Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FIVE - PART FOURTEEN

There was this terrible ringing. That was the first thing Grace noticed, then she threw up. It was terrible disgusting in Grace's book, but at least she managed to lean away, so ... but then again, a dirty uniform would be the last of her problems, which she really became aware of as her eyes finally adjusted to the bright light. Her surroundings unnaturally light, due to the snow everywhere. Her head was killing her, and everything was blurry around her making it difficult to focus on anything at all, but she knew she couldn't just allow herself to fall asleep, not after hearing what she knew must have been a helicopter.

Moving was definitely a mistake. She realised as she bit her lip to not scream out in agony while her right hand flew to her left arm. Something was sure as hell wrong with her left arm, then as she looked down at her left arm, she realised that she had an even more pressing issue. Grace was hanging in a tree 15 feet above the ground with no way to get down, for she was really hanging in the harness of her parachute.

Fuck this shit, for real.

But that's okay, isn't it. Someone will come and get me out of here. Someone always does. Surely someone is already on their way. Yes, everything will be alright.

Grace allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment, just to rest, only briefly and then it hit her like a bucket of ice water.

This wasn't a training flight.

This was a mission gone wrong and she was in enemy territory. She couldn't sleep, couldn't wait for someone to come and get her down this fucking tree, for they would kill her before getting her down if even.

Shit, Jake.

She wasn't alone here after all. That made it better, but also so much worse. Reaching for the knife that's strapped to her right leg, the youngest Kazansky made sure to be careful as she pulled it out, for losing the knife now would surely mean her end. After a while she had managed to cut through a few of the robes holding her to the parachute, but other than hoped it did not lower her any closer to the ground.

Groaning softly, Grace stopped to take a few deep breaths. She knew she needed to go on, to be quick, but on the other side, her arm was burning like fire, causing her to look over at it. Maybe adrenaline was leaving her body even though she couldn't really imagine why that would happen now of all situations. Or her arm was just so badly, not even the adrenaline was helping anymore. Maybe it was the shoulder, and she was aggravating it with every time she was jostling herself around in order to cut the robe holding her 15 feet above ground.

Fucking shit. What has her life become.

Taking her gaze from her shoulder, Grace watched the ground for a moment, trying to come up with an idea how to best land. Maybe she should try to stick the landing, but with 15 feet, she wasn't sure if that won't leave her with broken bones in her legs, but a broken bone in her leg was still better than a broken tailbone. Bradley would never let her live it down.

Bradley.

Fucking shit, she needed to go home. He was surely worried. If he thought she was still alive, but he should know as much. They were hard to kill after all. Most of them at least. His father not so much. Jesus. Maybe she was having a concussion.

Everything was spinning and she felt like throwing up once more. Concentrating on the task at hand was terrible difficult too. How was she supposed to get down from this fucking tree? Oh yeah, the knife and one more robe. Why was that stupid robe even holding her entire body weight? That surely wasn't natural.

"Land on your side." Grace muttered to herself, while cutting away at the robe that was just not giving in, until suddenly it did and dropped Grace like a bag of potatoes on the ground, it happened so surprisingly, Grace even let out a high yelp of surprise, followed by a groan as she collided with the ground. At least the snow was high enough, so she thought that she hadn't broken any more additional bones. Only aggravated her left arm further, which had her hold onto it while rolling around in the snow a bit.