Chapter 68: In the Woods with Her

< Dylan >
Shirley started panicking as the car halted.
Punctured tires. No gun. No grenade. No fucking weapon. Petrified Shirley. In the middle of nowhere. Mind-blocked. I'm fucked.
Thanks a bunch, luck.
It was all my fault, though.
Shirley started chanting prayers, grabbing my attention. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she was murmuring something. Her fear-stricken face urged me to comfort her.
I rested my hand on top of her trembling ones and squeezed it to assure her. She looked up to me with terror evident in her beautiful ocean blue eyes.
"It's going to be alright," I told her softly.
Her voice wavered as she talked, "W—what are we going to do?" We were in the middle of nothing but big trees.
I couldn't think of anything but avoiding confrontation. "We will make a run for it," I instructed.
She didn't seem to understand what I meant at first. My eyes snapped at the side mirror and saw the people inside the SUVs coming out.
I doubted they were in the mafia. They didn't look professional enough, especially their weapons. In the midst of the crisis, I looked thoroughly at her glove box, only to find a flash grenade.
I never thought she would still have it. I gave it to Shirley a long time ago as a joke. I guess, there came a time when everything came hand in hand.
"I will use the flash grenade. That will be our cue," I informed her, and she fearfully nodded. With that, I threw the flashbang out of the window.
As soon as the metal tinkled in the ground, there was deafening silence before it went berserk with the blinded man growling.
I opened the car door and got out hurriedly. I grabbed Shirley's wrist and pulled her inside the woods with me. The path was very unstable with rocks and branches everywhere. It wasn't a problem for me because I was trained for every worst-case scenario. But someone, who was brought up as a princess was going to get themselves killed out here.
I glanced at Shirley's feet to find her wearing heels—out of all the days to wear those cursed footwear.
When she stumbled, I scolded, "Seriously? You seldom wear heels, why today?"
It angered her and she shot back, "Shut up. These are pumps. You always carry two guns, today you—"
I stopped before she went further on insulting me.
"Okay, you don't have to rub salts on my wound," I remarked and heard a few footsteps behind. Those men were closing the distance between us. "Just try not to trip."
Shirley rolled her eyes and continued running faster. After a good amount of running, we had lost them. For safety, we still kept marching forward. We had to get out of this haunted place as well.
Shirley was busy huffing and panting. She placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "Let's take a break, please, Dylan. I'm dying," she begged.
"We will be damned if they catch us."
"Then you will fight them like the heroes in romantic movies," she beamed. I could practically see stars around her head. She really deemed me to be her savior, which I was not.
"What am I, Superhuman?"
"You are my man," she responded.
"Cringe," I retorted, and she laughed. "It's literally impossible to win a one on twenty fight unless you give me some long-range weapon," I explained it to her.
We kept walking in silence for the next one hour without any option. I left my cell phone back in the car, and Shirley's one couldn't catch the network. I didn't even know where the hell we were heading.
"I'm thirsty," Shirley whined.
"Geez, I'm not a water tank." To be honest, I was also thirsty, but I could still go on the whole day without drinking water. However, she couldn't, and I had to do something about that.
Shirley was about to trip again when I caught her in the nick of time. For once I didn't leave her hand after entering the woods, if I had, she would be full of wounds and scratches by now. "What will you do without me?" I shook my head hopelessly.
Shirley gave me a pointed look before snatching away her hand and muttered, "I don't need your help." She started walking on her own at a fast pace.
I guess she has become responsible now.
I drifted into deep thoughts.
I still couldn't figure out who ambushed us. They must have done something to Tim and Jeremiah. Furthermore, those men didn't look like they belonged to any mafia gang. They were amateurs.
Many people tried to kill me, that was fine by me because I knew how to deal with it. Even so, I was never attacked whenever Shirley was with me because she was—
"Oww!" I snapped out of my thoughts at the sudden squeak. I saw Shirley tripping on her knees. I immediately rushed to her aid, fearing for the worst possible injury she could sustain in a forest.
I frowned when I saw she just scraped her knees, and she was wincing like a little kid.
"Someone said they didn't need my help," I fumed.
"Oww, oww, it stings, it stings." The pain was written all over her face. Since she was wearing a knee-length skirt, I checked her wound. There was a small amount of blood coming out of her left knee and her right knee just got a little scratched.
Regardless of how much blood I saw every day, just a little blood on her knees gave me a weird, pained feeling. This girl was going to drive me crazy. Although normally I would just snap at her for being so darn careless, still I couldn't find it in my heart to see her in pain.
I had to clean up the wound; it could get infected.
