Page 16 of Anarchy

“Really? Are you sure?” I question with my arms crossed over my chest and my head tilted in disbelief.

“Yeah, I’m sure. What else are we going to do?” He shrugs before making his way to his feet, sticking out his hand and helping me up. I don’t know who replaced my ruthless, take-no-shit, killer of a man with this go-with-the-flow guy, but I’m not sure if I like it yet. He pulls me up the bank of the brook and walks through the woods. Branches and dead leaves crackle beneath our feet. After a good ten-minute walk, we make it back to the tent. Shit, I didn’t even realize we were that close to water in the first place. Maverick stops before he enters the tent. “Let’s get one thing clear though. We are only going to this place because that’s the only thing we’ve heard about. I’m trusting you with this decision. That being said, you do what I say when I say it while we are traveling, do you understand?” His voice deepens with his command, and now my man is back to how he should be.

“Yes, sir, I understand.” I say with a smile as I lean up and press a kiss to his cheek before crawling into the tent to find some clothes.

ChapterTwenty-Two

MAVERICK

This girl is turning me into a fucking sap. I’ve never treated anyone this nice before, not even my own mother. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? When I look at her, my heart rate speeds up, and it makes my chest flutter when she smiles. That damn giggle she lets out all the time makes me smile myself, which is such a foreign thing. Is this what they call love? Because I feel like a nutcase right now. She doesn’t seem to mind my affection most of the time, but when that sass comes out? Shit, it takes everything in me not to bend her over and fuck her. Not sure how the fuck I got so lucky finding her in the woods that day, but whatever I did to deserve it, thank fuck for that. I watch my girl as she makes her way through the forest, hopping carelessly over fallen branches like she’s a track star. We left the campsite a few hours ago and have been walking since. Mallory has only stopped once to piss, which I am honestly shocked about.

The trees have started to become more sparse, and the air has gotten thicker the farther we walk. Mallory has already stripped off her sweater and tied it around her waist over an hour ago, sweat beading on both of our foreheads as we continue through. The ground has started to get squishy in some spots, making me wonder where the hell we have ended up. “Goddammit!” Mallory’s annoyed screech reaches my ears; her boot is stuck in thick sludge. She tries to tug her boot out, but the suction is so strong that it doesn’t even budge. She narrows her eyes and lunges forward, hoping her body weight will tug the boot free, but she just falls flat on her belly on the ground instead. A sound whooshes out of her when she makes impact, and I can’t restrain the laugh that bursts out of me. “It’s not funny! Come help me.” Her pitiful voice just makes me laugh even harder. She’s up on her knees now trying to pull the boot free, and she lets out a scream of frustration. “Stop laughing at me and get over and help!”

I walk over to her, still chuckling under my breath, and grab her hands, bracing my feet on the ground before tugging. It takes a few minutes and some wiggling to finally get her boot out of the mud, and we both fall back onto the ground with a laugh. She slaps me on the arm with a glare before hopping to her feet and offering me her hand. I smirk at her and grab onto her hand before pulling her back into me, her thighs straddling my lap. Leaning up, I place a kiss on her pillowy lips, and we stay there in our little bubble until the sky starts to darken. “We better get going; it looks like it’s going to rain.” Her face tips up to the sky with a pout as she gazes at the dark clouds floating in. We finally get to our feet and head on our way.

“Mav, look!” Her excited squeal catches me off guard, and I look to where she’s pointing. There’s what looks to be an old dock in the distance surrounded by water. We’ve been hearing the sounds of frogs and crickets for a while now. She runs off towards the dock, and I have no other choice but to follow after her. “Oh my god, look, look!” She’s hopping up and down now and pointing to a small boat that is attached to the dock haphazardly. Her boots echo off of the old wood and sway under her feet as she approaches the boat. “I think we should use this to get us farther down this nasty swamp, because I’m tired of trekking through the mud.” She doesn’t even wait for me to acknowledge her before she swings a leg over and promptly tumbles down into the boat. It swishes back and forth in the water while she struggles to get her bearings.

“Have you ever even been in a boat before?” I ask with a raised eyebrow as she clutches the sides of the boat for dear life.

“Uh, does a yacht count?” She lets out a nervous chuckle, and I lean down to steady the boat for her. “What are these?” She picks up two oars on the bottom of the boat and holds them up to me with a quizzical look.

“Are you serious right now?” I’m trying so hard not to laugh at her, but her lack of knowledge sometimes is just too much for me. “Those are oars. That’s what we use to move the boat with.” I say as I step into the boat myself, barely even jostling it.

“Ohhhhhhh, okay, gotcha. How do you use them?” She holds them up and almost bashes me in the head with one as she goes.

