By some miracle, I fall asleep. When I open my eyes, it takes me a moment to get my bearings. I stare at the chest in front of me in confusion a moment. But when I try to move, and pain shoots through me, it all comes rushing back. “Are you in pain?”a low, sleep-laden voice asks. “Never mind. That was a dumb question.”
He’s so close to me, I can literally feel his words reverberate through his chest. I have no idea how I got into this position with his arms wrapped around me, and me against his chest. Needing to take charge of the situation, I explain the most obvious reasoning. “My guess is that we were cold in the night and sought each other’s body heat.”
He makes a sound in his chest that neither sounds like agreement nor disagreement. Needing to put some distance between us, I try to push against his chest. But he doesn’t budge an inch, and I just cause myself more pain. I breathe through the pain. “As soon as we get out of this mess, we’ll get your leg taken care of, okay?” His voice is soft and gentle again, and it confuses me. I don’t know how to deal with this side of him. So, I put us back in a safe place.
“Do you think we’ll be able to get out today?”
“We’re certainly going to try,” he says in response. “In the hours you were hugging my chest, I started making a plan.”
“What? I wasn’t hugging your chest!”
“It’s okay to admit, Harper. It’s a pretty fine chest, if I do say so myself.”
“You are so conceited!” I tell him, smacking said chest. But then I latch onto his words. “What plan?”
His voice turns serious. “I’m going to try to wrap your leg in a splint of sorts and see if we can’t get you out of here.”
“I’ll do it.” I’m desperate to escape this place.
“Okay. I'll try now.” He doesn’t move. “You’ll have to stophugging my chest first.”
“You are insufferable!” I do my best to roll over, away from him, even as he chuckles. It takes him a lot longer than either of us thought it would take for him to get my leg splinted. When he finally crawls back up to where I can see his face, he’s sweating.
“How does that feel?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “We’re getting out.”
“Okay. I am going to go ahead of you and try to cut a way out. If at any time I go too fast, or you get stuck, just stop me.” I nod. He moves so he can see my eyes. “I wish I would have brought food or water.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. Let’s just get out of this place.”
“Okay. I’m going to move a little bit, and you try to follow. Let’s make sure you’re not caught on anything.” He moves forward, and I turn my body to him. My leg screams in protest, but I ignore it. Honestly, the brace he made does help somewhat. At least I can move now. But when I get up on my elbows and try to move forward, I can’t. I turn my head and try to sit up but can’t. I can’t see what I’m stuck on.
“Rauk,” I call out, finally admitting defeat. It takes him a minute or two to get back to me. “I’m stuck. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Let me see what has you stuck.”
He moves to my feet first. “I don’t see anything.” He rolls my shoulders towards him. “I don’t get where you’re stuck.”
“I don’t know. Every time I try to move, I can’t move.”
“Okay. Let me try this.” His face is right next to mine, and he wraps his arm around me. “I’m going to try rolling you over, so I can see what it is that’s trapping you.” He rolls, and I heara ripping sound; but then I’m free. He meets my eyes. “Well, you’re free now.”
“Yeah, but am I wearing any clothes now?” I ask dryly.
He rolls me slightly and looks at my back. “Nope.”
“Are you serious?” I ask because that would be just my luck.
He smirks. “I mean you’re missing most of the back of your shirt, but that’s the least of our worries.” He frowns suddenly. “Your back is going to be exposed and end up getting more scratched. Here, I’ll give you mine.”
I stop him by putting a hand on his chest and then quickly dropping it. “There’s no way you’re getting your shirt off in here. I’ll be fine. I just want out of here.”
He must hear the plea in my voice because he nods. “Okay. Let’s go.” We start again. He takes the lead, and I follow. My bad leg is dead weight, but between my arms and my one good leg, I’m able to crawl. And honestly, crawling is all we can do under all this underbrush. It feels like it takes hours to move a few inches, but I force myself not to think about it. Rauk checks in with me every little bit. “How are you doing back there?”
“Fine,” I grunt as I pull myself along.
“Just think of all the good food we’re going to eat when we get out of here,” he says.
