"Wow, equal rights much?" I asked, aggravated by his tone. "Last time I checked, I'm doing a damn good job with those things," I said, choking out another cough.
"That's not what I meant, beach bunny. I'm just mad that you're shouldering all of this by yourself," he said, sounding more like himself. "But you sure are cute when you get all riled up," he added, finally chuckling.
"Whatever, I'm taking care of us fine," I grumbled, still coughing.
"You are," he said, running his hand over my back. His touch relaxed the rest of my temper away and I soon became drowsy.
My dreams twisted and turned as I went from lying in the freezing snow, yearning for the sun, to lying on the beach with the sun beating down on my skin. I welcomed the warm kiss of the sun until the pleasure slowly began to fade and the heat became unbearable. Sweat began to pour off my body, leaving me yearning again for the ice-cold snow.
I sat up, startled to find that the heat from the dream had followed me into reality. My sudden movement made Mason's arm fall away, and with it, the blanket of heat that surrounded me was lifted. I switched on the flashlight and shined it on the roof of our shelter so I could see.
Mason was fast asleep. Reaching a hand up, I swiped it across his forehead and was shocked to feel it burning up. All that heat I had felt in my dreams had manifested from him. I propped the flashlight up against a rock and leaned in so I could look at his leg, carefully unwrapping the gauze and piece of vinyl I had applied the night before. It stuck slightly to the wound and I had to peel it slowly away. When it was finally free, I picked the light back up and shined it on his leg. It was a putrid angry mess. The wound oozed thick yellow tinted liquid and the skin had changed from red to purple in color. How had it gotten so out of control? Had I made a mistake covering it?
Chapter 13
I was still sitting by Mason's leg when morning rolled around several hours later. His fever continued to blaze out of control, and his sleep was fitful as he woke several times only to fall back to sleep almost instantly.
The rain continued to fall and I wanted to scream in frustration. I had no doubts that we'd eventually be rescued, but I was beginning to doubt that it would come in time. Mason's health was on a rapid downward spiral.
"Beach bunny," Mason said weakly, lifting his head slightly.
I moved from my perch by his leg and moved up by his head. Smoothing a hand across his forehead, I was dismayed his temperature seemed even higher.
"My leg," he said, more of a statement than a question.
I nodded. "It's infected and you're burning up with fever."
"I know," he said, sighing heavily.
"Did you know last night?" I asked.
"I've known for a while," he admitted.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I demanded.
"Because, it wouldn't have done any good to worry you unnecessarily. I was hoping this goddamn rain would stop before it escalated this bad."
"I need to get help," I said after a moment of silence.
"You'd get lost. You don't know these mountains," he said, dismissing my idea.
"Well, you do, and surely someone of your expertise can help out a novice like me," I said sarcastically before I could stop myself. I felt like a complete ass for giving him a hard time when he was so sick, but we had to do something.
He sighed, closing his eyes. "Your best bet would be to follow the mountain down. If rescue missions have been detached, they'll work a grid up the mountain, so you're more likely to run into search crews that way. The issue will be remembering how to get back up here to show them where I am."
His words took some of the steam out of my sails and I sank back on my heels. He was right. I was notorious for getting lost back home. So much so that my mom often told me I would give "absent-minded professors" a run for their money. I would defend myself, but she had a point. My mind often wandered when I was taking in the colors around me, fantasying about how I could re-create them on paper. This trait usually left me driving past destinations, making wrong turns and more often than not, winding up somewhere entirely different than I originally planned. This character flaw had ne
ver had any real repercussions since my mom bought me the most state-of-the-art GPS on the market. Now though, my terrible sense of direction could mean life or death.
"Here, you need to take these," I said, holding out the four precious Advil pills I had unwrapped earlier for when he was awake.
"We should save those," he protested.
"For what?" I scoffed. "Seriously, you're not thinking we should save them for me, I hope. For someone so smart, you sure can be a dumbass," I said, handing him the water bottle.
He looked at me through hooded eyes, obviously contemplating arguing, but either lacked the will or energy to do so.
I watched as he swallowed the pills and then drifted back into a fever-induced sleep. While he slept, I began to concoct a plan to save us both. I left our shelter briefly to retrieve the raincoat I had anchored to the roof. Dragging the soaking wet raincoat into the cave behind me, I set to work, tearing it up.