“How about you let me worry about that and you just worry about keeping your pretty ass in the boat, okay?” She shrugs and passes me the oars before settling into her seat across from me. I position the oars in their holders on the edges of the boat and drop them into the water, pushing off from the dock.

Mallory oohs and ahhs over everything she sees as we float through the water. I’ve never seen someone so enamored by nature before, and it tugs at my heartstrings. “What’s that?” She points to a large bird standing on the bank.

“That’s a great blue heron, and that over there is a cottonmouth.” I point to the snake slithering down into the water.

“Fuck no, that’s a nope rope!” She screeches and jumps towards me, plopping down into the bottom of the boat by my feet. I let out a chuckle at her antics and keep moving us through the swamp.

It’s long since gotten dark, and the mosquitos out here are horrible. I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked like we had the chicken pox when we finally made it out of here. Rain starts to drop down from the sky, and I let out a string of curses while scanning the horizon for a place to take shelter. Mallory is complaining about getting wet, but I’m more worried about getting stuck out here in a damn storm. I haven’t told her that there are alligators out here yet just because of the way she acted about that damn snake. The rain starts pouring down in buckets, and it’s hard to hear Mallory over the sound of it, let alone see where we are going. The wind has picked up, making us travel faster through the water, and I feel Mallory’s arms snake around one of my calves as she clutches me to her. Looking down at her, she’s shaking from the cold rain, her blue eyes round with fear as the boat rocks back and forth from the rain and the wind. Before I can open my mouth to tell her that everything is going to be okay, all hell breaks loose.

The boat crashes into a tree trunk and bounces back, knocking into several thick branches. Mallory is frantic, and I can hear her screams over the rain as she clutches onto me with all of her strength. We bash into another tree trunk that sends us careening outward, the boat flipping over in the process. We both splash into the water, and the feeling of her arms on me disappears just as the frigid water seeps into me. Thunder clashes and lightning lights up the area for a split second, and I can see Mallory’s head bobbing in the water on the other side of the boat. “Maverick!” She screams, trying to swim towards me, but the current is too strong for her and takes her downstream. I yell her name, but it gets lost in another clap of thunder, rain still beating down all around me in sheets, making it hard to see. I frantically scan the area for her, but she’s gone. My heart almost seizes in my chest with the feeling of losing her. I promised I would protect her, and I couldn’t even save her in this storm?

I spy the boat nestled between branches on the edge of the swamp and manage to get it flipped over and haul myself inside of it. The oars are long gone, so I rip a branch off the tree and make do with that as I propel myself through the water in the same direction Mallory went. I yell her name while I go, but I don’t hear a sound back, and I fear that she’s drowned. My chest aches with that thought, and my breathing starts to become shallow. When did I become such a pussy over a girl? I set the branch down beside me on the floor of the boat and lay down next to it, staring up at the sky as the rain continues to pelt down onto me. I close my eyes hoping that this is all a dream, but when I open them again nothing has changed.

I eventually fall asleep because the next thing I know I’m waking up to sunny skies and chirping birds. Leaning up on my elbows, I see that there is about an inch of water in the bottom of the boat and thank whoever’s out there that I didn’t drown too last night. I’m still floating down the stream, so I hop back onto the bench and grab my makeshift oar again. Tiredness pulls at my eyelids, but I force them to stay open. A few minutes later I spy something sparkly down the bank, and I propel the boat towards it. Sticking out of the mud is one of Mallory’s pink combat boots. I tug it free from the mud and scan the area, calling for her, but only silence greets me. She had to have gotten out this way with how stuck her boot was in the mud. I steer the boat around a bend, and a wooden dock lies within reach. Using my tree branch, I get as close as I can to the dock before lunging out of the boat onto it. I lay there on my back, holding Mallory’s boot to my chest.

“Mallory!” I yell out one last time, and when silence greets me again, I heave out an exhausted sigh. What the hell am I going to do now? Our packs were washed away during the storm, and the only thing I have on me is her boot. My worry for Mallory intensifies because she hasnothing, not even both boots to help keep her safe. The feeling of dread courses through my body, and I pray to anyone out there that she will stay alive long enough for me to find her.

ChapterTwenty-Three

MALLORY

Iam soaked, missing a boot, and I smell like a stinky gym shoe. I’m not sure who I pissed off to get me in this situation, but seriously, fuck them. A twig snaps in the distance, which has me scampering behind a large tree trunk. This night has been awful and terrifying. I thought I was scared before, but this is a whole other level. A bunny hops into my view, munching on some grass, and I heave out a relieved sigh. Sitting down by the trunk of the tree, I rest my head back against the scratchy bark. My hair has become a nasty tangled mess, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s started to form matting back there. Closing my eyes and heaving out a sigh, the events from last night play on a loop behind my eyelids.

