For A Few Corpses More - Pt. 16

            She broke out into a full run. Her boots carried her quickly over the torn grass and disturbed dried up ground. Nyx almost tripped but she didn’t allow it, running quickly to the sound that she knew she had heard. He was behind a dip in the ground, on his side.

            “Pierce, Pierce talk to me,” she shouted.

            His only response was a groan that almost sounded like crying. She saw why, he had landed on his leg pretty bad, there was a lot of blood and a small piece of bone that had ripped out through his pants. The leg was folded behind him with his foot pointed the wrong direction.

            “Oh no,” she muttered.

            Her hands worked quickly to open up the emergency pack. She wasn’t even sure where to begin but tried to calm herself. She could smell the blood, it bothered her stomach. She knelt down though and looked up at him.

            “Pierce,” she said softly. “Can you hear me?”

            There was a moment’s pause. Her concern grew.

            “I’m not dead yet…”

            She sighed slightly. “Thank the heavens for small miracles, I guess.”

            Dine came up jogging behind her. He stopped and looked over Pierce. He was concerned to but for a different reason. Dine took a knee next to his soldier and put a hand on Pierce’s shoulder.

            “I thought we had lost you.”

            “You thought that,” Pierce said in a sarcastic low tone. “I got to go skydiving for free. This,” he paused with a series of coughs. “This is the second time I’ve almost died just today.”

            Dine nodded. He took the emergency kit from Nyx who really did look like she was a deer in headlights. Her basic first aid skills were outmatched. Luckily, Dine was trained a bit more in battlefield triage. He arranged everything and then pulled out his knife, cutting the cloth away from Pierce’s leg. One deep breath later he was letting his hands act off of his training. He had done this before.

            “How bad is it,” Nyx asked as he worked as he worked.

            “It isn’t great.”

            She watched hesitantly. Dine turned and with red soaked fingertips he tossed her a thing of gauss.

            “You’re making me nervous. Take the disinfectant and go check on Bronson.”

            Nyx hesitated but didn’t argue. She picked up a few of the supplies and turned to head back to Bronson who had been waiting patiently, taking in his own damage. She could see him in the distance after she had taken a few steps. Something stopped her dead in her tracks though. Looking back over her shoulder, she felt a pain in her side. Something was bothering her about leaving Pierce there. Or was it leaving Pierce alone with Dine? What if he saw him as too much of a hindrance now? No, he wouldn’t be taking the time to patch him up if that were true. He’d have said that was a waste. She forced herself to move on. She went to Bronson and brought him the supplies.

            “He alive?”

            She nodded. “His leg is really messed up, bad. He won’t be able to walk I don’t think.”

            Nyx was padding some of the gauss with the disinfectant. She didn’t know where to start, there were so many cuts. Bronson had already removed much of the glass from his arm. She began there.

            “I can do that. You should be there helping him with,” there was a scream that interrupted. It was from Pierce, “resetting his leg. I think that just happened though.”

            Nyx looked back in that direction trying to hide the concern on her face from Bronson.

            “I still don’t like him,” Bronson reminded her. He stood from his seated position on the rock and lifted his shirt up over his head with a slight wince. He was analyzing the wound on his side. “It’s not deep.”

            There was another, weaker scream. Nyx looked at Bronson and shook her head.

            Bronson took a moment and re-tied his hair back into a proper ponytail where it was out of the way. He looked over at her.

            “Go back and check on him if you want. I’ll finish this up and then I’m going to find my hat.”

            “Of course you are,” she said. She stepped forward, picking up her pistol and machete, placing them back on her belt. “He said I was making him nervous.”

            “You have that effect on men, just go.”

            Nyx sighed at him and walked back over, feeling more confident for some reason, better about the whole situation. Bronson could have his opinions but she was starting to warm up to Pierce. Her thoughts were interrupted though when she noticed them talking. Dine and Pierce were whispering back and forth to each other in very hushed tones. They stopped when Dine noticed her. The captain waved her over.

“I set his leg. I need wood for a splint though.”

Nyx didn’t waste time responding. There was no lack debris around, which included several long 2x4 and wooden siding pieces that had been broken and thrown about. She wanted to find two good pieces though. She searched. Captain Dine was still looking over Pierce’s leg where the bone was broken and showing. The scream when he set Pierce’s leg ringing back through his mind. This wasn’t the worse break Dine had seen but, as Pierce lay there with his eyes closed biting his lip as he dealt with the pain the captain began to consider how much mobility Pierce could have.

