Into the Light

[heartofcourage]

Eva glanced towards Peter as he commented that they would have find out how good of a kisser she really was one day. Was he saying that to be funny or did he really want to find out? She turned her back to him, checking the straps on her pack as a small smile appeared on her lips. Perhaps things with Peter wouldn't be so bad after all. She could get use to the idea of having him around.

Once the llama was packed they were back on their way through the mountain. Gus was racing around, barking excitedly as he inspected the trail ahead of them. A comfortable silence enveloped them as Peter guided them towards his place in the woods. It was a small cabin, not big enough to hold anyone's worldly possessions. No wonder he liked her farm so much. It was paradise on earth compared to this place.

She dutifully followed him as he led the way further behind the cabin. His hiding spot was ingenious and well hidden. Perhaps she could find a few things for him to do around the farm like this. Having hiding places would be well worth it should someone come along with less than kind intentions.

She watched as he pulled a mountain of things out, showing her just what he had collected. Gus sniffed at the pile in curiosity as he handed her a radio, telling her that it was for them to use between themselves every day. It would make a lookout so much easier she thought as Peter interrupted her with a question.

"Of course it was worth it." She said as she pulled off her pack and placed it on the ground beside her. "Anything to make life a little easier is always worth it. Charlie will enjoy the radios."

She immediately started to gather things, working with Peter to cart everything to the llama in order to pack it all later. It was her job to get everything organized as Peter made sure that nothing was left behind. Side stepping around the llama, she started to pack, meticulously making sure that everything would survive the trip back to the farm.

"I need some more rope, Pe..." She didn't even finish his name when a loud crack split the silent sky around the cabin.

Instinctively, Eva ducked her head and found herself sprawling against the ground. It was a gunshot, that much she knew. From where...she had no idea. Her heart was pounding loudly in her ears as she placed her hands beneath her to rush for cover. There was no strength in her right arm. Gritting her teeth, she glancedto her shoulder and saw the blood pouring from an open wound. She was a sitting duck...

 

[DM2015]

Peter's head had perked up at a soft growl low deep in Gus's throat. He looked to the dog, then followed his gaze toward the cliff as Eva called out to him, "I need some more rope, Pe..."

A single shot erupted, but the echo of it against the cliffs and then up and down the narrow ravine was simply ominous. Without hesitation, Peter spun with his recently reloaded SCAR and in just seconds emptied the entire clip on the cliff side.

Dust, rock chips, and tree debris were still raining down on their position as Peter caught sight of a crouching Eva glancing to her blood covered hand. Without even having to have thought of what he'd been doing, Peter had already kicked the empty clip out of the MK-17 and replaced it with another. He rushed toward his traveling partner as he emptied this clip as well, grabbing Eva's unharmed arm none to gently and dragging her off to the cliff side right below the shooter's presumed position.

"You're okay," he told her, a combination of basic reassurance and knowledge about where the bullet had struck her, far away from any vital organs. Without hesitation, Peter ripped open her blood soaked coat and blouse. By the level of blood, he was certain they'd gotten doubly lucky and no major artery had been struck. He reached for a third clip on his belt -- only to find the clip pouch empty -- then pressed Eva's own hand to her bleeding wound, telling her, "You're gonna be okay. Trust me. This is nothing. Scratch."

He searched the cliff above him for movement but saw nothing, then looked around for Gus and again came up empty. After another search of the cliff, the blood pouring from an open wound. He went back to Eva for a moment, knowing he had to help her while also knowing -- as she had earlier -- that they were sitting ducks unless he either got to another weapon ... or surrendered.

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva felt a hot sickness building in her throat at the sudden pain in her shoulder. She retched once, coughing as the sounds of Peter's weapon echoed off the cliffs surrounding them. Breathing was a struggle, keeping calm even more so. Then he was there, his fingers digging into her left arm roughly as he yanked her to her feet and further down the way until they were in relative cover.

"It doesn't feel like a scratch." Eva murmured as he checked over the wound, his words meant to be reassuring as he pressed her hand tightly over her wound. "My rifle is by Lois. Ammo in my pack."
She shivered slightly from the pain, her breaths coming in sharp ragged gasps.

The sound of vicious snarling met them as Gus came upon his target. It sounded like it was right above them. Her green eyes turned towards Peter in that moment and they knew there was no time to waste.

