Eden's whole body shook from the exertion of throwing up. Every heave seemed to force her to lean even heavier on the toilet bowl and her forearms. After what felt like an eternity her nausea seemed to calm down, but it left her body weak. Eden sat up so that she wasn't hunched over on the toilet bowl and what she saw made her heart drop.
Blood. A lot of blood.
Jacob drove down the road leading away from Eden's house, silently drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He had enjoyed the night before, but something wasn't quite sitting with him right.
It was something in Eden's body language when Jacob left, it seemed...off. These intrusive thoughts had been gnawing at Jacobs mind since he'd left her house, almost like they wanted him to turn around and go back. But Jacob couldn't give into them.
He knew that by leaving for an entire night he would get a lot of suspicion from his men but if he was being with himself, Jacob didn't regret spending time with Eden. He spent the rest of the drive thinking about the night before. He marvelled at how calm it was on Eden's roof, he could never get that kind of peace anywhere except for his cabin.
It was so nice to lay down and think, even if those thoughts weren't about the Project. Laying down and keeping an eye out while Eden slept...it was nice. Even though his body ached from laying on stiff shingles all night Jacob was grateful for the break.
Still...Eden's apparent nervousness made him wonder if the comfort he experienced was one sided. But he would see Eden at the next meeting, then he could ask her why she was nervous about being around him. Assuming she would go to the next meeting.
Eden forced herself to stand on weak, unstable knees. She wiped her mouth and wasn't shocked when she saw blood smeared across the back of her hand. Still dizzy and shaking from throwing up, Eden clung to the wall for support.
All of her instincts were telling her to get help, but how? She couldn't call anyone because she didn't have a phone, no one was there, and Jacob left. He was probably halfway to the Veterans Center by now. It was like Eden was stuck on that mountain again, desperate for help but all alone.
She knew that even though it was the last place she wanted to be, Zip Kupka would be home. If she could just get in her truck and drive there then she could ask him to take her to the clinic. It wasn't a perfect plan, but in all fairness Eden was panicking.
Eden and Zip weren't great friends but after she helped him at the stockyards she hoped he would help her.
So with determination, Eden forced her legs to carry her down the hallway to her living room. She stumbled across the floor to the couch, wary of how bad her knees wanted to crumble when she wasn't holding something, and grabbed her keys off of the coffee table.
Eden coughed into the edge of her sleeve and barely glanced down at the small drops of blood staining her grey shirt. She tried to keep breathing steadily instead of letting her chest try to suck in the oxygen it so desperately wanted, hoping that if her breathing wasn't too laboured it would be easier to stay standing.
She wobbled to her front door and grabbed the knob, putting her full weight on it before she twisted it. When she opened the door she saw Boomer curled up on the front mat. Immediately after she opened the door, Boomer shot up and started barking at her.
He was very obviously upset that he wasn't inside with her and of course smelled the blood on her shirt and hands. Eden coughed again and closed the door behind her, trying to blink hard to make her vision stop dancing. "C'mon buddy...we're *cough* we're going to see Zip." She told Boomer through coughs but he understood her.
Boomer gently bit her hand, only with enough force to lead Eden off the porch not to break skin. Eden stumbled down the stairs but Boomer quickly put his head under Eden's hand so that she could stabilize herself. She walked over to her truck parked by the road and leaned against the door, using the key to open it before she climbed in. Boomer hopped into the flatbed of her truck and barked to tell her he was ready to go.
Eden coughed into her sleeve again and tried to put her key in the ignition, she missed the first time but the second time she slowed down and it worked. She twisted the key to start the truck...but it wouldn't start. It sounded like it was trying, but it couldn't get enough power to turn on.
Eden cursed and gripped the steering wheel, of all the times for this truck to die it had to pick now? Eden pressed her forehead to the top of the steering wheel. "Fuck this truck. Goddamnit." She muttered and squeezed her eyes shut. She could feel the urge to cough again and knew it would be bloody so she opened the door of the truck.
Instead of getting out on her feet like she wanted, Eden's knees gave out underneath her as soon as she tried to lower herself down to the dirt. She hit the ground hard and it forced a cough from her chest. Dark blood splattered into the dusty ground as Eden coughed more violently than she anticipated. She managed to get her forearms underneath her to prop herself up a small amount, just enough to get her face out of the dirt.
