Chapter 6 #2
“I’m coming, sweetheart,” he called, in case she was conscious. “Don’t move, okay?”
There was no response which didn’t surprise him.
Even if she escaped serious injury she’d had the breath knocked out of her for sure.
With caution he climbed the last few feet until he was level with her.
She was lying in a nest of interwoven, smaller branches and the zipline lay across her body, entangled in the trees.
“Helaine?”
She moaned and moved slightly.
“Try to stay still right now, ok? You did a good job finding a soft landing spot. Let me get you free of the damn line and then we’ll see what’s what.
” He inched out along the biggest branch until the point where the intertwined branches she lay in dipped alarmingly and then he backed off.
He was able to reach out and get the line off, tossing it to the side, where it plummeted the rest of the way with a thump, disturbing a few furry arboreal creatures who chittered and scolded.
Latham set his first aid pack on the branch beside him and pulled out his multisensor.
It was a top of the line military model he’d bought on the black market after getting out of the service and would be able to tell him if Helaine had internal injuries.
Fortunately the readouts stayed in the green as he scanned from a few inches above her body, taking note of the damage he could see.
She had cuts and bruises and an obviously broken leg.
“Will I live?” she asked in a faint voice with an attempt at a smile that brought unwanted tears to his eyes, which he savagely blinked away.
“Won’t lie, you’re gonna have spectacular bruises for a week or so but the sensor reports nothing damaged internally. How’s your head?”
“I have a headache,” she said, unsurprisingly, raising one hand to her forehead. “But it’s lost in the general aches and pains all over. My—my leg is the worst.”
“It’s broken and once I get you down from your airy perch here I’m gonna have to set it, which will hurt, I can’t lie. Did you black out at all?”
“Maybe briefly, after I hit the tree here but my helmet protected me pretty much.”
“All right, good. Try not to tense up too much while I get you free and to the ground. We can take the helmet off once we’re safely out of the tree.”
“Special snowflake,” she said. “I am one after all.”
He remembered their conversation prior to her first zipline experience and wished he’d never made the flippant remark. “You’re special to me in all the ways, sweetheart, and I’ll never try to minimize your fears and concerns in the future, no matter how high the odds.”
“Damn straight.” Her voice was a weak echo of her usual strength but she stuck her tongue out at him, which made him chuckle despite the dire situation. He was glad Helaine had managed to retain her good spirits despite what she’d suffered.
Extricating her from the branches was a nightmare.
Latham didn’t want her aggravating her broken leg and he didn’t want her to fall through the informal web of branches.
By the time they were done and he had her on his back for the descent, she’d blacked out once from pain, screamed more than once and was crying as she clung to him, which tore at his heart but it was best to get her where he could treat her properly so he grimly kept going.
Helaine didn’t complain or criticize him or make any recriminations about the decision to risk the zipline which in all honesty he felt she certainly could have.
She clung to him with all the strength she had remaining until he was on the ground and could lay her on a bank of mossy green flowers.
He was able to do a more thorough check and scan and confirmed his initial finding.
He had black market painkillers in the med kit as well and gave Helaine an inject before he set her leg and splinted it.
She passed out during the procedure which was just as well.
The spot they were in wasn’t the best place to camp but he didn’t want to move her if he didn’t have to, so he set about constructing a shelter from fallen branches and making her as comfortable as he could.
He cleaned her cuts and daubed antibiotic on them, sealing the worst up with medical glue.
By the time he had a fire blazing she was stirring on the edge of consciousness and he brought her a nutrient drink.
“Can’t let yourself get dehydrated,” he said as he handed it to her.
“Thank you for coming after me,” she said as she sat up with his help and leaned her back against the tree trunk.
“Of course.” He gave her a gentle kiss. “I thought my heart would never start beating again after I saw you fall. Good job getting the antigrav operational.”
“It took me too long to remember.” She rested her head against the tree.
She was pale and shaky and he was concerned about her having to endure a night out here in the wild.
She needed a proper bed and medical treatment.