"Go. NOW!" She hissed. "Don't give the bastard the chance to hurt Gus."

 

[DM2015]

"Go. NOW!" Eva hissed. "Don't give the bastard the chance to hurt Gus."

Ironically, Peter had been thinking very much the same thing. On his tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, war dogs had been an item of great debate. They were trained for things humans couldn't do well -- sniffing out explosives or bodies under rubble -- or for things that were simply too dangerous for humans, such as penetrating dark buildings to search for insurgents or suicide bombers. And while the dogs were considered expendable -- relative to their human counterparts, at least -- the soldiers who worked with them often became as close to and protective of them as they did their fellow human soldiers.

Peter peeked up the cliff again, then rushed out for the rifle and pack. With his momentum being away from Eva, he simply continued onward, across the small clearing and into the tight but now empty cave. Bullets struck the ground near him, then the cave walls both outside and inside. A fleck of rock struck his cheek, drawing blood that he wouldn't even notice until later.

In a flash, he had Eva's rifle loaded and trained on the cliff's edge. Rather than spray the hillside, this time he looked for movement at which he could actually fire with a hope of doing damage. The reason for this was two fold, with one of those folds being the still snarling Gus.

Suddenly a body appeared in the brush, and just as suddenly, Peter let loose with three quick shots. The body flinched and fell, out of Peter's sight to the ground very near Eva's location. Peter watched for more movement, and when he heard Gus yelp, then go silent, he feared the worse. There hadn't been an accompanying shot, so if the man had gotten the dog, it had been with a knife or other non-fire arm weapon.

The activity on the cliff went still...

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva's knees gave out and she sank to the ground as Peter ran off for her weapon. Gunfire was loud in the canyon as the person above them fired after Peter. Closing her eyes, she willed the pain to go away. She was useless and she hated that feeling. She couldn't Fire a weapon if her life depended on it. If Peter was taken out, they were as good as dead.

She heard three blasts, the sound of a body falling heavily to her left and the yelping of a dog. She was screaming inside as her eyes opened to look around her one more time. There was no movement and no sound, save for Lois grunting where she had been tethered.

"Gus!" Eva called out for the dog, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs. "GUS!"

Through sheer will, she forced herself to her unsteady legs, fingers still clutching at her wound. She moved carefully And cautiously, listening for any signs that another ambush was about to happen. That was when she saw her dog, limping carefully out of the cliff on a wounded front paw. She could have cried in relief in that moment as she stumbled towards him, her good arm wrapping the dog up as tightly as she could.

"Good boy." She whispered against his fur as she knelt in the dirt. "Good boy, Gus."

 

[DM2015]

Eva's movement away from the edge of the cliff caught the attention of the second man up topside. He called down, "Don't move bitch or I put a bullet through you!"

Peter couldn't see Eva from where he was crouched, but he presumed from the man's next statement that she was either doing as she'd been ordered or the man was trying to bluff Peter.

"Toss that rifle out now, or I kill your Slit."

Peter eyed the cliff, listening to the man's voice ... zeroing in on his position. It was hard to do with the way sound echoed through the narrow gorge. It was a given, however, that Peter wasn't about to disarm and trust the man who'd started blasting away without any attempt to negotiate or take live prisoners.

"She ain't much of a Slit!" Peter called out from his dark hiding spot. "Too much horizontal time, you know what I mean?"

The man up on the rocks laughed aloud, causing Peter to focus in on a smaller area. "A wet warm place to park you cock is better than a rough palm, though!"

Peter shifted a bit to his left and leveled the rifle toward one particular dark spot that didn't seem entirely natural. "Tell you what I'll do! You let me keep the dog ... and you can have the woman!"

There was a short moment of silence, followed by a movement of foliage that didn't match the rest of the movement about it that was being driven by the wind.

"Well, if she ain't good'nuff for you to keep...!" the man hollered, "What makes you think that I--"

Peter's rifle cracked, and in the trees above the foliage jerked as a screech of pain sounded. Quickly, he emptied the magazine into the same spot, each round following a slightly lower path on the assumptions that he'd hit the man and that the man was falling to the ground.

