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A few moments later, he heard steps.
“Are you there?” the woman asked, this time the voice was within hearing distance—she was close.
“Here!” he called out, holding on to a glimmer of hope that she would help them.
Steps thudded across the tunnel, the sound closer and closer.
“Please keep talking so I can find you,” she said.
So Rafaelo did.
In no time, he felt another presence in his proximity, and he swallowed hard at the muted joy that arose within him.
“Here,” he said again, this time in a low voice, for he felt her close.
“Are you hurt?” she suddenly asked as he felt shuffling next to him.
“Light?” he inquired first.
“No, I’m sorry. My lighter went out a while ago.”
“It’s okay,” he sighed. “At least you’re here. Thank you. I really thought…” he croaked, unable to put his feelings into his words.
“Are you hurt?” she repeated, her hands suddenly on his torso.
“Not me. He is, though. His leg got caught in the explosion and he won’t stop bleeding.”
“I brought some stuff with me,” she said as she laid down a bag, removing some items.
It was so dark, he could barely detect any movement except for the sound of her voice and the shuffling of her bag. Yet despite that, a quiet conviction washed over him as he instinctively knew she was going to save them—they were going to make it out of there alive.
“This is disinfectant, and this is a bandage roll. I think between the two of us we can manage to help him,” she spoke slowly, though Rafaelo detected a small tremble in her voice.
She was afraid, too.
For fuck’s sake. Of course she’d be afraid. She was just a woman, sent on a suicidal mission in a collapsed building. Once more, he was becoming increasingly angrier with everyone on the outside—all the men who’d thought to send a woman to do their job.
“It’s okay,” he suddenly said, his hand finding hers in the dark and squeezing hard. “Don’t worry. We’ll get out of here.”
She seemed surprised by his words, and she squeezed his hand back, her skin warm under his.
“There’s a small hole at the other end of the temple that leads to the outside.”
He nodded pensively. Maybe he’d missed it when he’d looked for an exit.
“First we need to stop the bleeding so we can move him,” he added.
“Alright.”
She came closer, bringing the supplies with her. Their hands wrestled in the darkness until they managed to find the man’s injury. She poured disinfectant on top of it and Rafaelo held the man still while he writhed in pain.
“Hang on,” he whispered to the other man, his fingers sticky with blood as she worked to cleanse the wound.
“That should work for now,” she released a deep breath as she leaned back to take the bandage. “I’m going to wrap the wound now.”
“Let me do it,” he said, bumping into her. “I’ll do it tighter.”
She let out a soft sigh as she handed him the roll of bandage.