I scooped her in my arms, and she stopped whining, falling quiet. She reluctantly wrapped one of her arms around my neck and held onto me as if her life depended on it. She snuggled closer to my chest, and I felt a strange feeling which I always got whenever she was extremely close to me.
When I found a stable ground, I made her sit against a tree. I kneeled down next to her and looked deeper into her wounds as the bleeding had stopped by then. Thankfully, I had a small band-aid in my pocket.
I looked around for something to clean the blood before deciding on a tree leave. After that, I aided her wound. All this time I could feel her burning gaze at me. I sorta felt weird, more like I was shy.
"Does it hurt anymore?" I asked and found her eyes still boring at me. She subconsciously shook her head. "I—I will try to connect the network. You wait here." I was about to get up, but she held my wrist.
"Don't leave me. Let's go together," Shirley offered.
"Can you walk?" I was slightly concerned—okay, not slightly, a lot.
Shirley nodded. I helped her stand up while she latched onto my arm. I kept her close to me for ensuring her well-being. My mind, unknowingly, diverted back to the surprise attack. Why?
"Shirley, do you have any clue who could have ambushed us?" I asked, and she paled.
Her grip tightened on my arm as she shuttered out, "I don't know."
She definitely knew something...
"Oh, okay." I didn't want to put any stress on her. Flashing her a small smile, we let a peaceful silence prevail between us.
As much as the chirping of the birds was pleasant to hear, the growling of animals was much scarier. Along the way, I was trying to connect to the network, standing atop a big stone when she squealed in awe. "What's this flower? It's so pretty!"
I rolled my eyes and concentrated on the network. I couldn't possibly be by myself with her company, now could I?
Shirley dragged me to see the flower. "They look like lilies, don't they?" She admired them with unadulterated joy. I liked how her eyes would always lit up whenever she saw something new.
"Yes, it is. They are called 'orange lily' or 'fire lily'," I told her. The fire lilies were indeed beautiful, but not more beautiful than Shirley.
A genuine, radiant smile graced her soft lips as she said, "You sure do know a lot about flowers."
Of course, I would. Sienna kept blabbering about flowers all the time.
"Let's march on." Shirley walked on like a soldier, forgetting her scraped knee. I giggled at her antics before my shoulders slumped and I followed her.
Shirley kept pointing out many features in the forest like a little child, who had never stepped outside her territory. Whenever she enthusiastically talked about it, the smiles that danced on her lips were alluring and distracting without any adulteration.
I didn't know why but I felt like I would give up anything for her happiness. It made no sense to me. Generally speaking, I wouldn't even give up my sleep for her.
You do that every day, Dylan, pointed out my subconscious.
Oh, hush up. I don't give up my sleep for her; she forces me to wake up.
"Dylan, look." Shirley tugged at my sleeve and motioned at a pond. "Who could have thought there would be a pond here?" She started getting giddy as she took a hold of my arm and dragged me to the water body.
"Can we drink it?" she asked me innocently, putting her index finger on her cheek in an adorable manner.
I arched an eyebrow. "I don't think we should. We are not Bear Grylls, after all. We will get typhoid."
"I feel like I can eat a worm right about now," she muttered.
"Eww!" I shrieked away from her, being disgusted.
Despite my warning, she went ahead and drank water from the pond. The pond didn't seem that polluted, still, I would rather not drink from there.
I was looking at the orange sky and realized it would be dark soon. Suddenly cold water splattered on my face, and I jumped out of my skin at the sudden chills. "Ah!"
While I was still in the aftershock, a melodious laugh echoed around me. I looked at the source of the sound and found Shirley laughing. I gritted my teeth and shot her a playful glare.
Shirley was in the water up to her knees. I removed my jacket because I didn't want it to get wet and joined her in the water. She was making odd faces, looking at her reflection. She was so weird, yet I didn't know why I tolerated her.
I splashed some water at her. Now it was her time to scream, and I laughed. Her expression was worth it. Her chocolate brown hair was sticking to her face, giving her a childish yet sexy look, not to mention her top sticking to her like a second skin.
She splashed back at me, making my t-shirt wet as well. Soon, it turned into a water fight with our endless giggles and laughs.
When we got out of the water, I regretted ever stepping in the water. The cold was sending shivers to my bones. "I feel cold." Shirley was hugging herself. Her dark brown hair was soaking wet, so were her clothes.
"We are stupid," I murmured and went to pick up my jacket.
"Glad you know," she retorted. I gave her a narrowed look and placed my jacket over her shoulders, not just because she was feeling cold but also because her top was see-through now. Therefore, I didn't want to embarrass her.
When she smiled warmly at me, there was a weird tingle in my stomach. A kind of feeling that Sienna described to me.
I shook my head in denial. Sienna was bluffing. There was no way it could be love.