Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

forty-six

    "What the fuck were you thinking? You could've been killed!" Hands grip me around my arms, shaking me slightly.

My eyes shoot open and I frown at the lifeless bodies of the soldiers that were standing guard over me.

Finally, I raise my gaze to meet the familiar blues that belonged to Eric.

His large hands skim over my cheeks, then, my arms almost desperately. "Are you hurt?"

I blink back the tears that were clouding my vision, still too shocked to speak.

"Nessa! Are you okay?" Eric asks again urgently, cupping my cheeks and forcing my gaze up to meet his. "God, please tell me you're okay."

"I'm okay," I finally find my voice again and Eric visibly relaxes, crushing me to his chest.

"You're okay, that's good." He mumbles- I suspect- mostly to himself, "Fuck, I'm so fucking sorry." He then presses a kiss to my temple, "But we have to go. Right now. Before anybody catches on."

Everything happens in a bit of a haze as Eric picks up the gun of one of the motionless guards and hands it to me before arming himself with an extra one.

"Stay close to me, okay? I'm going to get you out of here, I promise."

He takes my hand in an iron grip as if he's afraid we'll get separated somehow and I follow behind him, my legs struggling to keep up as he takes off in the direction of the wall once again. 

"Hey!" I peer over my shoulder to see a Dauntless soldier hot on our heels and soon after, shots are being fired at us as more join him.

"Focus!" Eric yells, "Keep running and don't look back!"

I turn my attention back ahead of me, running as fast as my feet could carry me, the sound of bullets hitting the ground following me as I went.

Suddenly, a sharp pain spread across my thigh, and the impact of a bullet sends me tumbling face-down to the ground.

"Fuck!" Eric curses and is by my side in an instant.

He wraps an arm around my waist, hauling me up to his side. "I got you. You're going to be okay." Eric reassures, slipping one of my arms around his neck and bearing most of my weight as we continue to run.

We make it into a thickly wooded area, with Eric practically carrying me.

When Eric is sure that there's no one on our tail, he finds an area heavily sheltered by trees and bushes and lays me against a large rock.

"Let me see," He says softly, his eyes filled with so much pain as they fall onto the bullet wound in my leg almost like he feels my pain as if it were his own.

Quickly, Eric shrugs off his jacket. "I'm going to need to lift your leg a little, okay?"

I nodded, bracing myself for the pain. I can't help but whimper at the sharpness of it as Eric gently guides my knee up with a hand under it, quickly wrapping the jacket around it and tying it around my thigh.

Wincing as he tightens the material around the wound, I hiss, gritting down on my teeth the wave of pain.

"Shit, I'm sorry," He brushes the stray hairs sticking to my face with cold sweat away. "I'm so sorry. How are you feeling? Can you walk?"

"Yes," I replied between breaths.

"Alright, this will have to do for now. We need to keep moving." He says, "There's a tunnel in the North corner by the wall that connects to Candor. That's where we're headed."