Chapter 28 – Emily

“Where did you get the arrow, Jason?” My voice is steady and accusatory. Nothing he’s said so far makes any sense. “And how did you get close enough to hear these people talk?”

Aiden gives me a surprised look, his eyes wide and jaw open. I don’t pay him much attention, though, because I’m too focused on Jason. I’m a master liar, and I can tell when someone is lying to me. And Jason is definitely lying.

“I found the arrow on the ground,” Jason says, his gaze darting around nervously. “So, I picked it up.”

I narrow my eyes, but before I can say anything more, Aiden speaks up. “There were a lot of arrows flying through the air, and not a single one missed its intended target.”

My thoughts exactly.

“Fine. I yanked it out of a body. Is that really want you want to hear?” he snaps.

I bend over and pick up the arrow. “There’s no blood on this.”

Jason throws his hands up in the air. “Why does it feel like I’m the one on trial here? I was on that beach with everyone else. I was a victim of that attack just like you two were. Maybe I should be asking you two how you got away so easily?”

“All right.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Then answer my other question. How did you hear them talking?”

Jason takes a deep breath. “It was chaos on that beach. I was trying to get to safety just like everyone else. I tried to maneuver my way around the forest and stay close to the water like Tom suggested. But the beach isn’t safe, so like I said, I saw this path and followed it. A few feet in, I heard two people speaking. I slowly approached because I didn’t know if they also spoke English. They never saw me, and I kept it that way. I tiptoed away and that’s when I happened upon you two.”

“Wait.” I hold my hand up. “How do you know they didn’t see you or follow you? For all we know, they could be watching us right now!” That thought sends my heart racing, and I swallow hard. My throat burns, and all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep.

“If they were, we’d be dead already,” Jason says. “And you both know that.”

“All right, let’s just calm down,” Aiden says. “Obviously, these people are close if you saw them on the path, which means we need to get out of here. Now.”

“I agree.” Jason nods. “We need to get to the dock. It’s our only hope.”

My stomach lurches at the idea of wandering through the jungle or going back to the beach where we have no protection. Aiden turns to me and gently takes hold of my shoulders. He looks into my eyes, and for a fleeting moment, the fear isn’t so debilitating.

“Are you ready for this?” he asks.

I nod, even though I don’t really want to go, but there is no other choice.

“Good.” Jason claps his hands, then cringes at how the noise echoes. “Okay, then I suggest we follow this path. This way, if we get lost, we can find our way back. Plus, it offers some protection should we need it.”

With a curt nod, Jason scoops up the arrow, takes the lead, and starts down the path. I keep a safe distance, and Aiden stays by my side. “I don’t like this one bit,” I whisper.

“Me either,” he says.

“He’s lying to us about something.” I stare holes into Jason’s back.

“I agree.”

“You know, I can hear you two,” Jason says without turning around to look at us. “If you’re that distrusting of me, feel free to go it on your own.”

“Maybe we will.” My foot catches on a rock, and I stumble. Aiden steadies me before I fall.

“Easy, Em,” he whispers before releasing me.

“For what it’s worth, I’m not the enemy here.” Jason stops and turns to face us. “There’s safety in numbers, so like it or not, keeping me around is the best thing you can do right now. Not to mention, I have this arrow that could be used for self-defense. What do you two have?”

“Brains,” I mutter.

Jason sighs with exasperation and rolls his eyes.

“Or maybe with more people, we’ll only be noisier and, therefore, attract them to where we are,” Aiden says, distracting Jason from responding to what I said.

“That’s not going to happen,” Jason says. “One extra pair of feet won’t make that much of a difference.”

Both Aiden and I stare at him. He’s right. One extra person probably won’t make much of a difference.

“Fine.” Jason extends the arrow to Aiden. “Take it. If it will make you feel better, you can hold it.”

Aiden takes the arrow and shoots me a look that says, “Is this guy for real?” I shrug.

