“You thought if you pretended I wasn’t hunting you down, that I’d disappear?” He asked, spittle dripping from his mouth. “I told you I’d kill you,” He hissed as he ran a finger down the barrel of the gun. Then he looked towards Libby, who still hadn’t moved. “But I did say I’d kill her first so you could watch, didn’t I?” He kicked me in the face and I heard the snap of my nose breaking before blood began to gush, blocking my vision.
Jackson limped down the hill toward Libby, blood pumping from the hole in his leg. She was moaning now, clutching at her stomach.
“You think getting married changed what you are?” He asked, crouching down beside her. “You’re nothing but a whore, just like your Momma.” He laughed, nearly falling backwards from the effort.
I could hear sirens in the distance. John Paul had reached the house. If I could distract Jackson for a few more minutes, maybe they’d get here in time. My vision was blurring as I rolled over, blood gushing from my shoulder and nose. Jackson looked towards me and laughed even harder.
“You think that stupid bastard is gonna save you boy?” He yelled, standing up and walking towards me. I stood up, shaky as the world around me wobbled. I’d been injured before and had never felt like this. “Feeling strange, boy?” He asked with a sneer. “That knife was special just for you. See I knew you had training, that you wouldn’t be easy to take down. You’d need a little something extra from my friends to make sure you stayed down.” I wobbled as he laughed, nearly falling again. My vision was going white as I tried to focus on him.
“Why?” Libby’s moan had Jackson turning away from me. I took advantage of the distraction and lunged for him but he’d seen me coming and swung back, hitting me in the chest with his elbow. I flew backwards, the breath knocked out of me. Jackson was laughing again as he turned back to Libby.
“Why?” He asked, spitting on her. “Why? Because she was a whore,” he screamed. “And I’m going to kill that bastard pig that made her one as soon as I’m done with you!”
“Don’t you touch her,” I gasped, spitting blood from my mouth as I spoke. I could tell my ribs were broken. “I’ll kill you, you sick, son of a bitch,” I planted my feet, trying to stay balanced as the world spun. Jackson just smiled, his blackened teeth dancing across my vision. He stepped towards me, pointing the gun at my head.
“You ain’t gonna kill me, boy,” he sneered, his finger sliding over the trigger.
“No, he won’t,” Libby shouted. She was standing behind him, the rifle raised and pointed at him. “But I will.” He swung the gun around but Libby was quicker as she pulled the trigger. The top of his head exploded in a spray of blood and brains before his body crumpled to the ground. “Go to hell where you belong.” Libby whispered before her legs gave out and she collapsed on the soggy forest floor.
Trying to see through the blinding white that was taking over my field of vision, I crawled towards her. Bile rose in my throat as I felt the warm wet of blood beneath my hands. Libby was holding her stomach, sobbing between guttural screams. I reached her, barely able to see as I ran my hands over her body.
“The babies,” She screamed as her back arched. “Something’s wrong.”
“We have to get to the hospital,” I tried lifting her but collapsed, the pain overwhelming me.
“Cole, don’t move,” she grabbed for my hand as I knelt beside her. The world was spinning around me. My body was going numb. Libby gasped, her eyes rolling back.
“Libby, stay with me!” Her eyes snapped open as a feral scream ripped from her, bursting the blood vessels in her eyes. Bright red blood pooled under her legs, soaking her dress. I knew what that blood meant. I was losing them. Her body suddenly went limp.
“No, Libby!” Blood was spreading on the ground as I forced an eyelid open. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, the whites of her eyes now bright red. I heard the buzz of ATV’s coming closer, searching for us. I scrambled over Jackson’s bloody body and pried my gun from his lifeless hand. I fired into the air until the trigger was clicking beneath my fingers. I heard the engines coming closer now. I crawled back to Libby, checking her pulse again. It was weak beneath my fingers.
John Paul reached us first, jumping off his ATV and running towards us. More deputies arrived as well as EMT’s. The white haze was blocking my vision as I felt someone lay me down.
