Better Off Dead

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"What the-Who the hell are you?"

“Eh. Uh. Brian. My name is Brian.”

She looked up at me with confused eyes. I’m sure she was confused. I mean she was in a coma. Then she wakes up to a half naked male in front of her. I’m sure if she was healthier she’d be freaking out.

She tried to move and I rushed over, “Don’t move.”

I could see in her eyes that her mind was trying to process all of this mess. I could see her hands try to push off the ground. I wrapped an arm under her and I could feel her breath dance across my face as I leaned to lift her into a sitting position. I leaned her against the wall in the cave and pulled away. I made sure her legs where straight and not breaking the brace I made.

“You need to be careful. Your leg is broken.”

I could smell the fear on her. She was looking around and looking for something. I wanted to distract her from everything to make sure she was ok. I wanted to know how she was feeling for some reason I couldn’t speak. I physically was having trouble.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

“Slow down now. What is your name?”

She shook her head, “Emerlyn, Emerlyn Jones. That doesn’t matter. Where’s Braxton? Oh god I hurt so much.”

Who the hell was Braxton? Then my thoughts reminded me of the boy in car that died with her.

Her voice interrupted my thoughts, “Why are you half naked?”

“Uh. Well.” I couldn’t think, “I was camping. The storm ruined everything I had. So I found shelter here. These were the only things dry. I can put on a shirt if it bugs you that much. What hurts? I have some pain medications I think.”

I started over towards the first aid pack when she started to speak again, “How did I end up here? I mean, I remember the crash and then-”

I dug through the first aide kit and found a small bottle of ether and some ibuprofen. I checked the date on the medication and walked back over to her, “Yes, I heard the crash. It was near my camp site. I saw you and took you here out of the rain. Then I cleaned you up.”

I paused and say her eyes go wide, “You touched me!?”

I sounded rather defensive and frantic, “No! I just cleaned off the blood and made a brace. I swear nothing else. I’m not like that.”

I knew she wasn’t going to believe me. But I was going to hope anyways. I placed the bottle of ether in my pocket. I kept it there so if she gets hysterical then I could knock her out with the ether.

I got her a small bowl of water from my supply. I had a bucket that I got from an abandon car. There is a near by river that I get water from. I walked to her and she took the cup from me with shaky hands and I managed to get the pills out of the bottle.

I placed the pills in her mouth and she sipped some water. I took the water from her and placed it near her with the pills.

“I was with a guy. He’s name is Braxton. Did you see him there?”

As she spoke I was contemplating going to our medic. We had one in each pack. It was our doctor in a sense. Always made sure we were healthy. I’m sure he could help. He was a good guy. I could always count on him.

“I am sorry to tell you this but your friend didn’t make it. You were on the ground outside of the car and I checked on him. He wasn’t alive. There wasn’t anything I could do.”

She started to break down, “What?! No! This can’t be true. This has to be a nightmare. He can’t be gone! I love him. No! You’re lying.”

I almost glared. I never approved of liars and I certainly wasn’t one, “I’m sorry Miss Jones but he wasn’t alive. You can think its not true all you want but it is. I saw it with my own eyes.”

She snapped at me, “Oh so I’m just supposed to believe you? I don’t even know you. I don’t know where I am and why would I trust you? How do I know you didn’t just kill him?”

I let a little of my anger show, “Excuse me lady. I saved your ass and this is how you’re going to treat me? I could have let you die there. I saved you and I’m sorry I couldn’t save him. I don’t have control on who dies and who lives.”

“You could have called for help!”

My hands came up and ran over my temples, “In a place like this? I wouldn’t be able to get a decent signal anyways.”

“I don’t care. I want to see him. I need to see the car.”

I sighed and calmed down, “How? You can’t even stand up and if you do all your going to do is hurt you leg more. You need to stay off of it.”

“I can’t stay off of it. I have bodily functions to deal with.”

I never thought about that, “We’ll get to that when the time comes. But I can tell you that it’s a nasty break.”

She spoke under her breath, “Great. I’m going to die here with some guy who could be a murderer.”

“Look, I know you’re scared.” She looked up at me and I looked at her right in the eyes, “I don’t know you and you don’t know me but right now all that matters is your recovery. I know you don’t believe me but I’m not going to hurt you. I have no reason to. I’ve kept you alive this long and I don’t want to screw it up. And I promise when you can walk I’ll take you to the car. I wouldn’t go but if you need proof it will be there.”

I took a deep breath and just stared at her. She glared at me and looked away. How was I going to get her trust?

“Are you hungry?”

She didn’t even look at me, “No.”

“Can I get you anything?”

“Yeah,” She looked at me finally, “The police would be nice.”

This was going to be tough.
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