“I couldn’t maneuver though, not with the zipline tangling on me. What happened anyway? Why did it fall?”
“The cliff edge crumbled and took the tower down with it,” he said.
The scene was engraved on his memory and he’d remember the horror of Helaine falling as long as he lived.
“This is all my fault. I don’t know how you can forgive me for screwing up so badly.
If anyone was going to fall, it should have been me. ”
With difficulty Helaine reached for him and he took her into his arms.
“Don’t blame yourself,” she said firmly. “We discussed using the zipline and I agreed it was a good idea. I don’t know if I could have climbed down the cliff wall and then climbed up the other side. And the river is impassable. We could have been wandering around here in the gorge for days.”
“We’re only out here in this damn wilderness because I was anxious about staying at the main resort,” he said. “I should have been able to suck it up and let you enjoy the civilized amenities, not drag you into doing all these things you wouldn’t do ordinarily.”
Helaine stared at him. “I don’t regret making this trip. And I’m not going to listen to you beat yourself up. We’re a team, we made the decisions jointly. If we hadn’t come to Corleon Cove we might not have discovered how good we are together. And Latham?”
“Yes?”
“I’m proud of myself for pushing my boundaries and trying new things so far out of my comfort zone. I learned a lot about myself this week and I like the fact I know my true limits. And I love you.”
She sept fitfully through the night. The slightest movement woke her up and when she wasn’t awake, her dreams were obviously bad ones of falling, judging by how she would startle, or of the tsunami.
Latham held her, made sure she was well wrapped in the survival blanket and kept the fire burning brightly.
He slept as a soldier does, not deeply and ready for instant action if required.
Because there were eyes watching them and keen minds assessing the risks of attacking.
He’d been aware of them since the late afternoon.
It was a pack of canine mammals and from the glimpses he’d caught, there were six or eight individuals.
He guessed they ordinarily lived by catching the deerlike animals who ran in herds in the gorge.
The predators could scent the fact Helaine was injured and wounded prey was far easier to take down than a deer running for its life.
The fire was keeping them at bay for now and Latham knew they were assessing how much risk there was in attacking him.
He was obviously big and tough but as an ordinary man even he would have a problem fending off a whole pack, especially since some of the animals would be going after Helaine.
As the famptror he’d decimate them. To save his mate? Latham would wreak utter havoc. These predators had never seen anything like what he could become. He wondered if the hunters could scent what he kept hidden in his DNA because the pack didn’t prowl too close.
Helaine woke in the early morning, judging from the dim sunlight filtering through the trees.
Her leg hurt and she felt a tiny bit feverish.
The rest of her cuts and bruises had settled into a constant state of pain and stiffness and her head pounded.
Latham was at her side immediately, holding out a survival ration and a nutrient drink packet.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as she took the items without enthusiasm and forced herself to drink.
“Not very spry to tell you the truth. Does your magical backpack have any headclear? I can hardly think for this headache.” She eyed the survival ration and couldn’t make herself open it. Her stomach was unsettled. “I don’t think I can eat this. Or at least not right now.”
“You didn’t sleep well, not surprisingly.” He got out the requested inject and also his sensor, which he ran over her, lingering a long time on her splinted leg. Helaine didn’t want to know what the verdict was. She guessed she was developing an infection.
“I have generic antibiotics,” he said casually as if trying not to alarm her and she knew she was right. “You shouldn’t take them on an empty stomach though.”
“I’ll force it down.” She held out her hand and he placed the pill on her palm. Her stomach rebelled but she managed to eat a few bites of the ration bar after she took the pill. “What’s the plan for today?”
“Get ourselves to the cliff wall and see how hard it’ll be to ascend. I’ll carry you,” he added before she could protest. Helaine understood they couldn’t simply remain where they were, but she had no energy to stir from the spot and no ability to walk.
Something rustled in the bushes and she grabbed Latham’s elbow. “Did you hear that?”
He took a rock from the edge of the fire ring and heaved it in the direction of the sound, putting a lot of power into the throw. There was yelp of pain and the foliage shook again.
“What the seven hells is out there?” she demanded.