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“I already… thought… of that…”
Well. Weren’t they twinsies, a little panting duo.
Halfway to goal, she had to stop and catch her breath. She wanted to put him down, but she was afraid if she did, she wouldn’t have the strength to lift him again. Besides, as bad as things were on his injured back now, laying him out in the snow?
That was going to kill him for sure.
“You… know… something…” she said between gasping inhales.
“… what…”
“I’m… really… fucking tired… of you… dying on me.”
As wind whipped around them, her eyes sought the only light in her tunnel, the only light there was: The farmhouse off in the distance. Her brain told her it was just about three hundred yards away. Her body was convinced it was more like seven hundred and fifty thousand miles.
She started walking again because the only thing worse than going forward was staying put and her strength draining out completely.
Left foot. Right foot. Left foot…
And that was how it went. Meanwhile, the house seemed to be on some kind of rail system that drew it farther and farther away, the closer she got. Every time she stumbled or thought of pulling another pause, she stared harder at the lights and thought of how much it would hurt to be burned and in the cold, in the snow.
Nate’s suffering was her motivation.
“What,” he groaned.
She glanced into his pasty face. “Huh?”
Those blurry eyes sought her own, and seemed to focus the way she was on the house. “You keep… saying my… name.”
Nalla shook her head. “No, I… don’t.”
“Yes, you… do.”
“Shut up.” The chuckle she got back was not right. “That is… not funny…”
Nate started laughing in earnest. “This whole… situation is so… totally fucked up. Oh, my God… ow, ow, ow… don’t make… me… laugh—”
“I’m not!”
“You… are…”
“I’m…” She choked out a laugh. A couple of times. “Not… funny…”
She had no idea what was happening. One minute, she was on firefrom exertion while getting a burn victim to a house where no one could find out he was under the roof because of the condition he was in. The next, she was laughing, too. So hard, she lost hold of him and they both fell into the snow in a tangle.
As they both howled and giggled and snorted at absolutely nothing, and everything at once, she had a thought, in the way back of her brain, that there were so many different ways to release emotion. You could curse. You could throw things. You could run until you fell down. You could trap it inside and go banked geyser ’til you lost your shit.
You could cry until your eyes swelled up and your nose plugged solid and ran at the same time.
Or… you could ride the magic carpet of funny-for-no-damned-reason.
With someone who was in the same shitty situation you were.
When their laughter finally dimmed, Nate brushed at his face and tried to catch his breath as he glanced over at the female who was next to him in the snow. Nalla’s cheeks were bright red and her hair was smudged this way and that out of her ponytail and her lips were rosy and smiling. She looked younger. Or maybe the dark humor just erased the sorrow that he hadn’t noticed lurking behind her eyes until it was gone.
She was so strong, she hid her unhappiness well, but she was grieving for something.
Just like he was.
