by A. Anders
Another pause followed. “And we’re all still alive. You should have let me do this a long time ago. Maybe Bob would still be alive.”
I closed my eyes, locking onto his voice. When I opened them, I knew which direction he was in and how far away he was. I signaled for Rose to get up but stay low.
“Bob’s dead?” I asked to keep him talking.
“Yeah. That bitch killed him.”
“So you had to kill her for revenge?”
I pointed at a tree a few meters away. I told her to hide behind it.
“Revenge? No. I knew I was next. It was either going to be me or her. I had to take my chances. But she’s dead now, and nothing happened. I took charge, and I saved everyone, even your ass. You should be thanking me.”
I understood what he was doing. He was asking for permission to come out of hiding.
“You’re right, Gray. I wouldn’t have done this. I would have protected her until the very end. But considering the argument she and I just had, she probably would have eliminated me next,” I lied.
“Then I saved your ass?” he asked with building confidence.
“You saved us all. You did what the rest of us couldn’t.”
That did it. I heard him approaching. Staying low, I headed in the opposite direction of Rose.
“You damn right I did. And you just keep in mind how many people would still be alive if you all had just listened to me from the beginning. You’re gonna have to live with that on your shoulders. Not me. You.”
I watched as he approached the spot where Rose fell. He looked around confused. His smug confidence was replaced by intense fear. He pointed his gun in front of him.
“What did you do, Ford?” he asked with mounting dread.
I didn’t answer. He scurried forward, looking for us.
“I’ll tell you what you did,” he shouted. “You got me killed you son-of-a-bitch!”
I watched as he turned in Rose’s direction. I had to draw him away from her.
“That wasn’t me, Gray. That was you.”
He turned slowly, heading toward me. “Why are you doing this, huh? Why are you protecting her? Is it because you think she loves you? She doesn’t love you. She doesn’t know how.
“You ever watch her vid feed, Ford? You ever watch her fuck one of those guys? And there were a lot of them, Ford. A whole goddamn lot of them.
“You ever fuck the same guy twice, Rose? If you did, I never saw it. And Ford, after every time, she’d tell ‘em that she loved them. Every goddamn time.
“She told me that she loved me, and I didn’t even fuck her. She told Brad, and you know she fucked him. Hell, she probably even fucked Thorin.”
“I never did anything with Thorin!” Rose yelled.
A prickly panic washed over me, not because she had given up her position and Gray was headed towards her, but because her limited denial revealed so much. It confirmed that everything else Gray had said had been true.
I swallowed hard. My stomach bubbled, telling me that Gray was right. I didn’t know who she was. Had she been using that fact to manipulate me? Did she believe that I would be the only one to fall for her act?
Thoughts rushed through my mind. She told me what she did for a living. She had sex while millions watched. Is that why she had had sex with me? Was she performing for the cameras? Had she agreed to do the show even after the producers had told her that everyone she eliminated would die?
Rose’s voice snatched my attention. “It’s not true, Ford.”
“Don’t say anything, Rose,” I snapped, knowing that she was revealing her position.
“Oh, you know it’s true, Rose,” Gray said, encouraging her to talk. “Everything I said was true. You just love everybody, don’t you? And you don’t care who you fuck.”
“Ford, I swear to you, you’re different.” Her weak denial hurt my heart. “You have to believe me,” she yelled.
“He’s trying to get you to talk so that he can kill you. You have to stop talking,” I demanded.
“But we’re all dead anyway, right?” Rose replied. “There’s no way that any of us are leaving this island.”
“You don’t know that,” I countered.
“It doesn’t matter. None of this matters anymore,” Rose said. “But before I die, I need you to know the truth; I don’t know what love is. That’s the truth. And that’s why I never said it to you. I didn’t wanna lie to you.”
“Why me?” I asked, desperately trying to process it all.
“Because I knew that you were the only one who had hadn’t recognized me. You didn’t already make up your mind about me. You had the best chance of seeing me, the real me, and not the fantasy,” she admitted.
Her words sounded so convincing. But didn’t she perform for a living? “I don’t know who you are, Rose.”
“I know. And that makes two of us. But I know who you are. You’re a good man. You deserve to be with someone better than me.
“I think Gray’s right. If I die, it may save everyone else.”
“You don’t know that,” I yelled back to her.
“But even if there’s a chance…”
I could hear in her voice that she had given up. It was at that moment that I felt the first drop of rain.
“The numbers are clear. You have to save as many people as you can. I know that’s what you’re gonna do anyway because you’re a hero. That’s what heroes do. And Ford…”
I looked out from behind my tree to see Rose step out from behind her own. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes found mine. “I forgive you,” she said. She then closed her eyes, lifted her arms and prepared to die.
Gray, ten feet from her, raised his gun. When he did, everything in front of me slowed to a crawl. It felt like I was the only one moving, and I was moving fast. I was screaming. I knew Gray would turn to look at me. Split seconds. That’s all we’re ever looking for.
Frantically turning around, he aimed his gun at me. He would get a shot off before I got there. I couldn’t help that. All I could hope for was that he would miss.
