No Return

84

Dillmanfell to his knees, looked over the drop, then collapsed to the ground.

“Dori!” he cried out. When he said her name again, his voice had weakened. There was no third time.

Wes knelt down and checked Dillman’s pulse. He was still alive. Barely.

His own energy waning, he sat down on the rock.

“You’re bleeding.” It was Anna. Her hand touched the wound on his back, then found similar damage around front. “Oh, God.”

“Went clean through,” he told her, panting a little. “Is that good?”

“We need to get you to a hospital.”

The thought of walking all the way back to the car was not an exciting one. He wasn’t even sure he could do it, but he knew he was going to have to try. Then he remembered …

“Dori’s got the car keys,” he said. “One of us … is going to have to climb down and … get them.”

“You stay here. I’ll do it.”

“Yeah. That’s probably best,” he said, trying to smile. But before she could move, he touched her on the leg. “What about … Forman? Is he dead?”

“I didn’t check.”

She rushed over to where the commander lay. “He’s still breathing. But there’s no way we’re going to be able to get him to the car.”

“Keys first,” Wes said. “We can worry about that … later.”

Maybe there was some old wood around here they could use to make a travois. Worst case, once they were within cellphone range, they could call for help.

As Anna moved off into the darkness, he tried to track her progress, but soon he could hear nothing but his own breathing and the sounds of the breeze in the brush. He considered scooting over to Forman, but he knew he needed to conserve his strength, so the commander was going to have to just hang in there on his own.

A memory came to him, of him and his father camping up at Kennedy Meadows. Just the two of them sitting by the fire while a couple of trout cooked in a pan over the flames.

“What are we going to do tomorrow?” he had asked.

“Whatever you want,” his father told him.

“I want to fish again.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

“I love you, Dad.” Not the Wes of the memory, but the Wes bleeding on the rocks said.

The sound of movement in the brush. It was off in the direction Anna had gone.

“Please tell me you found them,” Wes said, his voice not nearly as strong as he’d thought it would be.

More steps.

“Anna?”

Someone moved into the leveled area. The shadowy form was too tall to be his girlfriend.

Wes looked around for Dori’s pistol, unsure if it had gone over the side with her, but he didn’t see it. Instead, the best he could do was a palm-size stone. He picked it up.

“You don’t seriously think you could hit me with that, do you?”

“Lars?” Wes said.

The moonlight revealed the face of Wes’s old friend.

“I thought you were …? How did you …?”

Lars was about to say something, then he glanced at Dillman’s body.

“That who I think it is?”

“Michael Dillman. Remember him? He … was Dori’s husband. Dori Dillman … Only Dori Dillman was-”

“I know,” Lars said. “Mandy’s sister.”

“How did you know?”

“Later.” Lars paused. “Where’s Commander Forman?”

Wes nodded with his chin toward the dark form lying on the rock. “That’s him. Anna checked him a few … minutes ago. He’s alive.”

Lars jogged over to the commander and did his own check. When he came back, he said, “What about you? Are you okay?”

Wes raised the hand that had been pressed against his wound. “I’ve been better. Anna went down … to get the keys so we could take Dori’s car. Now that you’re here … maybe we can get the commander out, too. Wait, if you have a car, we can just take that.”

Lars shook his head. “I’m on your motorcycle.”

Wes stared at him. “I don’t even want to know how that happened.”

“Where did you say Anna was?”

“Down … there.” Wes looked toward the edge.

Lars walked out to the end of the rock, then knelt down and glanced over.

“No Anna. Unless she’s that body lying down there.”

“Dori,” Wes said.

Sounds in the bushes again, only this time it was Anna who stepped out. She was dangling something in her hand. “Found them. Now let’s get-”

She pulled up short as Lars stood up from where he’d been kneeling.

“Lars?” she said, then brightened. “Great. You can help me get him to the car.”

“You’re not going to need the car,” Lars said.

“What are you talking about?” Wes asked.

Then he heard a noise in the distance, something familiar. It almost sounded like the breeze, but it was growing steadily louder.

It took Wes a moment, but as soon as he placed it he smiled.

Helicopters.