The Spear Tree

It had taken nearly an hour for Sam and Elias to make it back to the truck.

Elias was forced to lean on Sam the entire way, hobbling on his broken foot. Once they reached Elias's truck, Sam drove the mechanic to the walk-in clinic. The fact that Elias had to limp into the walk-in was not lost on either of them.

The story Elias gave, he later told Sam, was that he had been working on a vehicle in the shop and wrenched his foot climbing out of the pit. He also told her that he had washed the dirt off his face and hands in the waiting room bathroom. Hopefully the doctor and nurses on duty would find nothing suspicious about him doing vehicle maintenance in tattered clothing.

He had asked Sam to go home and wait for his call—the two of them shouldn't be seen together, he reasoned. And she agreed. Before letting him leave the truck, however, Sam asked:

"Do you think he's really dead?"