Page 48 of Obey

I’ve checked and rechecked, but the metal manacles are locked tight and the lock is too small for any makeshift lockpicks to fit in. We either need the key—still on Slim’s body, probably—or real tools.

I find more shells for the shotgun and reload it, although everything takes longer since Maddox’s arm is in the way.

“If we keep going straight, we have to get out eventually, right?” I ask. “Either we hit land or we hit open water, but anything’s got to be better than this.”

“I don’t think open water is better than this,” he says, his voice a little surly. “But sure, fine.”

Annoyance wells up inside me, although I know he’s in pain from the bullet wound and lashing out because of that.

In pain is better than dead, though.

“You have better ideas?” I snap. “Because we’ve got one shotgun, no food, one single bottle of water in that mini-cooler, and I don’t like our chances of surviving long term out here.”

“If I had better ideas, I’d be telling you,” he retorts. “So no, I don’t.” He looks at the dashboard of the boat. “They couldn’t have something newer or fancier? No, of course not,” he answers himself.

“It’s an airboat,” I say. “Hell, they probably stole it from somewhere.” I grip the handle to direct the boat around a fallen log. It took a while to get used to pulling and pushing the handle to change the boat’s direction, and I still don’t like my odds of doing it correctly if I need to make a quick turn.

Something moves in the water. I stare at it, unsure if I should mention to Maddox that the possibility of alligators is more than theoretical at this point.

Gators don’t usually go for big prey, right?

Yeah, I don’t want to bet on that.

“Let me guess,” he says, almost deadpan, and I realize he’s followed my gaze. “It’s an alligator. Or a snake. Or something else that would be equally happy to eat us and kill us.” He shifts in the uncomfortable seat and grimaces, settling back down into his previous position. “Fuck, man.”

“Snakes don’t eat humans,” I say. “Not most of them. We’re too big for them to swallow.”

Maddox makes an disgusted sound. “Doesn’t have to eat us, just bite us. They’re all venomous down here.”

“Don’t step on any snakes, then. They won’t bother you if you leave them alone.” I direct the boat away from the alligators and toward a part of the swamp that looks slightly clearer.

“I’m not planning on—” He grits his teeth. “Jesus, are you this thick all the time? Or is this a recent development?”

Anger flares up inside me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” he snaps at me. “‘Don’t step on any snakes, then,’” he mocks. “Like I’m going to jump out of the boat and find the first snake I can to trample. Like I actually want to fucking die out here!”

“Yeah, keep yelling and attract more attention,” I say in a low voice. “It wasn’t fucking literal, you idiot. But the way you keep acting, it sure as fuck sounds like you want to die.”

“I’m not the idiot here,” he says, glaring at me, but he lowers his voice. “Following your lead is how we ended up here to begin with.”

“My lead?” I clench my hand on the steering handle. “The only lead! I got us to the weapons. I saved us from getting fucking murdered. If it were up to you, we’d still be twiddling our thumbs in NewVa, or worse, getting fed to gators.”

“I fucking found who sold us out! And look what your lead got us!” Maddox looks away from me. “We’re going to die of dehydration, or some flesh-eating bacteria will attack my open wound, or the blood can attract the gators and mosquitos and either fucking way, we’re dead, only in this version we go out slowly!”

I turn to glare at him. “This way we have a fucking chance. But I guess condemning others is your fucking M.O., isn’t it? You’d rather give up than try to salvage anything.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Maddox shouts. “I fucking swear, if we weren’t attached at the wrist I would fucking push you into the swamp and just be done with all of your bullshit.”

The familiar anger fills my belly, and I revel in it. Anger, at least, feels more productive than despair.

“You’re so done with my bullshit that you keep coming right back to me. Couldn’t stop yourself from?—”

The boat suddenly lurches and stops—but Maddox and I keep going, flung forward into the mudbank that stopped the airboat.

The surprisingly cool mud buffers our impact, but there’s no way around the fact that our clothes are now completely and utterly filthy.

I gasp and scramble to get out of the mud. “Fuck. Fuck!”

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