Scott silently chided himself for his actions after the fight with the creature. He had let emotion take control of his mind and that was the “fatal funnel”, the slippery slope of poor decision making which could lead to injury, death or even worse; failure. Scott was a warrior and he had always taken pride in knowing that his role in the universe was to do battle and lead others to do battle. The mindset of a good warrior was simple: stay in the moment. Think of the near and not the far. Where will you place your next step? What target should you concentrate on? Do not let your mind wander with thoughts of home, hopes of safety or dreams of love. These were thoughts which did not belong in the mind of a soldier.<br/><br/>He pulled a couple bandages and some sterile water from his pack as Katherine knelt before him. He could easily see the pain on her face as she lifted her shirt and with one look he could see it was a little more serious than she was letting on. He started to examine the injury and noticed her bra strap stretched tightly to her side. He could see the goose bumps appear as the cooler air hit her wet skin and his thoughts turned to a quieter, more intimate time. Scott raised his eyes to meet hers and his smile was tight but filled with empathy. He quickly turned away to pull out his poncho and laid it on the dirt covered floor.<br/><br/>“Here; why don’t you lie down.” He said with authority, hoping she wouldn’t protest too much. “I have seen some pretty tough Marines get evacced with smaller injuries!” Once she was down on her side he took a deep breath to help clear his mind of the lustful thoughts that had crept into his head at the sight of the beautiful woman who was now lying down beside him. He cleaned the scrape with some sterile water and antiseptic, she had a fairly large abrasion but what concerned him was the gash. It wasn’t very deep, but deep enough for stitches, and it stretched a couple inches down her side. He did his best to clean the wound and then stuck a large bandage on it. He also wrapped some gauze around her for good measure.<br/><br/>Once he was finished he helped her sit up. “You should know that I got a D in First Aid…you should probably have that looked at by a professional.” He said with a coy smile and a shrug of his shoulders. Before anything more could pass between them he scooped up his gear and readied his rifle. And then suddenly realized how dog tired he truly was. He felt like he could lie down on the dirt floor and fall straight to sleep. His eyelids felt like lead weights and his mind started to swim with thoughts of sleep and calm. The storm still raged outside and the energetic lightning continued to crash just outside of the cave entrance.<br/><br/>Scott looked around and shook his head. “I don’t think we can go anywhere just yet.” He said as if his mouth were filled with honey; his words sounding muffled and distant. Scott noticed that Katherine too seemed tired, no exhausted was more like it. What was it about their ordeal that had them so worn out? But then it hit him! What if it was an unnatural tiredness! What if it was induced! But it would be so nice to just lie down and rest for a bit. What could be wrong with that? A solid night’s sleep would do them both good. He checked his watch; they still had more than 17 hours till they had to be back aboard the ship. Plenty of time for a little nap… “Maybe we should get some sleep…” He said, his speech slurred as if he had been drinking. “I know I’m pretty tired.” He didn’t wait for a response and simply sat down on the floor of the strangely glowing cave.<br/>