Checking the plane, I immediately saw that the pontoon with one of the cases of food was gone. The other was scraped, and I could see holes in the aluminum walls, but I had a good feeling. I hurried over and pulled open the hatch to see the one case still there, although the crash had split open the cardboard outer box. Still, we had a food supply, and more importantly, I had a way to heat water for Robin. Grabbing two of the meals, I made my way back inside, where Robin lay in her sleeping bag, her lips still a slightly cyanotic blue. “S-so c-c-cold,” she chattered. I hurriedly pulled the door closed behind me.
“I know, Robin,” I said, rushing over to my bag. In the side pocket I found our canteen of water, one of only two we had. I had packed two filtration straws in our bags, expecting to be able to draw from the lakes. Still, I needed a way to get Robin warm, and this would help. Tearing open the heavy plastic envelope, I quickly pulled out the chemical heaters.
Normally we used these for heating the food included in the ration kit, but I had an idea. I settled the heater into a cardboard sleeve that supposedly contained chow mein in a metallic envelope before adding just a bit of water. Soon, the packet was warm and bubbling, and I slid it under her head where the sleeping bag was thinnest. The bag was folded pretty tight, and I didn’t think it would leak out and burn her.
Robin stared at me with her eyes not comprehending anything, and I knew I had to take desperate action. Training took over, and I pulled off my boots and stripped down to my thermal underwear before unzipping her bag.
“I know this is going to feel weird, but I promise it’s just to help you be warmer,” I said, sliding in next to her while she shivered. “You’re in shock, and you need to stay warm.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I tried everything I could to not be aware of the fact that it was Robin in my arms. While I would’ve loved to do this before and tease her, this wasn’t a time for games. For years I fought my attraction to her, knowing that she would never agree to be mine, even though I could tell she liked me as more than a stepbrother. And while she won’t admit it, Robin has a pretty deep conservative streak in her, and the whole taboo element would probably put her off.
Still, Robin was my dream girl, and there was no denying it. Tall, smart, with sensuous lips and eyes that bore deep into my soul, she had captivated me from the first time I laid eyes on her, back when our parents were first seeing one another. She was the girl I compared every woman I met with, and it was agonizing knowing that she would never be mine. My fellow soldiers always joked about my thing for tall brunettes, and I tried to ignore the fact that the ones I went after always resembled Robin.
Holding her in my arms, I could feel Robin start to relax and her body mold itself to mine. She returned my embrace, snuggling until her head was tucked under my chin. “Thank you,” she said after a few minutes, her voice much calmer. “I know you must feel weird in your underwear here with me.”
“You were in shock,” I replied, deflecting the comment. Yes, it was a little weird, but the truth of the matter was, it was something I’d thought about before, although under different circumstances, of course. “I did what I needed to do to get you warm and stable.”
I held her for a few more minutes until I realized that, even with my greatest efforts at avoiding it, I was starting to get hard. Letting go, I unzipped the bag and rolled out, making sure to hide my crotch until my pants were safely on again. Between the regular underwear, the long underwear and the thick cotton twill of the pants, I could safely mask my arousal.
“I want you to stay in the bag a while longer,” I said, trying to sound professionally detached and failing miserably, in my opinion. “I may have passed my combat lifesaver class, but I don’t have the equipment to run an IV on you or anything else. And I need you mobile in order to get out of here.”
“Where is here?” Robin asked, and I thought I could hear a hint of regret in her voice at my letting go. I shook my head, focusing on the emergency at hand.
“I’ll need to get a map to be sure, but we’re at least a hundred kilometers from where we were supposed to camp. The cockpit should have a map, although I don’t know if it’s a type I can easily read. But we are above the snow line, so we need to look for some sort of shelter and soon. The sun is going down, so I need to work quickly. I did see that we have one of the cartons of rations left, so food isn’t going to be our immediate problem. I’m more worried about water, honestly. We only have two liters left, and an orange soda from the cooler, if I remember right.”
“So what are you going to do?” Robin said, sounding a bit worried, and she scooted until she was at least sitting with her back propped against the bulkhead, with the bag wrapped around her. “What can we get done?”