Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
“This is ridiculous,” Lion grumbled. “I can walk on my own.”
“Sure you can,” Blade shot back.
If it didn't hurt so damn much, he would have rolled his eyes. But unfortunately, it did hurt enough that the simple, sullen, somewhat childish gesture would indeed have hurt too much, and the last thing he wanted was to pass out again.
What he needed was to get this concussion under control as quickly as possible.
“I’m feeling better,” he insisted. It wasn’t a complete lie, he really was feeling a little bit better, just not much. “One of you can carry Kate for a bit.”
Watching her walk, her body weaving from side to side more often than not, trying to hide her wincing as she moved her worried gaze from their daughter, cradled in Thunder’s arms, to him, propped up between Blade and Dragon, was hell.
Voodoo had said that she likely had broken ribs.
He’d had broken ribs before. They hurt like hell.
She should be resting, not hiking through an unknown forest with too many possibilities for things to go wrong.
“I don’t need to be carried,” Kate immediately piped up, and he wasn't surprised that she’d heard him.
Since Indigo had passed out and not woken up, Voodoo was carrying her.
Since Rose was still in and out, she was in Steel’s arms. Ariella was too small to walk on her own, so Thunder had her, the idea being that if things went bad, he could get her away from the danger with his enhanced speed.
That left Blade and Dragon to help him, and no one free to watch their backs, or their fronts, which meant they were sticking close, walking in a tight group.
Sure, they’d collected their weapons along with Voodoo’s first aid kit and whatever else was salvageable after the crash, but those weapons were currently in the hands of people who didn't know how to use them.
His team was all tied up carrying the injured.
Of the girls, Rose was the most trained, but she was too badly hurt to help out right now.
Which left Cassandra, Whitney, Maya, and Kate, and only Cassandra had learned how to shoot.
They were relying on their enhanced skills right now to alert them to anyone approaching.
Well, they were relying on Blade’s ability to hear, and Dragon’s to smell, because his own enhanced vision was all but useless since the concussion had it blurring in and out of focus so much it was making him nauseous.
“Almost there, just another half mile,” Thunder assured him.
Before setting off, Thunder had used his enhanced speed to head off alone into the forest in search of a safe place to hide out while they treated injuries and regrouped. He’d found an abandoned farmhouse about three miles from the crash site, and they’d packed up and headed out.
Now they were almost there, but still not close enough. Kate was lying when she said she didn't need to be carried, but she was doing what she had to do, and he was so damn proud of her.
Because there was nothing else to do but keep moving forward, that’s what they did.
They walked, and walked, for what felt like hours but probably wasn't even a single hour, before a dirt-streaked building with peeling paint and a sagging porch came into view. While it wasn't much, it may have been a palace for how glad Lion was to see it.
Behind the farmhouse were several outbuildings, which gave them options if they were attacked and needed to hide.
They would also have to contact Eagle, let him know what had happened, and decide how they were going to proceed.
Without examining the plane, it was impossible to know whether it was sabotage or a malfunction that led to them plummeting from the sky.
“There’s a generator, I’ll see if I can get it running as soon as you're all inside,” Blade said.
Thankfully, the inside turned out to have a few bits of furniture.
There was a huge table but no chairs in the kitchen dining room, and two old couches in the living room on the other side of the front door.
If there were some beds upstairs, that would be amazing, but at least the couches would get the injured off the floor.
By which he meant Indigo and Rose, as well as Ariella, because he was more than happy to have the floor.
“If there’s running water, I need everyone to clean up and do a quick self-examination. The last thing we need is infections when I have limited antibiotics, and we don’t know how long we’re going to be here,” Voodoo ordered as he carried Indigo to the kitchen table and laid her down.
The woman hadn't woken once since collapsing, and Lion knew that Voodoo was worried she was dying, bleeding out from internal injuries she hadn't realized she had because of her enhanced ability to not feel pain.
It was a definite blessing and a curse. While the benefits were obvious, the fact that serious injuries could go unnoticed without pain to make them register was a major disadvantage.
