Page 12 of Red Hunt

And calming down was something I needed desperately. This had turned out to be an unexpectedly long day.

I slowed as I followed the next turn when my headlights reflected on something. It was just a split second. A deer maybe? Or some other animal? I slowed down and paid close attention to the side of the road. I didn’t need an accident when all I wanted was to get home and crash for the next twenty-four hours. Now that I was so close, I could almost sense the feeling of release I’d have once I arrived home. I had yet to buy a bed, so it would be a sleeping bag on the floor, but I’ve had worse. Far worse.

At least no one was shooting at me. I came to a halt when I passed the object my lights had reflected on. It was a reflector on the wheel of a bicycle, which was barely visible above street level. Why was it here? It hadn’t been here earlier, or at least I hadn’t seen it before when I left earlier today.

I exited the car to check it out. It looked new—not rusty as if someone had thrown it away a long time ago. And then I heard the moan. I made my way to the edge of the road. To the edge of the tree line. But I couldn’t see Jack shit. I ran back to my truck, opened the passenger door, and retrieved my trusty flashlight from the glove compartment. Once back, I shone my light down the ravine and caught myself against a tree. The ground beyond the road was steeply sloping down. For a second I thought I heard another moan, but I couldn’t find anything.

“Hello, someone there?”

“Here.” A female voice. Thin and broken. And farther back than I thought, given the position of the bike.

“Are you okay?”

I methodically searched the area with my flashlight until I could see a foot poking up from near the ground. I took a couple of steps so I could fully see her. She might have fallen off her bicycle initially, but it looked like she’d slipped farther down the slope until she bumped into a young fir tree. It might’ve been big enough to break her fall initially, but it wasn’t strong enough to hold her indefinitely, and I could see her hand barely holding onto it. I wondered how long she’d been out here. And, if her weak voice was any indication, she was losing her strength.

Fast.

I looked for the best way to get down to her but immediately caught myself. It was too steep, and if the ground gave way, I might just slip down right on top of her. “Stay put. I’ll be with you in a second.”

“Hurry, I can’t hold on much longer.” Her voice sounded stronger now. Hope did that to you.

I ran back to my truck to get the rope I always carried in the back and exchanged the flashlight for a headlamp. Sometimes it really paid off to be prepared. I anchored the rope against the biggest tree at the side of the road, slung it around my torso, and slowly made my descent to her. Once I was level with her, I traversed to her side. “I’m here. Keep calm.”

All I could hear was soft crying.

First things first. I anchored my left foot against a tree stump, untied the rope, and wrapped it around her middle. Only when I had fastened the double knot did I breathe any easier.

Hell. I turned my head and directed my headlamp farther down the slope. There was a drop-off, maybe another 100 feet farther down. If she hadn’t broken her fall, she might have broken her neck falling down that cliff.

I focused back on her. Then did a double-take. Wait a minute. The girl from the hospital? I shoved that thought to the back of my mind. Not important right now. “Ma’am, you’re secured. You can let go of the tree now. Are you hurt?”

Now, on closer look, she might not be a teenager, after all. The young woman inhaled softly, but she didn’t let go of the tree.

“Are you hurt? Did you hit your head? Any dizziness, nausea, blackouts?” I asked again.

She shook her head.

“I can help get you back up. But only if you’re not hurt.”

She looked up at me, and there they were—her eyes—those hurting, desperate, ocean-blue eyes. The hospital. The girl with the cake. She looked older now in the flashlight. But that was maybe the pain etched into her features. How long had she been here?

She blinked, and that was all I needed to get me out of my stupor.

“If you’re not hurting, I can help you get up, and we’ll make the ascent together,” I said, but when I grabbed her hand, I felt her freeze.

It took a couple of seconds before she relaxed, though, and I proceeded to help her up. But when she tried to put weight on her left leg, she yelped with pain and collapsed back down. It didn’t take a genius or someone with my training to know something was wrong.

“Ma’am…” I hesitated for a second. But it felt right to call her that. Even though she was still so young, it was better than ‘girly’, that was for sure. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. No time to second-guess myself. “I’m PJ Max. I’d like to check on your leg.”

She looked at me as if I was speaking Spanish or something. And for her, I probably had. I’d fallen back into my military training, including the job title. It happened sometimes in the heat of the moment, but I didn’t give it a second thought. Better give her something to think than let her go into shock. I went down on one knee and anchored myself against the same little fir tree, which she had held onto for so long. She wasn’t even wearing proper gear, only a T-shirt and shorts that left her legs and skin vulnerable.

I touched her leg, just above the knee, and she flinched involuntarily, which caused her to moan in pain.

“Ma’am, I will not hurt you. I just have to touch your leg to assess the damage.”

She seemed to calm down, and I quickly patted down her leg. Her femur appeared fine, though below the knee there wasn’t a spot where she didn’t cringe so I couldn’t really assess the exact location, but at the very least, she had jerked her leg hard enough to have caused some damage to her joints and ligaments, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she might’ve sprained her ankle or even fractured it.

I directed my light back to her face. Those eyes. Now she didn’t look as frightened or at least had lost some of the fear in her eyes. It was a start.

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