The Ruins Part 2 (Sequel to The Ruins)

Chapter 50

Tom was fast, but Sally Two-Knives was down before he got to her. He knelt beside her and checked her pulse, found a reassuring thump-thump-thump. Then he examined neck and spine before he gently eased her into her back and brushed dirt and leaves from her face.

"Oh boy, Sally," he said, "you're a bit of a mess here." Her eyelids slowly fluttered open. Even in the bad light Tom could see that her face was taut with great pain. "Where are you hurt?" he asked.

"Everywhere."

"Can you pin it down for me or do I have to go looking?"

Sally snorted. "Since when did you become a prude?" Then she winced and touched her abdomen. "Stomach and arm."

Tom opened the bottom buttons of her shirt, saw what was clearly a knife wound. She wasn't coughing blood, so he didn't think she had any sense internal injuries. Or he hoped she didn't. He removed a small bottle of antiseptic and some cotton pads from a vest pocket and gently cleaned the wound and applied a clean bandage. He used his knife and cut open her sleeve to real a ragged black hole. Tom gently raised her arm and leaned to take a look at the back of it, saw a second, slightly smaller hole.

"A through-and-through," he concluded. "Bullet hit you in the back of the arm and punched out through the biceps. What they'd shoot you with?"

"Don't know," she said through gritted teeth. "Something small. Twenty-two or twenty-five caliber, thought it felt like a darn big going in and coming out."

"Missed the arteries. Didn't break the bone," Tom said. "You always were a lucky one, Sally."

"Lucky my ass. I got shot and stabbed. If that's your idea of good luck, then give me the other kind."

"Don't even joke," he chided as he cleaned the entry and exit wounds, placed sterile pads over them, and began wrapping a white bandage around her arm. "I've seen my share of bad luck already today."

Tom tied the ends of the bandage with neat precision, but inside he was beginning to feel a slight edge of panic. It was now too dark to track Negan and Mal. Tom helped Sally sit up and let her drink from his canteen.

"Don't suppose you saw my horse anywhere, did you?" She asked. "I left her tied to a tree, but she must have spooked."

"No," said Tom. "Look, Sally, what happened and who did this?"

"It's complicated," she said. "I ran into a couple of the White Bear crew. You know White Bear?"

He nodded. "Heard of him but never met him. Big guy from Nevada. Reasons they call him White Bear because he tells everyone that he's reincarnated of some great Indian medicine men, thought he doesn't have a drop of Native American blood in him. Negan and the Saviors are out here to find him."

She hissed in pain as Tom began stitching her stomach wound. He wished he was better at it.

"OW- damn, son! You using a tree spike to sew that up?" She snarled.

"Don't be a sissy."

She cursed him and his entire lineage going back to the Stone Age. Tom endured it as he worked. Curses were better than screams.

She took a breath. "Heard about Negan and the Saviors helping the Bounty Hunters. Since Charlie's gang got chomped by the Saviors and those Infected's last year, there's been a lot of talk about who was going to over his territory. Charlie always had prime real estate. Fairview, Eleven Towns, the Tradepost, couple of other towns, and the trade route all through these forests and mountains. White Bear wants it all. Brought a bunch of his guys with him. Most of them are jokers who dont know which end of the rifle goes bang! But he has a lot of them."