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When my alarm sounded again, I checked the time, surprised that it was only three in the afternoon. It was still snowing, but thankfully the snowbrella I built over the fire seemed to be working. The heat from the fire was great, and the pine needle tea was growing on me. The radio was still filled with static when I tried to call Chance. We were supposed to make regular radio check-ins but hadn't set any sort of protocol where if we missed a few check-ins he'd call SAR. That was another lesson learned for next time. God. Surely, there wouldn't be a next time. Based on our original plan, Tom and I should still be at the observation site. It was two more days until we were expected back at base camp. It could be two more days before Chance realized we were in trouble.
"Tom are you awake?"
He didn't answer. I needed to check the dressing on his wound. I wondered if all the walking might have caused it to start bleeding again. I dumped out the contents of both our first aid kits on my sleeping bag and sat cross-legged next to his injured shoulder.
As gently as I could, I unzipped his jacket and removed the duct tape that was holding his fleece and thermal shirts together. When I got down to the thermal underwear shirt, I could see blood had soaked through it.
"Fudge." I should have checked the dressing sooner. I had packed his bloody clothes from when he was shot and the shirt I used to stop the bleeding into a plastic bag. We hadn't brought much with us, so I didn't have a lot to work with. After removing the dressing, I pulled out the shirt I'd used before and pressed it against the wound. When I got the bleeding stopped again, I cleaned it and bandaged it as best I could with the supplies we had. Until we could get him to a hospital he would be walking around with a whole in his chest.
I closed up his shirts, zipped up his jacket, and froze when I heard a sound outside. The one thing I refused to consider was that whoever shot Tom was still out there trying to kill us. I didn't think about it because I knew I'd be too terrified to move if I did.
Thank god I kept my rifle slung around my back, since I set up camp. I sat still and listened. Snow made everything quieter, but there was definitely something out there. Moving as little as necessary, I unzipped the flap and stuck the barrel of the rifle out as soon as it was unzipped far enough. I raised the barrel of the gun along with the zipper. I figured if someone intent on doing us harm was waiting out there, they would have grabbed the barrel and yanked it out of my hands before I could even look out. No one did. When I looked out, I saw only a red squirrel. I crawled out of the tent continually scanning the area but saw nothing else. The only tracks I found were from the squirrel.
It was decision time again. I could remember a few months ago when my decisions only affected me. I hated knowing what I decided could cause harm to someone else.
Part of me wanted to prove I wasn't as fragile as people thought. I watched some survival shows on TV. I knew I could build a stretcher with sticks and shirts or duct tape and haul Tom back to base camp. It would likely take me days to get there, but I could do it. The question was would he survive. Would a delay in getting medical care put his life at risk or do more damage?
My second option was to stay put until I got a phone signal and could call Chance for help. Personally, I wasn't crazy about that option. Chance's ego didn't need bolstering.
There was a third option I was pretty sure was the right choice for Tom—turn on my PLB and wait for search and rescue. If I did that, much like with Chance, it would be a blow to Tom's standing in the SAR team although I was pretty sure he'd get street cred for being shot rather than being pushed off a cliff by a girl.
I weighed my options and decided that when my alarm sounded again, I'd try to wake Tom. It seemed like he should have a vote. The thought that Laurie would kill me for getting her brother shot crossed my mind. Since I wasn't the one who shot him, she'd probably forgive me eventually though he wouldn't have been out here in harm's way if not for me.