Noah stared at the trees for a moment.
Then his eyes started getting heavy.
The blood was still running from his back. He could feel it moving warm and continuous.
Which was not a good sign.
His hands were shaking where they pressed into the dirt.
The pain had been enormous a moment ago and was now starting to become strangely distant, which was also not a good sign.
He thought about Mary.
He hadn't made a plan to protect her. He hadn't thought it through.
He had just done it.
His body had moved on instinct.
Maybe because she had been there through all of it.
Maybe because he had already seen or say guess, what had happened to the ones who didn't make it.
And he hadn't been able to stop that...but he could stop this.
He thought about the students whose footsteps had stopped in the tunnel behind him.
He didn't feel guilty.
He knew clearly and without self-deception.
That he couldn't have saved them.
Running had been the only option.
