Page 51 of Fourth Point Of Contact

“Nobody better see this,” he grumbled.

“Why? Worried your manhood will be in question if you have to actually accept help from someone else?”

He didn’t say anything, just grunted in response.

“Alright. Where are we headed?”

“I had originally planned to hang out here, but maybe that’s not the wisest idea anymore.”

“How far do you think you can make it?”

He winced as he tried to put pressure on his leg. “Not too far.”

“Maybe we should stay here since there’s water.”

A heavy sigh left his chest. “Maybe. But if you stay still, you’re dead. At least where bears are concerned.”

“Then let’s filter some more water and get moving.”

12

PATRICK

I was sweating hardand it had nothing to do with the heat outside. Our movements were slow, and after traveling all fucking day, we’d probably made it a mile from our original location. My whole body was shaking from the pain, and Piper was exhausted from hauling me around. We wouldn’t be able to make it much further tonight, and we had no water. Fuck, I’d made things worse.

Thankfully, we hadn’t seen the bear all afternoon.

“Alright, stop,” Piper sighed, her legs practically collapsing beneath her feet. “We need to stop.”

“I can keep going,” I gritted out, but I couldn’t. Not really. My leg was fucking broken. I knew it the moment I tried to put weight on it. I had basically been hopping the whole fucking walk, using Piper to haul my ass around. We were both exhausted, but stopping here was tantamount to suicide.

“I can’t. Not yet. I need a break.”

I nodded, allowing her to help me to the forest floor. Relief flooded me the moment I was off my leg. The pain was excruciating, made worse by hobbling around instead of putting my damn leg up, but doing nothing wasn’t an option. Not if we wanted to live.

“I’m going to walk ahead and see if there’s a good place to stop for the night or maybe another spring.”

“That’s not a good idea,” I warned. “I don’t like the idea of you wandering out there on your own.”

“Afraid for my safety?” she grinned, though it was forced.

“Afraid for mine. You might wander off and leave me out here. You’re my only protection,” I teased.

She chuckled and got to her feet, barely taking a rest. She was still walking around barefoot, and her feet had to be torn up by now, but she didn’t show any signs of pain, and she hid her exhaustion as best as she could.

I wanted to give her a weapon to protect herself, but I didn’t even have my gun on me. I couldn’t bring it through the airport, and hadn’t gotten it back on the plane. I was too focused on getting the hell off the ground. Luckily, before she walked off on her own, she took my walking stick. It was of no use to me without her, but at least she could use it to defend herself.

She looked back at me after walking a few feet, her eyes worried as she looked at my sweaty form. “I won’t be long. Don’t go anywhere.”

Despite feeling like shit, I chuckled at her joke and waved her off. As her form disappeared in the distance, the pain became overwhelming and I started to drift off. I tried to fight it, but with nothing to distract me from the pain, I quickly lost the battle.

When I came to, Piper was leaning over me, her eyes filled with concern and something else. It didn’t take long to recognize that I’d been out for a while when I saw the position of the sun. I took stock of my body, glad that the rest had lessened the pain in my leg a degree.

“Any luck?”

“I found a cabin. It’s a hike, but there’s water and a few old cans of beans that are questionable.”

And yet she still came back for me. I was a little surprised by that. She was resilient, but she could have easily left me out here and collapsed in the cabin. I wasn’t about to wait around when a cabin was close enough to spend the night in. Piper looked exhausted and had to be dehydrated.

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