillers. But most of all I needed water to quench my thirst. I was so parched and famished. The heat of the day had worked with its full force. I got up on my bruised and bleeding feet. It was strange how those things had found their way inside my shoes. I had to find a safe enough place to rest of the night.

I had lost the sense of direction but that was a problem for the next day, if I survived.

I looked for a tree safe enough to nest in for the night and my eyes finally rested on the weird knotting branches of a familiar tree I had spent the night before yesternight. But it seemed too far away. My bleeding feet made every step excruciating. Walking was a fairly easy part compared to the climbing that I had to do to reach a safe enough height. I was continuously sobbing the whole time.

Finally up there. I tried to find anything left edible in my backpack but most of it had already gone stale. I salvaged what few morsels I could and lay wincing with every breath, longing for a few sips of water. My wish for water was fulfilled, just not how I expected the mercy to be shown.

Rain.

A blessing right?

Wrong!

Another predator to protect myself from.

From the second, the first raindrop touched my bruised skin, I realized, the rain was something to beware of. I had to make sure no second droplets found their way to my skin ever again.

The rain was poisonous. It gave me an instant burn wherever it touched.

With the newfound agony of burning wounds, I took out the other suit that I had in my backpack, the only functional thing remaining and covered as much of my skin as possible. it wasn't enough. I had to cover my head as well. I took the giant meaty leaves of my saviour tree to form a quick canopy with shaky hands. My focus though was worse than ever.

I tried to stay still as much as my burning, injured, hungrily weak and bleeding body would allow me. It was a struggle in itself but the mere thought of being able to hug my mom and cry on her shoulder pumped enough adrenaline to keep going.

But I wasn't built for this. This extreme struggle, intense pain, hunger and thirst. It was over-whelming, along with side effects of being insect dessert.

So despite trying my hardest, I blacked out, with the final feeling of my body slipping from its position on the branch and the terrifying fact that I might find myself in the same, if not worse, condition on the same forest floor I had picked myself up from only a few distressing hours ago.

**Author's note:

Looks like Anara's chances of survival are dwindling. Maybe what she needs is some divine intervention? Or just a helping hand? Who knows what she might get.

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