Going Bush

It was an hour or two later when Taylor heard the door creak open, but he didn’t look up. Carlie poked her head through cautiously, before slipping through and locking it behind her.
“Taylor?”
He didn’t even blink, just remained staring at the ceiling. Taking a quick glance around the room, she began to make her way over to the bedside.
She knelt beside him, careful not to touch. She could see he was bleeding quite a bit, and bruises were slowly forming on most skin within sight.
“It’s Taylor Hanson… isn’t it?” she tried again.
“What do you care?” he struggled to get out.
She bit her lip, before noticing his belt was undone.
“Steph didn’t rape you, did she?” she looked worried suddenly.
“She may as well have,” Taylor replied, with what almost sounded like a whimper to follow.
“What was that?” Carlie asked.
“There’s a… spring… in my back,” Taylor breathed, still talking quietly, “I think… it might be… drawing blood.”
He cringed for a moment, and gulped. Carlie glanced back at the door, before getting down onto her hands and knees. She soon saw what he was talking about, and carefully reached out for it.
An exclamation from Taylor greeted her efforts as she dislodged the wire end from his back and set it right, before she wiped some blood from her hand and knelt up again.
“There,” she sighed.
“Why are you here?” Taylor’s eyes darted, still not looking at her.
“Because unfortunately, I have a conscience,” she admitted, “and… I’ve been watching the news.”
Taylor turned to look at her questioningly.
“And… I thought you’d like to know that your brother’s alive. Zac isn’t it?”
Taylor’s eyes widened, and he immediately tried to sit up. He collapsed again instantly when he remembered where he was, though he’d started breathing heavily.
“Do they know I’m alive?” his eyes searched the ceiling.
“No?” Carlie sounded regretful, “I’m sorry…”
“Can you tell them?” he looked at her again.
“I…” she began to shake her head, “if I did, I mean… we’d all… this place… they’d trace the call, and…”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Taylor was already sounding as desperate as he was.
“I have responsibilities here,” she in turn begged him to understand, “if they found out it was me, I don’t know what they’d do.”
“I’d get you off,” Taylor insisted, “they could put you under witness protection or something, right?”
“I have a baby…”
“I have two,” Taylor returned the challenge, not calming even slightly.
She bit her lip again with a frown, knowing she wasn’t going to win the argument.
“I’ll… I’ll see what I can do,” she said non-committedly, getting up to leave.
Taylor returned to staring at the ceiling as the door shut, eyes barely beginning to water at the knowledge that Zac had actually made it.