Higher Ground (31 page)

“Why is he here?” Adam demanded of Torres.

“I’ve convinced Glyn he needs to do his job and at least check on Zach.”

“He’s not touching him.”

“Don’t be a jackass, Adam,” she said.

“I’m only here because this bitch threatened me,” Glyn half snarled. “I’m going to see every single one of you people in court.”

“Oh yes,” Adam sneered. “I’m sure a judge and jury will totally take the side of a paramedic who refused to treat a patient because he was more interested in saving his own neck.”

“Both of you, knock it off,” Torres ordered. “This isn’t about you two. Zach needs a medic. Glyn, do it. Adam, stand aside.”

Adam glared at Torres, but after a moment, he did as she asked. When Glyn knelt beside Zach, Adam stood right behind him, looking over his shoulder and watching every move he made.

“Have you had his boot off?” Glyn asked, casting the blanket aside and examining the leg.

“No. His foot isn’t injured. Why take off his boots?”

“To check his foot is still warm, you damn fool. If the break or your attempt at setting it”—he sneered those words—“has blocked any blood vessels, his foot won’t get oxygen; it’ll go necrotic, and he’ll lose his leg.”

Adam was already pale, but at these words, he looked as if he was going to faint. Torres reached down and grabbed Glyn’s collar, pulled him partway to his feet.

“A little less criticism of the man who did the job you should have been doing would be appreciated.” She let him go to flop back down. “Get on with it.”

Glyn muttered dark threats but got on with the job, undoing the laces of Zach’s left boot. Adam watched, riveted, as Glyn eased the boot off with one hand, holding the leg steady under the ankle with the other. Zach moaned, and his head spun as the movement sent waves of pain up his leg. When Glyn peeled off his sock, Zach’s foot looked normal, pale, and bony, with some rather gross black hairs on top of the big toe. How Adam had been able to bring himself to touch the disgusting things when he gave Zach a foot massage remained a mystery to Zach.

“Feels warm enough,” Glyn said, running his hand over it in a professional manner very different to the massage. “You can feel this?”

“Yes, fine.”

“Wiggle your toes, please.” His cold manner had been replaced by a more businesslike one. Zach wiggled his toes, which gave him some pain in his leg, but his toes did what he wanted them to.

“His foot’s fine,” Glyn said and muttered something about dumb luck. He ran a few more checks before covering Zach with the blanket again and standing. “I want my med kit back,” he said to Adam. “Especially the drugs.”

“You seriously think I’d let you take charge of his painkillers?”

“You’d better, because you’re damn lucky you haven’t put him in a coma so far. Adam, I…” He looked back down at Zach, then back at Adam. “I’m not going to hurt him, for God’s sake.”

They stood for a moment, gazes locked, and then Adam glanced down at Zach. Asking for permission? Still acknowledging Zach as the leader? When it came to Adam, he didn’t trust Glyn as far as he could throw him, but the overt hostility between them reassured him Glyn must have given up all hopes of anything happening with Adam. He nodded.
Go ahead, trust the guy. Give him a chance to redeem himself.

Adam picked up the med kit and handed it to Glyn.

After Glyn stalked off, Adam sat and started to put Zach’s sock back on. He took the other boot off and stashed it beside the first one, not saying a word. Did he feel bad he hadn’t checked the foot before? He shouldn’t; he wasn’t to know. He should be mad at Glyn, maybe. But that time was past. No point in it anymore.

He reached out. Adam took his hand and lay down beside him on a blanket. The stretcher kept them from getting as close as Zach wanted to be to him, but their hands stayed clasped. Nothing they could do but wait.

* * * *

“Adam! Adam! Wake up!”

Adam jerked awake. Damn, he hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He was supposed to be watching over Zach. He looked over at him. Zach’s eyes were open and wide. He seemed okay.

“What is it?” Zach said. Only then did Adam take notice of the shouts. They came from Simon. He shoved aside the canvas flap of their shelter and bent to look inside with a huge grin on his face.

“They’re here. The ship’s back.” He ran off again, and Adam climbed out of the shelter. The noise of it hit him as he finally woke up fully. The ship he’d seen twice before, and at last would be getting aboard, hovered overhead. Third time lucky. He laughed with delight and turned back inside to Zach, who was struggling to sit up, trying to see outside.

“Lie down. It’s okay, we’re rescued. The ship is here.”

