Page 39 of The Most Dangerous Games

Jack looks up and watches them start to check on Luca. He sees Jimmy talking to two men Jack assumes are doctors, both of them carrying small black bags.

Jimmy points in Jack’s direction, and one of the doctors runs toward him across the beach.

Jack has been pressing his hand to his wound.

When he takes it away so that the doctor can get a better look at it, Jack looks down at his hand and sees a lot of blood. The pain is even more intense than his friend had once described, but the wound doesn’t look that deep.

That could’ve been worse, Jack thinks.

A lot worse.

The doctor, who introduces himself as Dr. Paredes, asks Jack what happened. Jack tells him. Paredes asks him to roll over on his stomach. Jack asks if he needs to clean the wound and the doctor says, “The salt water did that for me.”

Jack watches the doctor reach into his bag for what he hopes is something that will start to kill the pain, manages to smile at Elena. Somehow it feels they have known each other longer than a couple of days.

He sees her hair is still wet. He’d almost forgotten that she had been in the water, too.

“No sharks for you?” he asks.

“You guys being first in the water must have taken up all their attention,” she says.

Jack looks at the helicopter again.

“Was Tipton still with him?”

“I’m not sure,” Elena says. “Only Tipton knows that. If he was, he just left him there before turning around. And Luca hasn’t regained consciousness, so he can’t tell us what happened.”

Jack is seated while Dr. Paredes finishes putting a bandage on the shark bite, which the doctor states isn’t as bad as it looks. Jack tries to crane his neck, to see what’s happening with Luca, and sees Jimmy walking back.

He’s walking slower than before, like the sand got heavier. His face is blank in a way that scares Jack.

“How’s Luca doing?” Jack asks when Jimmy gets close enough.

Jimmy sits down next to Jack, wraps his arms around his knees, and stares out at the ocean.

Jack’s blood goes cold all over again, flashbacks of being back in the water.

“Jimmy.”

Jimmy finally looks at him.

“He just died.”

Patrick Arrasmith

29.

“No—no—no!”

Jack looks over to where the doctor is still crouched over the body of Luca Tommasi.

He sees immediately that the wail they’ve all just heard has come from the boy, Rupert. His small frame is bent over in the sand, knees buckled. He waves his hands, frantically, trying to make the reality of the moment go away.

The sound that comes out of the boy is raw. Not words. Something older than words.

Jack’s own chest goes hollow.

Luca Tommasi, a good man, a steady man, the kind you want beside you when something goes wrong, lies on a stretcher like he’s already been packed away.