Irradiated

Chapter 9: Operation

Her eyes widened in deep shock, while his mouth was parted for the same reason. It must have been hard for them to both see my body the way it was. After seeing me though, she still refused to think I was dead.

"M-Mathias? Come on... Y-you've gotta get up... We have to... to get out of here." She tugged on the front of my shirt, urging me to get up. I remained still, unmoving with the exception of her pulling on me. "Derrick! Help me get him up!" She screamed at him, tears rolling down her pale cheeks. He stood still even as she demanded him, which only made things worse.

"You can't be dead... you can't." She sobbed as she stared at my blank expression and gripped onto my shoulders. "Please... Don't leave me..." She begged. Her tears dripped down onto my shirt, staining it along with the blood already on it.

"Angeli... I don't... I think he-" Derrick was wanting to make her face the fact, but she still went against it.

"He's not dead. He'll wake up. I know he will." She picked me up and held me against her, placing a hand on my back while the other was behind my neck. Drops rained down on the top of my head from her crying, while Derrick timidly approached us.

"I hope he does." He answered, staring at me. "Check if his heart is still beating." She nodded before bringing her head down towards my chest, placing her ear against the dark red spot soaked into my clothing.

"H-he's alive... But barely." She still smiled through her tears and put her hand up against my heart. "We're getting out of here. Don't worry, Mathias..."

Derrick looked around the cell and spotted the thing I was looking for: the backpack. "That's why..." He mumbled and realized that I didn't just barely cheat death. I barely cheated getting murdered. "Norman..." He growled and stood up abruptly. "Angeli, you can make it out on your own with him, right?"

"What? I can't carry him on my own..." She looked down at me for a few seconds. Nodding, she said, "But I'll find a way."

"Okay. Meet me in Münster. I know that you have a sense of where you're going, and you should be able to get there by night, maybe." He handed her an old and torn up piece of paper. "A map, just in case." He told her and headed out the cell. She stared after him, and then turned her attention to me. She was still holding me tightly, as if afraid to let me go.

With a sudden surge of strength, she hauled me up along with her. When she stood, she dragged me along, but not before cleaning away the blood on my chest and taking out the bullet. My wound fully dressed, she went to work on my head, though it wasn't such a large impact.

She stopped every once in a while to catch her breath. I wasn't too heavy, but I was a grown man. It had to be a difficult task hauling me around while unconscious.

Like Derrick had guessed, Angeli had arrived in Münster by the next night. I was still barely breathing, slowly losing the last bit of life I had left. Eventually, if the wound wouldn't close up on its own, it would mean certain death. Yet, I still awoke in the midst of a dark and lonely night.

"Uh...?" My eyes adjusted to my shadowed surroundings to find that above me, where I was facing, was an indigo sky filled with millions and millions of stars. For a second, I believed I had actually died and this is where I had ended up, but then rustling trees brought me back to my senses.

Angeli came through a group of trees, carrying a deer over her shoulder. It wasn't until she set it down that she finally noticed I wasn't "dead" anymore.

"You're awake!" She scrambled over to me, placing her hand on my forehead. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Not really." I answered hoarsely, coughing afterwards. My head still ached tremendously, but my chest hurt even more.