Zach flopped back and passed a hand over his eyes. He didn’t cheer or laugh the way Adam thought he might. He only spoke softly. “Oh thank God. Nobody else will die, Adam. Nobody else will die.”

“You did it,” Adam said quietly. He took Zach’s hand and squeezed it gently. “You did this. You got us up here. We’re alive because of you. Nobody can ever take that from you.”

“But—”

He was going to talk about the people he hadn’t saved, but Adam wouldn’t let him. He shook his head. “Three hundred people who would have been dead are alive because of you.”

“And I couldn’t have done any of it without you.”

Adam bent down close to him. “It was great working with you, Dr. Zach Benesh.” He kissed him, gently, cautiously. The tent flap behind him pulled back. Whoever it was didn’t back out when they saw them kissing, just waited.

Adam looked back when he was good and ready. Glyn.

“If you’re done molesting him, we have to get him ready to move.”

The ship couldn’t land, not only because they couldn’t find a large enough piece of flat ground but because of the seismic activity. If a quake hit while the ship was on the ground… Adam didn’t dare think about it.

So they had to be hauled up. From a hatch on the bottom of the hovering ship, the crew lowered a cradle which could take two people at a time.

“Zach should go first,” Adam said, but Torres shook her head.

“Let’s give it a couple of test runs first before we start loading casualties into it. Volunteers?” Nobody stepped forward. Not out of fear, Adam thought, just nobody wanted to be the first to step into the lifeboat and look like a coward. “Okay, you and you,” Torres said, pointing at a couple of the men and giving them no chance to argue. “One of you lie down, one sit up. Come on, let’s move it.”

Adam left her to organize that and went back to wait with Zach. About fifteen minutes passed, and then Simon approached them.

“Time for Zach to take his ride. We’ve given it a good test. Jan’s already gone up. It’s safe.”

“Here we go, then,” Adam said. He leaned close to Zach. “Zach, I want to come with you, but—”

“I know. You’re in charge, you have to supervise, you have to be last off. It’s okay, I’ll see you on board.”

They carried him from the shelter and lowered the stretcher into the cradle.

Inescapable logic told Adam Glyn should go in the cradle with Zach, much as he hated the idea. He watched it all the way up until it vanished inside, and then a couple of minutes later, the empty cradle began to return.

“Right,” Adam said, turning to the others, “let’s form an orderly line, please.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

People almost fought to be the last off, amusing Adam. Most of the women went first, the men gallantly insisting on it, too macho to go before the ladies. It took almost an hour, people going up in twos, sometimes with one of the dogs. Adam grew more nervous all the time, fearing a disastrous quake at the last moment would rip the ground from under their feet. He kept looking at the gaps in the ring of mountains that had once circled the island and imagined Shusara vanishing next.

At last there were only four of them left. Adam, Simon, Torres, and Jones. Adam thought of the link he had to everyone who’d set out with them. They’d made it. Through fear and pain, they’d kept on climbing. Passing through this danger together had bonded him to all of them, not only to Zach. Soon they’d all go their separate ways, and he’d never see most of them again, but they’d all be part of each other from now on.

“Simon, Mr. Jones,” Adam said as the cradle touched the ground again. “You next.”

“Barbara should go before me,” Jones said.

“No, she shouldn’t,” Torres said. “Get aboard, Jonesy.” He didn’t argue any further. Simon didn’t either. He slapped Adam on the shoulder.

“See you upstairs.” He and Jones climbed into the cradle and hunkered down. It began to ascend.

It had only gone a few meters off the ground when they heard the familiar rumble. The ground began to tremble.

“Stop! Stop!” Simon yelled up at the hatch.

“No! Keep going.” Adam dropped to sit on the ground, fearing being thrown off his feet and hurt. He grabbed Torres by the arm and pulled her down beside him.

“Lower us back down!” Simon shouted up to the hatch above. The cradle stopped.

“No, dammit,” Adam groaned. The cradle might get damaged if it came back down. The quake would pass; they’d be fine. Though the water was so close now…

The cradle lowered but not all the way to the ground. It stopped about a meter short, and Simon and Jones reached over the sides. Adam and Torres scrambled up, and before Torres could protest, Adam grabbed her around the waist and lifted her. Simon and Jones grabbed her and hauled her into the cradle. He dropped back down to the ground until she was safely aboard.

