Lucas.
My heart thumps a funny beat as I turn to the thorns where I left him. Where I pushed him. I crawl because I cannot walk. And then I peel back the slender, cruel branches one by one, calling his name. I can barely see him, and every thread I untangle sends four more lashing at me.
“Lucas? Lucas, say something!”
He suddenly moans, rustles like he’s going to try to escape.
“Be careful,” I say, every word a croak. “I can’t get you out. We need tools. Help should be coming. There were flares, and I sent a distress call on the GPS.” I stop myself, thinking of Mr. Walker and knowing there is no way to help him. No way I could make it back down there, even if I wanted to. “Someone will come soon.”
“Where is she? Where’s Ms. Brighton?”
“Gone.” The word takes all my air and a piece of my soul.
He rustles again, cries out, and my breath hitches. “Where are you, Sera?”
“I’m here,” I say.
“Where are you?” he asks again, sounding a little frantic. He’s hurt so badly. And part of that is my fault, isn’t it? If I hadn’t attached myself to him out here, Ms. Brighton would not have—
No. I shove that thought away hard. All the broken bits of things Ms. Brighton believed—that’s what brought her here. She lost someone, but she never let go. It was holding on too tight that drove her to this. Hell, holding on too tight drives a lot of us to the worst places, doesn’t it?
“Sera?” Lucas calls again, sounding on the verge of tears.
“I’m here,” I say again, stronger now. I worm my hand in to the thornbushes, stretching out on the ground so I can reach better. Thorns prick my palm, cut my wrist, then my elbow. It doesn’t matter.
I find his fingers. He curls them around mine, and I rest my face on the soft, wet earth and hold on tight.
The rain fades to a mist and then to nothing at all. Finally, the whomp, whomp, whomp of helicopter blades tells me it’s over. I walk Lucas through everything I see, only releasing him when I see the ropes drop down from the helicopter. Our heroes have come to save us.
Funny how it doesn’t feel much like salvation at all.
Still, when I hear the steady hum of voices shouting, I am grateful we aren’t alone. Grateful, too, that there will be someone else to climb down that hole to check on Mr. Walker. To find him bloody and used up and hopefully, hopefully, still alive.
“We’re here!” I cry out. “Over here!”
“That’s them?” Lucas asks, and I can tell he’s only half-conscious. He’s slurring his words, but it could be worse. My gaze drags to Ms. Brighton’s body. It could be much worse.
“Yes,” I say finally. “Yes, that’s them. It’s over.”
He laughs inside that tomb of thorns, and I startle at the sound.
“See? Told you you’d rescue us,” he says.
It starts as a laugh but ends with tears. I am still crying when the rescuers find us. They wrap me in a gray blanket and untangle Lucas with pliers and gloved hands and soft voices. They keep us apart, and I let them because the rest can wait.
There is a woman with me though. She has dark skin and close-cropped hair. Her hands brush over me, warm and dry and so beautifully clean that it’s hard not to press them to my nose and breathe deep.
She tells me the park rangers found the rest of us shortly after, and they’re getting the help they need. They’ve been looking for us all day because our parents worried after the rain and when the signal check-in didn’t follow the right path. I nod along, only hearing half of what she says.
Things happen, and I let them. I’m lost in a blur of dark pants and simple questions and warm blankets and trees moving overhead as they take me through the forest. Then, quite suddenly, a patch of gray sky grows between the trees. The branches crisscrossing over my head are gone, and there are misty clouds marching in my vision. I blink, and there are still more clouds, and after that, the phantom strobe of red emergency lights that grows stronger with every heartbeat. I take a breath that tastes like rain and diesel fuel.
Like a road.
I open my eyes wide as someone clicks down the wheels on the stretcher. When did they put me on this thing? Where is Lucas? I want to ask, but they roll me swiftly across the two-lane road, and the words get lost in the noise.
So many noises. Voices, engines, and the groan of doors opening. It’s been a thousand years since I’ve heard these sounds. I want to cry and laugh at the same time, but I only manage to lift my head, searching for Lucas, wondering if he hears them too.
The doors on his ambulance are closed. The taillights move down the ribbon of black, and I hold my breath until they dip below the next hill and out of sight.
Chapter 35