Chapter Six
M inutes passed, my eyes still screwed shut. Eventually, Aiden pressed a hand to my shoulder, guiding me back down to the floor. Once I was sure the window was no longer in my eyeline, I looked to my brother.
“He’s alive, Lessy. The other three are dead.”
A choked gasp left me at his words. Only Rainer would be able to survive something like that. Although, I knew part of the reason he was still standing was due to my brother.
Mere moments later, Rainer was at our side, taking me in from head to toe. Turning toward Aiden, he asked, “How is she?”
Even though I could barely move my body, that didn’t mean I was incoherent. “She is fine. Just a little dizzy.”
The description was an understatement. If I was being honest, my entire body was on fire. My thighs burned, the red tracks leading from the wounds darker than ever before. Chills ran up and down my spine, even though I knew my skin was hot to the touch. To put it plainly, the infection was killing me. If I didn’t get antibiotics in the next twenty-four hours, this would be the end for me.
“Let’s cut the bullshit, yeah?” Rainer said softly, softer than I had ever heard him speak, especially to me.
Leaning down toward me, his face was inches from mine, his deep gaze searing me in place. “The fever is going to kill you. The gunshots weren’t quiet, which means more people are about to be swarming the area.”
Pressing his hand against my left arm, he frowned, guiding me to my feet as my right hand pressed into the couch at my side. Once I was standing, Rainer pulled me back into his arms.
“We’re going to run until we’re out of this godforsaken town and to the cottage. And you’re going to hold on until we’re there and can get you some medicine. Got it?”
That penetrating gaze held mine until all I could do was nod. My medical knowledge told me it was impossible to make it to the cottage, given we still had almost an entire two-day trek left. And yet, it didn’t seem to matter, not when Rainer spoke. His commanding voice told me there was no other option; this was an order, not a request.
Satisfied with whatever he saw staring back at him, Rainer nodded in return, glancing out the window. “We probably have at max thirty minutes before reinforcements come. How fast can you run?”
Aiden didn’t blink under Rainer’s hard tone. “When my sister’s life is on the line, I can run as fast as I need to.”
Without further discussion, the two men made their way out of the abandoned house, breaking into a sprint the second their feet touched the asphalt. My body jostled in Rainer’s arms at the pace, the dizziness in my head intensifying.
I didn’t know how long they ran. I didn’t know if we made it out of town. The last thing I remembered was Rainer glaring down at me, so familiar and yet so different, ordering me to not close my eyes. And then everything went dark.
My head was clear when I woke. The dizziness that had tormented the hours prior had finally vanished. Something soft held my body, my head sinking into what felt like a pillow. I knew I couldn’t still be in Rainer’s embrace, his chest was much too firm, although that was the last thing I remembered.
Blinking my eyes open, the sun forced them shut. Directly overhead, the light was too bright. Groaning against the sudden pain in my head, I cursed the hope that I was starting to feel better.
“Oh my god, you’re awake,” a soft gasp sounded from beside me.
The voice was too feminine to be Rainer or Aiden, but I also recognized it. My stiff muscles relaxed and I tried blinking my eyes open once more. Red hair and a freckled face filled my view.
“Mina?” I croaked, my throat scratchy and suddenly extremely parched. “Where are we?”
I struggled to sit up, my body malnourished, and Mina gripped my elbow, helping me to a sitting position. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I took in the space around us. The sun hadn’t been too bright, in fact, I had no way of knowing if it was even out. Instead, the light that had stunned me was a small chandelier hanging from a wood-beamed ceiling.
And the comfort beneath my body was a couch, a soft quilt thrown over my legs, and a small pillow beneath my head. This had to be the cottage. There was no other explanation. But we had been still two days out. Which meant I had been unconscious much longer than I thought.
“How long have I been asleep?” I whispered, glancing around for any sign of the others.
It seemed strange to leave Mina by herself, but from what I could see, no one else was around. The living room we sat in was quaint, only the couch I laid on and an arm chair taking up the space. An old television, probably from the nineties, sat atop a small wooden table.
The only other area I could see was an even smaller kitchen. The gas stove Elizabeth had mentioned took up most of the space, a refrigerator, three cabinets, and a two-person table taking up the rest. A set of stairs laid next to the front door, a sliding door on the opposite side of the living room that I assumed led outside. However, flowered curtains blocked my view.
Finally, looking back at Mina, she chewed her bottom lip, concern in her gaze. “Mina, how long have I been asleep?” I asked again, needing to know the answer. How much had I missed? Was everyone else okay?
My brain scrambled, trying to piece together what happened while I had been out, but Mina wasn’t giving me any answers. Eventually, she sighed, standing up from the floor where she had sat.
Resting a comforting hand on my shoulder, she smiled sadly. “I’ll go grab Aiden. He’ll have more answers for you than I can give.”
Without waiting for a response, she moved toward the sliding door, pushing the curtains aside and stepping outside. As the door opened, I heard a chorus of whispering voices, but they vanished with the click of the door.
Closing my eyes, I laid back down, trying to figure out the last thing I remembered. There had been three guards. Rainer had killed them. We had ran. After that, everything became fuzzy. I had brief memories of hushed arguments over my head, a phantom of Rainer’s warm hands holding onto me. But other than that, everything was a mystery.
