The 11th Generation

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

     We escape through the fish mart and head to the trucks outside the wall waiting for us, like planned.

     Simon notices Salix is leaning on me, his arm wrapped over my shoulder, I'm helping him walk but his weight is too much for me. Simon rushes out of the truck and helps me by grabbing Salix and pulling him up into the backseat. I hop in after him, Salix resting in the middle of us. "Drive!" I yell to Aeryn and the driver who're just staring at me. Salix is losing blood, his skin now pale, and the light in his eyes now fading. "Don't you dare. Hold on," I try to suppress the bleeding with my hands covering his wound. My hands are soaked with his own blood. Why would we go on this suicide mission? Why didn't my father send his own men? The worst part of this is we never retrieved the map, it was a failed mission from the beginning. Salix eyes start to close slowly, his mouth open gasping for air.

     "Salix, stay with me. We're in this together!" I cup his face with my hands. "I can't lose you too," tears stream down my face. He raises his uninjured arm up to my face, his thumb wipes away my tears. He forces a smile, his eyes struggling to keep open.

     "You'll be okay." He says.

     "No. No you don't get to decide if I'll be okay without you. I won't, I won't be okay without you," I'm losing him and I don't know how to save him, I don't know if I can save him. I'm helpless.

     "Look." Simon points in the air. It was an airplane but only smaller, it didn't have wings but instead two whirling blades on top of it making a deafening drill noise.

     "It's a helicopter," Aeryn says.

     The large helicopter hovers a few feet off the ground next to our trucks. "Get on!" It's my father.

     "Dad!" I yell up to him, "Salix needs help!"

     He turns his head back into the helicopter gathering people to retrieve Salix. A man jumps out of the helicopter, my bad holding a rope for us to climb up. Aeryn, Nicholas, and the drivers hop in first, I'm reluctant to leave Salix as I step out of the truck and watch Simon and the man put Salix on a yellow stretcher, just like the one Link was carried in. My heart sinks to the bottom of the stomach. "Get on!" Simon yells to me over the loud whirling sound of the helicopter. "We got Salix, don't worry," he places a hand on my shoulder. I nod and climb the rope, my father reaches out his hand, I grab it and he pulls me up and into a hug, it's so good to see him again. I watch as they carefully pull Salix up and the Simon and the man trial next.

     "Let's go!" My father orders to the pilot once everybody is on. He turns his head to me, "We brought a doctor. Salix will be just fine." He smiles. His blue eyes are light, filled with life. I didn't know how'd I'd confess to him about Link, I didn't want to see that light leave his eyes like the light that left mine after murdering my mother. I shouldn't be thinking about this, I shake my head. I have to focus on Salix. I watch as two men work on Salix, all I see is red, red on their hands, red on their clothes, I close my eyes and look away. I have to look away.

     "How did you know we needed help?" I ask.

     "Surveillance, remember?" He laughs lightly.

     "Dad we can't, we can't trust them," I turn my head. My attention is on Aeryn and Simon who are sitting next to each other talking.

     "Why not?" He raises an eyebrow.

     I don't have an answer. My father looks down at the ground and then walks away, my father seems distant, cold, I can't exactly put my finger on what is so different about him. My father heads over to where to pilots are, I watch him walk away but I notice Aeryn and Simon are walking toward me.