Road Rage

Chapter twelve

Deaq dived toward Van as soon as he turned around and caught him by the back of his collar. The sudden stop flung Van back hard against the side of the boulder and he hung like a rag doll from his partner's hands. Deaq could feel himself slowly being pulled toward the edge as he tried to hang onto his partner.

"Let me go!" Van yelled as he tried to look up at Deaq.

"Van listen to me! I'm your friend, I'm trying to help you… Hold still, I'll pull you up."

"No! Let me go!...I'll show you I can fly." Van tried to wiggle free.

"Hold still!" Deaq shouted as he felt Van's shirt slowly slipping from his grasp. Images of his partner falling to his death flashed through Deaq's mind as he tried to anchor himself and hold onto him. "Oh God partner, please hold still." He said through teeth clenched tight with the exertion of holding Van's weight.

"No! I need to fly." Van screamed back at Deaq tears streaming down his face as he continued struggling to free himself. In his mind he thought that if he could fly the pain wouldn't come back.

By now Deaq was only holding onto Van's shirt by his fingertips, his own eyes welled up with tears. He couldn't lose his partner, not now, not when they finally had gotten him back. He could feel himself slipping across the boulder being pulled closer to the edge. If you go, I go He knew there was no way he was letting go. If Van went over, he'd go with him. Just when he thought he couldn't hold on any longer he felt someone grab his legs, stopping him from sliding forward. Then someone ran over to him and secured Van with a rope. When he was certain his partner wouldn't fall he left go and lay on the boulder taking a few deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down. He knew they were far from out of the woods and Van's condition could deteriorate but at least they had him now and could make sure he didn't hurt himself further.

When they pulled Van up he lay on his back looking over at Deaq who could see the fear and betrayal in his eyes.

"I thought I could trust you!" He said as he wiped at his tears. "Why didn't you let me go? I could have gotten away from all this pain if you had just left me go."

"You can trust me Van. I'm your partner, your friend."

"No you're not my friend! If you were you would have left me go."

Billie walked over and knelt down next to Van.

"Van you would have died if Deaq had left go of you." She said as she took some cool water from one of the search member's canteen and poured it onto a cloth. Once the cloth was wet she laid it gently over Van's forehead trying to cool him off. Van's breaths came in short little gasps as he looked up at Billie.

"Billie?" He said softly.

"Yeah Van it's me." She smiled down at him.

"Billie…why is Deaq trying to hurt me?"

"He isn't Van." She blinked back tears as she looked into his fever and drug glazed eyes and pushed his hair out of them. "Deaq's your partner, he cares about you. We both do."

"But…but he wouldn't have stopped me if he gave a damn about me, he would have left me go. I just wanted to go…I just needed to go…" Van's voice cracked as he thought about the pain that could return at any moment now that he couldn't fly away from it.

Billie picked up Van's hand.

"We're going to help you get away from the pain Van. There are paramedics here to help you, but you need to let them look at your injuries."

"No…no…" Van shook his head back and forth his eyes wild with fear.

Deaq reached over and put his hand on Van's arm.

"You've been hurt buddy, and they only want to help you."

Van looked at Deaq, a single tear ran down his face as he pulled his arm away.

"Get away from me….You're my partner, I thought I could trust you."

"You can trust me Van."

"Then tell them to go away. Tell them to just leave me alone."

Deaq swallowed hard when he saw the distrust in Van's eyes. He knew Van was mixed up and didn't know what he was saying, but it still hurt to think that his partner didn't trust him and was even frightened of him.

"I can't Van. They're here to help you." He stepped back so the paramedics could move in to work on Van.

"Please Deaq." Van looked at Deaq, his eyes pleading with him to stop them.

Deaq had to turn away as he felt a twinge of guilt. He knew Van was confused and scared but watching his partner beg him to help and knowing there was nothing he could do was tearing him apart.

Van fought them at first but finally gave into exhaustion and passed out. One of the paramedics, Juan, worked on his head and arm wound, while the other one, Kirk, examined his leg. Kirk took a scissors out of his bag and cut away the bloody material around Van's leg. Billie and Deaq both glanced at each other when they saw the damage done to his leg. One of the holes in Van's leg was bright red, pus and dried blood covered the jagged cut. It was obviously badly infected it. Kirk took out a small sterile knife and lanced the wound, blood and pus poured out of it. He next took out an antibiotic solution and poured it over the wound, cleaning it the best he could. Next he checked the gun shot wound in his leg. The bullet was in too deep and he thought it best to leave it as it was until they could get Van to a hospital. He cleaned it then wrapped both wounds tightly with clean gauze.

"What do you think?" Billie asked him when he was finished.

"It's hard to say. The deep puncture wound is the one that concerns me the most. It's badly infected and all that infection has been going through his system for who knows how long. Hopefully it hasn't damaged any of his organs. The bullet wound seems to be confined to his muscle and I'm fairly certain it didn't hit the bone. The best I could do was clean it and keep my eye on it till we get him to a hospital."

While Kirk worked, Juan wrapped a clean cloth around Van's head and arm. He also cleaned the bloody cuts on his hands and body then started him on an IV drip for infection and dehydration.

As they were working on Van the rest of the search and rescue team fashioned a makeshift stretcher and when the paramedics were finished they placed Van on it.

"If only we could get a helicopter in here." One of the men said as he picked up the front of the litter.

"The way these winds pick up around here it would be way too dangerous." His buddy said as he picked up the other end. "These winds would pull a helicopter right into the ground." He looked down at Van. "I just hope he can hold on till we get him to the road."

"Hey I know we're all tired, but we got to get moving. We need to get this man to a hospital as soon as we can." Kirk said as he checked Van's IV before they started off.

Later

They were almost to the roadway when Van suddenly woke up screaming in agony, the palms of his hands pressed tight against the sides of his head.

TBC