Left Behind

Chapter 8

Wolf stayed still, looking at the puddle of blood on the floor, with no body nearby, no cub next to it. He had been expecting to find a dead body, but this was unexpected. He turned around.

"Building is empty, proceeding outside," Wolf said, already running out of the lab.

"Find him," he thought. But Wolf wanted to know if this was search and rescue or a body retrieval. Where could Cub have gone? There was a lot of blood in the lab. Had he just walked out of there? If he had, where had he gone? It was impossible that he was able to reach the road if he had been seriously hurt.

The team left the school, scattering amongst the snow. "Cover as much ground as you can; we won't have daylight for much longer," Wolf ordered. If Alex had managed to make his way outside, if he was hurt, the survival chances were minimal. If he was lost in the snow, if he was passed out, they had to find him and fast. Wolf couldn't help but think that if Cub was out there for more than a couple of hours, he would have died of exposure.

There was also a possibility of someone moving the body, but that wouldn't make much sense since they left Stellenbosch behind. If they wanted to erase the evidence, they wouldn't leave the job half done.

"Found footsteps!" Fox yelled out, making Wolf snap his attention to him.

Indeed, a fresh pair of footsteps were marked on the floor. Instantly, the whole team followed them. They were fresh; if they weren't, the snow would have already covered them completely.

There it was, easy to spot, the bright yellow jacket sticking out of the snow.

Wolf ran, clearing the snow off the body. It was Cub, eyes closed, lips blue. He took off his gloves, bringing two fingers against Alex's neck. Everything was still around him; he waited, his fingers pressing against the ice-cold skin. One beat, two, three.

Wolf sighed in relief; the boy was alive. There was a heartbeat, a weak one, but there was one—a miracle at this point.

"I need medical airlift to my coordinates," Wolf told Jones. She had asked something, but Wolf didn't respond. He didn't even hear what she said. Alex might be alive now, but they had to make sure he would stay that way.

Snake reached them, bringing out the first aid that he had been in charge of carrying. He was the most competent with it anyway.

They cleaned off the snow that had accumulated on top of the kid, stopping when they saw his leg, more specifically the piece of metal sticking out of it.

"How did the kid manage to walk all the way here with that sticking out?" Fox said, looking over the situation.

"At least he didn't rip it out," Eagle pointed out.

"He would have been dead if he had done that. And judging by the half-decent tourniquet, he knew that too," Snake said, pressing gauze around the metal, trying to stabilize the best he could.

Unfortunately, Alex chose that moment to start to wake up. "Stop," he said weakly, making everyone turn to him in surprise. No one had expected that he would wake up, not in the state that he was, but there he was, eyes dazed, looking at them with no interest, no relief. Not the relief you would expect someone to feel at being rescued.

"Cub, it's going to be okay, we'll take you home," Wolf said, trying to comfort Alex.

"No, leave me alone," he said instead, pressing his eyes closed.

"What?" Wolf asked, shocked.

"Leave me alone," he suddenly yelled out, the voice echoing through the mountains. "You're not here; you're not real," he started to say, trying to move away.