Page 24 of Last Destination

The bracelets. They were all wearing bracelets.

“They’re all wearing bracelets!” I whisper-shouted, the ache in my chest immediately shifting to elation. These poor people had met their end, a true tragedy no one but us would ever know. But it meant we wouldn’t have to doom anyone else to their fate. Six bodies. Six bracelets.

Charlie floated onto my shoulder, her smile as wide as the day she’d won a massive plush purple unicorn at the fair. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. For the first time in days, I had hope.

Madman immediately tugged on the closest arm, fighting against the stiffened muscles to slide the jelly bracelet off another man’s wrist. Steeling myself, I let go of Tessa and reached for the boy to do the same, delicately lifting the rigid arm to pull the plastic off his skin.

Nikki and Ambrose followed suit with the bodies to my right, and I continued to the next person, trying to ignore their faces to focus on their hands. Once I slid the bracelet past a tuft of black arm hair, I handed it off to Tessa, saving her from having to do it herself.

“This one doesn’t have one.” Jamie’s panic carried through the pitchiness of his declaration. I turned to face him, meeting wild, horrified eyes. “I can't get through without one.” He fisted his hands into his hair, pacing alongside the woman he’d inspected. “You said it yourself, you need me, Marley.” He turned to Tessa. “Can I have yours? Please, Tessa. I’ll do anything for it.”

Tessa leaped backward, out of the way of his reaching hand. “If I made the call, Jamie, Maddox would have killed you by now. I don’t care about your damn lawsuit. Vanessa is dead, and nothing is going to bring her back.” She waved a shaking finger in front of her face, soft blue eyes harder than diamonds, even though they were subdued through thick tears. “You know who tried to save her life? Marley. You left us to die. Fuck you.”

“I panicked!” Jamie brought his fists to his eyes, rubbing at them like he could wipe them off his face. “I made a terrible mistake and I panicked.” He dropped his fists and ping-ponged his red and raw gaze between the four of us, seeking understanding. “I’ve done bad things, but I’m not a bad person. I need to get back to my boys. I need to make amends. Vanessa’s family should get compensation. So should you. I can’t make this right if I’m left here to die.”

“You can’t make it right at all!” Tessa’s screech swept up into the tree canopy and several birds took flight in protest. “Money doesn’t bring her back, captain.” She spat the word, throwing his title back in his face. “You want your bracelet? Steal it from someone else. But don’t ask any of us to sacrifice any more for you. I’ve lost enough.”

Anguished sobs cracked her in two and she stumbled over a body, slumping to the ground. I dropped beside her. The action jostled my ribs, but I bit back the agony to wrap my arms around her shoulders, absorbing each torrent of her grief. The pain was viscerally familiar, loss and guilt so intertwined they’d been atomized into one element.

“You have your answer.” Madman’s growl brokered no arguments, and Jamie’s shoulder slumped in defeat at the verdict. “We will continue on, and you can get your bracelet elsewhere.” He shifted on his heels before his large, tattooed hands stripping the blue T-shirt from the man closest to him.

“Er, is that safe?” Nikki's lips crumpled in mild disgust. Ambrose mimicked his stance, although his tanned skin had turned a subtle shade of puce while Madman continued the motions.

“If you plan on eating it, no.” I fought an eye-roll at the Madman-esque response. “Jamie is still in uniform. He needs to change, or we will be caught before we begin.”

Right. I was much better at survival than at criminal subterfuge. Gratitude flooded through me as our protector dutifully removed clothing without emotion, though his movements were careful enough to still offer respect to the people he robbed. We wouldn’t make it through to the other side without his diligence; I’d been the leader on the first leg of our journey, but now it was time for Madman to take the torch. Surprise was a secondary emotion to the complete trust that filled my whole chest.

“If they left the line in search of food, the route has to be close. Let’s keep going far enough to avoid the buffet here,” Ambrose waved his hands over the bodies, giving a whole-body shudder. “And set up camp. I want to get out of here as fast as we can, but I’m going to need more water and a night’s sleep before I can pull off this performance.”

He made the statement without a trace of humor, and I was inclined to agree. We may be close, but we weren’t ready to jump into the fray. One hurdle was temporarily solved, but we had several more to consider.

“I think that’s a good idea. Let’s veer slightly northwest for the next kilometer and find a suitable spot.”

Madman tossed Jamie the T-shirt and pair of dirty cargo pants from the corpse and checked the pockets, finding passage money in a tiny coin purse tucked within the lining of the boy’s basketball shorts. They had nothing else on them, and an electric spasm hit my heart once again.

Nothing but the clothes on their backs and a bit of pocket change, they’d been willing to make a deal with the devil to traipse through hell in search of some semblance of “better” on the other side. Our world was a cruel place when this option was a tempting alternative to their lives.

Desperate people do desperate things.

When we found the best spot to settle, I set up the water station just in time to capture the torrent of rain that had been begging to burst over our heads all day. The ground became too damp for a fire, but I wouldn’t have attempted one, anyway, not this close to potential civilization.

We ate fresh bananas for supper, and I ate each bite with an element of trepidation, warily hoping this wasn’t a poisoned banana tree, if there even was such a thing. All our clothes had become looser, hanging over our frames as if we’d all bought a size up. Soon, Ambrose would need a belt.

Nikki took the first watch, and Ambrose offered to join him, citing restlessness. I couldn’t say the same. Every muscle in my body ached as if something had tried to peel it off my bones one strip at a time, and my head swam with the burning need to rest.

I swallowed one of the final two ibuprofen and gingerly lowered into a sleep crouch. Madman knelt beside me and wordlessly offered his folded jacket as my pillow. My lips cracked into a sleepy smile as I accepted his kindness. I lifted my head for him to gently shove the jacket beneath me. When he lay down behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist in a protective hold, I didn’t utter one word of complaint, burrowing back into the hard warmth of him.

“Sleep, ángel.” His whispered command brushed against the back of my neck, and I willingly complied, all thoughts and worries melting into his arms.

Several hours later, I awoke to a hard rod against my spine and soft lips pressed against the flushed skin of my neck. The sky above was still dark through the filter of bleary eyes, and I didn’t have the firelight to get my bearings. Without the light of the stars or the glow of flames, the Amazon was impossibly black beneath the thick tree canopy, and I fought a wave of panic.

The Boreal Forest had been impossibly dark once, too. I’d been alone, fighting to start a fire with shaking fingers on my last night, only able to see the faint glow my two sticks gave off, but nothing would catch. In the end, I’d been forced to give up, shivering to sleep in blackness akin to the bottom of the sea. It was the first time Charlie had come to me. My pulse pounded at the memory, the visceral horror all those years ago still as potent as if it were yesterday.

The bitter taste of ash coated my tongue, and I stuffed the pain back into its box. It was getting harder to keep it buried.

“You are okay, ángel.” Madman kept his voice low, the gravelly words wrapped in velvet. “You are safe.”

But I wasn’t safe. We weren’t even close to being safe. Tomorrow, we would embark on the most dangerous part of our journey yet, where none of the elements could be controlled and no amount of survival training could prepare me for what was to come.