Worth Saving (6 page)

“You’d better see to your boyfriend,” A female voice said. Both Claire and I twisted around to watch a young woman step out from the shadows.

Chapter Nine

Something about the woman set Claire’s teeth on edge; I could see her bristle with resentment. About twenty years old with that perfect complexion and wavy chestnut hair with an obvious natural curl. The woman looked like she’d stepped out of an L.L. Bean catalog, the college coed version. Designer suede boots and a green plaid shirt tucked into tight jeans completed the look but it was the cool assessing eyes that really bothered me.

“Who are you and where’d you come from,” Claire snapped. “Are you with them?” she asked, nodding to the two heaps lying in the street.

Smiling sweetly the woman stepped away from the building. “I think you need to be ready to catch your boyfriend, he looks like a three legged chair.” I did feel dizzy; the world was beginning to spin and I was having problems concentrating. Hell, I was having problems standing up.

Irked that her question had been ignored, Claire started to challenge her again when the comments registered. She turned and dropped her club in time to catch me as my body decided that standing was no longer a good thing and that consciousness was not all it was cracked up to be.

“You’re heavy,” Claire exclaimed with surprise, catching me around the shoulders and lowering me to the street.  “You’ve lost a lot of blood.” Her face was as white as mine as she scooted her leg under my head and reached for my wounded arm.  

Her fingers fumbled as she ripped my shirt to expose the wound. She threw me a quick glance, probably expecting to be chastised about always ruining my cloths and never wanting to disappoint a lady, I had to say “What is it about you always trying to rip my clothes off?

“Shut up,” She said

“Am I going to die,” I asked, only half joking.

“No way, not now, never,” She mumbled to herself as she positioned the large chunk of muscle and skin back over the wound, bringing the edges close together and applying direct pressure like she’d learned from every first aid book she’d read.

I was a little scared by the fact that it didn’t hurt. I could feel her moving the skin muscle, but no pain. The world slowed down and everything was starting to turn off, fading to black. She did something new and I exploded with a scream.

“I’m sorry, really, I have got to stop the bleeding,” Claire said, her face scrunched up with worry.

Small red rivulets continue to seep down my arm; the bleeding slowed but didn’t stop completely. Claire clamped the wound closed and frantically looked around the area for some kind of bandage, anything that could help stop the bleeding. Looking towards the library she called for Ellen to hurry up. A dead silence answered her. Shaking her head she mumbled something about Ellen getting lost in her own closet. 

Desperate, Claire did the only thing she could think of, using her teeth to hold the collar, she pulled her free arm through her T-shirt, then switched her grip on the wound to pull the other one free.  Both arms finally free, she reached over her shoulder with her bloody hand and pulled it all the way off.

Lying there in a new kind of shock, I watched as her beautiful bra clad chest leaned across my body to wrap the arm.  My eyes were like dinner plates, no way was I fading out now. A shiver of guilt ran from my toes all the way up when I saw pure pale skin smeared and corrupted by my blood. I felt guiltier when she caught me looking at her chest.

“Boys!” was all she said, shaking her head.

“I asked you a question earlier, are you with these two?” Claire said to the woman in the shadows, her voice tight with emotion, “Because if you are, and he dies, I’ll kill you,” She said through gritted teeth. 

Glancing at the woman to make sure she’d gotten the message, Claire saw the boys coming through the gate, returning from a scavenge and loaded down with full backpacks.  Holding their cross bows up and scanning the street looking for danger.

The three boys looked at her. Hector said, “What the… Um Claire…. Um you know you’re in your underwear … right?” Hector always was the observant one.

“Get over here and help me,” She yelled. “Come hold this bandage. You two find something and tie these guys up.  And keep an eye on her,” Claire said, indicating the woman by the shadows.

I laid there and let them take care of things. My head wasn’t spinning as much and settled down after Hector handed me a water bottle. 

