Shadow Walker

Concussion

"Dec? Dec!"

Dec lay on hard, compact earth staring into a night sky bursting with stars. He was heavy with exhaustion and gravel shards dug into his back, inspiring annoyance. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and give in to sleep, but the incessant voice wouldn't let up. In fact, it was getting louder.

"Declan!"

It took him a moment to realise the voice was speaking to him, and that the stars swarming his vision weren't of the celestial kind. A hand tugged his arm, and the pungent smell of ammonia blasted his nostrils. He groaned and blinked as Teegan's face came into view.

Wait. Teegan? His mind word like an engine on my battery, before spluttering and giving up.

"Focus," Teegan implored, holding a limp rag to his nose.

Ammonia. Again, the smell blasted his nostrils and woke him from his daze.

"Are you okay?"

Okay? he wondered, and for a long moment, drew a blank. Then, he remembered—the Casino, the protest, the wasps, the trackpad. He flexed his fingers and felt the ensuing tissue burn in his forearms. For the best part of an hour, he'd been clinging to a shipping container thinking he might die, after which, he'd done something very stupid—the dull throb behind his eyes attested to that. Still, none of it explained Teegan's sudden appearance.

"What are you doing here?" he croaked and swallowed to clear his mouth of the fine granules of dirt and dust that had found their way between his teeth.

Teegan hooked her elbow beneath his armpit and heaved him into a sitting position. "I'll explain later. First, you need to help me with Rain."

Dec struggled to his feet, groaning as the world see-sawed beneath him. He was about to ask her how she knew Rain when his attention was taken by the sight of the Northerner, sprawled in the dirt a few meters away. She lay in much the same position as he had only moments before, only her eyes were closed and her hand was splayed towards them as though she were pointing. Next to her was a makeshift stretcher fashioned from two dowl rods and an old curtain. Teegan's doing.

He staggered forward and knelt beside her, using his hands to feel down the milky smooth ridge of her collarbone and locate the firm blimp of her pulse to the right of her neck. When he found it, he slumped back on his heels with a shaky sigh, laden with something he couldn't quite define. He told himself it was relief at knowing he hadn't killed her. He told himself it wasn't because he cared for her more than he cared for his own conscience.

Teegan watched him, saying nothing, but her piercing gaze was enough to inspire his guilt once more and remind him that she might still die yet. His gaze returned to Rain and he noted how she looked different, softer, lying there, eyelids smooth as butter, lips comfortably parted in the shape of a sigh. If it wasn't for the sheen of her raven hair, and the perfect poise of her tulip lips, he mightn't have recognised her. Could this really be the same Rain who, only moments before, had leapt across shipping containers to force him to his feet with the blade she kept in the back of her jeans? The Rain who'd shouted in his ear so loudly, his eardrum had itched, "One last leap of faith, Hancock, and you'll never have to trust me again."

He remembered how she'd shoved him, with all the force of her weight to the edge of the container and the way the road flashed by in a dark, blurry sludge, thick with the promise of freedom or death. She'd followed this up with another shove, this time with enough force to push him over. That's when, instead of going with the fall, he'd done the unexpected.

He'd turned and grabbed her wrists, using her weight to steady himself on the edge. Her knife had clattered to her feet and her mouth had formed a perfect O of surprise—an expression that told Dec she never intended to jump with him. She'd even tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he'd only tightened his hold.

"I jump, you jump," he'd said, voice a low, tight growl travelling from somewhere in the depths of his chest. The unusual timbre of his voice reminded him of someone, but by the time he'd realised who, it was too late to take his words back. He'd already committed to the jump, and any deviation from the plan would've seen both of them killed.

He'd sounded like his father.

As he'd launched himself off the edge, dragging Rain down in tandem, he'd felt her small amount of resistance shift to a muscle strung expectation of impact. In the seconds slowed by adrenaline, her hands had attempted to rip free of his grasp in order to afford them both a safe landing. Only he hadn't let go. In terror, his hands had turned to steel.

And that was all he remembered before the shock of the impact ripped their hands apart and filled his head with stars.

As he rose from the depths of recollection, he noticed Teegan had moved to kneel on the opposite side of Rain and was now folding her splayed limbs against her body. She gripped Rain's shoulder and prepared to roll her onto the stretcher.

"Are you sure we should move her?" Dec said.

Teegan glanced up the railway track, then back at Rain. "The next train could come by any second. We've got to get her back to the house before anyone sees us."

"House?" Dec said.

Teegan jerked her head away from the tracks and down a desolate hillock, peppered with tufts of tumbleweed. By the light of the moon, he could just make out the vague outline of a fence, beyond which, the ground fell away into a sparse valley, desolate save for a handful of poplars sucking at the remnants of an old dam. He saw no house. Only a crumbling stone wall that might've once stabled horses, but which had long given up the fight against the elements.

Teegan read his expression. "Didn't take you for a five star accommodation man," she said, proceeding to roll Rain onto the stretcher.

Dec didn't respond, just gripped the dowl rods on either side of Rain's shoulders with both hands and waited for Teegan to do the same at the other end.

"On the count of three," Teegan said. "One, two — "

With a unison heave, they lifted Rain off the ground.