"You'll have enough time to sleep when you're dead, which will be soon if you don't wake up."
She groaned and sighed deeply. "Well, when you put it like that..." Prying her eyes awake and moving off his shoulder. She sat up, before yawning and stretching. "I can't believe I fell asleep."
"Yeah, so much for the both of us staying up." He said sarcastically, stuffing everything back into his bag. He wanted to leave and search for birds. They would be flying any moment now and could lead them to water.
"I thought I could pull through, but sleep was calling my name. Why didn't you just wake me up earlier?"
He thought it was a good idea for her to rest, but he didn't confess that. "Didn't want to hear your voice." He said instead and stood up, stretching. The bones in his body popped with ease, fixing the tension it was storing. Walking in front of her, he held his hand out for her to take.
Zadia accepted it and with the count of three, Roman helped her to her feet. "You weren't complaining about my voice when I was speaking yesterday."
"Could've sworn I said shut up about a hundred times yesterday." He resorted and looked down at her foot. "How's the ankle?"
"Hurts like hell didn't feel it much when I was asleep." She frowned, moving closer to look at his face. Her hand pressed against his chest, while he put his hand on her waist. "Jesus, those mosquitoes tore up your face." She told him and backed away, both their hands falling from where they were positioned. "They must've liked me, they left me alone."
"Probably because you talk a lot," Roman said, not mentioning that the reason she wasn't bit was because of him. He picked up the duffel bag and placed it around his shoulders after double-checking if he had everything. "We're all set, come on." He said and gripped her side as they began walking shoulder to shoulder.
Their shoulders barely aligned because even though Zadia was tall, Roman was taller.
"No more piggyback rides? I was just starting to like it." Zadia joked, watching her step. She felt so dirty and would give anything for a bed and a hot shower right now. Much like Roman, not being able to brush her teeth was foreign to her. Her body all around was tired, beneath her stomach cramping. She'd give anything for some painkillers too.
"I gotta get my energy back up, before carrying you," Roman explained. "I'm just gonna drag us both down if I don't."
Zadia looked at the cut on the side of his head. It had bled through the bandages she put in last night. The bandages barely stuck to his skin. "Your cut looks worse than it did last night." She let out and turned around. She was kinda pissed off. Not at Roman necessarily, but at the situation, they were in. This was all Cortez's fault. "Why aren't you angry by any of this?"
"There's no time to be." He answered, looking for signs of birds. He didn't see any. "I've gotta focus on getting us out of here and being angry gets in the way of that. It clouds people's judgment... makes them do stupid things." He looked down at the compass in his hand and walked ahead. "I keep thinking of the bright side of this situation."
Zadia glowered. "How could there be a bright side to any of this?"
"Cortez went against everything, just to put a bounty on my head yesterday. And yesterday happened to be the same day, the article about Eliśa was released, which means our plan worked. He's getting tons of backlash from everyone and he's also gonna have to deal with my bosses now."
ChApTeR - 11 Pt. 2
Start from the beginning