“The babies,” I mumbled as hands worked on me. “Libby,”
“It’s going to be okay,” I heard John Paul speak as if he was calling to me down a narrow tunnel. “Chopper’s coming.”
“He’s going to kill us all,” I mumbled, blinded now. “The knife, he put venom on it.” My head rolled to the side, I couldn’t control it anymore.
“Venom?” John Paul’s voice was far away now.
“From the snakes,” I couldn’t feel my body anymore. The endless white filled my mind as I felt myself slipping into nothingness.
“Dammit!” John Paul’s voice was a distant echo in my head. “I’m losing him! Light the flares Mitch! Tell the hospital to have anti-venom ready. All of it!” I felt myself being moved as the sound of a chopper drew closer. The sound of the blades matching the pounding in my ears as my heart struggled to beat.
“Libby,” I groaned, unable to see or hear anything. I knew he’d killed us. That Libby, our babies wouldn’t make it. That I wouldn’t make it. We were too far from the hospital and too late for it to matter. Despair tore through me and I willingly sank into the abyss.
Chapter 25
2006
My eyelids felt heavy as I struggled to open them. I managed to blink them open but closed them quickly when I could only see blackness. I could hear monitors near my head. I knew where I was; it wasn’t the first time I’d woken up to that sound. I forced myself to open my eyes again and I turned my head towards the sound of the machines. I could make out the blurry shapes of them in the light of the screens.
So I wasn’t blind. My hospital room was dark, the only light coming from the monitors next to me. I opened my eyes fully, some of the fear leaving me. I flexed my fingers and toes, testing for injuries. My limbs were sore and stiff but relatively pain-free. I tried to move my arm but the stabbing pain in my shoulder had me laying still. I sighed, regretting that as well, as pain rocketed through my ribcage.
The memories came flooding back with the pain, slicing through my mind. I remembered the fear that threatened to overtake me when I’d discovered Libby missing. I remembered how hard it was to push that fear down and become the soldier. I remembered the knife piercing my shoulder and the wave of fire that surged through my blood from the venom. I could clearly see Libby, though my eyesight had been fading, standing with the rifle aimed.
I had always been the one to protect her, keep her safe… but not this time. Libby had saved my life. She’d been the one to pull the trigger, ending the life of the man that had tortured her and murdered her mother. She had been the one to pay the ultimate sacrifice. I shook my head as tears stung my eyes. I heard the door creak open and reached up with my good arm to wipe my face.
“Look who finally decided to join us,” John Paul whispered from the doorway. I squinted, the light from the hallway stinging my eyes. He walked in, closing the door nearly shut behind him. The light wasn’t as harsh and I could see him fully now. “They told me you’d be waking up soon. Told me to keep the lights off when I checked on you. Sensitivity to light, they said. A side effect from the snake venom.” I grunted, trying to sit up. I hissed as more pain shot through my shoulder and chest. “Easy, son,” John Paul chided, quickly using the bed controls to lift it to a sitting position.
“Water,” I whispered, my voice croaking with disuse. He grabbed the cup from the bedside table and helped bring the straw to my lips.
“Damn good thing you managed to warn me about that venom before you passed out,” He set the cup back down before sitting in the chair next to me. “Had enough venom in your system to kill four men and from three different kinds of snakes to bo
ot. Doctors don’t know how you survived long enough to get to the hospital.”
“How long have I been out?” I mumbled.
“You’ve been unconscious for a week. They took the ventilator out day before yesterday. They were worried you’d go into a coma too but then you started trying to breathe on your own…”
“Coma too?” I interrupted. “You mean that bastard is still alive?” Visions of Jackson being kept alive on life-support with half his brain missing, made me shiver.
“Who, Jackson?” John Paul asked, confusion filling his features before he shook his. “Hell no. Libby shot that son-of-a-bitch deader than a doornail, God bless her. No chance in hell he would’ve survived that. She blew half his head clean off.” He gave me a faint smile. “I meant Libby.”
