Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
He landed a split second before me, just as the bullets rang out in the woods.
Somewhere above, a red parrot took flight, squawking his objections to the very human intrusion of his home.
Off in the distance, strange shrieks and hoots sounded.
Monkeys, maybe?
“What—”
“We have to run,” I said, getting into a squat. Wick followed as another couple of shots fired off.
“Shouldn’t we stay put?”
“No. It’s hard to hit a moving target. We have to run.” His face said he wasn’t convinced. “Look, when it comes to guns, just trust me, okay? Those have tons of rounds. Our only chance of survival is running as far and fast as we can.”
He held my gaze just a second as a bullet whizzed right past my head to lodge in the tree behind me.
Then he held out his hand.
I slipped mine in.
And we ran for our freaking lives.
Gone were thoughts of beetles the size of small automobiles, or spiders so large that I could probably count their eyelashes.
All there was in the world was survival.
Adrenaline surged through my system, making me oblivious to the burn in my thighs as I pushed myself harder and faster, trying to keep up with Wick as he kept a few steps ahead of me with his long-ass legs.
The gunshots hailed for the first moment or two before stopping as, I imagined, the shooters came to the same conclusion that I had—it’s too hard to hit a moving target. Especially if you were moving too.
Their best bet for a kill shot was to hold their bullets, chase after us, and take a shot when we stopped to catch our breath or drink water.
The only problem with mine and Wick’s plan, of course, was that it led us deeper and deeper into the unfamiliar rainforest.
And Marco was missing.
I hadn’t even seen him when we’d been coming down the steps.
We had no idea where we were going, how far from the Jeep we were getting, or if there was any hope of getting back to civilization.
But none of those things mattered when you were running from men with guns.
Sweat poured down my chest, back, scalp, and face. Even my damn arms were sweating as we tore through the jungle, vines and branches slapping us in the face or scratching our arms as we went.
It wasn’t long before my chest felt like it was burning, my face hot, and my stomach sloshing from nothing but water inside it.
But we couldn’t stop.
There was no way of knowing how close the men were.
If they were even chasing us at all.
In the end, it was a stupid fallen tree that brought us to an abrupt stop.
My ankle caught it and I went flying.
Wick’s hand tightened on mine, yanking back before he had no choice but to let me go, or else risk dislocating my shoulder. My momentum was too great.
All I could do was brace my forearms for the fall.
I barely even registered the pain of the fall, the way the underbrush nipped and sliced at my arms.
All I could feel was the fire in my lungs, the way I couldn’t seem to catch a breath, leaving me gasping, panic growing with each second that I couldn’t get enough oxygen.
“Hey, okay. Alright.” Wick’s voice was soft as he reached for me, pulling me up onto my knees as he knelt in front of me. “You’re alright,” he assured me as he reached for both of my wrists, yanking my arms up and out wide. “This’ll lift your ribcage,” he explained. “In through the nose,” he demanded.
With the threat of men with guns behind us, he shouldn’t have been able to be so patient and gentle with me. Even if I was nearing the point of no return with panic.
“There you go. Again,” he said, demonstrating the breath he wanted me to take, and I found myself obediently following instructions. “Alright. A little better,” he said, nodding at me.
We stayed just like that, breathing, watching each other, until, finally, the vice grip on my lungs eased.
“The impact of the fall probably triggered that,” he said as he let my arms drop.
“It’s okay. You can blame the fact that I don’t do nearly enough cardio,” I said, voice sounding weak as Wick passed me a water bottle. “We have to keep moving,” I told him as I took a long swig before handing him the rest of the water. “Do you have any clue what direction we should be going in?”
“No,” he admitted, looking around.
“Well, I guess we keep going this way then,” I said, gesturing toward where we’d been heading when I fell.
Wick offered me his hand again.
I didn’t even bother to dry the sweat off mine before I took his.
“Fast walking instead of running, yeah?”
With that, we took off, both of us tense, jumping at any small noise, eyes constantly on a swivel.