            After their private conversation, away from Nyx and Bronson’s prying ears, it was pointed out how painfully low on weapons they were. Bronson still had his rifle and his .45 revolver. Nyx and Pierce also still both had their 9mm pistols, but all of the other weapons had been lost in some way or another. They were at the last leg of their journey, but things had just gotten harder. Dine pulled out the metal case, feeling the pain in his stomach, his nerves getting to him. He popped one of the purple pills and swallowed hard before putting a hand back on Pierce’s shoulder. A shadow fell over him.

            “I’ve seen worse,” Bronson said to Dine as he dusted off his black hat.

            Dine narrowed his eyes as Bronson replaced the large thin-rimmed hat on his head, adjusting it. He hated that hat, the hat made him hate Bronson more.

            “Yeah, so have I.” Dine looked back down at Pierce who was mumbling something that he couldn’t make out. He was afraid without more medical assistance that he might have gone into shock. He had given him the pain meds that were in the emergency kit, and then taken a few himself. Dine had also given him some antibiotics to fight any infections but he wasn’t sure how to make sure Pierce didn’t go into shock on them. That could be a problem.

            “What’s your plan now, especially with Pierce like this?”

            Dine heard Bronson’s question but he didn’t respond for several moments. Bronson couldn’t see the expression in his eyes. He stood after he took a moment to compose himself and faced Bronson.

            “You think I’m going to leave him.”

            “I think you want to,” Bronson admitted, “and I’m sure you wouldn’t be the only one to think that way. We’re all banged up, I’m evidence of that. We are low on weapons and we haven’t had the right gear since the start of this mission.” Looking around them, “and if my math is right we’re approaching zero hour and just lost our transportation with little-to-no chance of getting that lucky of finding a working vehicle with gasoline in it again anytime soon.”

            “I’m well aware,” Dine napped. “Do you have a point here?”

            “Orders, maybe a little motivation,” Bronson said plainly, looking back at Dine. “We’re hurt and down but we aren’t out. I don’t think even you could have predicted a giant Nanite-slug-thing, but we’ve gotta keep going and figure out how we’re going to get Pierce there, if you are still going to get Pierce there.”

            Looking back over his shoulder at Pierce, lying there on the ground with his broken leg, Dine couldn’t help but consider his options again. There was something at play that Bronson didn’t figure into his equation though.

            “We aren’t leaving him behind,” Dine stated. “We move him as fast as we can. We make Tower move the LZ closer to Fairchild.”

            Bronson nodded, slightly surprised at Dine’s response. Both men probably had something else to add to the conversation but they turned, hearing heavy padding of feet coming towards them. Nyx was running at them, three pieces of wood under her arm. She was smiling broadly.

            “Guys, come look! Hey,” Nyx screamed, getting there attention. She wouldn’t have usually yelled out in the open like that, she knew better than to attract ghouls in that way, not that there were any around with the Nanites so close. She was excited though. “I found something!”

            Dine checked on Pierce and placed the wood Nyx brought back near-by so that they could finish the splint. Bronson and Dine followed Nyx back to where she had come from, over several small upturned dirt mounds and past numerous destroyed houses, picked clean by the Nanites. Bronson was cautious, they could have been anywhere, but Nyx seemed to think this was well worth it.

            When they reached a clearing that had been stripped of grass and overturned by either winds there were large planks of wood piled up in various spots. She ran over to one of the bigger piles and yanked off two small slabs of wood and pointed out it with a Cheshire grin, like a proud childe who had just found the answer to everyone’s great question.

            “Look,” she said, still pointing diligently at something still half covered by planks of old dry wood.

            The two got closer. A semi-demolished stone structure with two half-exposed metal pipes running from it to what used to be the foundation of a house or trailer had almost been completely hidden away, a well. They looked down into the long shaft and something barely glistened at the bottom, water.

“Well shit,” Dine muttered.

            He and Bronson began removing the rest of the debris that covered the well while Nyx followed the line of pipes. Dine and Bronson were discussing how to safely get down into the well. They had no rope and didn’t want to risk climbing, but they needed a way to extract the water and get it into their containers to purify.

            “I think I can make it down there,” Dine said.

            “Yeah, and if you fall and we have to deal with two people with broken legs, I’m not carrying you.”

            “No, listen,” Dine insisted. “We need this water and we don’t have time to-“

            His sentence was cut off by the sound of running water plopping down against the ground. They had both spun around, looking for the sound. Nyx was leaning against a half destroyed wall with an old outdoor faucet on the side of the house spurting out water that had started off as a sickly brown but now poured clear liquid near her feet. She was smirking.