The door slid open once more and my eyes popped open, expecting to see Aiden, but instead Murphy’s body dashed across the space between us in two strides. His large hands cupped my face, his touch warm.
“You’re alive,” he whispered, his forehead resting against mine.
Pressing my hands against his, my eyes fluttered closed, breathing him in. These were the moments Aiden had spoken about. Even if we only had months left, I’d take as many seconds with these people as I could.
“I’m alive,” I assured Murphy as much as I was assuring myself.
Death had come for me too many times, but each time I faced its darkness, I awoke with a new determination to survive. This wasn’t the end for me, not yet.
“Let me check her vitals,” Aiden spoke from beside us. I hadn’t even heard his footsteps, too encompassed by Murphy’s presence.
Murphy nodded against my head, his lips pressing softly against mine, before he backed away. Aiden’s familiar face overtook the empty space and I saw the fear and relief in his eyes. Whatever had happened, he hadn’t been certain I was going to make it.
I could see him fighting with his brotherly instincts versus everything he had learned during medical school for taking care of a patient. The brother in him won out and before he checked any vitals or asked any questions, I was in his arms.
The hug made me feel like a little girl again, when I needed my brother to ease away my fears and pains. The thought brought tears to my eyes, knowing there was nothing he could do or say to get rid of the fear that followed me now.
Releasing his hold, he backed away slightly, wetness pricking his eyes. Swallowing roughly, the flip switched between brother and doctor. With pressed lips, he grabbed my wrist, taking my pulse.
Once he was satisfied I was no longer on death’s door, he nodded to himself, and then began asking questions. “How does your head feel? Any dizziness? Can you stand up?”
“My head feels better. I haven’t tried to stand up yet.” Pushing against the cushions beneath me, I staggered to my feet.
A rush of nausea coursed through me, causing me to wobble. Murphy immediately reached for me, but Aiden batted his hands away. He needed to see if I could stand on my own.
Once the nausea passed, I regained my balance, standing on my own. My legs trembled from my weight, my hands shook, and my head pounded. My entire body was weak, most likely caused by the lack of nutrition for however long I had been out. Which brought me back to my questions, the ones I still didn’t have answers to.
“What happened out there? I can’t remember anything after Rainer shot those guards.”
Aiden ignored my question, still in doctor mode. “How do your wounds feel?”
Now that the blanket was gone, I looked to my thighs for the first time since I had woken up. The dark red tracks were no more, the skin around the two wounds tender and pink. The stitches had been removed at some point and the excruciating pain was gone. They still ached, as I was sure they would for a while, but for the first time since they had been inflicted, I didn’t struggle.
“My legs feel fine,” I responded to Aiden, pinning him with a stubborn glare. “Now, someone needs to tell me what’s going on.”
Aiden opened his mouth to respond, but it wasn’t his voice that carried through the room.
“You were dying.” Rainer’s voice was harsh, so rough, and yet another piece of worry I carried settled, knowing he was alright. “We made a deal to get access to the medication you needed.”
“What kind of deal?” I spun toward Rainer, who leaned against the door, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.
“It was bad Lessy, we couldn’t get you to keep your eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. We couldn’t take the chance that there would be antibiotics here. We had to try to find a hospital,” Aiden said as he led me back down to the couch, sitting beside me.
I couldn’t hold in my gasp. A hospital? That meant they had been searching around town, the very place that guards would have been searching. “You could have been killed,” I whispered.
“And you were dying,” Rainer reiterated, walking closer until he was standing above me. “We’re all alive. We found a hospital and doctor over here,” he threw a thumb toward Aiden, “administered fluids and antibiotics through an IV. After that, we got the hell out of dodge.”
“And no one was in the hospital? They hadn’t raided the place for medicine?” I found that hard to believe. Based on the fact someone had stitched me up in the camp, I knew they had medical supplies.
“Not quite. A group of people were there, blockading the entrance. We made a trade,” Aiden answered for me.
“What kind of trade?” I asked, looking toward Rainer. Besides some water and food, we had nothing of value on us.
However, before Rainer even spoke, I knew what the answer was going to be. I watched him carefully, noting the way his hand twitched toward the back of his pants, where I knew he always had his gun.
“Our food and weapon for your medicine,” he said flatly.
For the first time since I had met him, Rainer looked uneasy in his own skin. It was like the gun was an extension of himself and without it, he wasn’t whole.
“It was an easy decision. You’re alive and that’s all that matters,” Murphy added, coming to sit at my other side and entwining his fingers with mine.
Rainer took one more glance at me before turning on his heel and walking back outside. “Doesn’t seem like he agrees,” I muttered.
Murphy squeezed my hand, my gaze turning to meet his. “Don’t worry about him too much. Now let’s get you some food and water.”
Murphy and Aiden both hopped up from the couch, moving toward the small kitchen. I heard the pop of cans opening and hushed whispers between the two of them, too quiet for me to overhear. The crackle of wood echoed throughout the room, the running stove heating up the small space.
No more than ten minutes later, a warm bowl of soup was in my lap, Aiden urging me to take small mouthfuls while Murphy gazed at me with a lazy smile. And as I sat between the two of them, I wondered if Murphy realized how impossible his statement was. Because no matter what I did, it was impossible to not worry about every single one of them.