I drop my spoon into the bowl and bite back a fierce response. Are you out of your mind, you stupid, stupid girl! “Why would I save you if I’d planned to kill you?” I’m unsuccessful at keeping the anger from my voice. When she doesn’t immediately respond, I slowly turn around to see that she hasn’t touched her food. Her gaze darts to the wall where I store my weapons—buck knives, machetes, multiple hatchets, and a hunting rifle.

“Those are for hunting.” I eye her untouched food. She must be hungry. Upon further inspection, I see that her face shines with perspiration, and her lips, which had regained their pink color last night, look pale once again. The abrasion on her head has scabbed over and doesn’t look puffy or red. “Are you sick?” I stand and cross to her.

“No, I’m in pain. What are you doing?”

Having dropped to a squat, I peel back the animal pelts to see if she has any other injuries. She tries to bend her knees, make herself into a protective ball, but she winces in pain, and her legs flop out in front of her. That’s when I notice the dark stain on her gray long johns. “Are you bleeding?”

“What?” She follows my line of sight to her midsection. “I don’t think so.”

I grasp the hem of her shirt and wrench the fabric up.

“Hey, don’t touch me!” She bats at my hands but stops when her gaze lands on the bloody scratches carved into her torso. “I didn’t—”

“Fuck,” I growl and drop her shirt. “Anything else?”

Her eyes turn to slits, and her pale lips thin. “Like I meant for this to happen?”

I leave her to grab my first aid kit and throw a shit ton more wood into the woodstove.

“Take these.” I hand her an antibiotic and a pain reliever.

“What are they?”

“Do you want to die? Because I’d be happy to drag you back out where I found you. If you want to live, take the fucking pills.” I rip clean gauze from its packaging, and once she’s swallowed the pills, I direct her to lie down.

She keeps a cautious eye on me when I pull up her shirt. The wounds on her stomach and ribcage are mostly superficial. I pull her shirt higher, and she fights me without success. She moans in pain as she lifts her other hand to cover her exposed breast. Where the swell of that breast meets her ribs is an angry red and bloody wound.

“Lift your arm.”

Slowly she lifts her arm above her head. “My shoulder is sore. It might be broken.”

“Dislocated.” I go about cleaning away the old blood around the wound to get a better idea of what I’m dealing with.

Her gaze snaps to mine. “How do you… You fixed it?” She flinches, and air escapes her clenched teeth when I hit a sensitive area. “I think I remember. The pain, at least.”

I grab the flashlight in the first aid kit and click it on. “Take this. Hold it right here.”

She’s a horrible help, the beam of light shines just about everywhere except where I need it. I do my best to clean the area, and that’s when I see something dark protruding from the wound. It can’t be one of her broken ribs, it’s not the right size or color.

“You’ve been impaled.”

“Impaled? Are you serious?”

“I’m always serious.” I hop up and grab a wooden spoon and a pair of needle-nose pliers. I pour boiling water over the pliers and hold the wooden spoon handle to her mouth.

“What are you doi—”

I shove the wooden spoon between her molars, and her eyes grow wide and panicked. “Bite. This’ll hurt.”

She makes some unintelligible noise that is easy enough to translate. Something like, “Oh, God, no. Please, wait. Give me one more second—”

I rip a piece of wood the size of her pinkie from her body, and she screams behind the wooden spoon. Tears streak down her face, and her breathing is so quick I think she’s going to pass out. Good. She’s easier to work on when she’s out cold. She manages to stay conscious as I stuff the wound with sterile gauze and cover it with medical tape. Her cheeks are wet with tears and sweat, but she doesn’t make a sound when I remove the spoon from her teeth. “Now eat.”

I reclaim my breakfast seat with my back to her.

“Thank you,” she pants, probably fighting through residual pain.

My jaw locks down on lukewarm oatmeal. I nod and blow out a tense breath.

Stuck with a random woman in my space is bad enough.

Stuck with a dying woman in my space would be worse.