I'm Back

Chapter 5

"Now my dear Catherine you are going to take this tape and bind her hands and ankles as tight as you can. Don't skimp on the tape I will check to make sure it is tight. I don't want her getting away.

Catherine knelt down with tears streaming down her cheeks and gently brushed the hair off of Sara's face. She checked her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when it was strong and steady. She wrapped Sara's legs first and then proceeded to wrap her hands behind her back. Catherine finished and was preparing to stand up when she felt the butt of the gun make contact with her right temple and like Sara she fell to the floor unconscious.

"Now ladies, we are going to take a little trip into the desert and I have place prepared for us. Catherine you will just be an added bonus, more fun for me." He bound Catherine with the tape and then he carried Sara out to the Denali that she had driven out there and placed her in the front seat. He then went back and picked up Catherine and placed her in the back seat. "Buckle up ladies, we don't want to get hurt when we start hitting the bumps." He spoke as he buckled their seat belts and walked around to get in the driver's seat. He drove for about an hour and pulled up to an old rusted out mobile home. "Home sweet home ladies let's go make ourselves comfortable." He carried Catherine in and spent time securing her with more duct tape to the bed. "Hope you're comfortable Catherine, we are going to be here for awhile." He went out to the Denali to get Sara and was surprised to find the front seat empty. He looked around to see if he could see her. "She couldn't have gotten far it's nothing but desert. I'll go in and wait for her, she won't leave without Catherine, not need to worry, she can't go anywhere." He tossed the keys in the air and caught them in his hand as he headed back into the house. He failed to see Sara under the Denali.

Sara quietly slid out from under the Denali on the driver's side, opened the door and reached under the front seat and pulled out the spare set of keys she always stashed there. She put the keys in the ignition and stood up to head towards the mobile home. She was still a little dizzy but she thought she had enough strength to do what she knew she had to do. She had seen some rocks near the front door so just before she entered the mobile home she picked up the biggest one she could find, she hefted it to test its weight and knew it was going to have to suffice. She carefully entered the mobile home and listened she heard voice coming from the right so she headed in that direction.

"I guess we will just wait here for Sara because we both know she won't leave here without you."

"You don't know Sara, she will head out of here and save herself and send help after she's safely away from here. It's what we are told to do. Besides she hates me so this is her chance to get rid of me."

Sara couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did Catherine really believe she hates her so much she would leave her here to fend for herself? Well I'm am just going to have to show her how wrong she is. Sara took a peek around the corner and saw that the man had his back to her so she made her move. She rushed into the room and brought her hand down hard on the side of his head. He swung around and she was able to hit him again and he fell to the floor unconscious. She grabbed his knife and cut the duct tape from Catherine's ankles and hands and grabbed her hand. "Let's get the hell out of here before he wakes up."

"Sara stop. Let's duct tape him and send someone back to get him after we get out of here." After they taped him up they headed out to the Denali. Sara jumped into the driver's seat and started the truck and started driving. "Sara, how did you get away and do you have any idea where we are?"

"I always carry a knife in my back pocket. He never checked, I came to about 20 minutes ago and he wasn't paying any attention so I was able to work it out of my pocket. As soon as he carried you in I cut the tape. Did you really think I would leave you there? How can you think that? Besides I don't hate you, I like you, and I admire you."

"That hit on your head must have affected your memory."

Sara turned to Catherine with a strange look on her face and when she spoke her voice was lower than normal. "No Catherine my memory is perfectly fine." She turned the car around and headed in the direction she thought they had come from. Not that it mattered because here in the middle of the desert, at least in this part there wasn't even a road. All of the sudden Sara stopped the vehicle and she leaned back against the headrest. She slowly turned her head towards Catherine. "I guess we should try to figure out where we are, and I think we need to do it pretty fast."

"Are you in that much of a hurry to get rid of me?"

Sara brought her left hand up from where she had been holding it against her side and Catherine gasped when she saw the amount of blood on her hand. "Sara why didn't you say something?" Catherine jumped out of the truck, stopped at the back and grabbed the first aid kit she knew Sara always carried. She ran around to the driver's side and opened the door and had to drop the kit to catch Sara as she fell out the door. For the second time that day Catherine checked for a pulse and found one. It wasn't as strong as earlier but it was still there. She gently pushed Sara back into the truck and turned her so that she could lay her down with her head facing the driver's door. She then bent down and picked up the first aid kit and ran back around to the passenger side and crawled onto the floor and knelt down by Sara's side. She worried when she saw the amount of blood on Sara's shirt and the worry turned to fear when she opened Sara's shirt and saw how fast the blood was flowing from a nasty gash in Sara's side. "Damn it Sara why do you always have to be so stubborn?"