“Now you,” Simon called down, and the three of them reached for Adam. The cradle rocked alarmingly, and Adam was terrified it would break and strand the four of them down here. But the quake wasn’t stopping—he had to go. He reached up, and Simon and Jones grabbed his arms. His feet left the ground, and he tipped up into the cradle. Torres hauled on his clothes and then his belt to pull him all the way in.

An instinct told Adam to scramble for one end of the cradle once he was securely inside it. “Spread out,” he called to the others. They were overloaded, and they had to distribute their weight more evenly. The cradle rose, but its cables creaked, and it moved more slowly than usual.

Adam stood when he reached the end of the cradle, hanging on to the cable. Probably against safety rules, but he wanted to leave on the feet which had carried him up the mountain.

The shaking ground fell away as they moved up slowly, chilled by the dark, cold shadow of the ship looming overhead, until the cradle passed through the hatch into a burst of warmth and noise and activity. It swung away from the hatch, and crew members helped everyone out. When his feet touched the metal deck, Adam felt the vibration of the engines and the hovering motion of the ship, yet it seemed more solid than the ground had for the past week.

“Stand clear. Hatch closing,” a crew member called. Adam dropped to his hands and knees on the deck to look out of the hatch, wanting one last glimpse of the ground he’d climbed so high to reach. He’d come so far, in more than just kilometers, to gain that ground. It had cost so much. A strange stillness held them all for a second when the hatch closed, cutting off the wind and the noise of the ship’s engines. The crew member spoke to one of his colleagues.

“Report hatch secured to the bridge.” He helped Adam to his feet, giving him a weak smile and appearing almost as shaken as Adam felt. “Thought we were going to lose you four at the end there. Welcome aboard. We’ll be on our way home in a second.”

Home? Perhaps for him. Where was Adam’s home? Zahara was gone. Earth was three months away. He knew where his home would always be from now on.

“Can you take me to see Zach Benesh?”

THEY TOOK HIM to a tiny medical bay, where Zach lay unconscious on a bed, with a nurse methodically cutting his clothes off. A doctor stood by the bed, writing notes and checking scanners. There was no sign of Glyn, which suited Adam fine.

“Doctor, how is he?” Adam asked.

“Mr.…?” she said.

“Gray. Adam Gray, his partner.” The word came easily, entirely naturally. “Why is he unconscious? He wasn’t before.”

“I gave him a light sedative. He needs the rest.”

“Oh yes. Of course. Thanks, Doctor.”

“He’ll need surgery on his leg to reset it and repair some muscle damage. I’ve already started replacing the blood he lost, so he can go straight into surgery when we arrive at Dunbarrow.”

“He…he will be okay?”

She smiled at him. “Oh yes. He’s going to be fine.”

Adam sagged with relief and had to lean on the bed to keep his knees from giving out.

“You should get some rest too.”

“Yes, I…” He remembered what she’d said about resetting the leg. “Ah, I set his leg, after his accident. Did I screw it up?”

“No, Mr. Gray,” she said, smiling. “Falling down a mountain screwed it up. You did the best you could in the circumstances. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong we can’t fix. Now, please, you’re clearly exhausted; go and find yourself a bed and sleep. I promise I’ll call you if there’s any change.”

Though he hated to be away from Zach, Adam knew she was right, so he would come back once he could see straight and stand up without swaying. The tiredness had caught up and hit him like a club, as if it finally had permission now they were safe. After thanking the doctor some more, he went to find a place to sleep.

He didn’t get straight to his bed. When he left the medical bay, he bumped right into someone who’d left the mountain days ago, not only minutes.

“Ann!”

“Hello, handsome.”

Korrie looked cleaner and tidier than when he’d last seen her. More like the lady he and Zach had visited what seemed like a year ago. His exhaustion forgotten momentarily, he caught her up in a bear hug, lifting her off her feet.

“What are you doing here, you mad old rock witch?” he asked, setting her down and grinning stupidly at her.

“I was there at the start of the colony, I had to come and see the end of it. After all these years studying the island and…” She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Well, I had to come.”

Her words sobered Adam, and he followed her to a port to look out at the ring of islands that was all that remained of Zahara. Adam put his arm around her as the ship accelerated away, the ring growing smaller, finally disappearing from sight. Tears ran down her face, and Adam didn’t say anything, just held her. Someone else he’d be bonded to forever. More of the group had drifted over to join them, saying a silent good-bye to their friends, homes, and lives.