I was proud of them when they didn’t panic, they jumped right in and started helping. Claire’s shoulders relaxed a little and her eyes started to mist up a little when she looked at me. I think she was beginning to accept the fact that everything was going to be alright.

Hector being Hector pulled a six foot length of rope out of a backpack pocket and tossed it to Schick/Shuck. They cut the rope and miracle of miracles, the two boys split up, each taking an attacker. Quickly tying their hands behind their backs then throwing their arms in the air like rodeo cowboys. Shuck smiled a mile when he saw that he’d beaten his friend.

“What’s going on?” Hector asked Claire as he relieved her of my arm. His obvious concern and worry painted on his face. “How bad is it?” He continued, looking at all the blood around him.

“I don’t know,” Claire answered her voice catching. “I heard Ellen scream and by the time I got here, Kris was fighting these two. He’d already taken one out of action, but the other came up with a knife and had Kris down and getting ready to stab him. So I hit him with a board.”

“Hey guys, I’m right here you know,” I said. They both looked at me then returned to discussing my performance.

“I thought Kris was going to be working on the roof today?” Hector asked.

Pointing towards the rope hanging down the side of the building, she indicated the rope I’d used to get down so fast.

“Wow, you got some serious cajones,” Hectors said to me with a smile as he lifted the bandage to see if the bleeding had stopped.

“Keep that on until we get him upstairs,” Claire admonished then turned her head to check on Schick and Shuck and their knot work.

“Hey, this guy is coming around,” Shuck said.

“Good, that way he’ll be alive when we hang him,” Claire said and I think she was deadly serious. “Can you get up?” She said as if she were asking me if I wanted sugar with my coffee. “I want to get you into bed,” she continued, her voice soft and soothing. Her face, throat, and finally her wonderful chest turned a pretty shade of strawberry when she realized what she’d said.

I have since learned that whenever Claire is embarrassed, she becomes bossy, taking charge. Of course, Claire takes charge even when she isn’t embarrassed.

She helped me stand up, directing the boys to bring our prisoners, including the woman and had Hector hold my wounded arm while she draped my other arm across her shoulder. Holding tightly to my hand we started for the library.

Now I am almost a foot taller that her five foot three and I tried hard not to stare down at her partially exposed cleavage. I wasn’t always successful, but I tried.

Letting her be the lead, I leaned on her as she led us into the library and up the stairs. We’d only gotten to the second floor before I had to stop to catch my breath. Ellen, and Margaret came running down the stair and almost collided with us as we stood there waiting for me to return to normal. Ellen blanched when she saw the two men and started backing up the stairs.

“It’s okay honey,” Claire said. “They’re tied up, and the boys have them.

Ellen stopped and tentatively came down the rest of the way, seeing my arm, Claire’s shirtless state of dress, and all the blood. I thought for sure she’d faint. Lifting her chin, she gathered herself and held out the First Aid kit. “I found it.”

“Thanks honey, Take it to Kris’s room, we’ll be there in a second. Margaret, get me some clean sheets and start some water boiling on the wood stove.”

The boys and I’d dragged a small wood pellet stove up to the fourth floor and fashioned a pipe out of a window for a chimney. We had to work our butts off to get it all the way from the hardware store and up those stairs. Claire’s smile of appreciation had made it all worthwhile. The fresh pancakes the next morning made us kick ourselves that we hadn’t gotten it the first time she’d asked.

Claire limited the cooking to one meal a day; the upstairs got way too hot otherwise. It’d be great this winter though.  It sort of surprised me to be thinking of the winter, only a few minutes ago I’d thought for sure I’d be dead by now.

Seeing that I’d regained my breath, Claire got me upstairs and gently eased my way into bed.

“What are we going to do with these two,” Schick asked. “I know Claire said something about hanging. Are we going to do it from the roof, if so we might as well just throw them off and save the rope.”

Both men turned white and started saying, “No”, “We didn’t mean it” over and over but everyone in the group ignored them as they pondered what Schick had said.