The echoes filled the canyon, reverberating away and back and away again. About the time the last of the repetitions washed over Peter, he saw the man sliding down the rock face feet first, until he caught on a root, twisted and tumbled down the face to land on the ground.

Peter waited a moment, but with no further gun fire, movement, or demands, he was certain enough that it was over to leave the cave and come out into the open. He checked both men, finding them about as dead as he'd want them, then looked over to Eva. He shrugged and said with a smirk, "Guy talk."

 

[heartofcourage]

The shouting from the man above the cliff had her hugging Gus tighter. She didn't dare move now that she had him back in her arms. She didn't even think that she had the strength to move from her spot. Tired was long gone. She was exhausted now and wanted to sleep forever if possible. She had absolutely no idea how she would make it back to the farm but she was determined to never slow Peter down in any way. He could go back, take care of Charlie and Millie, and she would make it...somehow.

The conversation between the two men seemed to float over her. She heard bits and pieces, enough to know what they were talking about, but she still didn't move or care. Then came the shots. The rifle was loud in the woods, her eyes closing as she winced from the terrible noise. Gus licked at her face, showing his concern for her as everything went quiet around them. Peter was moving, checking out the men that he had killed. Her head lifted from Gus's fur as she heard him talking.

"Alright." Was all she could muster up to say before she turned away from him to retch into the grass.

Her stomach was rolling with a combination of relief, pain, and adrenaline. She had never been shot before and it was definitely an experience that she didn't want to repeat any time soon. It hurt like hell, even though he tried to convince her that it wasn't serious. It felt serious, dammit.

 

[DM2015]

Peter went to the llama, which had settled down to lay its belly against the cold dirt as soon as the activity had ended, and dug through the pack Eva had filled until he located one of the first aid kits. He ran back into the cave for a moment, then emerged with something he'd considered leaving behind: a bottle of whiskey.

"Drink," he commanded, shoving the bottle into her hand and he quickly set about to cleaning and dressing her wound. "It'll help with the pain ... and who knows ... I get you drunk enough you might rethink the morning kiss thing."

He pulled his Army knife from his belt, pressed it against Eva's bloody shoulder, and with a skilled swipe, sliced the bra strap giving him better access to the wound sight. He urged her forward into his chest, saying, "I need to look for an exit wound."

Peter inspected Eva's back, then sighed a breath of relief. "It went all the way through. It wasn't a hollow point, so the damage is..."

He didn't finish when he realized that Eva had passed out while in his arms. Peter wasn't too concerned, though. She'd lost some blood, but it hadn't been enough to worry about her bleeding to death. It was just pain and shock that were getting to her...



"Welcome back to the land of the living," Peter said, sitting over the slowly waking Eva. When he was sure she was relatively conscious, he answered the question he knew would be coming soon, "Three days. You've been asleep for 'bout 80 hours."

He stood and crossed the amazingly long distance of six feet from the little cabin's bedroom to its kitchen and soaked a rag in cold water. When he returned to her bed and dabbed at her forehead, he smiled devilishly.

"So ... tell me about that tattoo just below your left breast."

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva would never have imagined she would have been so grateful to see a bottle of whiskey in her life. She drank as he told her to, the liquid hitting her stomach like a brick. The thought of retching again came to mind, but she forced her stomach to stop. That whiskey would only burn more coming back up as it did going in.

She was barely listening as Peter set about dressing her wound and making sure that nothing vital had been hit. He pulled her against his chest as she suddenly felt so tired. So incredibly tired. The world was spinning around her as he told her he was looking for an exit wound. Oh there's one there, she thought to herself as everything slowly dimmed to a low hum before everything finally went to black.


The world slowly came back to her with horrible reality. Her head was pounding. Her shoulder even more so. Her mouth felt like it had a wool sock crammed into it. She also felt the slow ache in her bones of a fever. Had she been sick, she wondered to herself as Peter suddenly appeared in her vision and told her she'd been out for three days. Really? Three days? It seemed to have gone by in a matter of moments.

"Millie's going to be pissed." She said softly, her voice a croaking that was similar to a frog. "I promised her five sleeps."

He was gone, returning with a cool rag which he dabbed her forehead with. Her green eyes closed briefly, savoring the moment before he broke the silence with a question that made her crack her eyes open again. She actually lifted a hand to touch her ribs below her breast, knowing that tiny tattoo intimately. She had gotten it on a trip to the city at one of the few places in town that would do work without charging a literal arm and leg for their services. It was a tiny frog, an inside joke between her and her father. She had gotten it shortly after he died.

