“Hello? Is anyone else alive?” A hoarse voice called out.
“I’m here!” Patty’s voice sounded from far away.
“Oh Jesus. Patty! Come help me!”
I heard grunting and feet scraping against the floor. Cool hands touched my face.
“Oh shit! Oh fuck, fuck! Jack? Jack!” Patty was crying and yelling at me, her hands patting all over the top half of my body.
I swallowed dust and what felt like nails. “I’m—I’m alive.”
Someone else was sobbing in the distance. Then Patty sighed in relief and moved away from me. The weight from my legs lifted. A crash sounded beside me and then I was lifted, too. The movement was torture.
I was set down after a short distance and water was dumped over my face and into my mouth, hands wiping away at me. Bright light stabbed through my eyelids, and my eyes watered against the glare until a shadow blocked it. I blinked furiously to clear my eyes of tears. The General was leaning over me. His hard faceplate was cracked badly under his right eyes, yellow blood running from the wound. He pressed his forehead against mine and breathed.
“You lived,” he said, with so much relief in his voice that it wavered.
I cupped the undamaged side of his face in my palm. We stayed like this for a long moment, just breathing each other in.
I gently pulled his face from mine. “Are the others okay?” I asked.
He sat back. “The three you kept with you are alive. One is badly wounded. I think her leg is broken and she may be bleeding inside. The other two females are not seriously injured. The one called Sam has a head injury, likely a concussion. I put them only a short distance from you. The nanos will make them sleep, to heal. You have a large wound. I fear it is from my claws gripping you during the crash. I am very sorry.” His voice was rough, choked, like the guilt was making it difficult to speak.
I reached for him, and he gripped my hand tightly. “I’ll heal, I promise. I don’t have nanos, but I heal fast. See? It’s not even bleeding anymore.” I shifted to show him the already half healed tear in my side, “Don’t apologize for saving my life. I’m okay. I’m alive, and so are my friends, because of you.” I placed my other hand on top of his to sandwich it between my palms. “Thank you,” I said, my voice wobbly.
“I only saved three of your friends, Jack. The others died in the crash,” he said.
A knot in my throat tightened. I suspected they hadn’t made it. All those women. They’d been so hopeful about going home. Their nightmare was almost over. The light at the end of the tunnel was so close!
It wasn’t fair. I hadn’t even taken the time to learn their names. I’d sent them to their rooms. To stay safe. I’d said we’d figure it out. Guilt and grief settled over me like an oppressive could, the weight trying to crush me under it. The tears burning my eyes spilled over and ran down my cheeks. Once I started crying, I couldn’t stop. My side ached with each breath and I couldn’t stop. The General gently gathered me in his lap and held me while I bawled my eyes out. Patty came to sit beside us, reached for my hand and cried with me. He pulled her to his side and wrapped his other arm around her in comfort. Seeing it made me cry harder. We sat together like this for a long time, until my tears dried and my side stopped aching.
I buried my face in his chest. His armor was warm and felt just like his skin. His heartbeat was a double rhythm much slower than mine. It was soothing.
“Is At’ens your first name?” I asked, to distract myself from the guilt weighing me down.
He shifted and wrapped his arm around me more securely, careful not to knock Patty over. She was asleep against him and was still holding my hand.
“It is my family name. The name of my House. My given name is Ohem.” His chest rumbled like a sub-woofer speaker when he talked.
“Nice to meet you, Ohem,” I said, stroking his arm with my free hand. His armor felt like smooth, hot rubber molded over stone. It was weird that it wasn’t hard like metal. It emitted his body heat like a furnace, too. I was sweating in his arms from the close contact. It didn’t help that the air was hot and dry, too.
I lifted my head from his chest and looked around. We were on the bank of a lake, in a valley surrounded by red mountains on three sides. The smoldering remains of half an alien shipping container was partially buried in the sand against the red stone wall of an enormous cliff about a mile away from us.
That explained the ceiling height disparities. We’d been in a roll out container for easy loading and unloading. No need to even take us out of our cages. More efficient than I would have given the shark’s credit for, seeing as how they had been so lax on most everything else.
There was a ragged furrow torn into the ground leading away from the crash where we must have slid until finally coming to a stop. My eyes traced the smoking path of destruction beyond the mouth of the valley, across a vast desert plain. Heat waves obscured the horizon and what was left of the rest of the crash.
How had we survived?
We were leaning up against a cluster of boulders right on the water’s edge. The lake water was muddy brown and still. There were no trees or plant life at all, just rocks and sand.
It was in the shadow of one boulder that I finally noticed Callie and Sam. They were laid side by side. I carefully slid myself out of Ohem’s lap and stood. He was trapped by a sleeping Patty, but made moves to follow. I motioned with my hand for him to stay put. She needed to rest. My side had already healed, so I was fine, but who knows what kind of internal injuries Patty might have and not know it. I didn’t want her to wake up before she was ready.
I walked the few steps and got to my knees at Callie’s side to look her over. Callie’s leg was bound to a jagged piece of metal with wire. Her black clothes were torn and bloody, and her face was a mess of bruised skin. She was very pale and a black bruise on her stomach was stark against the skin visible through a big tear in her shirt. I checked her pulse and sighed in relief when I found it steady and strong, if slower than normal. She was in a coma, like Ohem said.
I moved to inspect Sam and to check her breathing and pulse, too. Sam had a shallow gash across her temple, and her short blond hair had blood in it. She might have some serious head trauma. Ohem had said they’d heal. I trusted his word, but we had no way to get them fluids other than pouring water down their throats. I looked back at Ohem. He had his arm wrapped securely over Patty’s shoulders, her head resting on his side, and he was watching me. The sight didn’t stir the possessive anger this time. Patty was only seeking comfort and I would be damned if I let the unfinished mating bond ruin that.
We would have been dead without him. He’d carried us all out of the wreck, splinted Callie’s broken leg, and held us while we cried. Any doubts or hang-ups about being mated to an alien had burned up in the crash.