Shuck thought about it for a second and said. “I have always preferred the idea of ‘Burning at the Stake’. I know it was supposed to be for witches and stuff, think of it, we can have a huge bonfire, two actually, do it at night,” His thirteen year old voice breaking with excitement. Shuck has always been a bit of a pyromaniac. That was one of the reasons I didn’t mind them always being together, Schick had a calming influence.

“Naw, I say let’s impale them, you know like those Golden Hordes do,” Scheck said, trying to top his buddy in devising the most gruesome of deaths. “You know, get some 4x4’s, sharpen one end, put the other end into the ground, maybe in the park, make them high enough to be out of reach of the jumping dogs, at least until their body weight drags them down the pole. Of course they’ll probably already be dead by then.

“I don’t know they might still be alive,” Shuck interjected, watching the two prisoner’s faces drain of the last bit of color.

“Will you two shut up. Kris will figure out the best way to handle this later. For now, tie them up in the men’s room, both hands and feet. I’m sure you can figure out some way to make sure they don’t escape.  And tie her up in the ladies bathroom. 

“Hey, I haven’t done anything,” the woman protested.

“We’ll figure that out later,” Claire said and then looked at the boys as if to say, why aren’t you done yet. You know that look that only some women can pull off. A mere glance that says they are disappointed and expected more out of you. It is the ‘expected more’ that does it.

“Why do I have to be in a separate room,” the woman asked.

“Because I don’t trust you,” Claire snapped, and then looked again at the boys, “Why are you still here?” She said, probably figuring that if the ‘look’ didn’t work, direct orders might.

“Come on,” Shuck said, shaking his head, obviously confused by the undercurrent of tension between the two women, and disappoint that their little game was being broken up.  Shuck tugged the ropes binding his charge, Schick prompted the other man. Margaret, who had returned with fresh sheets still in their original package, grabbed the woman’s arm to lead her to the ladies room. That was the thing about Margaret, you could always rely on her to do what she was told, but nothing extra.

“I’ll be right back,” Claire said to Hector and hurried from the room.

“Well compadre, Once again you go out of your way to be the center of attention,” Hector said, shaking his head, trying to hide a smile.  “I mean, jumping off buildings in a single bound, dispatching two armed intruders with little effort, and half undressing our Miss Claire. All in a single afternoon, you are quickly replacing the Cisco Kid as my new hero, what do you have planned for an encore?”

“I plan on sitting here and letting you guys do the work for a change,” I jested back. “And you are quickly replacing Alexander Edison, or is it Thomas Bell, as my favorite inventor. I saw that pump thing you started to work on, do you think it’ll work,” I said. I realized I was rambling. I was trying to take my mind off the pain in my arm, face, knee and every other important muscle group.

Claire walked back into the room, she’d put on a new T-shirt but refused to look me in the eye. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed, what are you going to do? Margaret followed her in with a bowl of warm water and the two started cleaning me up. Using a warm wash cloth she gently wiped the grit and grime from around my eye. Her determined expression was focused and a little disconcerting, her touch was gentle though. “Not much more I can do for it,” she said before moving to examine my scraped knee. 

“This needs to be bandaged. Take your pants off,” She said, looking me square in the eye, daring me to make a snide comments. As I have said before, I’m not an idiot and told her to cut the pants. I think she was a little disappointed. Turnabout was fair play and all. She used Hectors knife to open them down to the hem and pulled back the flaps of cloth.

With freer access she quickly had it cleaned and bandaged. Turning to examine my right hand. She held it tenderly, spending a few seconds lost in thought. Sighing, she said “I don’t think anything is broken, just scrapes and bruises. It’s pretty amazing when you think about the other guy’s face.”

I knew she was delaying looking at my left arm, she was as nervous as me. Finally exhausting all other options she slowly lifted the blood soaked T-shirt. The bleeding had stopped. Motioning Hector back out of the way she started washing off the dried blood.

The knife had caught me about six inches above the wrist on the outside and sliced about two inches of skin and muscle, leaving a small flap of tissue holding it all together.