Agent Ez

SURPRISE :D

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Enjoy :D

*

James’s POV 

We had been walking quite some way when I heard the shout. Relief flooded through me as I let go of Ez’s hand to look where we heard it. She looked worse than yesterday, I have no idea how much more she can take.  Gaps between the trees offer hints of a flickering fire which, hopefully isn’t a mirage and we’ll be with civilisation soon.  

A thud brings me back from my reverie, I turn to see Ez a crumpled heap on the floor. Knowing she won’t wake up but trying in vain anyway, I call her name and shake her. Nothing. 

Checking her breathing I realise it’s too shallow, this is the push I needed. Strapping her bag across one shoulder and mine across the other, I pick her up bridal style, ensuring to lean her head on my arm.  

I make my way towards the flickers of flames that I saw earlier, with a renewed sense of purpose, aware that now, Ez’s life was hanging on the balance.  

Walking as swiftly as possible, I keep my focus on that break in the treeline, my eyes never straying. For now, this was my one purpose in life. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, pushing me harder.  

Move faster.  

A quick check on her breathing showed that it was getting shallower and shallower, her body was ready to give up. 

I could never let that happen. 

Faster. 

A few more steps.  

She can’t die.  

Dodging stray branches I make my way through the last of the dense forest, I see the camp. People sitting on logs placed around a fire, but no one seems to have noticed me arriving yet. It’s dusk, not quite dark but not fully light either.  

“I need help over here.” My voice booms of it’s own accord.  

Heads turn facing me, Coach comes running having noticed Ez first. In a matter of seconds the camp is bustling with activity, people pour out of the tents, orders are shouted.  

I hear none of it though, as soon as I handed a limp Ez over to Coach, I sag, deflated. The weight of the bags too much, I barely register my surroundings. The effects of supporting Ez all day yesterday and today hit me like a freight train.  Someone takes the bags off my shoulders, two others weave their arms through mine helping me walk.   

I’m led into a tent and sat down handed a bottle of something which I gulp down in seconds.  I notice Ez lying down on a bed opposite me, people fussing over her, focusing on her arms, her head.  

They’ve missed it.  

I push myself off the chair and sway to her bed. One last burst of energy propels itself through my body, allowing me to move. I undo the makeshift bandage on her leg and hear gasps. That one cut had mutated into something much more ugly. An angry redness surrounded it, pus seeped out in what seemed like a never ending quantity.  

And just like that the energy that had helped me up, dissipated. I turned to the second bed near the chair I was sitting at but I stumble – my body forgetting how to move, someone helps me there and I black out instantly.  

*  

I come to slowly, the beginnings of a headache forming.  I’m still in the same tent but Ez’s bed next to me is bare. Immediately my mind jumped to the worse case scenario – she didn’t make it.