Jason begins to walk away again, grumbling under his breath. “I never wanted this, you know. I didn’t want to be in charge here, but no one else was stepping up, and without me and Tom, this entire group would’ve imploded. We would’ve run out of food the day we crashed. We would’ve died from the cold. We would’ve been attacked by animals.” He shakes his head. “It’s through God’s grace and guidance that we’ve made it this long.”

“Yeah, you’re a regular saint, aren’t you?” I snap.

Aiden puts his hand on my shoulder. “Go easy, huh? We’re all scared. Turning on each other right now isn’t going to help anything.”

I sigh and nod. Resolving to keep my mouth shut, I pick up my pace. The sooner we get out of this jungle and off this path, the better.

The three of us fall silent, but it doesn’t last long when the path comes to an end. Jason stops and holds up his hand. “We’re back at the beach.”

“What?” I move around him to take a look. Sure enough, the beach is within my line of sight. But it’s not the same stretch of beach we’ve called home the past few days. There’s no wreckage, no fire. No signs of life.

Aiden peeks over my shoulder. “Okay, now what?”

I shrug and study the landscape. “I don’t see a dock anywhere. Do you think we’re close to where it should be?”

“We haven’t walked far enough to be anywhere close to the dock. I think this path just looped us around to a different section of the beach,” Jason says. “Maybe we should walk back to where we started, see if things have calmed down.”

“You can’t be serious. What if they’re still there? Even if they’re not, I don’t want to see all that death.” I shudder and hug myself.

“I agree,” Aiden says. “We need to keep moving. Like you said, Jason, we need to find the dock.”

“Right. So, do we keep walking through the jungle, or do we risk walking along the beach?”

My eyebrows lift, and I’m sure there’s shock written all over my face. I look to Aiden for some idea as to what we should do.

“I say we walk along the tree edge,” Aiden says. “Exactly like Tom said. This way, we have the cover of the jungle if we need it, but we won’t get lost.”

Jason nods and smiles. “Yes, that’s good. We’ll do that.” He steps off the path and onto the beach, tilting his head to the sun and basking in it like he’s on vacation or something.

What little breeze there is shifts, and a sense of dread fills me. I don’t know why, but suddenly, I can’t shake the fear taking root in my stomach. I grab Aiden’s arm, stopping him before he can leave the confines of the jungle.

“What? What’s wrong?” he asks, his face a mask of concern.

I shrug. “I don’t know, but something doesn’t feel right.”

“Something doesn’t feel right?” He repeats my words back to me as if he doesn’t fully understand them. “What do you mean?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “If I could explain, I would. But I can’t. I don’t know why, but I have a really bad feeling, and I don’t think we should leave the jungle.”

“Did you hear something or see someone?” Aiden twists around to look for signs of anything out of the ordinary. “Are there more of the inhabitants here?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I mean, I don’t think so. I haven’t—”

“HELP!” The sounds of someone’s screams silence me. Aiden races out of the jungle and toward the shouts.

“Aiden! No!” I follow, mostly because I want to make sure he’s safe, but it’s sheer terror that’s propelling me.

One of the survivors from the crash—Penelope—comes running down the beach. “Someone help me! He’s going to get me!”

One of the natives is chasing her. Jason and Aiden stop cold and stare in disbelief. I do the same. The native is tall, well over six and a half feet. He’s grotesquely muscular with wild, bug-like eyes and long, straw-like greasy hair. His lips are grossly large, and his teeth stick out. For all purposes, he looks human, but he’s also not.

“Help me!” She looks right at us, pleading for us to save her. We’re all frozen in place, watching in horror as the scene plays out before us.

“We have to help her,” Aiden says.

“How?” Jason asks.

“No!” Penelope trips and falls. She lies there for a second, unmoving. “No!” She kicks her feet and tries to scramble away as the native approaches her. He gives the evilest smile I’ve ever seen and steps toward her.

My heart races. “We have to do something before he gets to her.” Panic laces my voice, and my hands shake.

“Chances are there’s more than one of him. We get involved, we’ll all get killed,” Jason says.