“Libby’s alive?” I shouted, and then winced from the pain in my chest.
“Of course she’s alive. Libby’s a fighter. You didn’t think she’d made it?” John Paul forced me to sit back against the pillows as I shook my head.
“There was so much blood,” I whispered, tears falling freely now. “She wasn’t moving, barely had a pulse.”
“You were half dead yourself, chock full of snake venom and here you are,” John Paul reassured me. I closed my eyes and wept, the relief so vast it was nearly painful.
“I need to see her.”
“She’s in the ICU. The doctor will have to check you out before you go anywhere, Cole.” I laid my head back on the pillows, so many thoughts rushing through my head that it hurt to try and sort them out. “You sit tight, and I mean that, son.” John Paul pointed a threatening finger at me and I nodded. “I’ll go get the doc.” I briefly considered mutiny but decided that trying to get out of the bed while he was gone would probably be a bad idea. John Paul returned quickly with the doctor.
“Are you Libby’s doctor too?” I asked as he checked my vitals.
“No, Mr. Andrews. I’m just the attending doctor on the recovery floor. Dr. Crawford is taking care of your wife.” I nodded, glad that Libby wasn’t in the hands of a stranger. I moved mechanically as he helped me sit up, breathing deeply as waves of dizziness swamped over me. “I’m okay with you going up to see your wife, Mr. Andrews, provided that you stay in the wheelchair at all times. And only for an hour.” He shook his head when I began to protest at that. “Mr. Andrews, let me make it very clear to you. You nearly died and are not yet fully recovered. You would be no help to your wife if you set back your own recovery.” I sighed but nodded. He was right, though I hated to admit it.
I let them help me into the wheelchair, feeling how weak I was. John Paul pushed me down the hallway into the large elevator. When the doors opened, he wheeled me down a quiet hallway into a small room with a couch and a few chairs. John Paul lowered the lights when I squinted. The room was empty and I looked at John Paul for an explanation for not taking me to see Libby.
The door opened behind us and John Paul just smiled as he turned me around. Two nurses were pulling in some carts as I craned my head to see around them. My heart stopped when I saw the plastic cradles lined up next to each other. I read the cards on the cradles as John Paul squeezed my good shoulder. Andrews Boy, Andrews Girl. I struggled for my breath as I saw them squirming, trying to wrestle out of their tightly swaddled blankets.
“I thought they didn’t make it,” I choked out the words as I struggled to stand, to go to them.
“Sit down,” John Paul ordered, coming to stand in front of me. “You’d fall over if you tried.” He carefully reached into a cradle and lifted my daughter while the nurse brought over my son. They cradled them in my arms, though John Paul helped support my wounded one. They were so small. I stared in wonder at what I thought I had lost.
“Say hello to your children,” John Paul murmured. “They’re strong like their parents. Your son,” he pointed toward to my right arm. “Was born thirty seconds before your daughter,” he gestured to my other arm. “They both came out hollering. Heard them all the way down the hall. Best sound I ever heard in my life.” He wiped a tear away with his free hand. “Both perfectly healthy, a little underweight but as you can see, they’ve caught up fast.” I watched my babies sleeping for a few more minutes until the nurses took them away.
“They need to be fed and changed,” she explained. “But you can come back and hold them after you’ve rested.” I nodded, not happy that my arms had shook while I’d held them. I wouldn’t let myself stay weak. I had to be strong for my children, for Libby. I watched the nurses wheel them away and sighed before looking back at John Paul.
“I need to see Libby.”
Chapter 26
I was wheeled into a room that looked a lot like the one I had been in at Ramstein. The room was dark, which my eyes rejoiced at. Libby’s face was pale and yellowed bruises covered her neck and arms.
John Paul left me alone after steering me to the bed. At first, I could only weep as I held her limp hand. I couldn’t control my thoughts, my emotions. I had thought she was dead. Now she lay before me, broken and helpless… but she was alive. I angrily pushed away the tears and took a slow breath. When my eyes were dry, I began to tell Libby about our children.