One second I’m clutching onto Maverick’s leg in the bottom of the boat, and the next second I’m being flung through the air like a rag doll. My body crashes into the water below, the murky substance invading my mouth and nose making it hard to breathe. My heart is pounding in my chest as I frantically flail, trying to grasp onto anything. “Maverick!” I scream when my head finally pops through the surface. I’m able to see his blue eyes shining fiercely through the storm on the other side of the boat. He’s yelling, but I can’t make out the words between the raindrops and the water rushing in my ears. The tears streaming down my panic-stricken face blend in seamlessly with the rain pelting down on me while I do my best to stay afloat. The current is strong, and it flings my body back and forth, the muscles in my arms and legs tiring from the exertion.

A bolt of lightning blazes through the sky, lighting up Maverick’s hulking form as he throws himself through the water to get to me. His powerful arms beating at the current, eyes filled with desperation, his voice filled with dread, “Mallory!” A whimper escapes my lips before my head falls back under the water; the coldness seeps into every part of me, making my muscles seize up. My legs and arms still in the water, Maverick’s handsome face flashes through my mind with all the memories we’ve created thus far. A soft smile sweeps across my lips as my body is flung down the stream; the feeling of weightlessness takes over until my back is slammed against a hard surface, forcing what little air I had left in my lungs out. The force of the impact has my head bobbing back above the surface; water sputters out of my mouth as I cough up the thick swamp water. The current has died down to the point that my noodle limbs are able to keep my head above water.

Kicking my feet out, I use my hands to hastily brush my hair and the water out of my eyes so I can actually see my surroundings. I spy a large branch protruding out of the bank, and I slowly manage to propel myself over to it, my shaking hands grabbing onto it for dear life. My body trembles in the water while I swing myself slowly up the muddy bank. Once I’m able to get my bearings, my left boot sinks deep into the mud, immobilizing me. “You have got to be fucking kidding!” I screech out for no one to hear as I tug on my leg with what little strength I have left. A sob leaves my lips as my boot just suctions deeper into the earth. Leaning down, I carefully unlace my boot enough to slip my foot out of it and army crawl the rest of the way up the bank. My body shakes with exhaustion, and the sobs spill out of me while I drag my body farther up the earth. I don’t stop until I’m lying safely next to a large tree, far enough away from the water for my own comfort. Flipping onto my back, I stare up at the dark sky, my sobs turn into hysterical laughter and then back to sobs that wrack my whole body. My eyes eventually slide shut, and they don’t open again until the sunlight is warming my body.

Tears track down my cheeks, leaving tracks in the mud that is still caked there. I angrily swipe them away and take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. “Come on, Mallory. You’re a bad bitch, and you need to act like it.” I say as I scold myself and push to my feet. My clothes have finally dry enough that I’m not freezing anymore, but they are stiff on my body, making it hard to move. The once white sock on my left foot has now turned to a coffee brown, making me cringe. Wrapping my arms around myself, I scan my surroundings, and everything looks the same. “I’m going to die out here.” I mutter to myself and start walking through the brush; sticks, and small rocks prick my sock-covered foot, making me wince. Stopping, I stare down at my body, and a thought comes to me, making me laugh, because who would have thought little ol’ me would think of this? I use all my strength to tear off two strips of my already tattered shirt. The biggest one I fold up so it’s a thick rectangle; placing my foot on top of that, I then shimmy the small piece of fabric under it and tie it around my foot and ankle to keep it in place. Taking a few practice steps, I whoop with victory and clap my hands when the fabric dulls the sharp objects just enough to be somewhat comfortable.

I straighten up, ball my hands at my sides, and march forward through the trees. Weaving in and out of the trees for hours is exhausting after you’ve almost died. My stomach has been growling the entire time I’ve been moving, and I would kill for a greasy cheeseburger right now. Eventually I see a small stream up ahead and make my way towards it with the intention of getting this mud off of me. At the edge of the water I slip off my boot and makeshift shoe, then peel my clothes away from my body before wading into the lukewarm water. Heaving out a sigh as the water warms my frigid skin, I plop my ass down on the rocky bottom and start cleaning the mud chunks from my body before leaning back and attempting to fix my hair. Spoiler alert: there is no fixing this rat's nest. Once I’m as clean as I’m going to get, I walk back out of the water and lay back on a flat rock near the edge to air dry my body. The sun is beating down and warming up my skin, reminding me of the summers I spent out on the deck of our yacht.

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