“Doing something is better than standing here watching that poor girl die.” I clench my teeth. “I don’t want that on my conscience. I don’t want to walk around with all of that guilt.” I point at my chest to emphasize my point. But I don’t say I already have a mountain of guilt weighing me down. We should have told them what we knew; we should have warned them. I told Tom they needed to know, and he didn’t listen. And now all but a handful of the crash survivors are dead. Murdered in cold blood because we didn’t warn them.

“Neither do I,” Aiden says. His face is pale, and I guess he’s thinking about his cousin.

“What good are three of us going to do against an unknown number of them?” Jason asks.

I reach down and grab the arrow from his hand. “We have this!”

“If you two distract him, I can sneak around from behind,” Aiden says. He gently takes the arrow from my hand, and I don’t argue. “It will give us the element of surprise long enough to get Penelope to safety.”

“And what about you?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

I don’t believe him, but I nod, knowing we’re running out of time. Aiden steps back into the jungle while Jason and I walk onto the beach toward Penelope. My heart’s in my throat, and blood rushes to my head, making it throb.

The native turns our way and lets out a guttural cry before chanting, “Guuawwhachaa! Guuawwhachaa! Guuawwhachaa!”

I glance over at Jason, who’s ghost white. “What is he saying? Is that even a known language?”

He shrugs. “That’s the same thing I heard them saying before. I have no idea what any of it means, but I’m afraid he’s calling for back-up.”

I swallow hard.

The native is still approaching Penelope as she’s scrambling to get away. I reach her first and grab her under the arms, pulling her back. She finally manages to get to her feet, and she clings to me like a life preserver.

Jason continues his forward ascent toward the native. He puts his hands up as if to show he’s not a threat, but it doesn’t make a difference. The native screeches in his unknown language and raises his bow. Jason stops. “Hey, easy there, fella. We don’t want to hurt you.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Aiden tiptoeing down the beach. He’s attempting to sneak around behind the native. My gaze darts back to Jason, who’s trying to keep the native focused on him. I hold my breath. I really want to close my eyes, but I’m too afraid if I do, something even worse will happen.

The native tugs on his long, muddy beard. It doesn’t look like it’s been washed in months. Or years. Now that I’m closer, I can see the scars running the length of his face, like he’d lost one too many knife fights.

“Guuawwhachaa!” The native roars and rushes at Jason.

I scream, but it’s cut off when Aiden jumps on the native’s back. The native bucks and thrashes, but Aiden holds on. Jason plants his fist into the native’s stomach, causing him to double over. Aiden hops off and kicks the back of his knee. The native flinches but doesn’t fall. He spins around to attack Aiden. His massive arm swings out and smacks Aiden across the side of the face. Aiden falls to the ground.

“No!” I shout. I make a move to go after him, to offer some sort of help, but Penelope clings to me, making it impossible for me to move. I stare at Aiden’s body, praying for him to get up. After what seems like an eternity, he does. I blow out a breath.

“Hey! Over here!” Jason shouts. The native spins around, giving Aiden time to get back to his feet. The arrow he’d been carrying is lying several feet away, knocked from his hand during the fight.

The native smiles. “Boogharaa! Boogharaa!”

I pry Penelope from me and run toward the arrow. “Aiden!” When he looks at me, I toss him the arrow. He catches it and runs at the native. But he’s not fast enough. The native slips past Aiden and charges toward me.

“Emily! Run!” Jason hollers.

I do, but the native is so fast. He grabs a handful of my hair and yanks so hard, tears spring to my eyes. He slams me against the ground. My body thrashes at the sudden, intense pain, and tears spring to my eyes. Stars and bright lights flash in front of me before my eyes close of their own volition.

A loud “oomph” echoes around me, and then I hear Jason shout, “Now!”

I open my eyes just enough to see Aiden ram the arrow straight into the native’s neck. Blood squirts everywhere, and I roll to my side and cover my face. Tears spill down my cheeks, and I sob.