Liz
She woke slowly to the feel someone stroking her cheek. She stretched for about 30 seconds before pain shot through her whole body. She clenched her eyes and her teeth at the sensation. She thought she had hurt before. Yesterday was nothing compared to this pain. Even breathing caused rippling pain that made her hold her breath.
"Holding your breath is going to make it hurt worse. Take slow shallow breaths instead."
She opened her eyes to a blurry figure next to her. She blinked several times to bring him into focus.
"We're getting out of here today. Reddington is sending extraction for us. All we need to do is get there."
"How far," she rasped.
"We have about 12 hours to make six miles."
She closed her eyes again. Normally that would be more than enough time to cover such a distance but she felt like it would take 12 hours for her to make six blocks let alone six miles. But she needed to do it, so she would. Lately that had been her mantra.
"Okay," she said opening her eyes, "Let's get me vertical."
"Before we do that I want to give you some pain medication now and then we are going to do that every four hours until we are out of here."
Pain medication sounded good to her. In fact it sounded really good. She watched as Tom drew up another dose of medication, swabbed some skin, and pushed the medication into her system. It burned the same as before and quickly gave her a warm feeling. Right up until Tom pulled the top of the sleeping bag away and the cold air hit her. Her teeth started to chatter. When he started to pull her up the chattering stopped as the fires of hell consumed her and sweat began to bead up all over her body. This was a nightmare! Once she was up in a seated position the teeth chattering started all over again.
"Hang tight. You're still running a fever which is why you're so cold. I made a sling for this arm to take some pressure off your wound and then I have a quilted flannel shirt for you."
Tom worked deftly to secure the sling in place while making sure no part of it rubbed at the dressings on the wound. He watched as color slowly returned to Liz's face. Grabbing the warm flannel shirt he helped her get the good arm in and then proceeded to button it down the front to keep it in place.
"Help me up. . . . .please."
Between the two of them they got her to her feet. With Tom's help she took some unsteady steps which slowly got steadier. He clearly noticed the change as he backed away while she walked in small circles.
"Looks good. Why don't you take a few minutes to yourself while I get us packed up."
She nodded and proceeded to find a place to relieve herself. Plenty of fun with only one hand but she managed without either vomiting or passing out from the pain.
By the time she made it back Tom was completely packed up and was clearly just waiting for her. Obviously it had taken a lot longer than she thought to complete the simple task.