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The fog was thick, the light was fading, the trees were an endless maze, and the snow coming down covering up previous tracks was helping no one. In spite of all that, Cee pushed forward. She didn’t know how far she’d gone, or how far she’d have to go, but she knew she wouldn’t stop until she found him.
It was supposed to be a simple job, she wasn’t sure how they got split up. The snow wasn’t even coming down that heavily at the beginning. He was right beside her, how did she lose him?
It was a simple job.
She carried a flashlight and his gun as she stepped over large branches and marched through the snow. She had to find him before it got too dark. They were warned about how things got when nightfall came. It was already too cold out to survive without a proper fire.
She was going to find him before it got dark.
There wasn’t another option.
Following behind her were Sage and Charlie, the two kids her age that she met while on this job with Ezra. There were other kids their age, but the three of them seemed to connect like magnets on day one, never leaving each other’s sides. They were on the job for over two months now and without fail, those two have always stuck by her. It didn’t surprise her that they were here now, but she wished they would have left her to risk her life alone and not bring themselves into it.
Ezra wouldn’t even want her looking for him. He’d laugh. He didn’t consider himself worthy of a search party, he’d tell her that she was trying too hard to get him to believe she actually cared about his well being despite it being six years since they started traveling together. He’d yammer on about something she didn’t understand before finally giving in and accepting help all while explaining why he never needed it to begin with.
She had to find him.
“Cee, it’s getting heavy, we should turn back,” Sage called out from a few feet behind her, breaking the silence that had been weighing heavily on her for at least two miles.
Turning back meant giving up on him, she wasn’t going to do that.
“You’re no help to him if you die out here, Cee,” Charlie spoke up this time, she could tell by his voice being louder that he had picked up the pace to try to get to her. She still kept moving forward.
If she didn’t find him, he’d die out there.
They left the lodging area not long after the jump team returned without Ezra. A crowd surrounded the large campfire outside listening to the leader of the run Marjorie like she had some sort of major announcement that would change everyone's lives. The only life that was changed was Cee’s. She announced that the run was sabotaged, something went wrong, they were targeted, it was a trap, all of it blurred together and none of it mattered. The only thing that did matter was the sentence that led Cee to where she was now; endless miles into a search for someone she refused to admit she’d never find.
“The crew managed to escape with minor injury–”
“Where’s Ezra?”
“We lost a lot of equipment but that won’t set us back–”
“Where’s Ezra?”
“We’ll rebuild, we’ll regroup, we’ll go at it again with a new approach–”
“Where’s Ezra?”
One of the men on the run looked at her, an older man with dirty blond hair and eyes filled with more sincerity than she cared for.
“We didn’t see him on the way out.”
They didn’t look for him but she would.
And she wouldn’t stop until she found him.
All she needed was his gun, the one he gave her in case something happened and she needed something more than a knife to rely on, and a flashlight. She didn’t even need Sage or Charlie, but they followed anyway.
She felt a hand grab her arm to stop her from continuing on, she whipped around to glare at whoever it was. Charlie.
Of course it was fucking Charlie.
“We can’t keep going, we have to turn back,” he tried to sound demanding, like he was taking charge of the situation, but she could hear the desperation behind it. She knew that moving forward was dangerous, that once it reached night there was no telling what they’d run into. The dangers of the unknown mixed with the cold led to a quick death.
It was the first thing they were taught when they arrived.
If Ezra was hurt, he wouldn’t last an hour on his own out there.
She held his gaze, silently arguing, pleading, the stages of grief passed over her in ways she hadn’t felt in years. They had time to turn around. They’d be safely back at camp before anything bad happened to them. She glanced over at Sage, her cheeks were bright red, she looked exhausted, Charlie did too but he kept his head about it. Ezra liked him for that. He liked that he was smart, he liked that he paid attention to things, that he was clever and quick. He said that Charlie reminded him of himself when he was younger.
Most importantly, he liked that Charlie was determined to keep Cee safe. She had other friends, Elliot, Margot, Tal. Sage and Charlie were the most consistent.
“ Looks like you’ve found yourself your very own Clo and Reive,” Ezra had nudged her on their second day of the job. She rolled her eyes at the comment but it stuck with her. Maybe he was right. Maybe she had found her own Clo and Reive.
She couldn’t be upset with Charlie and Sage for wanting to go back and take her with them. Clo and Reive would’ve done the same. Ezra would want them to drag her back to camp kicking and screaming and that’s what Charlie seemed to have planned if she didn’t go willingly.
She looked over her shoulder, staring down the path she wanted so badly to continue down, then up at Charlie. She nodded once before stepping around him to follow the trail of tracks back to the camp. Though it only took a few steps before she heard it.
She wasn’t sure what exactly it was, but she heard something. It was him. She was sure of it.
She continued moving towards the sound, blind hope leading her in the right direction. He was quiet, he wasn’t calling out for help, it was his usual mumbles and grumbles of pain, but it was enough. She could track him with that.
“Cee–” Charlie reached for her again but she jerked her arm out of the way and held her hand up to stop him.
Another groan of pain, she ran forward, the sound of her footsteps drowning out anything else but she paused after a few hundred feet to listen for him again.
“Ezra?” Her heart was racing, her breath was gone, but she called out. Hoping maybe whatever volume she could get it out would be enough for him to hear. By some stroke of luck, miracle, she wasn’t sure what to call it, she heard him call back. It was faint, but he was close. She moved quickly, darting left from where she was to go towards his voice.
She found him lying against a tree, holding onto his abdomen, his head was low but he was conscious.
He was going to be fine.
She dropped down to his side and assessed him, trying to find the main problem area so she could figure out how to fix it. He raised his head with a short laugh to greet her.
“You need to go–”
“Where are you hurt?” She tried to move his arm but he stiffened up, she glared at him, “We can get you back! W- We can get you help! ”
He shook his head, his breathing was inconsistent, his words were quiet, he moved his hand from the wound only to reach for her face. He paused halfway through raising his arm, instead opting to pull off the bloody glove he had been wearing with his teeth before he reached her. She leaned into his hand, allowing the rush of warmth to take over.
She found him.
She just needed to get him back to camp.
With his wound free, she finally got a chance to see what they were dealing with. The blood was coming out heavily, the cut looked deep. But nothing they hadn’t dealt with before. He had a wound like that on The Green.
They could treat that.
She looked back at Sage and Charlie for help. Ezra’s hand dropped in the process of her turning, the cold quickly soaked into her cheek where his hand had rested.
“I need something to cover this–”
The two of them shared a look.
“Can you two stop standing there and fucking help me! ” She ignored the crack in her voice as she used her own hands to put pressure on the wound, Ezra barely flinched.
The cold numbed it.
That was all.
The warmth of his hand on her cheek traded for the blood soaking her hands and her friends were doing nothing. She was helpless and they refused to say anything. She turned back to Ezra, ready to reassure him that she’d figure it out. They can beat the odds, they’ve done it before.
“Okay,” she breathed, looking down at her hands. She couldn’t feel them and it was getting dark. She needed to figure something out. “Ezra, I need you to–”
She felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned to look up at Charlie, then back down at the wound.
She didn’t have time for him.
“Cee…”
“We’re gonna get you back–”
“Cee?”
“You’re gonna be fine–”
“Cee.”
She choked down the cry that tried to come up her throat, she shook her head and put more pressure on the wound. Charlie lifted his hand and all at once it was like the dam had broken. Her head fell onto Ezra’s left shoulder. No more inconsistent breaths. No grunts of pain. No endearing nicknames or words of comfort. Just the sound of her muffled cries and the wind whistling through the trees.