Green Desert - Chapter 5.1.2 - Bhanar

I climbed up the slope, tucking Zhíno’s handgun into my shorts. I wouldn’t let it out of my sight again, that was for damn sure. Two of these fuckers had tried to kill me in the last twenty-four hours and it was not going to happen again.

A loud rustling in the bushes, branches snapping, trees shaking. I got to the top and saw Séara struggling with an inch-thick tree, trying to push it over, step on it, break it. It bent.

“What are you doing?”

She looked at me, stomping on the tree. “Poles for a stretcher.”

Wishful thinking. Pí‘oro looked dead. Ghostly. His gut, where it showed around the bandage and spilled blood, was dark purple. His face, though, was white. I had an urge to shoot him in the head, put him down. Zhíno knelt beside the old man. I had an urge to shoot Zhíno in the head, too. He got me into this mess. It was all his Pétíso-damned fault. The bastard’s apology wasn’t worth shit.

The naked man looked toward Séara, who was still futilely fighting the tree. “He’s dead.”

I smiled.

Séara froze, he black boot atop the horizontal tree trunk. “Are you sure?”

“No pulse. No breathing.”

“Try CPR!”

Zhíno sank back on his heels. “It won’t help.”