Page 66 of Adrift

“Tree,” Haley screams, her lips next to my ear.

I’m only vaguely looking where my bare feet step. I leap over a log to a large tree. It’s at least two feet around, with some low branches. “Grab hold.” I toss her at the branch and hope to hell she was good at the monkey bars growing up. She grabs the branch and swings her good leg over to another branch. It’s not graceful, but it’s effective.

“Use the stick,” she says.

I swipe it from the base of the tree where she dropped it and pivot around as the boar bursts through the ferns.

He pauses for a second, then charges. I bring the stick down on his nose. It doesn’t stop his charge. No, he’s coming for me, his dark tusks aiming for my legs. Fuck, if I had boots on, I’d give him some hard kicks. I smack him with the stick again, and he stops. Another limb lies covered in mud on the path. I pick it up so I have one in each hand. This branch is thicker. It broke when it hit the ground, so it’s sharp on the end like a real spear.

“Run, Zane,” Haley screams at me. “Go away, pig! Shoo!” And then she does a blood-curdling scream. It’s so loud birds flutter from the treetops into the sky and even the boar turns his attention away from me—to Haley. He grunts.

That second is all I need. I ram the boar with the stick, plunging it into his lower chest. I let go, and it’s hanging there. The damn boar squeals at me. It steps forward but then turns and runs back into the ferns. My heart is beating through my chest.

“What the fuck is going on?” Calvin runs to us. Scratch that. He’s holding his arms up to Haley.

“A wild boar attacked us.” Haley slides with caution into Calvin’s arms. “But Zane stabbed it with a stick.”

Easton shows up behind Calvin. “What happened? Are you okay?” Easton puts his hand on Haley’s leg.

“Yeah, Zane saved us. He stabbed the boar.”

I hold up her crutch for her. “Haley wanted to see the stream.”

Calvin turns, keeping the crutch away from Haley’s hand. “Yeah, well, that’s fucking stupid. It could have hurt her.” He kicks at the leaves. “That’s a lot of blood. Did you get a good shot in?”

“Yeah, that’s why it left.”

“This is too much blood loss for it to survive.” Calvin passes Haley to Easton. “Take her back to the beach.”

“Here’s your crutch, Haley.” I walk around Calvin to hand it to her. There’s a scratch up the side of her leg from where she clung to the tree. “Are you okay?”

“It’s just a scratch. I can walk with my crutch.” She pulls back and looks Easton in the eyes.

“Yeah, no. This is one order from Cranky Pants I’m more than willing to obey.”

Haley sighs. “Thank you.” She’s staring at me when she says it.

“No problem,” Easton says.

Calvin picks up a stick. “You’re with me, Zane.”

I use a short, stubby stick to move palm fronds out of the way until I find another good one.

Calvin has already moved down the path. “Let’s go.”

“Why exactly are we chasing down the beast that tried to kill us?”

“Have you ever hunted?”

“No.”

“Right, that’s a lot of blood back there.” Calvin touches a short fern on the side of the path, a drop of blood smeared at the top of it. “It won’t heal from a massive injury like that, and when it dies, I don’t want some scavenger taking what’s ours.”

“Or...” I’m practically running after Calvin. I’m tall, but he’s what I like to think of as stare-at-me tall. “...or we could head back to the beach and wait for a rescue plane to fly overhead.”

Calvin stops, and I have to haul back to keep from running into him. “Listen. Good move having the charts and downloading them to Swimmer Boy’s phone. Have you looked at them?”

“I have. But?—”

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