The gun fired. I flinched, not sure if I was hit. I couldn’t tell. I was still moving forward, though. He wouldn’t have a chance for another shot.
I ducked and swung my arm, redirecting his aim. Charging at full force, my shoulder barreled into his stomach, lifting him into the air. When he landed, the force of the impact robbed him of breath.
I couldn’t possibly save Gray at this point. I knew he wouldn’t stop trying to kill Rose. Either he was going to walk away from this fight or I was. Rose needed it to be me.
Straddling him, I hit him in the face. I heard bones break. It was a sound I had heard before. Considering the density of a skull, odds were that the bones breaking were my own.
I didn’t stop, though. I couldn’t. I hit him until he was bloody. I didn’t want to kill him, but I had to. Rose was right. It was a matter of numbers. If Gray killed her, every one of us could die. I had to kill Gray.
When Gray looked like he couldn’t take anymore, I stopped. His head wobbled, but his eyes slowly locked onto mine. In them, I could see his humanity.
He hadn’t asked for any of this nightmare. None of us had. He had the chance to kill me when he woke and found me unconscious next to him in the woods, but he didn’t. I had to find another way, I decided. I must find another way.
A shot fired. I had lost track of his gun. I had assumed that I had knocked it out of his hand or that he had let it go when he slammed onto the ground, but neither had happened. He had held onto it even as I pummeled him. In the split second that I had considered saving him, he had aimed the gun at my gut and had fired.
It wasn’t the first time that I had been shot, so I knew the score. A shot in a limb was what you hoped for. I mean, no one hoped to be shot, but if you had to take a bullet, that was where you wanted it.
You could live after a shot to the head, but odds are you wouldn’t want to. A shot to the chest was the one most likely to kil
l you. A shot to the stomach, though, you saved for the people you really hated.
I fell to the side as the intense wave of pain took over me. The acids from my punctured organs burned my insides. The putrid smell and the blinding pain was torture. I couldn’t move.
I could see, though. Gray hadn’t been as hurt as I had thought. He slowly pulled himself to his feet as the raindrops grew heavier around him.
Standing above me, he didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. I knew what he was going to do next.
I watched as he lifted his gun, pointing it at my chest. He aimed it where he didn’t think I would survive, and he was right. I thought his face would be the last thing I’d see.
“Gray!” Rose yelled with fury.
Gray turned and saw her. Her wet hair lay flat. Her dampened shirt clung to her chest while the ferocity in her eyes screamed death.
I looked up through the canopy of dancing leaves to find the tower. Its brightening red light bounced off the raindrops and lit up the stormy gray sky. By the time I looked back, Gray had already begun to choke.
Gray lifted his gun. It didn’t get past his waist before he dropped it. Desperate to breathe, he reached for his throat, but it did no good. Coughing, Gray fell to his knees and died.
I watched Rose as she stared intensely at the body below her. Looking at her, I knew she was wrong. She could control what was going on. How much of it, I still didn’t know.
“Rose?” I said, barely able to speak.
Her face melted when she turned and saw me. She hurried to my side. She didn’t know what to do. She was scared.
Rose fidgeted over me. I knew that there was nothing she could do. I was losing blood all over the place, and a gunshot to the stomach was fatal.
I reached up and grabbed her wet arm. All I wanted was for her to slow down and look at me. If my life ended here, I wanted her beautiful face to be the last thing I saw before I died, and my time was coming fast.
Chapter 12
My mind slowed down as I listened to the patter of the raindrops on the leaves. It was soothing. I was sure that my mind was easing itself into death. The mind-warping pain was also a tip off.
“Brad! Thorin! Help!” Rose yelled.
“Stop!” I said, knowing that they could have approved Gray’s plan. “Don’t risk it.”
But she didn’t stop. She continued to yell until she got a reply.
“Rose? Are you okay? Where are you?” Brad shouted.
“I’m okay. Gray shot Ford. I need help.”
I tried to object again, but I was too tired to speak.
“Don’t move,” she told me, pushing me back down. “You’re losing a lot of blood. The others are coming. They’ll know what to do.
“No,” I finally squeaked out over the blinding pain.
“Trust me. I’ll protect you.”
Rose lovingly touched my cheek and offered me a warm smile. It was comforting. It told me that she was going to do everything she could to protect me. Knowing that, my muscles relaxed.
The sound of the building storm drowned out any approaching footsteps. All I could do was watch as Rose scanned the trees. I again wondered who the beautiful creature was next to me. I didn’t think I would ever completely know. All I knew was that she was complex and unlike anyone I had ever met.
Rose stood as Brad and Thorin approached us. Brad immediately checked Gray and Thorin kneeled over me.
“We couldn’t control him,” Brad explained. “Last night after Bob died, Gray took the guns and told us that he was gonna put an end to this. By the time we figured out what he meant, he was gone.”
“He tried to kill me,” Rose said, touching her ear. “I’m alright. But…” She paused. “He was going to shoot me, and Ford stopped him.” She had left out the part where she was going to let him shoot her, but that was probably for the best.
Thorin, who had been poking and prodding at me, stuck his hand under me in search of an exit wound. When he found it, his touch sent a blinding jolt of electricity through me. I couldn’t see or hear anything until the sensation subsided.
