A World Without Trust

Chapter Ten

Maybe I should have gone with Essie and Harry, it’s sort of creepy just sitting in the Ute alone on a dusty road just off the highway. My shoulder is currently throbbing, so I try to take my mind off the pain by drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick.

Suddenly I hear footsteps crunching through the forest and look up to see Essie staggering towards the Ute. The smile slowly disappears from my face as I see her covered in blood. I search behind her for Harry but see no sign of him and automatically presume the worst.

“What happened?” I ask flustered as Essie collapses into my arms. “Are you hurt? Whose blood is this?” Essie looks up at me and opens her mouth to speak. Just before she can get a word out her eyes shut and her head falls back limp. I lower her to the ground and check her pulse. Her heart beat is still steady and her breathing regular, but slow. What the hell do I do? I frantically look around me looking for the first aid kit. Leaving Essie lying on the dirt road, I scrounge around in the Ute looking for the kit. I finally find it in the glove compartment and rip it open, its contents flying everywhere. What am I even looking for? I need to calm down and actually see what is wrong with her.

Back down on the ground I carefully examine her trying not to move her too much. I finally find a huge gash on the back of her head, almost as if she was hit really hard with something and it split the skin open. I heave her up into the back of the Ute ignoring the searing pain in my shoulder, and kneel beside her. I pull a towel out of her bag and twist it into a donut shape so I can position her face down on her stomach. By this time the blood from the wound has started to dry up causing her soft red hair to matte together, making it difficult to clean around the wound.

What seems like a life time has passed when I am finally finished. It doesn’t look like any stitches are required so I do my best to wash all the blood from her hair, place some cotton wool over the wound and wrap a bandage around her head. I slowly flip her over to see if she is still alive and breathing before I examine the rest of her. She is covered in blood, which can’t just be her own. Either both her and Harry got into trouble and had to fight their way out or Harry got smashed by a girl. Either way I am just relieved that she got out okay and is back here with me. I take my shirt off and wet it with the remainder of my water and wipe it over her face, cleaning the blood and dirt off. She looks so beautiful and peaceful just lying there and it takes me away from reality for a moment.

I must have dosed off because I get awakened by Essie poking me in my back. I roll over to face her and am greeted by a dazed look on her face.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I have been hit by a truck… no make that train traveling at the speed of light!”

“Yeah, you have a pretty nasty gash on the back of your head. You may have concussion as well due to the fact that you collapsed when you got back here.” The look in her eyes tell me that she is remembering the events that happened earlier today. I sit up and retrieve a bottle of water from my bag handing it to Essie as she slowly heaves herself up into a sitting position. I watch her as she guzzles half the bottles contents, admiring the cute way she bites her bottom lip as she screws the cap back on.

“Where is Harry?” I finally ask. A long period of silence falls between us as she tries to avoid eye contact. That’s when I see the tears fall from her blue eyes. This can only mean one thing.

“Is he… you know… dead?” I ask blatantly.

“No.” She says taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She then goes on to tell me how Harry had been a spy this whole time and that she was so confused at why he ‘saved her life’.

“So… where is he then?”

“He’s back at the petrol station. I was about to shoot him and leave but didn’t notice the van pulling up again outside. The next thing I know I have shot one of the men in black right in the head and the other one was running full charge at me. Harry threw himself at the man and yelled at me to run, but of course I was in a bit of shock, resulting in my feet sticking to the ground. I didn’t notice the third guy running up behind me because I was too busy watching Harry wrestle the other one on the ground in front of me. Suddenly I was on the ground holding the back of my head, seeing stars. The third guy had smashed me over the head with a baton hence the gash that I have now.”

“Then what?” I asked perplexed by her story.

“Well, it all happened so quickly. I crawled a few metres across the ground to retrieve my gun that had flown out of my hands, flipped over onto my back to see the guy who hit my over the head approaching me quickly with a knife in his hand. I held my gun up and shot him in the chest causing him to collapse on top of me.”

“That explains all of that blood on you!” I comment putting all the pieces of the story together.

“I then got up and ran out of that place. The trouble was it took me about five minutes to get my bearings to enable me to actually walk straight.”

“So you just left Harry there? With that guy?”

“Yeah, he yelled something at me as I was going through the door, but I was too dazed to hear what he said.” She just sits there and looks at me as if it’s completely normal to just leave someone in trouble to fend for themselves. Sure I get why she would want to just leave him, but it is still pretty harsh.

“What?” She asks me after a while. I voice to her my concerns only to have her roll her eyes at me. “Seriously Ashton? He was leading us into a death trap!”

“I no, I understand that. He saved your life… twice! Don’t you think that means something?” Essie just sits there silent.