Shy Deer Steppes Shake your cake.

"Oh, thank fuck," Towhee replied to those three miraculous words. She squeezed her eyes shut and missed the rest, though they flew open again when she felt the stranger pressing close. She could feel how fast she was breathing as her flank vibrated against the other woman's.

"What do we do?" she asked, voice thready with terror. "Am I going to die?" came out next, unbidden, a shaky whisper. Towhee immediately thought of her three youngest. Were they about to become orphans?

Her whole leg began to tingle and Towhee moaned, sinking down to the hot, sandy earth. She panted and drooled like a rabid animal, her leg stretched out before her. Her foot was entirely numb now, with the sensation (or lack thereof) creeping upward. Her eyelids fluttered as she stared at the swelling flesh around the single puncture, still leaking blood into the dust.

She felt lightheaded and worried about losing consciousness. What if she never woke up again? Should she tell this stranger to pass word back to her kids? Her heart rate spiked as she thought of her last words to them. She'd been so short with them. Was that really going to be their last memory of her?