Chapter 14: Grace

                                    

                                          
I awoke with a splitting headache and aching muscles. My back was killing me from sleeping on the rocks and the rest of my body was yelling at me for the constant hiking. My lips were stuck together and my throat was dry. Swallowing was torturous; it felt as if a golf ball was stuck in the movement of it. My stomach was on fire; the result of acid eating away at itself, and my hair clung to me from sweating through the night.
I sat up, peeling myself off of Colt's chest, and looked down at him. He was still sleeping, but he was mumbling under his breath and was thrashing every so often as he had been through the night. I placed my hand against his forehead; he was burning up. Untying my blood soaked shirt that was wrapped around his leg, I examined the claw marks. It did not look good at all. His skin around the wounds was slightly swollen and red, all evidence of an infection. He was in dire need for it to be cleaned and given antibiotics. The desperation for water increased profusely. 
I looked down to the tank top I wore, and cursed under my breath. Slowly, I peeled it off over my head, leaving me in only my black laced bra, and carefully wrapped his leg again. 
Colt's eyes slowly opened. He looked around in a daze for a moment before  his eyes landed on mine. He gave me a weak smile, his eyes then widening as they trailed over my exposed chest. His expression turned serious, and his eyes took me in a moment longer before glancing back up at me. 
My cheeks flushed, and I hugged my arms over my chest. "You needed a clean bandage." I nodded to his leg. "It doesn't look good Colt. It looks infected. We need to get you back."
He nodded and slowly pushed himself up. He unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his shoulders, handing it to me. I looked to him and hesitantly grabbed it from him. I put my arms through and buttoned it up to just my chest.
"Thank you." I breathed. 
"You've now sacrificed two shirts for me. It's the least I can do." 
He moved the bigger rock he had placed to partially cover the hole of the small cave, and peered out. 
"Okay, I'm going to crawl out and make sure there's nothing around before you come out."
"No Colt, I'm coming directly with you. I didn't help to scare the mountain lion away the last time, and look what happened." I motioned to his injured leg. "I'm not going to make that mistake again." 
He stared at me momentarily and nodded. "Okay. I am learning to not argue with you anyway." 
He moved his hurt leg with his hands and guided it outside of the hole, following his other leg. He then pushed himself all the way out and used the rock to help him stand. I immediately followed and grabbed ahold to his waist to help balance him. 
We both looked around searching for any sign of predators. Once we were satisfied, we began climbing the rest of the way down. We moved slowly, me helping Colt with his footing and trying to keep him off his leg as much as he could. 
We made it off the hill and continued toward the direction Colt pointed. I stayed right by his side just in case I needed to grab onto him. He was stubborn about it however, and played tough. Despite his intrepidness, I could tell it was hurting him. The skin looked really tight around his calf muscle, so I could imagine it was not easy trying to walk, which was proven by our slower than normal pace. 
About two hours in, he stopped and slid down onto the grass, leaning against the trunk of a tree. I kneeled down next to him and looked over to see he was slumped over motionless. 
"Colt? Colt!?" I called out in panic, grabbing onto his arm. 
He slowly raised his head and looked at me with heavy eyes.