“I’m no scientist. Just me throwing out ideas.” Anna shivered, then glanced over the open valley we stood in. “We need to find some shelter until we can figure out things. Are you good to travel?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I think my knees slammed into something when we crashed. They hurt, but I’ll live.”
Anna pointed at the open door of the plane with her good arm. “Is there anything inside we need or could use?”
“Not that I’m aware of. I just had my phone and grabbed the pack we gave the pilot,” I answered through quivering lips. “I tripped over a tool box, but didn’t see anything that would be useful. A screwdriver or wrench isn’t going to do us much good right now.”
“I’ve got that piece I took from Andrès’s place.” Anna lifted the front of her shirt, showing the black grip of the heater stuffed in her waistband. “Other than that, I don’t have anything else.”
I looked to the tree line across the way. The lack of light made it difficult to penetrate the wall of thick trunks and verdure that had a thin layer of ash coating the bark and leaves.
“Any suggestions on the direction we should head?” I asked.
Anna glanced about. “Your guess is as good of as mine.” She pointed over the plane. “There could be a small clearing past that ridge. There might be a road close by that could lead us to a nearby town or wherever.”
I tilted my head toward the wall of trees before us. “That sounds good. We’ll have to start somewhere.”
Anna shivered again, and the rows of goosebumps on her exposed arms caught my eye. “We need to get out of this, though. The last thing we need is to breathe this soot in for long periods of time.”
“Agreed.”
CHAPTER SIX
CORY
Anna tore a piece from the bottom of her shirt, shook the ash from the fabric with her good arm, then secured it over her nose and mouth. She pulled it tight behind her head, then adjusted it over the bridge of her nose. It looked weird on her face, but it seemed to do the trick.
I turned my head away from her and coughed into my elbow. I gripped my side. A stinging pain stabbed my ribs. My throat and nose burned with each breath I took.
“You need to cover your face, if only for a little bit,” Anna said, her voice muffled by the fabric. “That cough could get worse the more you breathe the ash in.”
I nodded, then massaged my throat to ease the discomfort.
Anna pointed at the bottom of my dingy shirt. “Tear a strip from the bottom like mine, then knock away any ash from it so you’re not breathing it in.”
My hand swatted at the ash falling around my face. I lifted the bottom of my shirt up, and spotted a hole in the fabric. My fingers pushed through the opening, and I pulled in either direction. The fabric ripped around my waist in an uneven pattern. I shook what soot gathered on the tattered rag and secured it over my nose and mouth.
Anna looked it over, then nodded. “That should work for now. You want it tight around your cheeks and nose to keep the ash out.”
I pinched the front of the fabric around my nose, then tugged. It had little to no movement. “I think it’s good enough until we can find something better.”
Anna rubbed her hands together, slipped them under the flap of the torn fabric, and walked past me.
A cold chill washed over me. I shivered and followed her around the back of the aircraft, past the damaged wreckage that sat at an angle in the gathering ash. I secured the other strap of the pack over my shoulder and pulled both tight.
We hit the base of the hill and worked our way up through the trees and verdure that covered the steep slope. Anna grabbed at the smaller trees and bushes, using them to help her up the incline. She moved in ponderous slow motion, favoring her injured arm while pulling her weight up the slope.
I lost my footing, slipping and falling flat on my face. A rock punched my side as I hit the ground. I winced.
Anna stopped, then glanced down at me. “Are you all right?”
I pushed up from the ground to my knees, cradling my ribs. “Yeah. I’m good. Keep going.”
She pushed through the trees and bushes, stepping over downed logs that lay in our way with her head tilted forward to shield her face from the soot.
Thunder rolled across the angry sky. Flashes of white lightning crackled, then exploded. The wooded area we trudged through lit up for a second, highlighting the dull gray that carpeted the ground.
Branches snapped under our weight as we neared the clearing. Each breath felt labored, strained. The hill we climbed didn’t seem that big from the ground, but having been in a plane crash made the journey cumbersome and difficult.
Anna pushed through the tall grass and climbed over a fallen tree to the paved road before us. She turned around, then offered me her hand.
“I got it,” I said, lugging my frame over the dense tree trunk to level ground.
Anna looked down the winding road with the ridge of her hand pressed above her brow. Her lean frame shivered from the bite of the wind that tore through the trees. She turned and looked the other way, then shrugged.
“I guess we pick a direction and start walking,” she said. “I can’t see for shit out here.”
I took a quick look, then pointed ahead of us. “I say we keeping going forward. We follow this road long enough, we’re bound to run
