David had rested well and had actually gotten a couple of pages written in his manuscript when he noticed the sun was starting to sink into the mountains and that the shadows were getting longer, so he quickly put away his writing materials and fixed a can of beef stew over a small fire. He was also percolating a small pot of coffee. While this was warming he did a quick recheck of his patient and everything was still the same and she had not moved at all. After eating and getting rid of his can, he poured a cup of coffee and again leaned back on "his" tree to again think about the situation, and again came up with the same results, namely nothing other than to wait and see. After drinking his coffee and making sure the fire was contained, he gathered a large amount of pine needles and made a bed out of it and after putting a blanket over it and tucking one of his Glocks under the blanket on each side he made himself comfortable and went to sleep.
The first rays of the sun streaming into the tent woke David and after quickly checking his patient who had evidently awoke during the night as she had repositioned herself completely. He crawled out and took care of his morning functions and then walked to the rim of the cliff to check for any sign of visitors. Seeing none, he returned to the camp site and started a small but hot fire to make coffee and then fix a bit of instant breakfast over the coals.
After eating his so called breakfast, he enjoyed his coffee, even taking a cup with him to the rim to again check for visitors. After watching the valley floor area for a while and seeing nothing unusual, he returned to the campsite and refilled his coffee before getting his writing pad and sitting at his tree to work for a while as he had an idea he wanted to explore on paper. Boy, he wished he had his computer. How did Dickens and Shakespeare and Hemmingway and all those other authors get by without one? Think of all the editing and rewrites. Heck, Dickens and Shakespeare and the other old era writers even had to use an inkwell and a quill pen. That idea reminded him of Thomas Jefferson's fantastic work on the Declaration of Independence and all those other perfect documents he had penned, and on parchment of all things to boot. He smiled and picked up his erasable pen and started to write.
After a couple of hours of this, David's back and backside were both starting to bother him so he got up to walk around a bit and to go to the rim to check for movement and then go to his patient and give her a good check over for any sign of infection.
After making sure there was no activity on the desert floor, he went back to camp and boiled some water to make sure it was sterile so he could again clean her wounds and put more antibiotic ointment on her head wound and antibiotic wound powder on the wound under her arm, then rebandage all of them. He thought those on her scalp would be the first to be able to drop the bandages. He removed the old bandages from her scalp and saw that while not infected as yet, they had oozed some and her hair was getting terribly matted, he could do nothing about that until she could be up and about and then he or she could wash it. He did have shampoo and conditioner with him. After he was finished, he put everything away and threw the old bandages into the pit and walked again to the rim for a quick look.
When he got back to camp, he got another pot of water as he was considering a second pot of coffee when he heard a moan coming for the tent and he quickly put the coffee pot on the rocks to heat and ran to the tent to check on his patient. She had moved and it looked like she had tried to roll over and had moaned from the pain in her arm that the attempt had caused. He eased her into a position that he thought would not hurt her wounds and crawled back out of the tent.
Since she had not woken, he went back to the campfire to see about his coffee and to give some thought to his book which would occupy a lot of his mind as he was getting very anxious about his software program. The last note from Thom had said that there had been a temporary setback in the debugging and testing but that they were back on track now. People were starting to get real nervous it seemed and the number of lawsuits and phone calls had done nothing but increase and now a few anonymous threats had come in that had been placed via untraceable burner cell phones. Efforts to find and silence him were well underway it seemed, so he was warned to stay vigilant and careful just a little longer.
As the afternoon wore on, David went into the woods to gather a new supply of dry firewood that could be found lying about most everywhere. In the past few months David had cleaned up a pretty wide area of available wood and was having to range out further and further to find good firewood. When he had gathered enough for several days' usage and had it stored at the campsite, David figured it was time to once more give his patient a check over and then fix a bite of supper and get ready for bed.
After confirming that his patient was still resting comfortably and still had no fever, he turned to fixing a can of what was supposed to be chicken chow mien. He thought he would take their word for it, but it didn't taste too bad. He finished eating and cleaned up the area and drank a cup of warmed over coffee and then crawled into his tent to sleep.
The usual routine started the next morning with David waking up with the sun and after taking care of his morning business, going to check the rim for movement and then starting coffee and while it was perking he would check on his patient. Nothing was going on out on the desert floor so he went to the fire and started the water and then crawled into the tent to check on his patient. He noticed that she had moved more during the night and that the sleeping bag was pretty ruffled now and the bottom of the shirt he had put on her was trying to work upwards exposing a lot of a very flat and toned stomach. He rearranged both as best he could.
He went back to the fire and found his coffee ready, so he poured himself a cup and sat down to decide what to fix for breakfast.
"Whhaaattt happened to me??? Water!! Where am I?? Who are you?? How long have I been here???" This he heard coming from the tent, so he quickly put his cup down and filled a cup with water and took it to the tent and putting his arm behind her back and raising her into a more or less sitting position he put the cup to the woman's mouth and told her to sip it slowly and to only take small sips for the time being. She sipped slowly but thirstily.
When she finished the water, David eased her back down to the sleeping bag and asked her how she felt. "I feel like a truck ran over me," she told him and then asked all the same questions again. David told her that she had had a bit of a mishap and that he would talk to her more about it after she felt better. She wanted to know right then and he again told her that he would tell her in a little while, so please just be patient. He then gave her a bit more water and asked if she was in pain and if so did she need anything for it then he asked if she was hungry and if so he would fix her something light for that evening and then start her on heavier meals the next day. She asked him if he was a doctor and he told he wasn't but had had a lot of first aid training in the Army. She did say that she could use some pain pills and then she told him that the coffee smelled wonderful and asked if she could have some. He told her that as she did not have any stomach wounds he thought she could.
"Wounds?? I have wounds? Where?? What happened?? Is that why my head hurts and I cannot move my arm?"
"Yes, you have wounds to your head and to the fleshy part of your underarm area. You were shot three times and we will talk about that shortly, and that is why your head hurts and the sleeve of the shirt you are wearing is pinned to the body as I did not have a sling for it. Now, are you hungry? I have an assortment of semi delicious canned goods available for now."