"My dad always told me that I had to kiss a lot of frogs in life to find the one good one out there." She said softly. "I got it after he died. I was 17."

She glanced towards the door of the cabin where Gus was lazily laying in the sun on his side. He seemed no worse for wear after their ordeal, though she could see a bandage wrapped around his front paw.

"His name was Gus." She murmured even softer. "Gus Taylor. I miss the hell out of him."

 

[DM2015]

"Millie's going to be pissed," Eva said, sounding as exhausted and beat as she was. "I promised her five sleeps."

"She loves you," Peter responded, turning the rag to uncover a cool side. "She'll understand."

She explained about the tattoo -- something Peter hadn't expected in the least -- adding, "I got it after he died. I was 17."

When she explained the source of the dog's name, Peter couldn't help but laugh aloud. When he caught her reaction, he said, "No, I'm not laughing about that. I, um ... well, I was-- We were kind of bored while you were passed out ... and there's only so much packing and repacking you can do before you go mad, so..."

He half turned and called Gus over. The dog moved to the side of the bed quickly, immediately dropping his haunches to the dirt floor, the first of his new tricks. Peter pointed directly to Eva and said firmly, "Schützen."

The dog hopped up, stepped forward, spun to be next to Eva's shoulder, and sat again, facing Peter, who stood up and moved to the less-than-far wall of the little cabin. He patted his chest and said, "Bösewicht."

The dog bared his teeth and growled. Peter hunched over a bit, as if about to lunch forward, and Gus stood to all fours and prepared for the fight. Then Peter stood tall and repeated his first command, adding yet another word, "Schützen ... freund."

Gus again dropped his haunches to the ground, and as if nothing had happened, opened his mouth and let his tongue fall out as if a puppy again. Peter walked forward, offer the back of his hand to the dog, and Gus licked the skin, then nudged the limb with his wet nose.

"One of my duties during the Iran Affair," he said, using the term the State Department had preferred, "was training military dogs. Guard ... villain ... friend. The NATO rep' had been this short little German gal from Hamburg ... mean little bitch but good with dogs."

Peter pointed to the middle of the cabin's floor and said, "Spielen tot."

Gus hurried to the indicated point and dropped to the floor, his legs spread out in an unnatural way. Peter took one of his back feet and pulled on it, but the dog didn't move. He stood and leaned over Gus, lifting his head, then lowering it again. The dog followed the command to play dead like a pro.

"Schützen," Peter said once more, and in a flash Gus was up and at Eva's side again, ready to fend off any bösewicht stupid enough to get too close."

Peter looked into Eva's face and, suddenly a bit embarrassed, said, "Like I said ... we were bored. Might come in handy some day."

He stood and went to the tiny wood stove, no larger than a picnic cooler, and carefully poured some thick, hot soup from a pot. He brought it to Eva, blew on a spoon full, tested it with this own tongue and lips, then held it out to her. "You need to eat ... to get past this fever ... and back to Millie."

Through all of this exchange, Peter never once brought up the fact that Eva was now topless below the blanket reaching up to just above her well rounded breasts...

 

[heartofcourage]

"Millie is also irrational and six years old. She won't understand." Eva said in her dry tone, her nose wrinkling as Peter started to laugh after she had confessed about her father. "Well, that's not the reaction I was expecting."

She watched in silence as Peter explained what he had been doing the time she had spent asleep. Gus had always been a good dog, but she had never seen him respond to commands like Peter was giving him. It was a little intimidating to think that her dog could be so easily trained to do whatever someone with the right command word could want.

Once Gus was back at her side, she raised her green eyes towards Peter as he looked a little embarrassed about what he had done. "So, you spent all the time training the dog? Well, I hope Gus was an excellent student."

She so desperately wanted to sit up and get back down to business, but she felt incredibly weak. It didn't escape her that she was naked from the waist under the blanket. It was probably easier for him to care for her wound that way. It didn't really bother her, but she was incredibly fond of that green plaid shirt that had been ruined by the gunshot.