I told her how they looked like her, how strong and healthy they were. I told her that she needed to wake up because I wouldn’t name them until she did.
“We can’t keep calling them boy and girl, Libby,” I joked but ended up crying again because there was a real chance that she never would wake up. A while later, Dr. Crawford came in to talk to me about Libby.
“When she arrived she was unconscious and hemorrhaging severely. Aside from minor injuries to the head and torso, she was bleeding internally. The surgical team was on stand-by and she went straight to the OR when she arrived. The babies’ heart rates were dropping and Libby was losing large amounts of blood. Even though she was only 35 weeks, we had no choice but to perform an emergency C-Section. We had the babies safely out in less than six minutes. They had no trouble breathing as I’m sure John Paul told you,” he smiled a little. “It’s always a good sign when they can cry without even being suctioned. They were taken straight to the Neo-Natal Unit and we started working on Libby.” He paused, taking a seat next to me.
“Her heart stopped twice during surgery, Cole.” I sucked in a breath and had to close my eyes to stop the room from spinning. “She had two large ruptures in her uterus and a tear in her spleen. We removed the spleen and were able to stop the hemorrhaging very quickly. There is severe scarring on her uterus and still a very real risk of her developing an infection.” He paused and ran a hand down his face. “She won’t be able to have any more children without risking her own life, Cole,” he explained, sorrow filling his voice. “And that’s only if she gets through recovery without any more hemorrhaging or infections. There’s still a chance that we’ll have to do a hysterectomy.”
“Is that what you’re recommending?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“Ten years ago, we would’ve gone straight to that option. But treatment for uterine ruptures has advanced so much. It’s still a very real possibility that we’ll have no choice. It depends on Libby’s recovery.”
“I understand Dr. Crawford.” I looked back at Libby, watching her chest rise and fall with the respirator.
“I wish I had better news for you Cole but Libby and your children are alive. Things could’ve been so much worse.”
“Yeah, they almost were, Doc.” I answered and reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you.” He left the room and I turned back to Libby, picking up her limp fingers. This must have been how she’d felt when I had been injured. Helpless, scared, hoping for something, anything. A twitch of a finger, a flutter of an eyelid. But nothing moved.
I tried to remember what it had been like for me when I'd been trapped in that empty void. All I could remember was hearing Libby’s voice from the darkness. She had sat with me, talked to me, helped pull me from the black. Now it was my turn to do the same for her.
; I dutifully returned to my room when ordered and ran the gamut of tests. Other than being in a lot of pain and still having some sensitivity to light, I was on the mend. I convinced the doctor to allow me to return to Libby after only a few hours.
John Paul joined me, looking just as haggard as I felt. One of the nurses had tried to make me leave after visiting hours were over but I steadfastly refused. John Paul refused to leave as well.
“Tell me what happened, John Paul.” I asked when we’d sat in silence for a while. He tensed but didn’t answer right away.
“You were there, Cole. Don’t you remember?” He finally answered.
“I’m not talking about the night Jackson took Libby.” I told him. “You’re Libby’s real father.” He sucked in a breath and stood. He paced the room with his hands in his pockets.
“Who told you?” When he finally spoke, his voice shook.
“The man I thought was her father.” I watched his face pale. “I should’ve figured it out on my own. You were always there. The concerts, plays, softball games. You even showed up at the PTA meetings. Every time she got in trouble or hurt, you just happened to be there.” I shook my head as it all became clear. “She has your eyes.” John Paul stopped pacing. His shoulders slumped and he turned back towards me. His face was pale as he slowly walked back to the chair.
“Why didn’t you ever do anything?” I murmured. “All those years, everyone knew what was going on. Why didn’t you stop him?” John Paul slumped into the chair, tears escaping from his eyes.
“It’s not easy to explain. I’d have to start at the beginning,” his voice cracked, full of emotion.
“Tell me.”
Chapter 27
Dark Mountains Page 13