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"Shut up. I'm not shooting you," Nashida said.
"Then what are we gonna do?"
Nashida had no clue how to answer Orroye. Looking your partner in the eye and telling them they were screwed wasn't the way the Bureau handled things. Seeing him with both a broken arm and a fractured leg made things difficult, especially out here in the middle of nowhere.
"I'm not sure, but I'm damn well not shooting and leaving you for dead out here. Your rotten carcass is gonna poison some coyote or something."
They shared the kind of laugh friends do when they know they're in a fucked-up situation. The kind where, if you don't laugh, you'd cry.
"Hey, Andrew. I'm pretty sure they don't have coyotes around here."
"And they never will if I leave your fat ass to die out here."
They half-heartedly laughed again and tried to figure out what to do next. Making splints from downed branches would be easy enough. Trekking God knows how many miles back to the crash site with a wounded man was going to be a different story.
"How many shots do you got left?" Nashida pointed at his firearm.
"Four."
Not a lot, but they didn't have much of a choice. Nashida could make the trip back solo, but with the radio destroyed, he still wasn't sure how much good it would do. You can't call for help on something that doesn't work. There weren’t any nearby fields or breaks in the treeline to be able to carve a V into the snow for passing airplanes. Maybe Orroye had something.
"What are you thinking?" the wounded agent asked.
"Nothing."
Orroye raised an eyebrow, not sure what to believe.
"Let's patch you up first. We can figure out what to do afterwards."
Nashida caught sight of a downed tree not too far from where the moosepocalypse broke. He figured it was as good a place as any to position Orroye.
"Come here," Nashida said, draping Orroye's good arm over his shoulder.
Nashida power-lifted Orroye's 230-pound frame up from the forest floor.
"Ahhh!"
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay!"
Nashida tried his hardest to not let Orroye put any pressure on the broken leg, but failed. They hobbled to the snowed-over log where Orroye's body crash landed.
"You got any tape in that bag?"
Orroye shook his head, fighting back the screams. Nashida thought there might be a first aid kit back in the plane. He was pretty sure it was mandatory. Whether the plane had enough tape or ace bandages in it to set two broken bones was questionable. Even if he did manage to find the kit, what then? Just walk it back? Orroye still wouldn't be able to move back to the plane.
"I'm fucked, aren't I?"
"Stop talking like that. I'm thinking."
Orroye realized he would have a hard time making the trip back to the wreckage, if he could make it at all; but they had no choice. At least if they were on the plane, they would be safe and have a better shot at trying to flag for help from above the trees. Assuming planes actually flew over this part of Canada.
"Maybe they have something on the plane that can help you move through here. Like a hand truck or something?"
"The Bureau used a commercial plane. Maybe it had one of those flight attendant's carts." Orroye wondered.
"That's a great idea!" Nashida lied.
It was actually a terrible idea. He was pretty sure there weren't any of those onboard, and even if there were, how exactly was one of those supposed to move through the immense amount of snow out there? In reality, it didn't matter. Besides, maybe once he got to the plane, he could make another plan by seeing what was there. Sitting around in the cold wasn't helping anything, or anybody.
"Okay. I'm gonna head back and try that. You've got the gun in case something happens?"
Orroye nodded. Whether it worked or not was irrelevant. If Orroye had hope, he could figure out a better plan.
"Still got those phones?" Nashida asked.
"Three of them."
"Can I get one?"
Orroye winced as his good arm reached into the backpack and pulled out one of the phones. Watching him struggle to grab it, Nashida realized he should have just taken the phone out himself, but he didn't. Instead, he watched a man with two broken bones, fighting severe pain, pull something out of the backpack that would only make his trip more convenient. In a way, it gave him a chance to see how Orroye would handle a crisis situation with his new injuries. There was no way he was going to survive out here, with or without Nashida.
"Here." Orroye reached his good arm out to Nashida.
"Thanks, buddy."
Nashida checked the time on the Google Pixel with its 34% remaining battery life. It said 2:13pm.
"We got an hour and a half of daylight left."
"You better get moving," Orroye said.
"Traveling today is over. I need to dress those wounds and build a shelter. I'll head back to the plane at dawn while you hold down the fort."
"Some fort."
"You hang tight. I'm gonna find some firewood."
"Like I got a choice."
They shared that uncomfortable ‘laugh or you'll cry’ chuckle again.
"We're gonna be all right," Nashida said.
"Of course, we are."
They were going to die out here, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Nashida took solace in the fact that Cassata and Jericho were both probably dead already.