Page 28 of Save Me

“No, baby, we’re not dead, and I’ve been looking for you.”

She grabbed his hand. “You’re really here? My Hunt? You found me?”

“Yes, darlin’, I found you. Easy now... I need to see what all has happened to you,” he said, and pulled a bottle of water and the first-aid kit out of his pack.

But Lainie wouldn’t let him go. She couldn’t believe he was real. This was just another awful dream, and he would disappear. In her mind, she needed to keep him talking so he would stay.

“How did you know I was lost?”

“You’re all over the news. I heard your name on TV, and I came to find you.” He was holding the bottle of water as he lifted her head. “Just a sip, darlin’.”

She took a drink and then another one before he set it aside, and pulled out a digital thermometer. The reading came back 104 degrees plus. His heart skipped. That bordered on seizure level. He dug out a bottle of Bactrim tablets, and over-the-counter fever meds, and set them beside his knee.

She couldn’t believe he was real and kept staring at him, touching his leg, reaching for his hand, staring into the face of a boy who’d become a man.

“Hunt...all those years ago... I know why you left, but where did you go?”

“To war, Lainie. I went to war.”

“In the military? You were in the military?” She shook her head, trying to make sense of what he was saying, still in fear that he was another fever hallucination as he began applying a balm to her lips.

“Army, darlin’. I mustered out months ago. Been flying helicopters for a charter service in Flagstaff ever since,” he said, then he reached for the Bactrim and pain and fever meds.

“If I help you sit up, can you swallow these? They’re for fever and infection.”

She nodded, then shuddered as he moved her to a sitting position.

“Open your mouth, Lainie,” he told her, and she did, like a baby bird waiting to be fed. He dropped in the pills, then held a bottle of water to her lips. “Just sip. Don’t want to choke you.”

She sipped and swallowed, then reached toward his face, running her fingers along a three-day growth of stubble as black as his hair.

“You know how to fly helicopters?”

“I flew Apache Longbows in Iraq for the better part of four years, then off and on elsewhere for the other six.”

Her voice shook. “You could have died, and I would never have known it.”

He cupped the side of her face. “If it hadn’t been for a news report, you could have died, and I would never have known it.”

She sighed. “Touché.” Then something snapped in the woods behind them, and she went into an all-out panic. “The bear...is it the bear?”

“The bear is gone, baby, and I have a gun. You’re safe now. I promise you are safe.”

Tears rolled as she began to tremble. “It hurts, and I’m tired, Hunt. I’m so tired of being afraid.” Then she touched him again. “Are you real? Is this happening?”

Her confusion was troubling. It could be from the fever, or the head wound, or a combination of both. “I’m as real as it gets,” he said, then he took off his jacket and eased her arms into the sleeves. “Here, put this on. You’re shaking.”

“I crawled in the creek. I thought maybe the cold water would help take down the fever.” The weight and the warmth from the jacket was like his hug, as she wrapped herself in it.

He kept thinking of what she’d done to survive, and then realized this wasn’t the first time she’d had to run to get away from a monster. He took the bandanna off her forehead and then the other sock off her foot, eyeing the wounds in dismay as he reached into his pack for disinfectant. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her more, but he had no choice. It was getting dark, and soon be too hard to see. He turned on the LED lantern.

“I need for you to lie down, honey. I’m going to clean up this head wound a little, and I don’t want it getting in your eyes.”

He made a pillow of his blanket, then eased her down on it.

Her voice was shaking, her eyes welling again with unshed tears. “If I close my eyes, do you promise you won’t disappear?”

He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her cheek, then moved the lantern above her head. “I promised you forever. This is me, Lainie. Put your hand on my knee. You’ll feel me beside you. You can talk and I’ll answer,” he said.

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