"We don't really have time for me to lay here and wait for a fever to go away. We need to get back to the farm before everyone really starts to worry." Eva commented, struggling to sound so much more confident and stronger than she really was as Peter brought back over a bowl of soup.

She could have fed herself. Despite the pain in her arm, she most definitely could have handled the task. However, there was something in Peter's gaze that made her shut her mouth for once and actually let someone else care for her. She dutifully parted her lips and ate the offered spoonful without complaint, her eyes filled with a weary exhaustion.

 

[DM2015]

"We don't really have time for me to lay here and wait for a fever to go away," Eva said. "We need to get back to the farm before everyone really starts to worry."

"They were worrying before we left," Peter said casually, blowing on and offering another spoonful of soup. "Hurrying back now won't do anything to change that."

He continued to feed Eva as he listed off some of the additional things he'd added to the llama pack and other bags he'd prepared. When she told him she'd had enough to eat, he retrieved her a cup of spring water and told her to sit tight while he went out into the dimming evening for more firewood. When Peter returned, he stoked the fire, added both smaller pieces to fire it up and a huge chunk of oak to keep it burning all night.

"Listen, um..." he started, a bit hesitant. When he turned to look at her, he had a shy smile on his lips. "Now that you're conscious and aware of your surroundings ... it might be a good time to mention that to ward off the fever you were suffering, I've, um ... I've been sleeping with you. You know ... body heat and all."

He held his hands up in a mock surrender gesture, then wiggled his fingers as he chuckled. "Kept'em to myself, promise." His smile widened as he added devilishly, "Was hard ... but I managed."

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva ate until she couldn't eat any more. She felt miserable. Never in her life had she spent days just lounging in bed. She enjoyed hard work and now she felt like a complete and total invalid. Perhaps Peter should have just left her behind and gone back to the farm.

Watching from the bed as he moved around the cabin, coming back first with a cup of water and then again with wood to keep them warm through the night. She dozed. It was easy to lose track of time until he started to speak to her again. His voice snapped her back to consciousness and she watched as he smiled shyly before explaining that he'd been sleeping with her to ward off her fever.

"I suppose I can trust you." Eva said softly, her normal dry humor gone as she looked at him with an exhausted green gaze. "For now. If you do touch me, I'll break your fingers when you sleep."

 

[DM2015]

"If you do touch me," Eva said with a smile, "I'll break your fingers when you sleep."

He half turned away as he responded, "Well, worse things could be broken in my sleep, I guess."

He chuckled as he returned to the last of his end of day chores. After he asked if she needed anything more and she responded as she did, he lowered the wick in the lamp and dropped into a second makeshift bed on the floor that he'd made the first night yet hadn't slept in after finding Eva trembling with fever. It wasn't going to be nearly as comfortable as the one in which his injured traveling partner was sacked out -- it had two mats and two spare blankets underneath for comfort, as well as three blankets over top for warmth -- but Peter figured that now was not the appropriate time to ask to slip in beside the topless and likely dangerous beauty.

"Night," Peter said, giving her a smile as he began pulling the single blanket about his fully dressed body. He looked to Gus, whose own gaze was shifting between the two potential beds. When Gus spun, leaped over the top of Eva, and snuggled under the covers into the most comfortable spot in the cabin -- for man or beast -- Peter chuckled and laid back, murmuring, "Traitor."

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva was very nearly already asleep as Peter got the cabin ready for the evening. Her eyes were closed, the blankets pulled up to her chin and her eyelashes heavy on her cheeks. She could have slept for a hundred years and not felt rested at all. It would be a long road to get back to the physical activity that she was use to, but it was something that she would fight hard for.

Briefly, she opened her eyes as Gus settled beneath the blankets beside her, a long sigh issuing from the dog's snout as he got comfortable and Peter was regulated to the pallet on the floor. It didn't seem fair, but as Peter muttered at the dog in a good nature, she knew that he really didn't care that he had lost his spot to the dog.

"Peter?" Eva called softly as Peter wished her a good night. "Thank you for not leaving me for dead. And thank you for taking care of me."

 

[DM2015]

"Pffft, of course," Peter said, surprised that Eva had even contemplated the idea that he might have abandoned her. As he pulled the single blanket up to his neck and closed his eyes, he added, "Besides, I'm not sure I know the way back anyway."

