Warnings: Description of Rob's ankle and pretty gross stuff... Can't say much else

~Preston's P.O.V.~

With the distant chirping of birds I awake sorely, the muscles in my shoulders and back screaming in protest. Ugh, hauling Rob around everywhere is really tiring... But I guess it is my fault. I think silently, reaching around to massage a knot at the intersection between my back and shoulder. Speaking of which...

"Hey Rob get up, we should see how your ankle is doing. Don't want it to get infected." I call out, leaning towards his sleeping form and pushing on his shoulder lightly.

Rob bats away my hand and I roll my eyes knowing he's a heavy sleeper. He drags his arm up to his eyes and covers them, tucking his head in towards his chest.

"Fine then, I'll do it myself." I threaten even though I'd wait for him to wake up either way.
"Wait! I'll get up, don't do it yet." Rob panics, his eyes snapping open.

I sit back and Rob pushes himself up, tucking one leg in and sticking the other out in front of him. With a nod of permission he allows me to gently roll up his black pant leg to reveal his bandaged ankle. Rob hisses in pain when I untie the fabric and pull it away, revealing his wound. I throw the bloody piece of black fabric away knowing it won't serve much purpose anymore.

Back when I was bandaging up his ankle I couldn't see the extent of the damage due to the amount of blood gushing from the wound but now that the bleeding has stopped the damage is clear, and I gasp. The tear in his flesh is a good couple of inches in each direction, creating a jagged circle where the arrow plunged into his skin. The surrounding skin is stained red with blood and is obviously irritated. The wound runs so deep I can actually see a portion of his bone, the very outer layer slightly fractured, but not enough to deem it officially broken... Just damaged. Inside the wound it's starting to scab, and a lot of dried blood is scattered within and around the wound.

     Rob sneaks a glance at the wound as his face instantly pales. I jerk backwards as his cheeks puff out and he scrambles away behind a bush, gagging noises emitting from his throat.

     "There goes whatever I had left in my stomach..." He groans, shuddering.
     "Here let me wrap that back up, before it gets any worse. I mean not that it's bad, considering the circumstances it could actually be a lot worse."

     Rob nods, holding one numb hand over his mouth.

     For a second time I pull down my black t-shirt, tearing off a long strip from the edge. Gently taking his ankle into my hands I re-wrap his ankle being mindful not to bind it too tight. Rob let's out another whine of pain when I jerk the knot tight.

     "Sorry." I mumble, pulling back down his pant leg.

     The air is still as we sit there in the snow, not a sound reaching our ears. Out of boredom I start to dig a hole in the snow, waiting impatiently for Rob to say he is ready to go. I can tell he's in pain, and even though he's trying his best to pass it off and smile I can clearly see the agony in his eyes.

     "Okay let's go, and while we're on the way let's look for food." Rob states after a few minutes of silence.

     I nod, abandoning my random act of digging a hole in the thick snow and instead letting Rob brace himself against me, standing up slowly. Once we relocate the direction of West we begin another trek through the snow, praying nothing else happens. Although the only thing that I can find myself thinking about is food. No matter how much I try and focus on other things. We need to find something... And fast. But for now I need to get my mind off this...

     "So how long do you think it'll take us to reach the mountain?" I grunt, pulled down by the weight of Rob.
     "Mmmm that's hard to says dude. I'd say another day but I can't say for sure."
     "Well let's hope we find everyone else soon. If they said to meet at the mountain peak it's gonna be hard to get you up there. And we haven't seen any signs of food yet, so if we end up not finding anything we'll have to depend on everyone else to provide for us, assuming they've all found food by now."

     And there we go with the food again. You must be hungry. When are we ever gonna find food? We can't last forever without anything. Obviously. You only have a few days left to run on considering the circumstances. Great, and now I'm talking to myself. Yea, you're going crazy. Shut up consciousnesses, I don't need your input right now.

     Deciding to shut off my brain I simply continue on without thought, continuing a steady march through the snow. But after an hour or so my hunger slowly starts to set back in, my stomach begging for anything to eat. It doesn't help to hear Rob's stomach growl too, signalling his own hunger.

     "Fudge dude we need to find something to eat." I state hungrily, stopping my movements.

     Rob stops along with me, and we glance around the area. At this point we've wandered into a small clearing. Then all of a sudden my eyes catch a small movement at the far edge of the field. There a large partridge is plucking through the snow. I step away from Rob, leaving him to stand on his own, and hastily pull out my bow. Notching an arrow I quickly aim and fire, driven solely by hunger. But because of my tiredness from walking with Rob and having not eaten for a long time the arrow sails right over its head, lodging itself into the snow not a meter away. The partridge squawks and panics, fleeing from the area.

     I fall to my knees in defeat, following the partridge longingly as it flys away and our of sight a minute later. Rob sighs, plopping himself down beside me and patting my shoulder in sympathy.

     "I know we're not gonna like this but we do have one option left for food..."

     I glance at him out of the corner of my eye in confusion, watching as he scoots back and starts to scoop out snow. As he digs I start to get a wrenching feeling of what he's actually searching for. Even after reaching the ground he continues on, pulling out dead grass and scraping out dirt. In the blink of an eye he's pulled out a plump worm from the earth, desperately twisting in his hands.

     "Ack there's no way I'm eating that..." I complain, but after my stomach growls I start to reconsider my thoughts.
     "I don't wanna eat it either but we have to do something if we don't wanna starve to death. Look, I'm not gonna force you but after throwing up my stomach is completely empty and I need to eat something. At the moment that something is this."

     I'm struck with realization suddenly noticing that Rob must be twice as hungry as I am, having thrown up this morning. He squeezes his eyes shut and tilts his head back, dropping the slimy pink worm into his mouth. With a fist to his mouth he shudders while swallowing, gagging a second later. Shaking his head he painstakingly starts digging again soon pulling out a second worm.

     "Come on Preston we need to eat." He insists, holding out the worm.

     My stomach churns as I shakily take the squirming worm from Rob's outstretched hand. Gathering every ounce of courage I shove the creature into my mouth. Biting down I feel it's guts squish between my teeth and I almost hurl. But I force it down my throat, waiting till its down before spitting out the awful earthy taste still lingering on my tongue. But after my stomach starts to digest the small piece of meat I'm instantly addicted, survival instincts kicking in.

     In a flash I start digging through the hole more, on desperate search for more underground creatures to eat. Rob joins in my search, helping me scrape out dirt in search for worms. Once he locates one he doesn't hesitate to pop it in his mouth, chewing it as he dives back into digging the hole and turning up earth.

     ~~~

     "Ugh okay that's it, if I eat any more I'm going the throw up." I breathe, burping loudly in my mouth.

     Rob nods in agreement, shifting away from the increasingly larger hole. We both managed to pick out plenty of worms, eating each and every single one in longing for food. It's not much but at least it will help... And after a few minutes of resting I stand back up, reaching out my hand to aid Rob in standing up too.

     "Let's go. Now that we have at least a few calories in us we need to find somewhere to sleep before mobs start spawning."
     "Or... We could camp out and wait for some zombies to spawn and we can eat their rotten flesh." Rob suggests.
     "NO."

~~~