The Injured Man

Chapter Two

The first thing I noticed was that the sky was wrong.

It was no longer the familiar blue I had known all my life, but a dark, burning orange that seemed to stretch endlessly above us, with thick clouds of smoke covering whatever remained of the city.

I pushed myself off the ground, my ears ringing so badly that I could barely hear anything around me..“Zuri?”

“Mom!”

I turned immediately and found her several feet away, sitting on the ground with dust covering her pink dress and tears running down her face.

I rushed to her and pulled her into my arms, searching her face and body for any sign of injury.“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head quickly and buried her face against my chest.“I don't know where we are.”

Neither did I. I slowly looked around, and the sight before me made my stomach twist.

This was not the street outside my father's company.

The buildings were different, the roads were cracked open in several places, cars were scattered across the streets as though someone had thrown them around, and huge pieces of concrete were falling from buildings that looked as though they could collapse at any moment.

People were running everywhere, screaming for their families and calling for help, but none of them seemed to know where they were going.

Another explosion sounded in the distance, followed by a wave of heat that made me instinctively pull Zuri closer. “We have to leave.”

“Where are we going, Mom?”

“I don't know, but we have to find somewhere safe before another building comes down.”

I grabbed her hand and started moving, trying to keep my breathing under control even though every part of me was screaming that we were in danger.

I had never been this afraid before, not when I discovered Orien's betrayal, not when he told me Zuri wasn't his daughter, not even when the first explosion shook the city.

This was different, there was nowhere familiar to run to, no police, no emergency services, no road I could recognize, and no one who seemed to know what was happening.

The world I knew had disappeared in a matter of minutes. “Mom!”

Zuri suddenly stopped.

I turned sharply. “What is it?”

She pointed toward the other side of the road. “Someone is hurt.”

I followed her finger and saw a man lying beside a damaged vehicle.

Blood had soaked through his clothes, one side of his body was pressed against the ground, and a large piece of metal appeared to have fallen beside his leg.

For a moment, I simply stared at him, then I looked around us, the ground was still shaking. Buildings were still collapsing, people were still running. “We can't stop, Zuri,” I said, tightening my hold on her hand. “We don't know where we are, and we need to find somewhere safe before we get trapped here”

“But, Mom, he's hurt.”

“I know.”

“You always tell me that when someone is hurt, we should help them.” Her voice trembled as she looked at me.n“You said being scared doesn't mean we should leave someone who needs us.”

The words struck something inside me,bI had taught her that, I had spent years teaching her to be kind even when the world was cruel, and now that the world had finally become exactly as cruel as I had feared, I was asking her to forget everything I had taught her, I looked at the injured man again.

Another explosion tore through the distance.

The sound made Zuri jump.

I closed my eyes for a second before making my decision. “Stay here.”

“Mom

“I'll help him, and then we're leaving immediately.”

I ran across the road, but the closer I got to the injured man, the more uneasy I became.

There was blood across his face and soaking through his black shirt, with a deep wound cutting into his side, yet somehow, the injury did not make him look helpless. If anything, there was something about him that made me want to stop and keep my distance, because even covered in blood and struggling to breathe, he carried a cold, dangerous presence that did not belong to an ordinary injured man.

I dropped beside him. "Can you hear me?”

His eyes opened slowly, and the moment they met mine, a chill ran down my spine.

They were dark, cold, and completely lacking the panic I expected to see in someone who had been shot and left in the middle of a collapsing city. “Leave.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I said leave.” His voice was low and rough, but there was still enough authority in it to make it sound like an order.

“You're bleeding badly.”

“So?”

“Then why are you telling me to leave?” 

His jaw tightened as another violent tremor moved beneath us, and he glanced briefly at the buildings surrounding us. “You won't have much time if you stay here.”

I looked over my shoulder, and my heart nearly stopped when I saw a long crack spreading down the building behind him, beginning from the roof and moving rapidly toward the lower floors.

I turned back to him. “Can you stand?”

“Help me.”

I reached for his arm, but the moment I pulled him up, his body suddenly gave way.

I caught him before he hit the ground, and the full weight of him nearly dragged me down with him. “Heavier than you look,” I muttered, struggling to keep him upright.

His eyes dropped briefly to my hand around his arm before returning to my face. “Your daughter.”

I looked toward Zuri, she was standing exactly where I had left her, staring at us with tears in her eyes. “Come here, baby!”

She ran toward me, the moment she reached us, another deafening crack split through the air. I looked up.

The upper part of the building was beginning to collapse. “Run!”

I grabbed Zuri with one hand and held the injured man with the other, pulling both of them forward as fast as my shaking legs could carry us. Behind us, the building finally came down, the sound was horrifying.

Concrete slammed into the road, windows shattered, and a thick cloud of dust swallowed the street behind us as pieces of metal and stone flew through the air.

Zuri screamed and pressed herself against me.nbDon't look back, baby, just keep running.”

The injured man suddenly pointed ahead. “There.”

I followed his gaze and saw a small structure near the water, partly hidden behind a damaged wall.b“What is that?”

“A harbor station.”

“Is it safe?”

His expression remained cold. “Nothing is safe anymore.”

I stared at him. “That wasn't very reassuring.”

We reached the building just as another explosion shook the city, and I pushed the damaged door open.“Inside.”

We stumbled into the small harbor station, and I immediately pulled the door shut behind us.

For a few seconds, none of us spoke.

I could hear Zuri breathing heavily beside me, the injured man struggling for air, and beyond the walls, the horrifying sounds of a world falling apart.

I turned toward him. “Sit down before you fall.”

He lowered himself against the wall, his face tightening for the first time as pain crossed his features.

I knelt beside him and examined the wound.

He had been shot.

The bullet had gone through his side, but the bleeding was still heavy, and the amount of blood covering his clothes made my stomach twist.

I forced myself to stay calm and searched the small room until I found an old first-aid box beneath a broken table.

It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to stop you from bleeding to death.”

His eyes narrowed. “I didn't ask for your help.”

“You're welcome.”

His gaze hardened. “You have no idea who you're speaking to.”

“You're bleeding on my hands. That's all I need to know.”

“Then why are you touching my wound?”

I looked at him, keeping my voice steady even though everything about him made me uneasy. “i believe everyone deserves to be careful for”

He said nothing after that.

I cleaned the wound as carefully as I could, trying not to think about how much blood he had already lost, while he watched me in complete silence. 

There was something unsettling about the way his dark eyes followed every movement I made, as though he was trying to understand why a woman who was clearly terrified had stopped to help a stranger when the entire world outside was falling apart.

When I finished securing the bandage, I slowly pulled my hands away. “Done.”

I rose to my feet and immediately reached for Zuri's hand. “Let's go, Zuri. We need to find somewhere safer before…”

I didn't finish.

His hand suddenly closed around my wrist.

I froze and looked down at his fingers before sl

owly raising my eyes to his face.

His expression was still cold, but there was something different in his eyes now. “You can't leave.”