𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

XIV

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TRIGGER BANG

I can't see any stretch of jungle in front of me. My ankles are numb from the cold flush surging through my body amidst the humidity, racing me through the shrub. Branches are no longer gracefully whipping past me, as they have been all day. They have turned on me. They are malicious. They pick and prod and settle down as deep grooves on my skin. My breathing is shallow, echoing in my ears. Back burning. Eyes stinging.

A roar pierces through the silence, and I don't dare stop in my tracks to determine where it's coming from. As far as the eye could see. Jungle. Silvery foliage glistening in the cracks of moonlight breaking through the trees. Usually kept alive with nocturnal activity, somebody had smothered it to sleep with a cloth to the mouth. It was silent. I keep stumbling. Keep running. Or some version of it.

Sometime ago a sob had risen in my throat and decided to stay there. Pulsing at the walls of my mouth, lodged uncomfortably in my windpipe. Like I wouldn't be able to remove it unless a definitive answer came to my dismay. Some defence. Some truth. Some safety. Something hopefully swift and painless, should it ever come to that. Where I'm not seeing this jungle and all their faces and all the things I thought I loved pressed to the inside of my eyelids in stark vividness.

My hands were without a gun or radio. I couldn't call for help. There were no roads or paths to guide me. The ferries back to the mainland were leaving by the hour. For all I knew, all the ferries could have left by now. I didn't know what time it was. What had happened since I began running. How much time had passed since I began running. With all the casualties of the failed operation, it would be easy for me one to presume I was part of that count.

I could be the only living person wandering this island right now.

Panic. So much panic flowing through my bloodstream like a terrible virus. Tears welled in my eyes. 'Owen,' I choke, and a terrible silence follows.

'OWEN!' I scream. The flutter of birds echo above me, the first remnant of sound I'd heard since he clambered over a log and dove into a cloud of smoke.