Kingdom Come

Chapter 7

Kerri could barely move when he woke up in the morning. How long had he been asleep? His ribs hurt, his leg hurt, his head was pounding, and his back ached. He tried to roll over, but only succeeded in falling onto his back again. He groaned.

            "Good morning," Simon said. Kerri looked over at him.

            "For you maybe," Kerri managed. He gritted his teeth and managed to push himself onto his side.

            "Too much horse riding yesterday?"

            "I fell out of a train, went without my cane for most of the day, was kidnapped by bounty hunters, and rescued from them, all in one day. Yeah, the horse riding was definitely the thing that pushed me over the edge."

            Simon remained silent and stared at him for a moment. "Were your ribs not checked?"

            "I WAS KIDNAPPED BY BOUNTY HUNTERS!" Kerri shouted. Then he sucked in a deep breath and tried not to curl up into a ball on the ground. That probably would have made the pain worse. Kerri closed his eyes again and listened to Simon rustling around.

            "It's just me," Simon whispered after a moment. Cold hands turned Kerri onto his back again. "What hurts?"

            "My back, my head, my ribs, my legs...."

            "So pretty much everything."

            "Yes."

            "Falling out of the train should have probably killed you. You're lucky to be alive and able to be in even this good condition."

            "Oh, lucky me," Kerri mumbled. He felt Simon opening his jacket and pushing up his shirt. The air was colder than Simon's hands. Kerri gritted his teeth as Simon examined his ribs, pushing a little bit here and there.

            "Cracked," Simon muttered. "Possibly broken. I'm no expert but it seems bad."

            "Oh, gee thanks."

            "We're on the Perivat border. If we can get inside, we can get you to a hospital."

            "Then you'll be on your own to Jolier."

            "Who says I'm leaving you there?"

            "You can't just wait for me. If you're insistent on going back, you have to actually go back and you have to do it fast. Either take me to a hospital and go alone, or drag me along with you, I don't care."

            "You wouldn't even be able to pay the hospital bill," Simon said. His voice sounded like he was elsewhere.

            "And you could?"

            "Ker, I'm not leaving you in a foreign ring's hospital."

            "Then we should probably get going. Can you help me up?"

            "You need to rest."

            "You need to go."

            "We have some stuff to talk about anyway, it'll be fine if we wait, and you rest a little while longer."

            Kerri felt a little relieved. Yes, if the bounty hunters had escaped Tennika and the police, they would be coming after Kerri and Simon. Waiting could be dangerous anyway, pretty much inviting border patrols to find them. But Kerri didn't want to move. He was in so much pain that he was thankful that Simon wasn't pushing him so much just yet.