The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (important books to read .TXT) 📗

to be if they knew they couldn’t catch us outside Barrow, they were going to do everything in their power to stop us from leaving. Damn you, Tish!

“They’re gaining!” Titouan yelled.

“Hold on!” Sam screamed.

I turned my head just in time to see a truck trying to ram us from one of the side streets. It missed our rear end by a scant few feet. After the driver of the Dodge got turned around, we had three trucks in pursuit.

“Fucker barely missed us!” Sam said, in a much higher pitch than usual.

Titouan opened his door. “What the hell are you--” He had his gun pointed out the space the gull-winged door once occupied, sending shots hurtling at our pursuers.  I fired my entire magazine of thirty rounds into the closest pair of headlights I saw.

Titouan had just inserted another magazine in his rifle when he screamed out in pain. He mouthed something that came out unformed and nonsensical before falling into his seat, grasping his right bicep area. When he pulled his hand away, I could see that there was already a lot of blood.

He struggled to get his thick coat off, and Tish seemed in no mood to help. “I’m bleeding badly,” he said, clearly in shock. I leaned in and saw his white thermal was already soaked in blood.

“Fuck!” I yelled. I ejected the clip like Sam had taught me before emptying another clip or fucking magazine. I couldn’t remember.

With Titouan not belted in, and as rough as the terrain had gotten, I was afraid he would fall out. “Close his door, Tish – Tish!” She didn’t move.

I turned to Avery. “Please close Titouan’s door.” After a moment of staring at me, he stumbled his way to Titouan’s side, buckled him in, and closed his door.

A bullet smashed through the back window and hit just above the LCD screen. If Avery hadn’t been leaning over and helping Titouan, he would’ve been injured if not killed.  I leaned out the speeding truck and expended another thirty rounds. Those shots must’ve hit something. That or we were just that much faster, which was probably the case. The former was perhaps more hoping than anything.

All the city streets were behind us. Nothing but wide-open and rough terrain ahead of us. So rough, I knew I couldn’t continue firing without the risk of falling out of the vehicle. If we were struggling this badly, I knew it was much worse for our pursuers. The fact that they were falling more and more behind seemed to prove that assertion.

I turned my attention back to Titouan. He wasn’t okay. “Fucking work on him, Tish. What are you waiting for?”

She hesitated for a long moment before unbuckling herself.

“Sam, as soon as we get enough distance between them and us, we need to stop so Tish can look at Titouan,” I said.

“Okay.”

“He’s shot in the lower arm,” Tish said. “It looks much worse than what it actually is.”

“Okay,” I said.

Titouan shot Tish a look. “It’s a lot worse than that, dammit!”

“Of course, it looks bad. You were shot, but it isn’t going to kill you,” Tish snapped.

“Whatever,” Titouan said.

I was optimistic that we had left the Order far enough behind that it was safe to stop and check on Titouan, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I wanted just a few more minutes of distance before we stopped. Titouan seemed to be losing an inordinate amount of blood, so that was playing a large role in how much longer it was before we stopped. I needed to see with my own eyes how bad his arm was.

“William, I’m starting to feel light-headed as shit.”

“Just a few more minutes,” I told him. “Hang on.”

“I think we’re good,” Sam said, stealing glances at Titouan in the rearview mirror.

Sam was right. What Titouan had done had gone a long way in keeping the Order from closing on us earlier. We needed to make sure he was okay before continuing to Prudhoe Bay. The world was really upside down when Sam was worried about Titouan.

“Alright. Let’s stop,” I said.

***

Titouan stood just outside the Ripsaw, covered in thick wool blankets, his arm extended parallel to the ground so I could get a good look at his arm. I shined my headlamp on the wound; blood freely flowed from it. The bullet appeared to enter dead center between his bicep and triceps. It looked to be a clean wound from what looked like a small-caliber rifle. Small wound but bleeding badly, nonetheless.

“Tish, I’m no doctor, but this needs stitches or something. That bandage isn’t helping.”

“There’s nothing more I can do,” she insisted.

“Bullshit, now. I saw how you stitched Sam and Tom. You know how. You’re just not doing it,” I said.

“Gunshot wounds are different. I can’t do anything more with it.”

I looked towards Sam for support. He grimaced and slunk his head. I focused my attention back on Tish and said, “You can’t do anything or won’t do anything.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know, Tish. Help me out here.”

“You believe I’m one of them.”

“All I care about right now is helping Titouan. One thing at a time.”

“I help him, and then what?”

“Prove you aren’t one of them. Help him.”

She averted her eyes from me and seemed to stand just a little bit taller. She was preparing herself for what was coming, I thought.  She wasn’t going to help him without the proper motivation.

There was a growing ring of blood below where Titouan stood, his face turning a worse shade of death with every heartbeat. “I promise nothing will happen to you, Tish. Just please help him.”

“You promised the same thing to Bob and Kelley. How did that turn out, William?”

“Come on, girl. You done know ’is is different,” Sam pleaded.

“Please help me, Tish,” Titouan said, weakly.

Tish looked directly at me. “I don’t trust you.”

“We need to tourniquet his arm,” Avery said.

“Watch her,” I said. I ran to the back of the truck where my backpack was. I had slipped the dead