Once she had the moss in place, and the small sticks ready to catch the fire to set the larger ones ablaze, Zoey sat back on her heels and took a deep breath.
“That’s it, Z-Zo. You c-can do this,” Mark said softly. He didn’t demand she pass the flint to him. Didn’t try to take control of making the fire. He had faith that she could do it.
Nodding to herself, Zoey bent over the moss and hit the flint with the metal striker. Sparks flew like they were supposed to, but just like every other time she’d attempted to start the fire, they went every which way, not down at the moss where she needed them.
“Take your t-time,” Mark encouraged.
Gritting her teeth, Zoey struck the flint again. And again. With each hit, she got more sparks. She was slowly getting the hang of it and determination set in. She needed this fire. Mark needed this fire. It was going to start, dammit, no matter what.
It took probably two dozen strikes, but finally a spark landed right where she needed it. It was probably luck more than anything specific she’d done, but she didn’t care. Smoke rose from the moss and, feeling her adrenaline spike, Zoey leaned over the precious spark and very gently blew on it, just like Mark had taught her.
Within seconds, the spark had turned to a flame.
Not wanting to do anything that would make the precarious fire go out, she moved a few sticks over to the smoldering moss. Slowly but surely, they also caught fire.
Five minutes later, there was a crackling, warm fire burning.
Zoey turned to Mark in disbelief. “I did it.”
“Yes, you sure d-did, s-sweetheart.”
Hearing his stutter, Zoey brushed off the feeling of accomplishment and shuffled over to Mark. “Come on. You need to get closer to the fire.”
Very slowly, and holding her shirt to his midsection, Mark stood. Zoey quickly went to his side and wrapped a steadying arm around him. Within moments, he was sitting once more, this time right next to the fire. She could feel the heat coming from the flames, and for just a second she considered sitting down next to Mark to soak them up, but she had more work to do.
Leaving Mark by the fire, she gathered his clothes and squeezed as much water out of them as possible. Then she draped them over some logs she’d carried to the fire. He couldn’t continue on without his clothes, and he couldn’t put them on if they were wet. So the only choice was to do everything possible to dry them out. Luckily, the cargo pants weren’t one hundred percent cotton like a pair of jeans would’ve been. She figured they should dry fairly quickly. But his T-shirt and underwear would take much longer to be ready to wear again.
Then she set about seeing what she could find for them to eat. Making a snare and killing a squirrel was outside her abilities, but Zoey did manage to forage some berries, a few mushrooms, and even a bunch of cattail plants. They didn’t taste the best, but Colin had taught her that, in a pinch, they could be consumed.
The sun had completely disappeared behind the afternoon clouds, and Zoey shivered. But she did her best to ignore her discomfort. Mark was in much worse shape. She could deal with a little chill.
She brought her bounty back to where she’d left Mark and found him lying on his side. Zoey put more wood on the fire, ignoring the amount of smoke that was curling up into the sky. As long as they had flames, she didn’t care how smoky things got.
The sound of her messing with the fire woke Mark, and he pushed himself upright.
“I found some stuff to eat,” Zoey told him with a small smile. She saw the look of admiration in his eyes, but ignored it for now. “As well as our usual berry and fungus feast, I found us some cattails.”
“Cattails?” Mark asked.
Zoey was pleased that he didn’t seem to be shivering as much anymore, and he hadn’t stuttered. “Yeah. Your dad taught me. I’m going to roast the shoots, as that’s the easiest thing to do out here. The roots can also be eaten, but they’re not as good.”
“My pop taught you that?” Mark asked.
Zoey nodded as she used his knife to cut the shoots. “Yeah. We were talking one day about all the stuff in the wilderness that was edible. He told me cattails were, but I didn’t believe him. So of course, he had to prove me wrong.” Zoey chuckled. “Honestly, this isn’t going to taste all that good, but since I can’t catch any meat for us, this will have to do for now.”
“I didn’t know about cattails,” Mark said.
He sounded so different, Zoey looked up at him in concern.
“You’re amazing, Zo.”
Blushing, Zoey shrugged. “If I was all that amazing, I would’ve been able to catch us a moose and make us some moose burgers.” She wasn’t used to compliments. Not ones that were accompanied by a look like the one on Mark’s face. “I need to go wash these. I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t fall in,” Mark quipped.
Zoey rolled her eyes. “I think one of us taking an impromptu dunk is enough. Although I am kind of jealous that you were able to take a bath and wash off the worst of the dirt from the last week.” She couldn’t believe she was actually joking about what had happened, but she supposed it was a good way to let off some nervous energy.
Bubba was pissed. At himself. It wasn’t as if it was his fault that the tree had come down stream at exactly the wrong time, but he should’ve at least planned for something like that. He could’ve taken off more of his clothes, just in case he got dunked. If he had, he wouldn’t be sitting on the ground, practically naked, watching Zoey take care of him.
It was a weird role reversal, and he didn’t like it. Didn’t like the way Zoey was flitting around in only a tank top. He could see how cold she was by the way her nipples were poking through her bra, and the goose bumps that rose on her arms every time she stepped away from the fire. He didn’t like that she’d literally given him the shirt off her back, and her socks as well.
If they’d both been soaked, they would’ve been fucked. Zoey had done everything right.
All his adult life he’d taken for granted that his teammates would have his back. If he’d been with one of them, it would’ve been a given that they’d have done what Zoey had. But she wasn’t a SEAL. Wasn’t his teammate. And yet, she’d acted immediately and kept him from suffering needlessly. He wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet, but the warmth from the fire was going a long way toward making him recover sooner rather than later.
Bubba was as proud as he could be that Zoey had managed to get the fire started. He couldn’t have done it, his hands had been shaking too hard. But she’d managed, and the feeling of accomplishment that he’d seen on her face was beautiful.
She’d started the fire, gotten them food, taught him something he didn’t know about edible wild plants, and now it was time she stopped moving for two seconds and relaxed. “Come here,” he told her after she’d put another log on the fire. Bubba held out an arm, encouraging her to snuggle up against him.
She came to him without hesitation, which made him feel ten feet tall. His colossal mistake hadn’t seemed to diminish her willingness to be near him. When she snuggled against him, he could feel the chill of her body against his own.
He held her tight and moved them a little closer to the flames.