He laid his head trustingly in her lap and closed his eyes. She sat like that for a long time, stroking his hair, until she eventually nodded off herself. The morning sun found them both like that, she slumped over in the seat asleep, he asleep in the seat beside her.
Gradually they awakened, and his green eyes looked into her brown ones.
"You are American." His voice was full of amazement.
"Yes," she said simply.
His eyes narrowed. "Why you do this?" he asked suspiciously.
"I couldn't just leave you to die if there was any chance at all that you might still be alive."
"You should just leave me to die," he said. "Better that than face American firing squad."
"I couldn't do that," she told him. "Can't you see? You're someone's son, perhaps someone's brother. If I were your sister, how do you think I'd feel knowing you had died alone in a foreign country?"
His eyes became moist with tears. He muttered something in his own language. Then he smiled. "I am Yuri," he told her.
She smiled back. "My name is Erica."
"You have lovely name."
"Thank you."
"My comrades, where are they? They are all gone?"
"Yes."
"Dead?"
"I don't know."
"I am all alone, then."
"Not anymore."
His eyes met hers once again, and in them, she saw gratitude.
"There are other Americans here, close by?"
"Yes, my friends."
"They will kill me." His voice was heavy with despair. Erica didn't know what to say. She knew that he was probably right.
She examined his wounds. The bleeding had slowed significantly, if not stopped completely.
"You need medical attention," she told him.
"No!" His eyes widened with panic. "American doctor would kill me."
"No they wouldn't, Yuri," she assured him. "That's not the way it works over here."
Yuri began to sob. "I am sorry, Erica," he said. "They told us Americans are greedy capitalists, care nothing about anything but money and property, refuse to help their own poor. Need to be taught a lesson. I never knew I would meet American girl like you."
"That's not true at all, Yuri," Erica said. "Most Americans are very compassionate people who help those less fortunate than themselves any way they can."
The sun was starting to beat down on them. Erica was beginning to feel both hungry and thirsty, and knew that the same was true of Yuri.
"I'll see if I can find a stream nearby," she told him. "You stay here and rest some more."
Erica soon found a stream and filled her canteen. She also found a bush with some berries on it and gathered as many as she could hold. She returned to the jeep, where she gently lifted Yuri's head and held the canteen to his lips. He drank in huge gulps and had soon emptied the canteen. She returned to the stream to refill it several times, and on her final trip, she saw that the others were there. Aardvark, Daryl, Jed, Matt, and Robert all stared first as Yuri, then at Erica.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Jed.