Chapter Thirty-Eight
Sue-Ellen is frantic, panting.
“Guys, I’m stuck! I’m really fucking stuck!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, we’ve got you,” Kei says, as we make our way slowly over to her.
She looks up at me, pleading. I wrap my hands around her shin below her knees and pull, trying to dislodge her leg.
She grits her teeth and moans. All the colour has drained from her face.
Her leg doesn’t move. Kei tries, letting me catch my breath, but he also has no luck.
We try to clear away some of the rocks, but they, too, are stubbornly unyielding.
“Help me, please help me!”
“We’re trying!” I glance around, my eyes landing on a large branch sticking up out of the rocks.
I make my way over to it and drag it back to use it as a lever.
Kei looks at the stick, then at me, and shrugs.
Not exactly the vote of confidence I was hoping for.
I jam the stick down and pull it back with every bit of strength I have.
As I lean my body weight into it, I can feel it starting to splinter.
I keep pulling until suddenly it snaps, sending me sprawling back onto the rocks.
“Fuck!” I yell in frustration, hot tears stinging my eyes. I press myself up, rubbing my lower back, which took the brunt of the fall. No blood, which is good, but there will be one hell of a bruise.
Kei appears with an extended hand to help me up.
“What are we going to do?” Sue-Ellen sobs. “What are we going to do?”
“Try to breathe, okay?” Kei tells her, then turns to face me. “Let’s just take a minute, figure out our options.”
I sit down and press the heels of my hands into my eyes. My facade of bravery is starting to show its cracks, and I feel like I’m about to lose it. Kei squeezes my hand.
“Let’s wait. Maybe someone will pass by in a boat or something.” Even as I say the words, I know it’s ridiculous. In the two weeks that we’ve been here, I haven’t seen one single person from the outside world on or near the lake.
Kei shakes his head. “That’s not—”
“I know.”
I twist around to look at Sue-Ellen. She’s sobbing soundlessly. Then, meeting my eye, she blows out a shaky breath.
“You’re going to have to go without me.”
“No!” I say, shaking my head. “No way. We can’t leave you here. What if—what if we pour some water on your leg to make it wet, maybe it will slide out.”
Again, Kei gives me a doubtful shrug.
Sue-Ellen nods. “Okay. Yeah, okay. Not our drinking water, though.”
“No,” I agree. We all only have about half a bottle left. “I can, like, scoop some lake water with my hands, and—”
I don’t bother finishing this ridiculous sentence.
“Let me try moving the rock again,” Kei says. “I’ll go at it from another angle, see if I can get better leverage on it.”
He tries from a different angle, and then another one.
I search for another stick, something bigger and stronger.
We pull her leg, her arms, one at a time and then both.
I pull with my arms around her waist, under her shoulders.
We hammer at the rock with other rocks to try and break it.
I dribble as much water as we can spare from our bottles on her leg, hoping, wishing, praying it will slip free.
But nothing works.
We sit, wordless, all of us lost in our own fears. The sun feels less intense, which would be a relief if it didn’t mean the darkness was coming.
“You’ve got to go,” Sue-Ellen says, her voice cracking.
I start to make noises of objection, but Kei speaks up.
“I’ll go.” His brown eyes are dark and serious. “You stay with her.”
This idea feels at once relieving and terrifying.
“No,” Sue-Ellen says. “You both have to go. What good are you to me here?”
“I can make sure nothing happens to you.”
“What’s going to happen? I’d be more worried about what could happen to Kei out there on his own.” She gives me a look, and I know she’s thinking of earlier, when he was checking out. I know she’s right, but still.
I shake my head. “I can’t, Sue-Ellen. I can’t leave you behind.” I feel the emotion bubble up, and I let the tears fall. “I’m scared.”
“I’m scared, too,” she says. Her face is also wet with tears. “But it’s our only hope. You have to go,”
I let out a shaky exhale. I look at Kei. He nods.
“She’s right,” Kei says. “I hate to leave her, too, but we have a better chance with two of us.”
“You guys can do this. I know you can.” She reaches out her hand to me, and I reach back, squeezing it tight. Her eyes are steely as she nods at me.
“What if we can’t?”
“You can. You can do this, Cleo, I know it. You’re going to save us. But you have to go. Now.”
I’m frozen.
“Go!” she sobs.
And so we go.
For a long time, we don’t talk. All I can think of is the image of Sue-Ellen as I walked away from her, her body hunched over the rocks in an awkward prayer, trapped like an animal. The image is burned onto my brain, probably for eternity.
Kei must be having a similar train of thought, because every now and then he says, “She’ll be okay,” and I’m not sure if he’s saying it to comfort me, or to comfort himself.
I keep finding myself drifting ahead of Kei. His pace is slower than mine, which sparks concern, but if I start letting worries bloom then I’ll get pulled under, so I put it out of my mind.
Mercifully, the shoreline becomes gentler and for a long stretch it’s just like the rocky beach at camp.
It’s a relief as we cover so much ground with relative ease, and I feel myself relax.
We can do this. We’ll be there in no time, at this pace, and Sue-Ellen will be out of the rocks before nightfall.
“So, how far a drive is it from Vegas to LA?” Kei asks, taking my hand.
“About four hours. Why?”
“Guess I’ll have to buy a car.” He’s smiling shyly.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to LA, once this is all over. I just have to go, make it happen.”
“Oh.” There’s a flutter in my belly, a small inkling of hopefulness.
“And I was thinking I could go to Vegas from time to time. If there’s anyone there who wants to see me.”
“Is that right?” I bite my lip to hold back the huge grin that’s threatening to overtake my face.
“Yeah. Do you think there’ll be anyone there who’ll want to see me?”
“Hmm, probably not.”
He laughs and squeezes my hand. “For real, though.” He stops walking and turns to face me. “I want to see you. Back in the real world.” He takes my other hand. “I want to try to make this work.”
I’m programmed to doubt him, to wonder what’s the catch, but as I search his eyes for signs of deception, all I see is his earnestness. I have a choice: I can either shut him out and protect what’s left of my heart, or I can trust him.
And I know what I want to do.
I pull his hands to bring him closer to me.
I stretch up onto my tiptoes, and I kiss him.
His mouth tastes sweet, and as I slide my hand up the back of his neck, I notice his skin is slick with sweat.
A low growl rumbles from him, which is a little weird, especially when he jerks his head back, like he surprised even himself.
He looks past me, his breath hitching in his throat. “Don’t move,” he says, his eyes fixed on something behind me. But of course, I spin around to see what’s got him so concerned.
And then I wish I hadn’t.