Carl found it harder than he thought it would be to get the wound clean and dressed. As it was on his arm, he had to wrap the bandage one handed. Finally, he tore off a strip of tape to hold down the end of the bandage. By this time, his face was clammy and sweaty, his breathing ragged.<br/><br/>With shaking hands, he pulled tore the shirt, starting at the hole she'd made when she stabbed him, and literally tore the shirt off his body. His body was caked with blood, and he knew it was hers as well as his. The grief made him groan in pain. He took the stack of clean bandages, a towell, and the first aid kit outside to the river. The water was cold, but he ignored it, stepping into the flowing water to wash himself clean. The wound on his ribs screamed in pain as the water hit and he struggled to breathe. Keeping his bandaged arm out of the water, he carefully reached across his body with his free hand to dab at the  wound with a cloth, trying to clean it. The act took a while, but he finally felt satisfied that he'd done what he could. Panting and shivering, he climbed out of the river and knelt beside the first aid kit. There was a bottle of antiseptic and he set to work, cleansing anything out of the wound that would cause it to get infected. The pain increased drastically as he did this, once even causing him to cry out in pain. clenching his teeth, he pushed through it. Over an hour after going outside, he finished bandaging, packed up the first aid kit and the soiled cloths, and stood to go back inside.<br/><br/>The sensation of vertigo he'd felt before hit him out of nowhere and he looked up at the cabin, watching it tilt left, then right, and back again. He put one foot stubbornly in front of the other, making his way slowly toward it. When his foot hit the step, he tripped and fell forward, at the same time feeling a heavy curtain of blackness hit him. He never felt the stairs crash into his knee, his shoulder, his head, and his ribs as he fell into completely unconsciousness.<br/><br/>The door to the cabin stood open, letting in the cool night air off the mountain. The river played a gurgling melody with the insects. the fire inside the the cabin slowly began to die down.<br/><br/>He stirred once, part of him struggling to rise to consciousness, but then he went still again and slept deeply.