Page 53 of Fourth Point Of Contact

“Then maybe you should fucking listen and let me do it. Maybe I’ll be the one to get us out of here.”

“Ha! You’ll be the one who gets us fucking killed!”

“I’m not the one who argued with a bear!”

“No, and you’re also not the one who made the bear disappear. That was me!”

She had a point there. Not that I had to like it, but I hated that she pointed it out to begin with. Grumbling, I leaned back and listened to her, but only because she looked exhausted, and the sooner she finished, the sooner she would sit down. This had nothing to do with the nearly blinding pain that was shooting through my leg.

I stewed on the couch, forcing myself to stay awake as she rummaged around in the other room. But it was the scent that mostly kept me awake. I’d recognize that scent anywhere. Finally, after what felt like hours, she brought over a bowl and shoved it in my face. I forgot all about how old the cans were as the scent of Bush’s Baked Beans filled the air.

“God, I love these,” I groaned as I shoveled a spoonful into my mouth.

“They’re just beans.”

I paused as I was about to eat more and glared at her. “Just beans?”

She scooped up a bite and swallowed it with a shrug. “Yeah.”

“They arenotjust beans. They are the king of beans!”

She snorted at that. “I had no idea there could be a king of beans.”

“Okay, technically, there’s not a king, but if there were, this would be the king.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ve never much cared for beans, and if we’re here too long, I might never want to eat them again.”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” However, the reality was that we didn’t know how long we would be here. It shouldn’t take that long for the team to find us, but just in case, we needed to ration our supplies. “How many cans do we have?”

“Seven,” she admitted, her eyes flicking to mine momentarily. “That won’t last long.”

“No. We should probably stick to one can a day.”

She nodded, scooping up another spoonful. When she was done, she took my bowl and headed into the kitchen and rinsed the bowls. “We should get some sleep.”

“I don’t think I can move,” I admitted. “You should take the bed.”

She hesitated for a moment before heading to the back. Once she left, I finally let the pain take over and passed out.

13

PIPER

I went to bed,but didn’t actually go to sleep. I knew Patrick would give me shit if I didn’t leave the room, but I already knew things were about to go from bad to worse. After fifteen minutes in the room, I snuck back out and peeked in on Patrick. He was out like a light, but it was the sheen of sweat on his forehead that worried me.

I set another pot of water to boil, then went back to the couch with my supplies and carefully started unwrapping the wound. The red on his skin had nothing to do with the bleeding and everything to do with the infection running through his veins. I had no idea how to help him and no supplies to do it with.

I thought back to when I readOutlander, trying to remember any herbs that might have been used as medicine, but that wouldn’t do me much good since I probably wouldn’t be able to spot them if I knew what they looked like. The only thing I could do right now was keep his fever down. I went through every cabinet in the house searching for Tylenol or Ibuprofen, but with every door I shut, my hope fell a little more. I was rummaging through the closet of towels when I finally found a basket of supplies at the back. Everything was expired. I wasn’t even sure I should give it to him, but it had to be better than nothing.

Once the water was boiled, I set it to cool and poured a glass for him, shaking out a few Tylenol. I hoped this would help. I really didn’t want to be stuck out here all alone with a dying man.

“Hey, Patrick,” I said, shaking him awake.

“Hmm,” he groaned, his eyes fluttering.

“Patrick, I have some medicine for you. I need you to wake up.”

His brows pinched as he struggled to wake up. I shook him harder, but when that didn’t help, I slapped my hand across his face as hard as I could.

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