“We can make it mother. We can go on our own to Libertas. Please mother,” I keep begging her, tears streaming down my cheeks, but she still doesn’t hear me. She tucks the blanket around young me and kisses my forehead before turning and leaving. I follow her back out into the kitchen and in a broken voice I say, “Mother, please.”
I watch my mother pause in front of me. She turns and looks at me. “I’m sorry, Adaline,” she says, and then she starts to walk into her room. I hear the thud on the door of the guards, and then the dream slips away.
“Morning,” I hear Cooper’s voice say when I open my eyes again. The morning light shines through the branches. “Sleep well?” he asks, taking a seat next to me.
The dream of the night I was taken to the prison leaves me feeling a bit nauseous. I push myself up into a sitting position and lie, “You could say that.” And am surprised to find myself able to talk again.
He hands me some cooked meat and berries and I take them graciously. “Have some breakfast,” Cooper says.
“What’s this?” I ask as I chew on the unfamiliar meat, remembering what Mio and Cooper had been arguing about yesterday.
“It’s some kind of groundhog that burrows deep in the sand. That’s why we couldn’t find anything yesterday, we were looking in the wrong places.” I nod my head in response and finish eating. Cooper hands me a water bottle and I carefully sip on it trying to saver the water.
“Have you found freshwater?” I ask, knowing we can only go so long without it, and I don’t remember bringing it here with us. Based on Cooper’s facial expression I know my worst fears are true.
“No, we haven’t yet. Some of us are going to walk through the island later to look,” Cooper says.
“Can I come?” I ask, excited to move around again.
“If you’re up to it. Alexander, Zavy, and I were about to go,” Cooper stands and pulls me to my feet. I stretch out my legs and walk around. “Good?” Cooper asks.
“Yep, good as new,” I say. It’s not entirely true, but I’ll say anything to do more than lay in the sand.
“Come on,” Cooper says and I follow him across the clearing we’re in. I look around, taking in the area for the first time. They’ve set up camp on a clearing that meets the sand and stretches out to the ocean, I think that camp is empty until I notice Bren sitting against a tree in one of the few shaded spots. His leg is wrapped in a dark red fabric that I realize used to be white.
“Bren, are you okay?” I ask and kneel at his side. He tosses his head in my direction and I see how pale he is.
“Fine,” he chokes out in a weak voice.
“I wanted to tell you later,” Cooper starts and leads me away from Bren.
“Tell me what?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder back to Bren. “Why are you pulling me away?” I stop and free myself from Cooper’s grasp.
“He lost his foot in the attack,” Cooper whispers harshly in my ear. “Essie says he’s losing a lot of blood and probably won’t make it much longer.”
“Well, we have to do something!” I scream and Cooper motions for me to quiet myself.
“Bren asked us to leave him alone. There’s nothing we can do for him here except try and get him to Libertas as quickly as possible,” Cooper explains to me. “We are working as quickly as we can to collect enough supplies to take with us to survive the last part of the journey. Until then, Bren asked to be alone.”
“He’s just going to sit there until we are ready to leave?” I ask bewildered.
“Adaline, you have no idea what we went through yesterday when we got to this island,” Cooper says, and we start walking along the coastline again. “Between Bren’s foot and your failing heart we’ve had our hands full trying to keep what’s left of this group together.”
“What do you mean ‘what’s left’?” I ask Cooper.
Cooper stops again and drops his head. “Not everyone made it,” Cooper says almost inaudibly as he looks back up to me.
“What do you mean?” I ask again, my voice cracking.
“We lost a lot of people when we were attacked at sea,” Cooper starts to say, but I cut him off.
“That’s impossible. I made sure I got everyone here.” My mind searches for the memory of the battle, confirming I had remembered everyone.
“You did Adaline. Everyone made it here, but some of them were already gone when you moved us,” Cooper says, choosing his words carefully.
“What?” I ask, not wanting him to sidestep anything with me. “Stop trying to talk around what happened,” I say harshly to him.
“They drowned, Adaline,” Cooper says flatly and meets my eyes. “Some of them drowned, those who were the most unlucky were torn to shreds by those creatures.” When Cooper says this I’m reminded of the dark crimson water before I had moved us. I feel the blood drain from my face and a cool sweat bleeds on my neck.
“Who?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“All of the younger girls Molly was with,” Cooper starts to say. My heart seems to have stopped beating in my chest. My hands shake and I struggle to breathe. I remember when I first came to and Molly had looked so sad. Cooper continues to list people, “Essie’s sisters Cassandra and Sarah, and Albert’s brother Andy.” Cooper pauses and then finishes, “We lost 7 Adaline.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
“Mio wanted you to rest, I’m sorry,” Cooper says, and then moves in to hug me. I fall into my older brother’s arms.