"Because you wouldn't have me any other way." Came a weak reply from the woman lying on the seat. She tried to sit up and Catherine gently pushed her back onto the seat. "Come on it's just a scratch we have to get out of here."

"Sara lay down, this is much worse than a scratch and if you would just be still I will see if we can stop the bleeding." Catherine emptied out the contents of the first aid kit and frowned when she didn't see anything more than some thin gauze pads and knew they wouldn't do any good to stop the bleeding. She opened the glove compartment and almost laughed when she saw a couple of sanitary pads. "You must be the most prepared woman I have ever seen in my life but for once I love you for it." She took the pads and gently placed them over the gash on Sara's side and took one of the ace bandages and wrapped it around Sara's waist as many times as she could and then wrapped the second ace bandage over that one. "Well that's going to have to do for now." She looked up at Sara and saw that she was ghostly pale and knew she had to keep her awake. "Stay with me Sara, come on baby, fight for me ok? Can you do that honey? Can you fight?"

"I'll try, but only because you asked so sweetly." She tried to laugh but it fell short.

"Thank you." She made eye contact with Sara and made sure she had her attention. "By the way, you are not expendable. I would be lost without you, I mean the team would be lost without you."

"I liked it better the way you said it the first time. Would you miss me Cat? I would miss you."

"Well nothing is going to happen so we don't have to wonder now do we?"

"Are you avoiding the question? Because I would really like to know the answer."

"Let's figure out where we are and get the hell out of here and we can discuss this later."

"Ok, I will let you get away with it this time but you can't avoid it forever."

"Can you move? I'd like to get you to the back seat so you can stretch out and be somewhat comfortable and then we can get out of here."

"I usually prefer to get to know a girl a little better before I let her get me into the back seat but if you insist."

"You wish Sidel." Catherine laughed and decided two could play at this game. Sara tried to sit up and hissed as the pain shot up her side. She almost fell back but Catherine grabbed her hand and helped her out and into the back seat. "You know it wouldn't kill you to wait for help you know."

"But if I asked for help then you'd go all mother on me and want to take care of me."

Catherine deliberately dropped her voice an octave and looked Sara directly in the eyes. "Mothering you is the last thing I want to do and I'm sure I could take care of whatever needs you may have." She left Sara with her mouth hanging open as she shut the back door and got back in the driver's seat.

"Catherine I have some bottles of water in the back can you get me one before we take off?"

When Catherine opened the back she saw a medium sized cooler and was surprised when she opened it to see not only water bun granola bars too. "Can you eat anything, maybe you should try to eat one of these bars?"

"I'll try one. Thanks. I guess having some taking care of you isn't so bad. I could get used to this."

"Don't even go there Sidle. If you weren't bleeding you'd be driving. How's your head by the way?"

"It hurts a little bit but not as bad as my side. How about you, you got hit too, how is your head?

"I have a splitting headache but I took some of the aspirin you had in the first aid kit and I'm waiting for them to kick in. Do you want an aspirin?"

"Sure then why don't we wait for them to kick in?

"Because we have to get you some help, if we don't you might bleed to death."

"Catherine stop driving for a minute ok. We have no idea where we are, I think we came from this direction but if we go in the wrong direction it could do more harm than good. Let's talk about our options ok?"

"Sara if we don't find a way out of here you are going to die. I can't let that happen."

"Cat, will you come back here and sit with me please? I want you back here. There's room on the seat."

"Not with those long legs of yours." Catherine said as she opened the back door. She gently lifted Sara's shoulders and sat on the seat and placed Sara's head in her lap. She didn't see the satisfied smile on Sara's face but Sara also wasn't able to see the smile that was on Catherine's face either.

"Have you been checking out my legs Catherine?"

"That and a few other things Sara." Catherine said without thinking. Without even realizing it Catherine started to comb her fingers through Sara's hair.

"What other things?" Sara asked as she fought to suppress the moan at what Catherine's ministrations were doing to her.