"Wooo!" Echo cheered as she and Richard rafted down the rapids.
They pulled up at the river bank and climbed out of their inflatable raft.
"Not bad, not bad," Richard laughed, making sure the raft was secured down.
"You should see me on a five," Echo replied breathlessly.
"I thought that was a five," Richard said.
"No way," she grinned, tucking hair behind her ears. "Three, three and a half maybe. If it were a five, I'd be fishing you out of the drink."
"You think so, huh?" he challenged.
She pulled him to her and kissed him.
"Yeah," she told him, then slapped him on the ass. "Now get your ass moving before I leave you for the wolves."
~*~*~*~
Echo reached up, grunting slightly as her hand gripped onto the rock face.
"You know what they say about looking down," Richard commented, glancing up at her.
"Don't?" she replied.
"Yeah. Really don't," he added, taking another look. "You ok?"
"Yeah," she assured him, looking for the next place to put her hands.
Echo spotted a crevice and reached for it, but her hand slipped and she fell back a little, suspended by the harness and she let out a squeal. She looked panicked for a second, before letting out a giggle. "I'm ok."
"Man," Richard said, nervous grin on his face. "That's not funny. You know how much trouble I'd be in if you went splat?"
"Yeah," Echo replied. "My brothers would kill you."
~*~*~*~
"Everything looks beautiful from here," Topher's voice came through a little distorted. "Vitals are right online."
"What about her adrenaline?" Boyd asked, studying the computer in front of him.
"Within engagement parameters," Topher told him.
"Are you sure? She's elevating towards red line," Boyd replied.
"Relax, mountain man. I've been reading the squigglies long enough to discern the diff between excitement and sweet mother I'm gonna die. She's fine. Dude, go soak up some nature! Like... smell the honey, wrassle a grizzly. Leave the science to the sciene guy."
Boyd sighed. "Well how about clearing up my signal, professor? My displays are crap."
"You're in the middle of 'why would anyone want to be there?', what did you expect, HBO?" Topher scoffed.
"Can't you retask one of the auxiliary satellites, give me some more coverage?" Boyd questioned.
"What's the magic word?" Topher joked.
"Please?" Boyd rolled his eyes.
"I was actually looking for 'abracadabra', but, that'll do. Ok," Topher said. "Retasking satellite seven-one-one-five. It's gonna take a few to move into alignment."
"Thanks."
"Anything for you," Topher replied, mock seriously. "Because I love you. Deep, deep man love."
~*~*~*~
"Carbon shaft, three blade broad head," Richard explained.
"Damn," Echo breathed, holding the arrow.
"It's to get us lunch," he told her.
"You couldn't've... packed a couple of sandwiches?" she asked nervously.
"Oh, sandwiches don't give you a run when you try to eat them. They just lay there waiting for mustard."
"I like mustard." Echo shrugged.
Richard laughed and handed her the bow. "Here."
She loaded the arrow into the bow and pulled back, and Richard slid one arm around ehr waist, the other guided her hands.
"You're gripping too tight, here... you want it to just rest there, pressing against your palm or crease."
"Sounds dirty," Echo grinned.
"It's your lifeline," Richard said, letting out a chuckle. "You grip the riser too tight your shot will torque."
"You're pretty good at this."
"My Dad taught me. He was a big believer in, uh..." Richard slapped his hand against his shoulder.
"Was that a salute?" Echo asked, repeating the motion. "Do I have to learn a salute?"
"It's uh, shoulder to the wheel," he explained. "Do the work. Earn your way. If you can bring down something bigger than you, with just this, you've proved you deserve to eat it. If it gets away, it's proved it's deserved to live. And you go hungry. Dad thought we all take too much for granted."
"And you?"
"Oh, I appreciate every moment. Particularly this one."
"I'm not the first girl you've brought into the woods, am I?" she asked.
"No," Richard told her. "But so far, you're the only one who hasn't been a disappointment."
He leaned in to kiss her again, but she stopped him by whispering his name, catching sight of the elk.
