Page 70 of Leave Me Behind
My chest tightens. If he tells Eren I killed him, I’m done.
Bradshaw shuts his eyes. “It was Bunny.” My jaw slacks. “She said he attacked her?—”
He stops abruptly. I can hear Eren yelling but I’m not sure what he says.
Bradshaw lets his jaw tilt down. “Copy that, Sarge,” he says in an eerily calm voice. Bradshaw looks at me like he’s making the hardest decision of his life. Before I can process it he shoves me to the ground. He comes down on me before I can get another word out. His hands wrap tightly around my neck.
“Why did it have to be you?” He scowls in anguish.
I’m helpless with my wrists bound. I can’t fight him off. Bradshaw’s eyes flash with pain as I gasp for air. He releases my throat and pounds his fist against the ground mere inches from my face before dropping his head.
Eren doesn’t care to hear what I have to say? He’ll just throw me away and make his brother do his dirty work?
He shakes his head and sits back up, positioning his hands around my neck once more with more resolve in his eyes.
“You don’t believe me?” I choke out.
He swallows and bites into his lower lip, squeezing harder until my vision starts to blur. Hot tears drip on my cheeks and after another beat, he drops his hands.
“I can’t fucking do it,” he says slowly, sounding so disappointed in himself. Tears roll down over his mask and trickle to my skin. I take labored breaths and struggle to move until oxygen has returned to my brain. The only thing I can focus on is the pain in Bradshaw’s eyes. He’s crying.
The headset clicks beside us and Eren’s voice booms, “Get back to the drop-off zone, Bones! You have two minutes before the pilot takes to the sky. Where are”— gun shots blur out his words—“did you exterminate Bunny?” Bradshaw hears it too and his eyes narrow in agony. It hurts to hear Eren say it so carelessly, like I didn’t mean anything.
Bradshaw looks from the headset back to my bruised throat. A decision solidifies over his features and he sits back on his haunches. I scoot out from beneath him while he’s still acting sane.
The sound of another incoming plane roars through the treetops. Bradshaw doesn’t seem to notice. He looks completely lost in that lovely head of his. I grit my teeth, wrap my hands around his wrist, and drag him up. He grunts when he puts weight on his leg. My own are starting to feel weak already and tremble as I stand straight. I duck beneath his arm and take on some of his weight.
“Are you certain Ian was the infiltrator?” Bradshaw asks between breaths as we limp through the burning forest together. The smoke is thick from the damp pines.
“You think I’d kill him if he wasn’t? I’m trying to keep you alive, Bones. Whoever he told our coordinates to, they were coming to kill you.” We step over a log and he trips. I get dragged to the ground with him but swiftly find my footing again, hauling him up beside me the best I can with my hindered wrists.
“Why Ian?” he says quieter, hurt ebbing in his tone.
Groaning pine trees snap ahead of us and crash into one another, creating a domino effect and taking out surrounding trees. They fall like titans to the ashen ground, some on fire already and others just catching.
The force of the trees uprooting makes us lose our footing and fall to the ground. A widowmaker lands over Bradshaw’s leg and he shouts out in pain. Dust and embers kick up around us like hellfire. I stare into his eyes as he does mine.
Eren’s voice rolls through the radio once more. “Thirty seconds. Get to the drop zone, now!”
Bradshaw studies me, the blood smeared on my mask and my bloodshot eyes. “Go.” His voice is stone.
My brows knit. “What?—”
“Go back without me.” I don’t move or blink as I try to process this situation. He adds, “That’s an order, Bun.”
He can see the defiance in my gaze. He knows I won’t.
“I won’t let you die here, Bradshaw. And I can’t return without you.” I dip both arms under the tree and use all my strength to pull it up. He moves out from beneath it and staggers to his feet. He lasts two seconds before falling to his knees.
“Bun, please.” The resolve has gone out of him. Desperation leaks from his pleading eyes.
“I’m sorry. I can’t follow your orders this time, Bradshaw,” I say quietly as I ignore the headset. Eren is shouting and urging Bradshaw to hurry. Another tree falls behind me and throws embers into the air at my back. They reflect in Bradshaw’s eyes as he stares at me, not angry, but sad and remorseful.
We’ll die here together, alone and stranded. We both know it.
twenty-eight
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