Page 16 of Tormented By Regret

I nodded. “Deal. Come on. We have to go.”

She moaned and held the side of her head.” I pressed a hand over hers, but she quickly shoved it off.

“I'll live.”

“Well, ain't that fucking fantastic.” I glared at her. My ego shot down as she'd shoved me away.

She met my gaze for a brief second before realizing there was someone lying beside her.

“Oh my God! Bandit!” She knelt down next to him.

“Don't move him!” I crouched down beside her. “He'll be fine for now. I cauterized the wound, but he lost a lot of blood, and he needs medical attention.”

Dragging her back onto her feet. I gave her Bandit’s backpack. “Let's go. We need to be back before sundown.”

“What about him?”

“That's why I need to be back before sundown. Let's go!”

“No! There could be coyotes or wolves. What if they come and eat him?”

“Jesus!”

The vision of his mangled face stared back at me, and for the life of me, I friggin’ didn't have the heart to leave him.

“What do we do?” She asked me, expecting me to know, and hell, with all my training, I had no clue.

“We could make a gurney,” she said. “I did it once when my mom hurt herself. We can use the chute, come on.

Two hours later we'd made a gurney out of the chute and whatever we could find in the middle of nowhere. We managed to roll Bandit into it without any problem.

“Do you know where we're headed?” She once again gave me that expectant look and I hated that I had no answer for her.

“No fucking clue. Just look out for road.”

I heard her deep sigh and picking up the gurney, we finally took off into the shrubbery ahead.

POWERTRAIN

“Whisper?” I turned around and she wasn't there. I didn't realize when she fell behind. My focus was on getting Bandit out of here and us back to the road. Wherever the fuck that may be.

“Whisper!” I yelled, dropping the gurney and heading back the way we came.

“Whisper, goddammit!” I called out to her, suddenly hearing a small curse behind me.

She looked disheveled as she walked out of the shrubbery. “Why are you yelling like a madman?”

I grabbed her elbow, tugging her against me. “Where the hell did you go?”

“I don't have the virtues you do and need to crouch in the woods to pee.”

“And you couldn't fucking open your mouth to tell me that?”

“At the pace you're going, I would have caught up eventually.”

“You don't just wander off…”

“I didn't! I knew exactly where you were. And you can't tell me what to do out here!”

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