"What do I do?" she whispered.
"Never take a shot unless you're sure it'll put your target down. Aim for the flank. Right below the shoulders."
He directed her through each step, and she drew back the arrow, then let go, sending it flying clean through the air, lodging itself in the flank of the animal, as he had directed.
~*~*~*~
Echo eyed him strangely, as he got up and dressed, leaving her still naked beneath the sleeping bag.
"Going, where?" she asked.
"Just enough daylight left to make it back to the main road," Richard said. "Might even flag a ride outta here before I catch up."
"Yeah, ok," Echo said, leaning up on one elbow. "Am I missing something? Richard?"
"You need to stop talking now," he replied, picking up the bow. "And start running. I'll give you a five minute head start. And then I'm coming after you."
~*~*~*~
Echo ran through the woods, skidding down the hill awkwardly. She kept running, pausing to climb over the log in her way, before taking off at full pace again. She reached the cliff and looked down, close to panic as she realised she had no equipment to climb down with.
She shimmied down carefully, trying not to cry as she finally reached the bottom, before starting to run again, her hands grazed and bloodied from the descent.
"Ah!" she screamed, as the arrow narrowly missed going through her thigh, simply grazing it. She ran as more arrows rained down upon her.
~*~*~*~
"Satellite retask coming online," Topher said to Boyd.
"When?" Boyd asked.
"Uhhh, anytime. Nowish?"
~*~*~*~
Echo took a swig of water from the canteen, hanging in the rangers cabin. She breathed heavily, almost heaving from being out of breath.
The sound of a walkie talkier caught her attention and she followed it to the cupboard. She opened the door and screamed as the dead ranger fell out on top of her.
She took the radio with shaking hands, and pressed the button. "Hello? Is there anybody out there? I need help, please somebody!"
"Hey baby," Richard's voice came through. "Guess you found Ranger Bob, huh?"
"Why are you doing this?"
"Coz I wanna know," Richard replied, as if she should know.
"Know what, you sick son of a bitch?!" Echo exclaimed.
"If you deserve to live. If you've earned the right," he told her.
"You know what gives someone the right to live? Not hunting them!" she yelled.
"That's it," he encouraged. "Shoulder to the wheel. Prove you're not just an echo."
"You want proof, you psycho?" she asked. "How bout this? I'm gonna kill you. Will that prove it? I'm gonna stab - "
She fell to her knees, coughing and choking.
"You don't sound too good," he taunted. "Hey, you didn't drink from a canteen in there, did you? Well, that would be bad."
~*~*~*~
Boyd caught Echo's arms, preventing her from hitting him with the branch she held.
"It's ok," he told her. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"Don't I know you?" Echo asked.
"Everything's going to be alright," Boyd said.
"Now that you're here," she replied, relaxing her grip on the branch and letting him take it from her.
"Stay close, I'm gonna get you out - uh!" Boyd cringed as the arrow hit him in the side.
~*~*~*~
Echo helped support Boyd's weight as they continued on, the Handler wincing in pain with each step.
"You got shot with a freaking arrow," she said, as he stopped to lean against a tree. "We keep moving or you're gonna die."
"If he catches up with us, we're both gonna die," Boyd told her.
"I do know you," Echo said.
"We met awhile back," he nodded.
"I feel like... I can trust you, but I don't remember," she replied.
"You're ok?" he asked.
"There was something in the water," Echo told him. "Richard put something in the water."
"He poisoned you?"
"He said it wouldn't kill me, but I've been seeing things," she replied.
"What kind of things?" Boyd questioned.
Echo rubbed her arms. "A girl that looks like me, but isn't. Dead bodies in the shower. And a man standing over me holding a knife, but I can't see his face. I don't think he has one. Are you here, is this real?"
A look of recognition passed through Boyd's eyes. "I'm here. And yeah, this is real."
"He's gonna kill us," Echo said, starting to panic. "He's going to find us and he's going - "
"Hey," Boyd tried to get her attention. "Everything's going to be alright."
