Page 21 of Deadly Strain

“I don’t have the equipment or the drugs. Plus, so far, it’s just you and me. And one of us needs to watch out for more bad guys with guns. We need another pair of hands.”

“I’ll keep a lookout and stay with him while you see if we can find anyone else who might be in better shape and able to help.”

Sharp turned to move away, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Wait. Your leg. It’s bleeding pretty steadily. Let me bandage that up for you.”

He looked like he was going to refuse, but then he nodded. “Make it quick.”

She grabbed a bandage out of the pile of medical supplies she’d found earlier and quickly wrapped his thigh. “I’ll need to take a closer look later.” He nodded while scanning the area outside the aircraft.

She left Rasker with Sharp and continued searching, praying she’d find someone else who was healthy enough to help her. But she only found bodies, none of them alive.

Time to talk to Sharp.

She headed back to where she’d left him watching over Rasker, but Sharp wasn’t there.

Gunfire erupted, and she ducked down over her patient, then looked to see where it had come from. Sharp was laid out on the ground a few feet from the aircraft, firing his rifle at three Afghan men. They returned fire, bullets ploughing into the ground all around him, but Sharp didn’t move or stop firing until all three were dead.

He left them where they lay, got up into a crouch and approached her. “Any luck?”

She snorted. “No. Everyone else is...dead.” That last word got stuck in her throat and she had to struggle to breathe around it.

She glanced at Sharp. He was staring at her hands. They were covered in blood and shaking.

His gaze met hers and he asked, “How much water do we have?”

“I don’t know, hadn’t even thought about it.” She should have. Had the crash scrambled her brains?

“Can you take stock of what’s usable? Water, food, first aid. Gather what you can and get it ready in case we have to leave in a hurry to find shelter.”

“I’m not leaving Rasker. Not unless there’s...” The words stuck in her throat, but she shoved them out anyway. “No hope.”

“Doc, I don’t want to leave him either, but we’ve got to have a Plan B ready. Okay?”

He was talking to her like she was a two-year-old, and outrage allowed her to refocus on the situation rather than her reaction to it. “I’m not going to freak out.”

He smiled at her; it wasn’t on his face long, but it was enough to tell her he didn’t believe a word.

“I hate it when you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Give me theI’ll take care of the poor defenseless femalelook. I did save your life a few minutes ago, remember?”

“That you did. My apologies.”

He was humoring her. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if I need you to slap me out of my hysterics.”

That made him laugh and he shook his head. “I’m never bored around you, Doc. You say the craziest things.”

She let out a sigh. “For some reason crazy doesn’t seem like a bad thing right now.”

“Ready to get back to work?”

“Yeah.” She glanced around. Smoke from the wreckage rose into the air. It was probably visible for miles. “How much trouble are we in?”

“This is going to draw unwanted attention, but if we leave, our rescue won’t be able to find us.”

She looked out over the desert, searching for movement or the flash of sunlight reflected off a weapon in the distance. “How long can we stay?”