I knew it was a long shot. Money was the most obvious thing we could have in common. If we were being trafficked, though, it was likely completely random, but I needed to give her hope, if for no other reason than if at least one of us still held on to hope, it meant it wasn’t entirely lost.
“You think someone planned this? Someone…picked us out?” she asked, apparently horrified at the thought. “You think this was done on purpose?”
“I just don’t know what to think,” I said. “We’ll figure out more in the morning, okay?”
She nodded but didn’t say anything else, and I worried I’d been short with her, but the truth was, I was exhausted. And terrified. And the longer I sat, the more both emotions began to wear on me.
I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my husband and talk to my friends and relax in a bed. Instead, I was sitting on a forest bed of branches and rocks and sand digging into my bare legs, and shivering from lack of suitable clothing to protect me from the raging winds, surrounded by complete strangers with no idea who I could trust.
And, if I could trust them all, it meant there was someone out there we couldn’t trust. Someone who’d put us here for a reason we didn’t yet know.
As I sat contemplating those concerns, the fact that I had no idea who it could be made me shrink in fear. Something very bad was happening…but what?
Chapter Seven
“Hey!” the harsh voice called, and I felt a hand shoving me. My back screamed in pain with the movement, like knives scraping into my flesh. When I opened my eyes, I was staring up at Noah’s body looming over me. The sunlight peeked through the trees behind him.
“Shit!” I sat up, realizing I’d fallen asleep. My back was etched with the pattern of the ground beneath me, and I lifted a hand to wipe the dirt and debris off to the best of my ability.
“You fell asleep,” Noah said, gesturing toward a sheepish-looking Ava. “Both of you. Why didn’t you wake us up if you knew you weren’t going to be able to stay awake any longer?” The anger was etched into his wrinkles and the stern way he was standing, his feet planted in the soil firmly. “You could’ve gotten us killed. We made the plan for a reason.”
“Ease up, Noah,” I warned. “We didn’t plan to fall asleep. We all had a long day yesterday, and it must’ve taken it out of me more than I realized. Everyone’s fine, aren’t they?” I glanced around. James was standing behind Noah, and a weary Harry was still sitting underneath the rock, rubbing the backs of his legs.
“No thanks to you,” he seethed.
“Okay, well, they still are. Turning on each other isn’t going to solve anything right now, so instead of yelling at me, why don’t we form a plan for what we’re going to do today.”
He folded his arms across his chest, looking prepared to argue, but Harry spoke up. “She’s right. We need to form a plan. We need some sort of SOS signal on the beach, where planes could see it if they flew overhead, and we need to build a fire. Plus, we need to search for food and start looking for, or building, a more permanent shelter.”
“What do we need a fire for right now? It’s not like it’s cold,” James said.
Harry stood from underneath the rock and approached the group. He counted the reasons on his fingers. “Because we’re going to need somewhere to cook our food, if we’re able to find any, because fire keeps predators away but could attract help should any arrive, and because we’re going to use it to desalinate our water.”
“De-what it?” James asked, his brow furrowed as if Harry were speaking a foreign language.
“Make it drinkable,” he explained.
“Do you actually know how to do that?” I asked him, impressed. Funnily enough, I’d looked it up several times, always wanting to know how to do it should the need ever present itself, but I’d never absorbed anything I’d read. I knew we needed to do something with condensation and sand…
“Yeah, I do,” Harry said firmly, not bothering to explain. “So, we need to split up. We don’t have a lot of time. The afternoon heat will be hard on us all, so we need to do most of our work in the mornings and evenings. James, do you think you can build a fire for us? I’ll need two. A bigger one for a smoke signal and to keep predators away, and a smaller one for cooking and desalinating the water.”
“Yeah, I think I can build a fire.” James scoffed, appearing insulted, and walked toward the pile of sticks, branches, and logs he’d built last night. He picked up four of the largest ones, turning to walk back out toward the beach.
“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you build them here?” Noah asked.
“There’s too much brush here,” James said without looking back. “With the wind, it’ll start a fire. I’m going to find a spot in the sand.”
“He’s right,” Harry agreed.
“I don’t need your confirmation. No one appointed you captain here,” James called spitefully over his shoulder.
Harry looked crestfallen, his cheeks pale with embarrassment, but I jumped in quickly. “Okay, that’s taken care of. What else do we need to do?”
He appeared grateful, pressing his lips together as he thought aloud. “Someone needs to go hunting for food.” Then, he seemed to think better of what he’d said. “Maybe just gathering for today. If we could find some fruit, particularly coconuts or pineapples, that would help keep us from dehydrating. We’ll have to fashion some spears before we can actually hunt, but that’s a project for tomorrow.”
“What about this?” Noah asked, pulling a knife—its blade engaged—from his pocket.
In unison, Ava, Harry, and I gasped. “Why the hell do you have that thing?” I asked.
He smirked.