Boomer barked and leapt out of the back of her truck. He barked at her and licked the side of her head, not knowing what to do while his owner laid crumbled and bleeding on the ground. He tugged at her sleeve to try and get her to stand up like he'd done so many other times but Eden just couldn't stand.
"Find...Find help. Please Boomer...get help." Eden asked between coughs and Boomer whined. The loyal dog didn't want to leave Eden but the firmness in her weak voice made him glance at the treeline.
"Boomer! Get help!" Eden ordered and coughed again, choking on the blood trying to squeeze it's way out of her throat.
Boomer whined, licked Eden's forehead, and turned and ran away. Eden just prayed that Boomer could find someone and convince them to follow him. She knew how persistent he could be and she begged to anything that could hear her to let that be true one more time.
Eden coughed, her chest aching from the effort of choking on every breath. She crawled, mostly drug herself, away from the truck. She didn't bother trying to close the door, she was more set of being able to be seen from the road if anyone happened to drive past. She crawled on her arms and heard a glorious sound. A truck. It was rumbling down the road and it was going to pass by her house any second.
Eden tried to crawl faster, desperate to be seen, desperate for help. She heard the truck drive over the bridge right by her house and she tried to pick herself up so that the driver could see her. She grabbed a rock and used all of the strength she could muster to throw it at the road, hoping to catch the attention of the driver. It landed in the road, and the truck approached her driveway entrance.
The sound of tires on dirt made Eden's heart pound, hoping that the image of her bloody on her chest would be shocking enough to make the truck stop. She tried to shout but her voice was gone due to the violent coughing. The truck was a second from passing her driveway and Eden threw another rock. It faltered just before the end of her driveway.
Eden shouted, her raspy voice a painful scream as she waved her arms to get the driver's attention.
But they didn't hear her.
A dark blue pickup truck drove past her driveway, glancing down at something in their seat, to busy to look up and notice Eden in the dirt, practically throwing herself at them.
Eden let her head fall against her arm, her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. They didn't see her. She wanted to cry into her shirt but grit her teeth and spit blood into the dust next to her. She had to be noticed, had to. She didn't know what was wrong with her, didn't know why she was coughing up this much blood without warning, but she had to get help.
So she drug herself farther, slowly pulling herself inch by inch, closing the thirty foot gap from her to the road, desperate to get spotted. She had only made it a foot or two when she noticed something in the dirt in front of her, something that glinted in the sunlight. She reached for it and pulled it closer to her, collecting a handful of dirt along with it. She held it in front of her face, still laying her arm on the ground as she studied it.
It was Jacob's wolf whistle.
Something wasn't sitting right with Jacob as he drove past the packing facility, every one of his instincts told him to turn around but he didn't even know why. He reached for his chest to adjust his wolf whistle on his carabiner and realized it wasn't there. He didn't even notice it wasn't on his carabiner until then.
He realized that it must have fallen off at Eden's house, it was probably lying right in her driveway. Well now he had to go back to get that, it was like that was the simple push he needed to turn around. Although he wasn't happy about it, he knew that he needed to get his wolf whistle back so he slowed down and turned his truck around right in the middle of the road.
The drive back to Eden's house was fairly short, but he noticed something a few minutes before he got to her turn off. Boomer was trotting down the side of the road anxiously, and when he saw Jacob's truck he started barking furiously.
Jacob slowed down and Boomer didn't stop barking at him, turning around and looking back at Jacob to see if he was following him. Jacob rolled down his window and stuck his head out.
"What is it, Boomer?" He asked and Boomer barked and whined, running down the road again. Obviously Jacob was going to follow him as he was getting a weird feeling from seeing Boomer this far away from Eden.
Boomer led him down the road and back to Eden's driveway. Barking louder and turning out of Jacob's sight, Boomer turned to run into Eden's driveway. Jacob peered over the front of his truck suspiciously and was he ever glad he did. If he hadn't of been looking so keenly he wouldn't have noticed Eden until it was too late.
Jacob's truck screeched to a halt and he practically leapt out of the driver's seat. Boomer was standing over Eden and licking her head, using his nose to nudge her arm while she was unresponsive. Her truck was still parked in the position it was in when Jacob left but it's driver side door was open like Eden had tried to get in it.
