Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 61

Bang!

Shots Fired.

Wednesday, September 11th, early afternoon

I’d managed to fashion a couple of tools out of tree branches, whittling the shorter one into a crude point that I could wedge between the pieces of the metal frame pinning Astrid’s leg into place. Unfortunately, the third strike left her screeching so loudly that I was concerned she would attract unwanted attention. Why couldn’t our reserves include painkillers as well as antibiotics? Unable to continue trying to free her without sending her into worlds of pain, I gave up a nearly two-hour project.

I ground my teeth and swung the branch I intended to use as leverage as hard as possible against the side of the helicopter's remains. It shattered, leaving me with a splintered end of thick wood. I tossed it aside and bellowed my disgust before circling the chopper to plop down on my usual spot near Astrid.

She stared at me with wide eyes and dilated pupils. Her modest chest rose and fell with the rapidity of a hurt rabbit.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay,” she breathed. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t bear the pain anymore.”

“It only hurts when I try to free you?”

Astrid shook her head. “It hurts all the time. It’s just normally a dull pain.”

“Is it bad?”

“It’s… bearable.”

“Jesus. I’m sorry,” I said, resting my arms on my knees and laying my forehead on them.

“It’s not your fault. This is Tanaka’s,” Astrid said.

“Fuck! I don’t want to leave you here!”

Chloe had risen, had a bite to eat, and prepped to leave before waking me up to tell me she was leaving. Feeling guilty that I’d slept through her time at the camp, I scrambled to get dressed as she went over the plan. She would spend the day keeping an eye on the cabin, watching for patterns of behavior, weak points, and opportunities to pick off any stragglers. She would signal me when she wanted me to come to her, giving me the bearing to use on the compass to get to the cabin and telling me to give Astrid one of the pistols before leaving so she had a way to defend herself.

She had been cold again, treating everything like it was just another day as my bodyguard and nothing else. Like last night, I tried to keep a certain level of understanding. She was anxious about taking the cabin. She was probably still raw from watching someone killed who didn’t deserve to die. On top of that, she was probably still struggling with having crossed emotional and physical lines with me. I really did get it.

However, understanding it and not letting it bother me were two completely different things.

And that’s why I was so reluctant to simply leave Astrid. Regardless of our differences, she’d been something of an emotional anchor for me the past two days in a way that I hoped I’d been some kind of emotional anchor to Chloe. We had talked for countless hours, and there was no point in denying that there was an attraction between us. My feelings about Astrid were complex and layered. I would have hated for something to happen to her while we took the cabin, leaving me with unanswered questions.

“I’m touched by your concern, but I can take care of myself, Marcus,” Astrid said softly.

“I’m sure you can, Astrid, but it’d be a hell of a lot better if I could just take you with me.”

“How are we going to get there?” Astrid asked. “I can’t walk like this. Are you going to carry me on your back?”

“That was the plan.”

Astrid shook her head. “I’d slow you down too much, and Chloe would likely want you there at a certain time. I promise you… I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” I sighed, and reached into one of the pouches of the parachute harness I had with me to pull out a small packet. Fishing out one of the antibiotics, I noted how many we had left—two. She had enough for tomorrow and Friday… after that, hopefully her body would be enough to fight off any infection.

Grabbing some water, I stood up, moved over to her, and crouched over her head like I’d done so many times. She took the pill from me with a grateful smile and popped it in her mouth. Then she sipped the water bottle to wash the pill down.

“You know,” I said, “I’m going to miss these long talks of ours after we get out of here.”

Astrid removed the mouth of the bottle and sighed in enjoyment. “It’s a shame it took something like this for us to slow down enough to get to know each other a little better.”

“Yeah,” I said, noticing how she ran the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip to collect errant wetness. “I’ve actually enjoyed your company more than I thought I would.”

“Why did you think I would be bad company?” Astrid said, arching an eyebrow at me. She tilted her head up, her lips parted ever so slightly so that I saw a hint of teeth and tongue. Her big, liquid blue-green eyes stared up at me.

“We got a long well enough,” I said. It was my turn to lick my lips, finding them suddenly a little too dry. “You voted against me in the board room, and then the whole thing with Bobbi…”

One corner of Astrid’s mouth quirked as she looked at me chidingly. “You can’t possibly hold me responsible for my vote, Marcus. I didn’t know you, and Maddox seemed like a more suitable choice. As for Bobbi…”

The admonition in her gaze faded, and she looked a little guilty. “I’m sorry I took things farther than you and she were comfortable with. I thought your relationship was a little more… intense than it was.”

Her eyes traveled down to my lips, and she said, “I’m not used to having people push back the way you did. I would like—”

I lowered my lips to hers and cut off whatever else she was going to say as we kissed. The moment our mouths touched, her tongue lapped against my top lip, and I immediately opened my mouth to accept it. Ours met as she invaded me, and began softly caressing as our lips ran over each other.

I cupped her head in my hands as the kiss began to deepen. What started as teasing caresses became hunger and need. Astrid was trapped in wreckage that left her unable to move. She’d spent long hours at a time in complete isolation while Chloe and I had bonded. She was about to be abandoned as I joined Chloe to take the cabin. Meanwhile, I’d grown closer to the woman I’d been longing for, only to have her pull away and become increasingly distant over the last twenty-four hours.

We both had something missing… something that we could give each other to help make the last few hours pass more bearably.