Fighting with Fire #2 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨

We spent exactly four nights and three days in the hospital while Abi recovered from sepsis.

It turned out that I called 911 just in time. If we'd been out there any longer, then Abi might not have made it. But she made it, and she pulled through just fine.

The second night that we were there, some cops showed up and asked me about two dozen questions: Where was the bear trap? What were we doing out there, all alone? Had we crossed the border from North Dakota? If we did cross the border, why doesn't my friend have a passport with her? Where do I live? Where does she live? Where can they find your parents?

On and on, they kept asking me the same questions in different ways. I answered as vaguely as I could without giving too much away, sticking to our fake names and avoiding the truth at all costs.

Abi healed fairly well; the doctors at the Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital were pretty good. It was standard to spend three days recovering in hospital from sepsis, but the thing I was beginning to worry about next was the cost of it all.

Another reason to avoid hospitals in the States is that they cost an arm and a leg. Even if the patient dies, you still have to pay a hell of a lot of money for it.

So, the night before Abi was due to be released, we snuck out.

"C'mon Abi, it's time to go." I gently shook her awake. We'd already discussed the plan earlier in the day, so she was dressed in clothes under the hospital bedcovers.

"Yep." She yawned and stretched, before moving to get out of bed.

Thankfully, by now she could walk on her injured leg. Sure, she was still slower than usual, but she just gritted her teeth and got on with it.

At a Greyhound Bus Station about an hour and a half's walk from the hospital, we caught a coach that would take us to Great Falls, and then onto Missoula, the closest city to Coloma.

Coloma, empty now — haunted only by apparitions instead of the pack. Yet Missoula was the only place that I could think of where to look for the rest of my pack.

Home.

I knew that once Abi and I got into Missoula, it would be the early hours of the morning — what with the entire journey taking around five and a half hours.

As soon as we were on the coach, I helped Abi into a seat, making sure that we were in the middle of the coach, and she was in the window seat so that she wouldn't get travel sick. Abi constantly got travel sickness and motion sickness, and right now, that was just one thing I didn't need to have that going on as well.

"You good?" I checked as she settled into her seat.

"Yup." She yawned, propping her legs up onto my thighs and resting her face against the window glass.

It wasn't long after the coach set off that she was asleep, snoring gently, her breath leaving a streak on the glass.

Staring at her, I appreciated being with her. With her, it was like having hope again. Proper hope this time, not the fake hope that I felt when I was in Lake Oldoy with her. Jason was alive. I had to have hope with that knowledge.

Resting my head back against the seat, I closed my eyes.