Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Forty-Six: Karmen

"Why are we doing this again?" She was sitting on her bed and wanted to keep it that way. She felt terrible about the way she'd acted up on the roof earlier, and she just wanted to be alone with her music for a little while. Now they were going on some kind of new mission?

"We owe them," Crash said. "They made room for us and are letting us stay as long as we want. Most of the people here don't have any kind of training or skill. They're just regular people trying to survive. We have a better chance of making it back than any of them." Crash sighed. "Look, one of their men is hurt. Dying. He has a pregnant wife here in the compound and she's very worried about him."

"Why don't we let Noah take care of it?" she asked. Even though the news about the pregnant wife tugged at her heart, she didn't want to risk their lives for someone she didn't even know. She didn't mean to be crass, but it was the truth. It was just too dangerous.

"We've been through that already," Noah said. "I'm not even sure I can heal an infection, but even if I could, they would know something was up."

"Yeah, but you would have saved his life," she said. "There's nothing scary about that."

"You have to just trust us on this," Crash said.

"Why us?" she asked.

"Because we're the best ones for the job and you know it," Parrish said. She shut the door after a quick glance into the hallway and lowered her voice. "If we don't go, they'll send another group of their own men, and you know what that means. We can help, and everyone in this room knows that."

Karmen sighed and wrapped her earbuds around her phone. "I don't like this at all," she said. "We just got here. It's the first time I've felt safe since this whole mess started. I don't want to leave."

"Then we need to prove to them we truly deserve to be here," Crash said. "If we do this for them, just think what that will mean. They'll let us stay as long as we want."

She sat up on the edge of the cot. "No, what will happen is they'll realize we're good at this. Too good. They'll send us out on all the tough missions from now on, can't you see that? We won't be any safer than we were when we were on the road."

"That's not true," Crash said. "I think if we do this, it clears us to hang out here for a long time before they would ask anything more of us. Especially if we can help save someone's life. We'll be heroes."

"You'll be heroes," she said, laying back down and grabbing her headphones. "I'm not going."

"You are not about to pull this on us right now," Parrish shouted. "Not after your little stunt on the roof. If you want to stay, you're—"

"Hey, there's no reason to get upset," Crash said, putting a hand on Parrish's arm.

He met Karmen's eyes and she looked away, embarrassed. She knew she was acting like a child, but she wasn't ready to go back out there. She'd had enough.

"You guys go on to dinner," he said. "Karmen and I will meet you out there."

"Fine," Parrish said. "We'll see you out there."

Parrish shot a dirty look at Karmen as she left and once the door was closed, Karmen sat up and stuck her tongue out at the door.

"That girl really knows how to drive someone insane," she said.

Crash laughed. "You're one to talk," he mumbled, sitting next to her on her cot.

Karmen rolled her eyes. "You're not going to start in on me, too, are you?"

"I understand why you don't want to go, but there's more to this than you know," he said. "It's really important that we go on this mission."

She studied him. His voice was so serious, which wasn't typical Crash. What was he talking about?