"Eden?" He demanded. "Eden what happened?" Jacob dropped to his knees next to Eden and shook her roughly. He noticed how much blood was all over her sleeves and pooling under her head and carefully rolled her onto her back. Her eyes were closed like she'd passed out and dark red blood stained her lips and the side of her face, but thankfully it didn't look like she'd been shot or outwardly harmed. Jacob let out a small breath of relief when he realized she was still breathing.
Now the problem was why hadn't she been outwardly harmed and how long had she been passed out for? Jacob realized that trying to wake her up was going to take precious time that he needed to be using to get her somewhere safe and sat her up. Her head flopped to the side and Jacob lifted one of her arms and draped it over his shoulder, snaking his arm under her legs and around her back.
"It's ok, I'm getting you out of here just hold on ok? Just hold on for me Eden, please." He told her in her ear as he shifted her weight in his arms, her head falling against his chest.
Boomer barked at Jacob as he lifted Eden up in his arms, cradling her to his chest as he quickly carried her over to his truck. He slid her into the back seat of his truck, laying her down in the back seat and got Boomer to climb in with her. He was about to close the door when something fell out of her hand. It landed on the floor of his truck and he instantly recognized it as his wolf whistle.
He grabbed it and shoved it into his pocket, not bothering to wipe the blood off of it. He didn't have time to worry about blood, he needed to get Eden help. Jacob shut the door and rushed around to his open drivers door. He hopped in the front seat and started backing up before he even got the door closed all the way.
His first hope was the clinic, but he didn't know where it was. He knew it was in the area but he'd never been told where it actually was. Now he was kicking himself for not knowing that information. Boomer whined and nudged Eden's shoulder, using his nose to try and wake her up.
Jacob glanced down at Eden in the rear view mirror and kept driving down the road, he was trying to weigh his options with taking her to the Veterans Center in time when he saw a sign on the side of the road that said 'Hope County clinic ahead' in hand painted letters.
"I'm taking you to the clinic, it'll be ok." Jacob tried to reassure her as best he could, but to be honest, Jacob was terrified. He didn't give a shit about what people would say, but he was scared to death about what would happen if he was too late. How could he live with himself if Eden died in his watch? In his truck? After he promised to save her?
What would happen if he arrived at the clinic and she was already dead? How could he explain that? How could he handle that? Knowing she stopped breathing because he wasn't fast enough?
A muffled groan brought Jacob an uneasy amount of encouragement. Boomer whined in the back seat and made Jacob glance at Eden in the rear view mirror again. Her head lulled to the side and she groaned again, probably trying to wake herself up because she had no idea she was in a truck.
"Can you hear me Eden? If you can hear me, you have to keep fighting ok? Keep fucking fighting Eden, I'll get you to the clinic soon." Jacob told her and Eden groaned again, it was like that horrible gurgle/groan noise was all she could muster. Her eyes fluttered open, just enough to see Boomer sitting in front of her and the back of Jacob's head as he drove like a mad man up the road.
Jacob drove across the paved road onto another dirt road, following the signs that led him to the clinic until he was driving up a hill. He popped up in front of a tiny building with a sign that said 'Hope County Clinic' in front of it. He barely gave himself enough room to stop before he had slammed on the brakes and had the truck in park. Jacob hopped out of the truck and rushed around to the back door, throwing it open and practically tossing Boomer out.
He eased Eden out of the truck but didn't even let her feet touch the ground before he had her in his arms again. He shouted for help from anyone that was there, and close the door to his truck again with his foot.
Eden was too weak to do much more than look up at Jacob and feel that he was carrying her somewhere. She could feel him carrying her, but he felt far away. It was like she could hear him saying something but her blood was rushing too loudly in her ears for her to be able to make out what he was saying.
The amount of relief she felt in her body when she realized she was safe with Jacob was astounding. Even though the pain in her chest wasn't easing and the taste of blood was still lingering in her mouth, she was thankful that Jacob had found her. She didn't know if praying was what had worked, or if it was Boomer or what, but all that she knew was that Jacob had his arms under her and was carrying her to safety somewhere, and that was incredible.
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