            The trio began to work quickly bottling as much of the water as they could in the bottles that were left. They never found Pierce’s pack, but thankfully each of the other packs had at least two containers that could be used for this purpose. Pierce’s leg was fitted with a make-shift splint and it was decided that making a carrier would be best for the next section of their journey. Bronson and Nyx constructed a stretcher from an old hammock and two even wooden poles they found in one of the piles of junk. Dine wasn’t keen on making camp anywhere near the Nanite location, even if it did mean there was no threat of ghouls. The group eventually agreed on a location about ten miles from where they had found the well. Bronson and Dine carried Pierce on the stretcher while Nyx ran point with Bronson’s rifle. She was rather surprised when he offered it to her, it was the first time in all of the occasions they had gone out hunting that he had been willing to part with it of his own free will.

            The sun would be setting soon and they had found their way to a truck-stop area near the main road. It would do for their needs. Pierce had been resting off-and-on as they traveled, not saying much. He looked paler and even though they dared not drink the water yet, he had stopped complaining about not having any. After the camp had been set up the first order of business was to boil the water and make sure it was pure enough to drink. Had their equipment not been lost, there was a simple pellet that they could have used to purify it all at once, but for now they would have to do it all the old fashioned way.

            Soon though, there was plenty of drinkable water to get them through the rest of their journey. Bronson ran a perimeter while Nyx tried desperately to figure out how one last MRE ration was going to feed four people. She was discussing her faulty proposed methods with Dine while he changed Pierce’s bandages and reset his splint.

            They almost didn’t hear Bronson’s quiet footsteps as they were talking. Looking up, Nyx saw he was carrying something other than his rifle. He was holding a large brown hare by its ears. She was so excited to see the food in his hand that the giant cut across the rabbit’s throat almost didn’t phase her, almost.

            “Found this little guy hiding out near a dried up pond not too far away.”

            “He clean,” Dine asked, but he couldn’t hide that he was quite pleased with the idea of actual meat for dinner as well. “I don’t want to become like those Zhegan-fucks, all messed up in the head.”

            “He’s clean,” Bronson said, but he couldn’t help consider how choice Dine’s words were, speaking of messed up in the head. “No bite marks; he was acting fine.”

            Pierce coughed.

            It wasn’t long before Bronson had finished cooking the rabbit he had killed earlier over the small fire. Bronson ate first, testing it, he gave his seal of approval. Nyx and Dine dug in furiously, hunger causing so much pain in their stomachs that the pain had seemed normal. It was the best they had ever tasted, not hard to do when most of the Elysium City food was altered in some way.

            Nyx forced herself to stop eating hers and take Pierce some.

            “Pierce, here eat this.”

            She offered him the meat first and then water that had cooled. Pierce took the meat in a shaky hand and bit more off with each bite. She had to try and slow him down. He only stopped when his mouth was full before washing it all down with huge gulps of water. She thought she saw a smile cracking in between huge bites. He devoured it.

            “Oh man,” Pierce sighed pleasantly. “That was amazing. I knew we brought you for a reason. You’re an amazing cook.”

            Bronson was stifling a laugh before Nyx could even finish sighing. Pierce looked over with a raised eyebrow.

            “Bronson caught and cooked it,” Nyx corrected.

            “She’s a horrible cook,” Bronson added with a half smirk as he finished picking at the meat.

            Nyx looked for something to throw at him and clenched her teeth.

            “I don’t get a lot of chances to try and- You know what, screw you all.” She stood. Bronson and Pierce shared another chuckle.

            The moon was up in full, the night was bright and the winds were beginning to pick up even though they had been calm most of the day. They stuck with the system that worked last time, sleep rotations. There would simply be three sentries to divide the time up between instead of four, like the last two times. They were all pretty worn out. Tomorrow would be day five that the group had been planet-side, with little to show for it so far. Each of them knew that time was a factor now. Dine recommended six hours of rest witch each person doing a two hour shift. Nyx volunteered to take the middle shift, trying to be nice. No one argued, they were ready to rest.

            She found herself looking up at the full moon from her sitting position against the tree. Her arms were underneath her shirts, trying to stay warm. Her fingers wrapped around the golden cross on the silver chain that she pushed up through the collars of her shirts to look at. Nyx was thinking about her mother, and Mai. She was remembering the last time she saw her mother, her face was almost glowing. A happier memory crept in. There was a time when Mai would Nyx and her mother over for ceremonial tea. Nyx would serve them both with a large smile on her face and they would listen to her stories about exploring Elysium City and watching the asteroids through the bay windows.

