Green Desert - Chapter 8.4.6 - Bhanar

“Sure. Let’s go.” The medic hopped out of the helicopter, his partner following close.

I shrugged off the blanket and jumped to the rocky sand. The helicopter blades rotated at a minimum. I ran crouched over, around the bushes. If Séara was dead, this was the moment. I saw the crashed helicopter. The standing cop held a flashlight pointed down. On the ground, Pí‘oro’s bloated corpse. Beside it, dwarfed by it, a policewoman. Dead.

My foot hit a rock and I stumbled, caught my footing again. Deep breath. Be strong. I walked forward. The medics lifted Pí‘oro onto a stretcher. Look at her. Her black uniform. Her beautiful–– Not her face. It wasn’t her. I laughed.

The cop stabbed my eyes with his flashlight. “What’s so funny, kid?”

I shook my head, still smiling. “I thought it was Séara.”

He was invisible behind the light. “No, not Séara. Deputy Sérıgí Sívıposoma.”

My smile vanished. Not Séara, but still a dead woman. Still a person who would have lived if not for Zhíno.

The medics lifted her onto another stretcher. One pointed at the handles, looking at me. “Grab an end.” He went back to Pí‘oro’s stretcher.

Right. I was helping them. I walked to the dead woman, the cop’s flashlight still uncomfortably on me. I knelt between the handles, my back to her, and grabbed ahold. The cone of light flicked around and disappeared as the cop grabbed the other end.

“On three,” he growled. “One, two, three.”

We lifted and began walking to the helicopter.