His lips spread in a smile as he settled in for a chilly night on his own. He peaked out through cracked lids to spy Eva for a moment, then closed them fully. He tried to vanquish the smile but couldn't. While he'd told Eva that he'd kept his hands to himself, he couldn't help but remember that one morning when he'd awoken to find one of her plump breasts firmly within his grasp and her round, muscular buttocks pressed up hard against his dream-created erection. He'd managed to pull away from her without waking her, and from that time on, he'd slept atop one of the thinner blankets under which she was sleeping, so that she would still benefit from his body heat but not be subjected to his subconscious fondling.



Peter let Eva sleep well past dawn the next morning as he stoked the fire, checked Lois, and worked on Gus's next trick, stalking prey without barking and scaring it off. He didn't do as well with this exercise as he had the others. Gus loved the sound of his own voice, much as Peter had often been accused when he was a younger man.

As the sun rose enough to begin warming the Earth, Peter went inside and found Eva already awake. He smiled to her, asking, "Strong enough to begin the trek back to Millie?"

 

[heartofcourage]

The next morning, Eva woke to the sounds of Gus playfully barking. It was a familiar sound that she heard on the farm often and she could almost imagine that they were back home already when she opened her eyes and reality came back to her. It was stark, but she found that she could move easier and the ache in her bones was gone.

She sat up carefully, biting back a yelp of pain from her shoulder as she searched the room for something to pull on. She spotted a pile of folded clothes sitting next to the bed and figured that Peter must have pulled them from her pack. She had managed to pull on a white undershirt when he entered the cabin again, asking her if she was ready to start back down to Millie.

"Yeah." She said softly, a thin sheen of sweat already on her brow as she looked up at him with those great green eyes. "Can you help me finish dressing? This white shirt about did me in." She asked him in a soft voice, her pride a little wounded at having to ask for help in such a simple task.

 

[DM2015]

"Of course," Peter answered, setting aside the things in his arms and moving to her. He chuckled, saying, "I un-dressed you. The least I can do is dress you, too."

He was very careful helping Eva don her clothes, watching her grimaces and hearing her slight groans as he helped her turn her arms and lift her legs to get her into first one, then another layer of clothing.

"The temperature dropped," he explained when she wondered why he was wrapping her up. "We'll warm up down the mountain a bit, but for now, you need this."

Once they were done, Peter realized that his cock was once again hard as a rock. It was all the touching that had gotten to him, helping her slip her arms and legs into the clothing. In her current life, Eva was, of course, au naturale, but even so, the hair on her legs and in other places was light and soft. If touching her in this way caused him such excitement, what would being close to her all shaven and waxed as women so often did before The Collapse do to him.

"I'll get Lois ready," he said, telling her she didn't have to carry but just a small day pack with water and food in it. "And ... we'll be out of here."

Ten minutes later -- what with already having had days to prepare -- they were ready to head down the mountain. As Peter turned to look about for last minute things to consider, he found himself just inches from Eva, staring into her mesmerizing eyes. He took a moment, then asked her quite bluntly, "May I kiss you, Eva?"

 

[heartofcourage]

Eva was exhausted by the time that they finished getting her into clothes. She struggled not to let it show on her face as he explained that it was cooler outside than it had been when they first arrived. Nodding her understanding, she carefully wrapped her injured arm against her belly and struggled to contain the rolling in her belly. It was painful but if she wanted to get home, she had to tough it out.

By the time her stomach had calmed and the pain had dulled, Eva stepped outside the cabin. Gus was ready for another adventure, running around the clearing and barking as Peter got Lois ready to go. It felt good to be back on her feet, but she was shaky. Another deep breath settled her nerves and she made her way towards the llama to see if there was anything that she could do to help.

When he turned suddenly, she wasn't prepared for him to be so close to her. They were separated by feet, staring at one another for that brief moment. Something had changed between them. Perhaps she was simply comfortable with him. Maybe it was the fact that he had seen her intimately at her lowest point. She felt at ease with Peter, even if her pride wouldn't allow her to tell him just how much he had grown to mean to her.

"Kiss me?" Eva asked in a startled voice as he asked her that question so bluntly.

All other words were gone as she considered what he had asked her. Before she knew it, she was nodding, giving him her permission to take that next step.