The Ruins

then it passed. Everything seemed to collapse in its wake. Her fatigue was back suddenly, and her fear, too. She reached, took Amy's hand. It was cool to the touch, slightly damp. If it had squeezed back, Stacy would've shrieked, and it was this realization more than anything else that finally, unequivocally, brought the truth home.

Dead, Stacy thought She's dead.

'No more talking,' Jeff said. 'Can you do that? Just be here with me-with her-and not say another word?'

Stacy kept gripping Amy's hand. Somehow this made things easier. She nodded.

And so that was what they did. They remained there together, one on either side of Amy's body, waiting, not speaking, while the earth began its slow tilt toward dawn.

Eric kept begging Mathias to cut him open, but Mathias wouldn't do it, not in the dark.

'We've got to get it out,' Eric insisted. 'It's spreading everywhere.'

'We don't know that.'

'Can't you feel it?'

'I can feel that there's swelling.'

'It's not swelling. It's the vine. It's-'

Mathias patted at his arm. 'Shh,' he said. 'When it gets light.'

It was hot in the tent, musty and humid, and Mathias's hand was slick with sweat. Eric didn't like the feel of it. He pulled away. 'I can't wait that long.'

'Dawn's almost here.'

'Is it because I called you a Nazi?'

Mathias was silent.

'It was just a joke. We were talking about the movie they'll make. When we get back, how they'll turn you into the villain. Because you're German, right? So they'd make you a Nazi.' He wasn't thinking straight, he knew, was talking too quickly. He was scared, and it seemed possible he wasn't making perfect sense. But he'd started down this road, and now he couldn't seem to stop himself. 'Not that you are one. Just that they'll make you one. Because they'll need a bad guy. They always need one. Though I guess the vine could be the villain, too, couldn't it? So maybe you don't have to be a Nazi. You can be a hero, like Jeff. You'll both be heroes. Do they have Boy Scouts in Germany?'

He heard Mathias sigh. 'Eric-'

'Just give me the fucking knife, okay? I'll do it myself.'

'I don't have the knife.'

'So go get it.'

'When it starts to get light-'

'Call Jeff. Jeff'll do it.'

'We can't call Jeff.'

'Because?'

There was a pause, and Eric could feel Mathias hesitating. 'Something bad's happened,' he said.

Eric thought of the little lean-to, that stench of urine and shit and rot. He nodded. 'I know.'

'I don't think you do.'

'It's Pablo, isn't it? He's died.'

'No. It's not Pablo.'

'Then what?'

'It's Amy.'

'Amy?' Eric hadn't expected this. 'What's wrong with Amy?'

There was that same pause again, that search for the right words. 'She's gone.'

'She left?'

He sensed Mathias shaking his head in the darkness. 'She's dead, Eric. It killed her.'

'What're you-'

'It smothered her. In her sleep.'

Eric was silent, too shocked to speak. Dead. 'Are you sure?' he asked, knowing even as he spoke that it was a stupid question.

'Yes.'

Eric felt a spinning sensation in his head, an abrupt loss of traction. Dead. He wanted to get up and go see for himself, but he wasn't certain he had the strength. Someone needed to cut the vine out of his leg first, pull it from his chest. Dead. He knew it was true, yet at the same time he couldn't accept it. Dead. It was silly, but the movie they'd joked about had taken hold of his imagination: Amy was the good girl, the prissy one; she was supposed to survive, was supposed to float away with Jeff in their hot-air balloon.

Dead, dead, dead.

'Jesus,' he said.

'I know.'

'I mean-'

There was that pat of the hand again, that sweaty touch of skin. 'Shh. Don't. There's nothing to say.'

Eric let his head fall back onto the tent's floor. He shut his eyes for a while, then opened them, searching for the first hints of light coming through the orange nylon. But there was only darkness-all around him, only darkness.

He closed his eyes again and lay there, waiting for dawn, with that single word echoing through his head.

Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead…

Eric started to call from the tent again, as soon as the sun began to rise. He wanted the knife. Mathias stepped out through the little opening, stood in the clearing, staring at Jeff and Stacy. They were still sitting next to Amy's body, one on either side of it. Stacy was holding Amy's hand.

'What?' Jeff asked.

Mathias shrugged, tilted his head. The light hadn't yet gained much strength; it was tinged with pink. Off in the distance, in the jungle, Jeff could hear birds calling out, shrieking and cawing. He couldn't read Mathias's expression: worried, maybe. Or just uncertain. 'I think you should come look.'

Jeff got up, feeling stiff, heavy-limbed, his reserves running out on him. He followed Mathias back into the tent, leaving Stacy with Amy's body.

Inside, the light was still too dim to see much. Eric was lying on his back. His left leg and most of his abdomen were hidden beneath something, and it took Jeff a moment to realize that it was the vine.

He crouched beside him. 'Why haven't you pulled it off?' he asked.

'He's afraid to tear them,' Mathias said.

Eric nodded. 'If they break off, they can go anywhere. Like worms.'

Jeff prodded at the mass of leaves, bending close to see. The vines had pushed themselves into the wounds on Eric's leg and chest, but it was hard to tell how far they'd managed to get. Jeff needed better light. 'Can you walk?' he asked.

Eric shook his head. 'It'll crush them. They'll burn me.'

Jeff considered this; it was probably true, he decided. 'Then we'll carry you.'

Eric seemed frightened by this. He tried to sit, but he only made it halfway, propping himself up on his elbow. 'Where?'

'Outside. It's too dark in here.'

There were five tendrils in all, coiling themselves around Eric's body. Three had attacked his leg, each of them entering a different wound. The other two had both pushed their way in through the cut on his chest. Jeff realized they'd need to snap them off from their roots if they wanted to carry him out of there, and he did it quickly, not saying anything, worried that Eric might protest. Then he gestured for Mathias to help him. Mathias took Eric's shoulders, Jeff his feet, and they picked him up. The five tendrils hung off his body, dangling toward the floor of