“You’ve gotta help him,” Rose insisted as my senses returned to me. Both men looked away. “It was his plan to get to the compound,” Rose continued. “Do you really think you can get there without him?”
“Can we get there with him?” Brad countered. “Carrying him would be like transporting dead weight.”
Listening to the men debate my fate, I realized how Josh must have felt watching me carry Manny and Phil out, leaving him behind. Brad and Thorin were right. The smartest thing would be to leave me. I would slow them down. Everyone knew it.
“No!” Rose exclaimed. “If you all leave him here, then I’m staying with him. And I’ll just accept that it was you two who let him die.”
The two guys looked at each other. They understood that it was a threat. Yet, neither conceded.
“You get it, right?” Brad asked with more directness than I would have expected. “You know what you’re asking us to do?”
“To save the man who wouldn’t hesitate to save either of you if the situation was reversed?” Rose asked Brad, not backing down. “Thorin?”
“Rose, Brad has a point. Our lives are at stake here. You are practically asking us to sacrifice our lives for his.”
“I’m not asking for anything like that. I’m asking you to do the right thing. He would do the same for any of us. I think you know he would.” Rose paused before continuing. “But if you think Gray was right, if you think that killing me is the only way that you can save yourself, then I’m ready to die. Just promise me that you’ll help him once I’m gone.”
As I watched Rose fight for my life, I finally began to understand who she was. In the military, we were taught to put your lives in someone else’s hands. As the man who always carried someone else off the battlefield, I thought it meant that I had to be ready to sacrifice my life for the man next to me.
But now, lying helpless for the first time, I began to understand what it truly meant. Putting your life in someone else’s hands meant that you had hands to fall into when you needed help. Knowing that, I knew who Rose was. Rose was the person I could trust with my life.
“If you leave, you’re leaving me here,” Rose said again.
Thorin continued to argue while Brad did not. Withdrawing himself from the conversation, Brad seemed to be searching his soul. By the end, he appeared to be defeated. If I didn’t know him better, I would have sworn that he was giving up.
As quickly as he gave me a glimpse of what he hid behind his smile, the glimpse was gone. Brad straightened up, stood tall, and removed any signs of sadness. Again looking confident, he glanced over at me and found me staring back.
We looked at each other for a moment. He knew that I had seen behind his curtain. I wondered if he would be embarrassed. His response was to give me a playful smile and then walk away.
Rose called after him, but he kept going. Quickly, he was deep within the trees and out of sight. I thought that was the last I would see of him, but to everyone’s surprise, in minutes, he was back.
Rose and Thorin stopped talking as he pushed past them. Kneeling next to me, he spit a wad of something thick into his fingers. He then shoved it deep into my wound, and yeah, it hurt.
He followed that with three more of the same. He was not gentle. It was excruciating. I couldn’t form words, but I gave him a guttural review of his bedside manner.
Brad flashed me a devilish smile and leaned in so only I could hear. “I always knew that I would make you moan.” Uhhh, yeah, I didn’t have a response to that.
“What did you put in him?” Rose asked.
“It’s a mixture of anticoagulants, disinfectants, and a little something that he might appreciate. With enough rest, he’ll be fine.”
Brad looked up at Rose. She was speechless.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” Brad chided.
“Thank you!” she finally said.
The guys
dragged me under a tree as we waited out the downpour. As I lay there enjoying the extra he added for me, I wondered why he had helped me. The guys were right. They gained nothing by helping me, and Brad had to know that with me gone, his chances were very high.
Perhaps he thought he would get points with Rose for helping me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it had to be something. Brad never stopped playing the game.
“Thank you,” I said when I could speak again.
He looked at me and barely acknowledged what I had said. “We need to keep moving,” Brad announced suddenly.
“He needs more time to rest,” Rose argued.
She hadn’t sat next to me, but she was keeping an eye on me. When I made a motion to get up, she was immediately by my side to stop me.
“No, Brad’s right. We’ve spent too long here already. The rain’s lightening, and we have to keep moving.”
I couldn’t get up on my own, so I was grateful when Rose offered me her shoulder.
“We’ll take him,” Brad said, signaling Thorin.
I couldn’t help much, but I made sure that they didn’t have to drag me. Whatever Brad had put in me was amazing. Not only did it seal my wound, but I felt better by the second. Within an hour, I was supporting much of my own weight.
I was testing my building strength when Brad startled me with a laugh. I looked at him, but he continued uninhibited. Perhaps because of the tension, his laugh brought an unexpected smile to all of our faces.
Rose was the one to ask, “What’s so funny?”
“This.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“All of this. Being trapped on an island with the black widow up there.”
He nodded his head towards Rose. She stopped smiling when she realized that he was talking about her.
“I’m grateful to you for saving my life and all, but cool it with the black widow crap,” I said, hoping it would be enough.
“What? You don’t find this hilarious? Of all people, you’ve got to think this is funny. You didn’t even like her when you first met her. You didn’t care whether or not you got to stay. Now she’s got us doing everything we can to save you, and we’re doing it, knowing that she’s gonna kill us for it. If you don’t see the humor in that, then you’re just not looking.”