Questions tormented his head as he paced along the tarmac: where was Austin, but more importantly, how long could Samuel wait for him? It wasn’t really a matter of how long he should wait, but rather how long was Samuel able to remain isolated and vulnerable in the middle of the forest before he had to think of himself. He had no idea how much further it was until the road would bring him out of the other side, but Samuel knew he needed to keep heading in that direction otherwise he’d be forced to spend the night amongst the trees.
“Austin!” He eventually cried out into the night sky, bellowing his friends’ name as he cupped his hands around his mouth and leant back into his words. His voice cracked as he repeated the name over and over again, longing to hear a reply in the darkness, something to point him in the right direction. The rest of the forest quietened as he yelled, making his voice the only sound audible within the trees. Surely if Austin was nearby, he would be able to hear him.
“I’m sorry, Austin,” Samuel murmured in a quieter voice after several minutes of shouting, hearing no reply or response to his words. “This is all my fault.”
Samuel looked down at his feet and shook his head, ashamed of himself for stumbling amongst the trees and falling down. He couldn’t believe what Austin had done for him, putting his own life on the line and distracting the bear just in order to give him a better chance of survival. When he thought of it, Samuel realized it wasn’t the first time Austin had done something like that for him. Thinking all the way back to the first day they had properly met in the Trident building on Wall Street, even then Austin had put himself second in order to help Samuel survive, then and so many more times afterwards.
Yelling out for his friend again, it dawned on Samuel that no matter how long it took to find him, he couldn’t just leave Austin behind. Not after everything the man had done for him and not when he considered how much more Austin had to fight for. They were doing all of this for his family – for his little boy. Samuel had felt the love resonating from Austin when he had spoken about his son, Bowie, earlier on their journey. Austin was a father and he deserved to see his son again, if he could do anything to help that become a reality, Samuel was willing to try. He might not be lucky enough to have a family yet, but Austin was and he deserved to see them at least one more time.
“Austin! Where are you? Austin! Come to my voice!”
Behind the tree line in the darkness of the forest, Austin finally heard his name being called. It was faint at first, more like a murmur in the wind than the bellowing cry of his companion. In fact, he didn’t properly register it at all until he turned and stood with his back to the wind, cutting out the sound of leaves and grass rustling in the air around him. Then he heard it properly. It was like the voice of an angel calling his name. Samuel. Samuel was nearby.
“Sam! I’m here, I’m over here! Where are you, Sam?”
Austin shouted back and then paused to listen, cupping his hands behind his ears to block out more of the surrounding sound and focus on Samuel’s voice. When he heard it again, he couldn’t even make out the words, the sound of them being carried away on the wind and getting trapped amongst the trees. But it was definitely human and that was good enough for Austin. Slinging his rucksack back over his shoulder with the one unbroken strap he started walking in the direction of the sound, begging Samuel internally to keep shouting. So long as he had the voice to follow, he could find his way back to his friend.
“Austin?”
“Sam!”
“Austin!”
The two men charged into one another like childhood best friends reuniting after a long summer apart. They embraced with such a force that it knocked Austin’s rucksack off his back onto the ground, landing there with a thud as Samuel tightened his grip around the man’s back, holding his body against his own.
It was an unfamiliar display of affection between the two men, but the second they saw one another again – Austin emerging from the trees like a shadow against a painting – they wanted nothing more than to feel the safety the other one carried with them. After several minutes of walking around blindly, Samuel had finally been able to hear Austin’s cries back to him through the trees and between them they navigated him back to the road and back to safety.
Despite everything else they had been through, all the trauma in the city and the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen to them next, both men felt like finding one another in the forest had been their greatest achievement. They held each other and both fought back tears, Samuel being slightly more successful than Austin. At moments he had felt like his life truly was over, to see his friend again and know he was saved brought on feelings of raw emotion that Austin didn’t even know he had been carrying. He had been given a second chance at life and Austin was determined that he
