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Light, when it came, was painful — much more so than the dark. It pierced his mind and shot through him like an arrow. A bullet.
‘He’s awake!’ He recognized the voice, but he couldn’t put a face to it.
Open your eyes Wolf, open your fucking eyes.
He winced, blinked, tried everything he could not to let too much light in. Slowly, the blurry shapes and colors he was trying to decode coalesced into a face.
‘Rainer?’ His voice was barely his own — it was weak, hoarse, only half there.
‘God damn, am I glad to see you awake.’ Rainer looked different — his cheeks were hollow, his brow furrowed. His stubble was long and there were bags under his eyes.
‘Where the fuck am I?’
‘In a safe place,’ he said.
Wolf shifted slightly and felt something inside his elbow. It was a cannula — a thin tube that had been inserted into his arm. Not only that; he had a clip of some kind over a finger on his left hand. Now that he felt more aware, he heard a machine beeping.
A hospital bed. That’s where he was.
‘What happened to me?’
‘You don’t remember?’
Maybe he did. Slowly, he started to go over the last things he remembered. Leaving Sophia with Marcus. The ride to the drugs lab. The trek to the hill.
Oh fuck.
The firefight.
‘Is everyone okay?’ he asked. ‘How many did we lose?’
Rainer breathed in — a breath that was more like a wince. ‘Too many. The Drifters lost men too. They were waiting in the forest. As soon as we crossed the threshold, they started to fire. It was a bloodbath. A disaster.’
A feeling of intense sadness washed over him. This had to be some kind of nightmare. He didn’t dare ask who they’d lost. But he had to ask something.
‘How did this happen? How did they know we were gonna hit them that day?’
‘We still don’t know,’ Rainer said.
A door opened and another man stepped into the room. ‘I hope you’re not exhausting my patient.’
Wolf didn’t recognize this guy — he was stocky and well built, with a short black beard and intelligent, dark eyes.
‘He’s awake,’ Rainer said.
‘You know, thanks to my years of medical training, I’d come to the same conclusion.’
Well this guy seemed like a laugh riot.
‘That’s a good sign, right?’ Rainer said.
‘Correct. In fact, it’s about the best sign out there.’ The doctor came over to the bed. ‘Normally, I’d offer you my hand, but I don’t think that’s appropriate at the moment.’
Wolf smiled weakly. ‘Maybe not.’
‘I’m Doctor Hunter Young. And I’m pleased to say that any danger for you is now passed. You lost a lot of blood — blood that had to be replaced. Your consciousness has been patchy at best.’
‘Patchy? Wait… I lost blood. What?’