“Keep note of anything you think I need to check, and once I find out what’s going on with Indy, I’ll work my way through everyone else, starting with Rose, Lion, and Ariella,” Voodoo continued.
“Once you're clean and you know what injuries I need to assess, then we need to work on food. Our bodies have been through a major shock, and we’re all going to be running low on fuel.”
“I’ll go check the bathrooms and kitchen, see what water we have to work with,” Thunder said as he set Ariella down gently on one of the couches.
Kate immediately sat beside their daughter and wrapped her arms around the child, while Lion brushed off Blade and Dragon’s hands and dropped to the floor beside his girls.
“I’ll go with you,” Maya immediately added.
She’d been hovering close to Thunder the entire time and almost had a panic attack when he’d left earlier to search for a safe place for them.
Given it had only been not quite a month since she was rescued after thirteen years of being held captive as a sex slave, Lion couldn’t imagine how much more traumatic this must be for Maya.
“Dragon, check outside for a nearby water source in case we need it,” Steel ordered as he laid Rose on the other couch.
“Ariella and Kate, get cleaned up first, since Ariella is already at a disadvantage because of her aplastic anemia. Cassandra and Whitney, you two can start working on food, see how many MREs we have, and how we’ll need to ration them.
Voodoo, what do you need to help with Indigo? ”
Glancing over at them, Voodoo had stripped Indigo’s clothes off, exposing an already darkly bruised abdomen. “I’m going to have to operate, see what’s bleeding and hope I can stop it.”
“I can help. Well, I don’t know what I'd be doing, but I'm good at following instructions, and I pick things up quickly, so I can probably help,” Whitney rambled as she usually did when she was nervous.
“We have water,” Thunder announced, running down the stairs, Maya on his heels. “I’ll get Ariella upstairs, then help Voodoo with Indigo.”
“I’ll carry Ariella up,” Lion said firmly.
It didn’t matter how badly his head was pounding, he needed to pull his weight and take care of his girls.
Indigo could be dying, and Rose was in no shape to do anything.
Voodoo was focused on dealing with the worst-off patient first, and the others were better put to use sorting out food, and helping with Indigo.
“You can't even stand up,” Kate protested.
“I can,” he assured her, somehow managing to surge to his feet through pure determination. These were his girls, and he was going to take care of them, help Kate with their daughter, and never leave her again to shoulder the burdens alone.
“If you feel like you're going to pass out, sit down. The last thing we need is you falling and hitting your head again,” Voodoo warned just as the lights flickered on.
“We got light,” Blade called out before appearing at the front door. “Generator is running.”
“There’s a fireplace, I’ll get us a fire going for heat,” Dragon said.
“I’ll sort out food,” Cassandra said, already opening the packs and rifling through them.
“I’ll help,” Maya said, reaching for the other pack.
“Blade and I will help, Voodoo,” Thunder said as the two men stepped up to join Whitney around the table where Indigo’s pale form was lying.
As Lion reached for Ariella, scooping his daughter into his arms, his anxiety eased when the little girl wrapped her thin arms around his neck, her hands clutching the battered teddy bear that had thankfully also survived the crash.
Kate wrapped a steadying arm around his waist. She was really too small to keep him upright if he fell, but he loved that she wanted to be there for him.
Loved that his entire team had rallied together and were working together to protect and care for each other.
They were a family, and it was a miracle that they’d all survived that crash.
But as he made his way slowly up the stairs, he knew they were by no means out of the woods.
Not only was Indigo’s life hanging in the balance, but until they knew if their home really had been compromised, and the plane sabotaged, they couldn’t know if they were just sitting ducks waiting to be attacked.
March 17th
7:57 P.M.
So many things could have gone wrong today. Kate knew she’d never get out of her mind the terror she’d felt when Thunder told them the plane was going down. It stole her breath, constricting her chest and filling it with more pain than broken ribs ever could.
Although broken ribs certainly sucked.