Page 26 of Loathing Ryan
Maybe we would get out of this situation alive.
12
RYAN
I wokeup to the sound of thunder rattling in the sky. With a grunt, I moved my neck out of the wrenched position I had fallen asleep in. The muscles in the back of my neck down into my shoulder screamed in protest as I stretched.
Blinking a few times, I looked around, trying to reorient myself to where we were. The cold stone wall I was leaning against was the biggest clue. Izabel curled up in a little ball just a few feet away from me was another one.
I shifted into a new position and hissed in pain as the wound on my side tugged uncomfortably. The noise was enough to stir Izabel, who quickly sat up and looked around.
“What happened? Are you okay?” she asked, concern lacing her tone.
“I’m fine,” I muttered. My voice was scratchy, and my tongue felt thick in my mouth. I shifted a little and groaned again. “Fuck, this really hurts.”
Izabel scooted closer to me and tried to get a look at the gash on my side. The lighting inside the cave wasn’t ideal. I had no idea what time it was, but I would guess it was closer to dusk than not.
“How long has it been?” I ventured to ask Izabel.
She looked up at me and pursed her lips to the side. “I think just a day. You passed out pretty hard yesterday, and then early this morning, it started pouring again. I’ve been napping off and on. How are you feeling?”
“I feel like I got run over by a truck,” I told her. “But I guess, all things considered, I could be worse.”
“Things could always be worse,” Izabel muttered.
We fell silent then. The echo of the rain falling against the ground was the only noise in our little cave. Izabel brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms tightly around them. Her chin rested on the top of one of her knees as she looked out the mouth of the cave into the storm brewing outside.
I watched her for a while, counting the beats of her eyes as she blinked and noting the way her eyelashes fluttered against her cheek. My throat tightened, and guilt coursed through me.
“Bells,” I croaked. Slowly, she turned her attention toward me, and my stomach hurt when I recognized the wary expression on her face, as though she were bracing herself. “I’m sorry.”
She shifted a bit like she was uncomfortable hearing those words come out of my mouth. “For what?”
I shrugged, but then winced when the movement pulled a bit at my side. “I guess everything. For getting you stuck out here.”
“That’s not your fault,” she said softly. “You’re the reason I didn’t drown in that river. I should probably be thanking you.”
“You don’t need to,” I told her, now the one uncomfortable with this conversation. “I just feel like I should have been paying more attention, maybe not falling asleep when there was a storm rolling in.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “But what’s done is done. All that matters now is that we get back to camp in one piece. I don’t want to die out here with you, of all people.”
“Kind of harsh there, Bells,” I grunted. My butt was hurting from sitting on the cold ground for so long.
She shot me a look. “Are you serious?”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “I mean—I did save your life and all.” I quickly rerouted when I saw the fire begin to burn in her eyes. “I was kidding.”
“It wasn’t funny.”
“Okay, sorry. I won’t tease you anymore.”
She snorted and then looked back out at the rain cascading down from the mouth of the cave. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
I didn’t respond, turning my own attention outside. The minutes ticked by until I went for a subject change. “Ideally, they’ll have sent a search party out for us, and they should find us soon,” I said, feeling uneasy. “But I don’t know how far off course we got once the rain hit.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, and her voice wavered.
“It means I don’t know how quickly they’ll be able to locate us here. I don’t have my phone, do you?” Mine had been in my pocket when we started off the trip, but now I suspected it was sitting at the bottom of the river somewhere. Izabel shook her head, and I wondered if she had even brought hers along. That didn’t really matter, though. “Didn’t think so. I think we should stick around here for a few days, and if they don’t find us by then, we should probably start walking.”
