The Mistake

Chapter Twenty Two

"Oh my gosh. Never again am I'm jumping from a cliff. We almost die back there." Mindy was coughing crawling on all four out of the water to dry land.

"How are you doing ogre?"

"I'm fine." Jonah hunched over breathing heavy.

"Now what?" she crawled over to him.

"It's almost night fall we'll have to spend the night here. Thanks to the short cut down the stream tomorrow will be a short trip back." He grunts.

"If it's a short trip let's just go now. I still have energy left in me." She suggested. Her body was drenched from head to toe and the temperature outside was dropping. She didn't want to freeze to death in the wild.

"We can't I need to rest."

"But Jonah," she grabs him turning him to face her. "I think... oh gosh. Jonah. You you've been shot." Her current thoughts were replaced with concern as she stare at the punctured wound on the front of his right shoulder.

"Yeah I guess I was," he joked but the pain coursing through his body was nothing he's ever felt before.

"What do I do? What do I do? Are you hurt? Are you okay? I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." She cried. Tears escape her eyes as her body shake uncontrollably.

"Hey hey shhhh it's okay. I'm fine." He comforts her pulling her into his embrace with his good arm.

"I'm sorry Jonah this is really all my fault."

"It's fine. Come on sit here I need to find some branches and start a fire or else we won't be able to see pretty soon."

Mindy jolts away from his body causing him to grimace at the pain.

"Oh god I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"You're hurt so you stay here and I'll go look."

"It's dangerous – "

"Be quiet there's no room for argument here. I won't be far."

Mindy walks a little away from the stream in search of good size pieces of wood.

While she was gone Jonah lies himself against a tree trunk. He starts peeling his hoodie off of him slowly biting down on his bottom lip to subdue the pain. Tossing his hoodie aside he takes off his bloodstain white t-shirt and gets a good look at his wound. He was shot in the water and had lost a lot of blood and is still losing blood. Dizziness was fighting against him but he couldn't fall out of consciousness now. His first priority was Mindy. He knew he had to stay awake to protect her and he didn't want her to worry sick about him.

About ten minutes later Mindy returns with an arm full of branches and twigs. She drops them by the tree Jonah had position himself at. Her eyes drool over his bare body before landing on the bullet wound then onto his tightly shut eyes and that scared her senseless. Dropping to her knees in front of him, she gently shake his good shoulder.

"Jonah. Wake up are you okay? Jonah."

He made no movement of waking up.

"Oh no Jonah!" her voice hitched.

She leans down putting her head against his chest listening for a heart beat.

"You're warm." He swallowed.

"Thank you angels."  She said a silent prayer before getting off him.

"I've got some fire woods. If you direct me, maybe I can start the fire." she suggested.