Andrew faded in and out of consciousness over the next twenty-four hours, until the moment he faded in enough to realize his wife was sitting by his bedside. She was just sitting there, staring into the distance, her hair tangled and her face creased with worry. Tears streaked her cheekbones.

He tried to speak, tried to ask her why she was crying and it was then that the pain returned with a vengeance. Agonizing pain from deep within that grew and grew and made him want to curl up in a ball. He strained to look down and realized that his entire torso was bandaged... and that a dark red spot was spreading on the bandage just under his right side chest.

"No no, don't move!" She hurriedly pressed his shoulders back down. "You're in no state to be moved."

"Radios..." Andrew's eyes bulged with the effort and he paid a heavy price for it, as the pain reached such agonizing depths that he fell back against the pillow, limp. He sensed the darkness on his periphery, waiting to close in. But he fought it back. He needed to know if the sacrifice was worth it.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She wailed, holding his hand. "I pushed you into this."

Her shoulders shook and he wanted to comfort her, but inside him felt broken, like if shards of glass were embedded in his body. And the slightest movement would rip his insides to shreds.

Sondra raised her bloodshot eyes, an unspoken plea for forgiveness in them.

"Kairo took everything. The radios, the gold. While you lay there, that bastard came back, took everything, put it on the last ATV and left. I swear if I make it out alive, he's a dead man."

Andrew slowly turned his face away and stopped fighting the darkness. He just wanted to sleep for a bit. He wanted the pain to end. His last memory before the darkness closed in, was of the dimly lit clearing and the five makeshift crosses.

                           
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