“Get down!” Emily screeches, dropping to the ground while pulling Katie into a crumpled heap next to her.
Emily instinctively covers her head, and Katie squeals as she flops into the mud like a rag doll. Just as they hit the swampy land beneath them, Jeremy’s shot hits the tree behind them, creating an explosion of bark and smoke.
Emily knows that blast. She once told Cal that her father taught her about weaponry of all kinds while she was growing up. While she never found herself interested in owning guns, the knowledge still remains.
“Fight or flight, girls. Fight or flight,” Jeremy whispers to himself.
His eyes never leave the scene before him. He feels their fear from where he stands. It’s like a tide washing in, filling the air with the scent of panic and desperation.
“Go, Katie! Go!” Emily shoves Katie forward, keeping low to the ground and choosing flight.
Katie sobs and stumbles forward, covering her own head with her hands and creating a commotion.
“Katie, you have to be quiet and fucking move!” she angrily spits out.
I knew she would hate Katie.
Jeremy paired them together for a reason, and he’s pleased with the animosity blooming between them.
Katie shakes her head, sobbing and paralyzed on her hands and knees.
“I can’t! I can’t do it!” she wails.
Emily moves next to her in an instant, throwing her arm around her neck and cupping her own hand over Katie’s mouth. Without a word, she begins dragging her along at a brisk pace. Jeremy moves swiftly alongside them, relishing the power that comes from seeing someone who can’t see you. Pushing hard through the sea of trees, they finally stop to rest, Emily nearly collapsing from exhaustion.
“We can’t stay here long.” Emily pants, placing her hands on her hips and squinting into the darkness around them. “We are sitting ducks if we don’t keep moving.”
Katie shakes her head.
“Where the fuck are we going to go?” She throws her hands up before slapping them back down into the mud. “It’s us against a psycho with a gun. We’re going to run around like idiots until he shoots us from a fucking tree or something. We should stay here and hide until morning.”
“That’s your plan? You really think he will just leave when the sun comes up?” Emily squeezes her eyes shut and bends forward.
“He said we just had to evade him. That’s all we have to do.”
Emily isn’t the type to leave someone behind, even if they irritate her to no end. She’s a hero in her own mind, Jeremy knows.
“You honestly trust this guy’s word? You think someone with the patience to hide you away for days and befriend me for months will just give up because we hid from him for a few hours?”
Katie shrugs, and Emily brushes a spider off her shoulder with a sigh.
“So, you don’t want to find your friend out here? You want to leave Matt to die alone?”
Jeremy is fascinated. Her survival instinct is so strong, yet she’s willing to ignore it to help this delusional stranger.
“He’s probably already dead.”
“Well, we are not going to die out—” Emily stops.
Branches snap. And they both hear a shuffle of feet. Katie looks up at Emily with wide, terrified eyes. Gripping the tree trunk behind her, Emily holds her breath, desperately trying to see her surroundings.
Not me this time, friends.
Jeremy smirks to himself, waiting for the next arrival.
“Katie!” a hushed male voice sounds out from the darkness.