The Light After the Storm (A Time to Serve Book 5) by Chris Glatte

Author:Chris Glatte [Glatte, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn River Publishing
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Abby sat in the back of the tiny Moth aircraft. She wore headphones and heard a flurry of women talking over one another. She could barely wrap her head around what had happened. One moment she was about to do battle with a bear that may or may not have been a figment of her imagination, and the next she sat in an airplane surrounded by old friends.

The voices coming over the radio vied for her attention, but she couldn’t take it. She pushed the headphones off her head and put her face in her hands and rocked slowly back and forth.

Eberdeen put her arm over her shoulder and pulled her tightly to her side. The human warmth felt good, but she still didn’t know if it was real or not. Trish had felt real enough, but she’d faded away like an apparition. Perhaps the bear had killed her and this was just a cruel joke.

Eberdeen pushed something against her side. Abby saw it was a canteen. She took it with shaky hands. Eberdeen helped her unscrew the lid and kept her hands steady as she raised it to her mouth. Abby felt the coolness course down her throat. She gripped the canteen as though it might be taken away. She emptied it quickly. Eberdeen provided another and she emptied that one too. She leaned back and wiped her mouth. If it was a dream, it was a good one. The water tasted as she imagined elixir from the gods would.

Eberdeen held out a chocolate bar with the wrapper already peeled back. Abby looked at Eberdeen, then back at the chocolate. Her mouth filled with saliva and she took a bite. She couldn’t keep herself from quickly shoving the rest into her mouth. She closed her eyes in sheer ecstasy. Her stomach convulsed and she nearly vomited, but she kept it down. She looked out the side window. The vastness of the forest spread out beneath her like a multicolored carpet. She wondered if the foul smelling bear still sought her out. But that couldn’t be real. This was real. The sweetness of the chocolate bar in her mouth was real, this aircraft was real, and her friends who’d rescued her were real.

The Moth touched down and taxied to a stop. The other aircraft followed them in. Abby stepped out from the Moth. Her legs felt unsteady at first, but she could feel the energy from the water and chocolate coursing through her like a freight train without brakes.

Margie and Eberdeen helped her walk, although she didn’t feel she needed it. Soon she was swept off her feet in an enormous bear hug. Mandy swung her in a circle like a child. Abby laughed and finally felt like a halfway normal human again.

“Oh, Abby!” Mandy said. “We thought we’d lost you.”

She finally released her and Abby let them all have a hug. Tears which wouldn’t come before flowed freely now. Her friends had come for her. They’d dropped everything and come for her.

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