She shook her head. "No, it isn't."
"Did you hear what I said?" he asked, looking confused. "Everything's going to be - "
"Everything's not going to be alright," Echo interrupted. "You don't get to live just because you deserve too, you have to prove it, you have to put your shoulder to the wheel!"
"You wanna speak some sense? I'm kinda bleeding to death here," Boyd told her.
"He's not gonna stop," she replied. "Unless he's dead."
"You can't go after this guy," Boyd reasoned. "You don't have the right imprint - you don't have the right training."
"I'm a fast learner."
"Hey - "
"Do you trust me?" Echo asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Do you trust me?"
"With my life," Boyd replied. He handed her one of his guns. "You know how to use this?"
"Four brothers, none of them Democrats," she said, clicking the safety off. "But you should keep this. If Richard finds you, he'll - "
Boyd cut her off by pulling another pistol from the back of his pants. "You didn't think I'd give you my only gun, did you?"
~*~*~*~
Richard stepped around the tree, bow raised to shoot before he noticed she was gone.
"Didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Echo's voice came through on the radio.
"I'd be disappointed if it was," Richard replied. "How's your buddy holding up? Losing an awful lot of blood."
"Not as much as you're about to."
"What are you gonna do? Are you gonna throw rocks at me?" Richard grinned, walking forward.
"No," Echo smirked. "I'm gonna shoot you with the gun my buddy gave me. You're playing my game now. Toss the bow and get down on your knees or I'll blow your freaking head off."
"My Dad would've really liked you. I'm still gonna kill you - " he was cut off by the bullet missing him by millimetres, grazing his arm and hitting the tree behind him.
He dropped to the ground, rolling to the side and he caught sight of Echo running across the top of the hill. He aimed, then stopped, smiled and chased after her.
~*~*~*~
"Word to the wise, you don't want the big bad wolf to find you, you should really turn off your walkie," Richard grinned.
Echo fumbled with the dial, then as she heard him approach, she spun around, aiming the gun for his head.
"Is this the best date ever or what?" he asked, aiming his bow at her.
"Put it down," she ordered, though her voice shook. "Or I put you down."
"Look at you," Richard taunted. "You can barely stand up. Probably wouldn't be able to hit me, even if you did pull the trigger."
Echo used both hands to aim the gun. "You really want to find that out?"
"I admit," he replied. "I'm curious. Concerned, but curious. Then again, shoot me, you get an arrow in that pretty little head."
"Maybe I'm not the one who's gonna miss," Echo told him.
"Tell you what," Richard suggested. "Why don't we ease up? Call it a draw."
"You'll let me go?" she asked skeptically.
"Sure. No harm, no foul."
"You poisoned me," Echo said. "And tried to shoot me with arrows."
"Ok," Richard shrugged. "Maybe a little bit of harm. Look, how about this? On the count of three, we both back off. Deal?"
She nodded. "One."
"Two," he said.
"Three."
They both lowered their weapons for a second, before raising them back up and taking a shot each. Her bullet hit him in the side, but she managed to avoid the arrow, though the gun flew out of her hands as she dodged.
She ran at him, tackling him to the ground as he tried to get up again, straddling his waist and punching him repeatedly. He threw her off and she tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her ankles and flipped her over, straddling her this time, and choking her.
Echo looked to the side, coughing, and saw the arrow. She grabbed it and stabbed it through Richard's neck. He got off her and moved away, clutching at the wound.
"Wow, that really hurt," he breathed.
"Good," she replied.
Richard laughed. "You said you were gonna kill me. It's good follow through. He was right about you. You really are special."
"What are you talking about?"
"Shoulder to the wheel, baby," he told her, slapping his shoulder. "Shoulder to the wheel."
~*~*~*~
The chair raised up, and Echo gasped for breath. She relaxed as her eyes fell on Boyd, and she smiled faintly. "Did I fall asleep?"
Boyd took a step forward and took her hand in his. "For a little while."