A Shrine to an Unknown God

TRUST

WE MOOR at the pier, and I tie the boat in place. The four of us hop out onto solid ground. The stones beneath us are worn smooth from centuries of steady feet.

I am ready to walk to the city in silence, let this alien world settle over me like dust, when Marisol shoves me out of the way. She takes off at a run, giggling.

"Race ya!"

I am not one to back down from a challenge. I force my thighs into action and, despite her head start, quickly overtake her. Dahlia joins us, though she lags behind. Ezra does not participate.

Just as I start feeling cocky, Marisol puts on a burst of speed and pushes past me. I have longer legs, but her size gives her the advantage of aerodynamics. Besides, despite all of my military training, I was never a runner. All the muscle I've built up weighs me down. After a moment I strain myself and come into the lead once again.

Dahlia, long-legged as I am but thin as Marisol, has no excuse for her slow speed.

As we pound down the pier, it goes on like this: she gets in the lead, I take it from her, and so on and so forth, Dahlia always at our heels, Ezra getting farther behind us each second.

Marisol is the first one to reach actual land and pumps her fists in the air, whooping.

"Sorry," she tells me when I reach her a moment later, teasingly. "We weren't all born winners." A cheeky little hair-flip.

"You can both kiss my ass," Dahlia says when she joins us, wiping the sweat from her brow.

I tilt my head back to look up at the city, squinting into the sun, my lips slipping into a grin. It's so strange and so beautiful, all of it. A world I never dared to let myself even imagine sprawled out in front of my eyes.

Marisol cups her hands around her mouth and calls to Ezra: "HURRY UP, SLOW-ASS. WE'RE WASTING DAYLIGHT!"

He responds by sticking his middle finger up at her.

From now onwards, everything that happens to me is going to be entirely out of my hands. I know nothing about this world or how it works. It's going to be completely up to the three of them to get us safely to America.

I'm not entirely sure if I trust them.

They definitely shouldn't trust me.