            She smiled there underneath the eye of the moon, the memory having warmed her slightly. Feeling the cool metal of the pistol against her leg and the machete on the other side seemed to pull her away from that though. Nyx wondered if her mother would recognize her now—her stripper-ghoul-hunter-daughter. She had cut off most of her hair and turned her body into a canvas, a sort of dedication for her mother and her shared beliefs. There was so much she wanted to change, afraid her dead mother would see her some day. She couldn’t help but think about what Bronson had said though, her particular set of skills had helped keep the incident back at the Zhegan camp less bloody, until Dine decided to execute Griffin that was.

            Her train of thought was interrupted by a series of coughs. Her head turned towards Pierce before pushing herself up off the tree. There was a pain in her hip and a slight pinch in her neck, probably from the accident earlier that day.

            Nyx stumbled over to him, taking a moment to balancing herself. She looked over Pierce as her eyes readjusted. The fire had died down from the wind and Pierce had rolled over slightly in his cough. She was worried about his leg and kneeled to try and steady him before he did any damage.

            “Pierce,” she whispered. “Pierce, don’t roll over too much, what’s wrong?”

            She went to put a hand on his shoulder, yanking it back when he threw up. The smell hit her hard and she stood back up.

            “I’ll get you some water,” she said before covering her mouth.

            Nyx went to grab his bottle of water. The container felt cooler, now that it had sat in the cool wind. She checked to make sure there was still enough in it before heading back over to him. Pierce was done throwing up, still hacking slightly in the aftereffects though.

            “Here you go,” she said softly, hoping his sickly noises hadn’t awoken the others. “Drink, slowly.”

            Pierce did, but only a small bit.

            “I’m fine,” Pierce told her. “I’m good, just…I swallowed wrong.”

            “You sure?”

            “Yeah,” he rolled over after his quick response.

            He made a grunting sound. She watched him for a moment, concerned, thinking she should move him away from his vomit. Pierce already looked like he was back asleep. Debating for a moment on whether or not to wake him, she decided against it, wanting him to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a rough day. Nyx stood, heading back to her tree. She had lost track of time. Clicking the black box on her belt, the communicator lit up and one of the multi-colored buttons revealed the time, almost time for Bronson to wake up. She was preoccupied in thought again and didn’t see Pierce trying so hard not to scratch his arm.

            They were all up before the sun. Bronson and Dine had rounded up the gear while Nyx checked on Pierce. There was some discussion about the best way to carry the stretcher, wanting to make good time. Bronson covered up their tracks, getting rid of as much evidence that they had been there as he could. They were ready to go, finally. With no computer to guide them, Dine had to take a moment to try and lead them from memory.

            “It’s this way,” Nyx pointed.

            “How do you,” Dine spun around, one hands on the stretcher to help carry Pierce. He paused when he realized Nyx was pointing to a leaning road sign. “Spokane 15m”.

            “And you were worried about the computer,” Bronson added as he urged him on.

            Fifteen miles wasn’t too much, they could do it. It would take longer with two of them carrying Pierce, but there was no way he was going to be able to put any sort of pressure on that sort of compound fracture. They would switch off and try to take several breaks, letting them all rest. The sun wasn’t helping matters much either, it was coming down hard today. They were all covered up as much as they could be. Sweat poured from each of them and Pierce had fallen quiet on the last leg of their journey.

            It was around the five mile mark that they decided to take their last break, under the shade of an old motel building. Most of the glass of the structure had been broken out and there were burn marks along the walls where someone had tried to burn the structure down, or perhaps defend themselves with fire.

            Bronson and Nyx found two ghouls inside that seemed to have been barred in from the outside. With so few bullets left, they both used their machetes. While they were inside doing what they were skilled at, Dine was conferring with Pierce on the outside.

            “Are you up for this?”

            “I,” Pierce hesitated, he looked weak. “I am, I just…man I don’t feel well at all.”

            “We’ll get you home soon. Your leg will heal fine. I need you ready though, you still have two good arms.”

            “Yeah but,” Pierce paused, tempted to tell him about the bite. He wasn’t feeling well at all, maybe they needed to know, just in case.

            “They’re about to be done in there. Say what you have to say now, Pierce.”

            “No,” Pierce decided, “I’m good. I won’t let you down, Captain.”

            Dine nodded to him. He gave him a pat on the shoulder, Pierce winced.