“We followed you almost straight away. Then Wolf found us and led us here. He was quite insistent. But Noah, what happened?”
The girls dropped to the ground with him, rubbing his back and holding him close as he recounted the whole sorry tale. Frankie’s face crumpled like a paper bag as he detailed the moment a type bit Zeke before they hauled him away.
Vitt peeled back the ruins of his trousers to inspect his wound, causing him to gasp as waves of pain knocked the breath out of him. “Noah, we need to sort this leg out ASAP, like yesterday.”
He pushed her away. “Leave it. It’s not going to trouble me for much longer.”
Crack. The sound of Vitt slapping him again punctuated the quiet of the quarry.
“Snap the hell out of it before I shoot your other leg, you—”
“Vitt!” Frankie interjected, but Vitt motioned for her to be quiet.
He looked at her. Even with her arms crossed and an angry scowl etched onto her face, his heart swelled with love and pride. Spending almost every day together for five years would do that to you.
“You don’t understand, Vitt, I—”
She laughed, a high-pitched, bitter laugh that made half of him want to hug her, and half of him want to crawl back towards the precipice and finish what they’d interrupted.
“Noah. My love. I do understand. Of course I do.” Vitt’s voice became soft as she dropped down closer to him, cupping his cheek with her hand. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. The universe is a big fucking cosmic joke. If anyone didn’t deserve to lose the guy they loved twice, it’s you, my love.”
Vitt kissed his forehead. Hot tears ran down his cheeks. Why, oh why, hadn’t he told Zeke he’d loved him while there was still time?
“Did Habib tell you?” Noah croaked out.
Vitt batted him playfully on the head. “He didn’t have to. You two were about as subtle as a neon sign.”
“Umm, guys? I think we should at least bandage Noah’s leg up or something,” said Frankie, who was running her fingers through Wolf’s shaggy mane.
The throbbing in his calf had reduced significantly. In fact, his entire leg was now quite numb. He looked down, and the sight nauseated him. Thick gloops of blood and other fluids caked his swollen, bruised skin where the 9mm bullet passed through. Should he be grateful for the additional exit wound on the other side, or were the two lesions causing his pain to be doubled?
Vitt glanced up at the increasingly darkening sky. “Right. We need to get out of this soup sandwich. First, we’re going to tie up that bleeding mess. Then Frankie and I will drag you back to the others.” Her expression shifted. She bit her lip. “We haven’t spoken about the other causalities yet.”
Frankie shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe we should just get him back first?” she suggested, as if the mention of the other deaths was going to send him hurtling towards the cliff. He couldn’t blame her.
“Let me have it.”
“K is way worse off than us,” she prefaced, sounding guilty. “But we’ve lost Brodie and Luo.” She tensed and eyed him, but Noah only nodded; he knew about Luo already. The grief that already consumed him negated any effect her words might have had. “Sav isn’t doing great either. She’s been shot in the stomach.”
“Are Lowenna and Krish okay?”
“Yeah. I mean, technically yes, but obviously not. I think they’re waiting for you to come back so we can do a full sitrep and talk next steps.”
Noah shook his head. How was he supposed to think about the future right now?
“Please, Noah.” Vitt slipped his dog tags back over his neck. “Our lives are imploding. We need you.Ineed you. I can’t do this without you.”
In a tremulous voice, Frankie said, “Zeke wouldn’t have wanted you to give up.”
Noah lay back again, letting the damp seep through his clothes. The thought of taking even one step back towards that damned farmstead made him want to take a long, long nap.
They need you,he told himself.There are still people to protect.
“Fine. But there’s something I need to do first. I’ll need your help. One of you will need to go back down there and find my helmet. And how much blocker and rounds do you have on you?”
“Are yousurethis is a good idea?” Vitt asked for the millionth time. Noah rolled his eyes and bit his tongue. He’d given them both a clear choice: he was going to find and kill Zeke, with or without them. Of course, it wouldn’t be Zeke he was killing. It would be the monster he’d turned into.
They were over ninety minutes into their expedition, following Wolf’s nose as he tracked Zeke’s scent eastwards, through the thick woods. At least he’d given them a trail of blood to follow. But Noah worried that the increasingly rapid snowfall would damage their chances.Come on, Wolf, you can do it.
