100 Hours
Page 21
I hate Silvana with the fire of a thousand hells, and that is exactly what I will bring down on her before this is over.
I lead my cousin toward the tents with the others, escorted on both sides by armed men. As we pass the tent they put Ryan in, she reaches for the flap, still sobbing.
“Maddie!” I hiss as I pull on her arm. Silvana is already marching toward us, pistol drawn.
Indiana steps up on her other side, and we help her into her own tent.
Alone in mine, I dump my backpack, then quickly repack only the essentials. A change of clothes and my waterproof blanket. My remaining protein bars and packets of tuna. Bug repellent. My flashlight. Every bottle of water I can find. I roll up my sleeping bag and strap it to my bag, then step out of my tent.
Óscar rummages through my things and tosses out the flashlight, because it’s big enough to be used as a weapon. Which is exactly why I packed it.
“What are they going to do with us?” Penelope whispers from my left as she settles her backpack onto her shoulders.
“Don’t worry,” Rog says as the only other female kidnapper searches his bag. “When they get what they want, they’ll let us go.”
Penelope shudders and wraps her arms around herself. “What if what they want is us, dead?”
“They’re not going to kill us,” I say as I watch Domenica’s and Indiana’s bags being searched. “They’re going to march us deeper into the jungle.”
“How do you know?” Pen asks.
“They need us alive.” For now.
43 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
A shadow falls into my tent. “Maddie.” Genesis puts one hand on my shoulder and I flinch. “They shot Ryan.” It’s not what I meant to say. But all I can hear is the echo of gunfire. All I can see is my brother, covered in blood.
“I know.” Genesis dumps my backpack and starts sorting through my things. “We have to pack.”
“I’m not going.” I’ve already lost my dad. I can’t lose Ryan too.
She rolls up one of my clean shirts and shoves it into my bag. “If you don’t, they’ll shoot you.”
“If I go, they’ll let Ryan die.”
“There’s nothing we can do for him.” Her voice cracks, and for just a second, I can see her pain.
Rage crackles like fire inside me. I rip my bag from her hands. She has no right to that kind of pain. She wasn’t there when we got the call about my dad. She didn’t visit Ryan in rehab. Letting him party with her friends made him worse, not better, and she doesn’t have any right to—
Genesis holds my gaze, as if she can read my thoughts. “I love him too, Maddie.”
I can’t think.
My cousin tugs the bag from my grip and starts shoving things into it.
“We can’t leave him,” I whisper.
She sets the bag aside and starts rolling up my sleeping bag. “Staying here won’t help Ryan, but it will get us killed.”
She’s right. I need a better plan. “Did you bring a satellite phone?”
“No. The whole point was to be out of reach for a while.” She buckles my sleeping bag to the bottom of my pack, then picks up a small glass vial that was hidden beneath it. My missing vial of insulin. “Do you need this?”
My eyes fill with tears again as I stare at the vial. “I lost it.”
Genesis slides the vial into a pocket on the side of her hiking shorts and zips the pocket closed. “We can’t let that happen again.”
“He wouldn’t have been shot if I hadn’t lost it.” I can’t stop my nose from running.
Genesis sets my repacked bag in front of me. “Julian pulled the trigger. Not you.”
“So we’re just supposed to leave Ryan here?” My words sound half choked. Fresh tears blur the inside of my tent.
She lowers her voice until I’m practically reading her lips. “They’ll pay for this, Maddie. I swear. But until then, you need to keep your mouth closed and your head down.”
My tears won’t stop coming. “But he’ll die if we leave him.”
“We’ll die if we don’t.” She exhales slowly. “And what good would we do him then?” I can practically see her shoving pain and fear back from the surface of her thoughts. Turning it all off like she did when her mom died.
That scares me more than an entire crew of armed kidnappers.
GENESIS
“Sebastián!” Nico strains his neck to look up from the ground, where he’s bound with fifteen other hostages. “Don’t do this!” His focus flicks from me to our captors. “Take me, please. Let me help!” “Leave him!” I shout as I swing my backpack onto my shoulder. The thought of having that backstabbing bastard around makes my skin crawl. “He’s done more than enough!”
“Genesis, I didn’t . . .” Nico struggles to lift his head high enough to see me. “This wasn’t—”
“¡Cállate!” Silvana shouts, looking up from the map Sebastián holds. “Or I’ll put a bullet in you myself.”
Nico’s jaw snaps shut, but he keeps watching us.
“¿Estás listo?” Silvana asks Sebastián.
“Sí. Vámonos.” Sebastián folds the map and shoves it into his back pocket while Silvana gives an overhead “round-’em-up” signal to her other men.
No one speaks as we’re marched out of the clearing flanked by seven of the nine gunmen. The eighth is in the tent with Ryan, and the remaining gunman stands over the captives bound facedown on the ground.
Indiana walks at Maddie’s side as she plods in front of me. Penelope and Domenica stare at the ground as if they’re afraid that seeing or hearing too much will get them killed. I take in every detail. As my father says, forewarned is forearmed.
My father also says Colombia isn’t safe. But how was I supposed to know he was serious about that, when his everyday level of paranoia sentenced me to years of Krav Maga, self-defense, and survival classes?
If he’d told me there was a specific threat in Colombia, I never would have paid the pilot to bring us here. My friends and I wouldn’t be heading into the jungle at gunpoint.
I lead my cousin toward the tents with the others, escorted on both sides by armed men. As we pass the tent they put Ryan in, she reaches for the flap, still sobbing.
“Maddie!” I hiss as I pull on her arm. Silvana is already marching toward us, pistol drawn.
Indiana steps up on her other side, and we help her into her own tent.
Alone in mine, I dump my backpack, then quickly repack only the essentials. A change of clothes and my waterproof blanket. My remaining protein bars and packets of tuna. Bug repellent. My flashlight. Every bottle of water I can find. I roll up my sleeping bag and strap it to my bag, then step out of my tent.
Óscar rummages through my things and tosses out the flashlight, because it’s big enough to be used as a weapon. Which is exactly why I packed it.
“What are they going to do with us?” Penelope whispers from my left as she settles her backpack onto her shoulders.
“Don’t worry,” Rog says as the only other female kidnapper searches his bag. “When they get what they want, they’ll let us go.”
Penelope shudders and wraps her arms around herself. “What if what they want is us, dead?”
“They’re not going to kill us,” I say as I watch Domenica’s and Indiana’s bags being searched. “They’re going to march us deeper into the jungle.”
“How do you know?” Pen asks.
“They need us alive.” For now.
43 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
A shadow falls into my tent. “Maddie.” Genesis puts one hand on my shoulder and I flinch. “They shot Ryan.” It’s not what I meant to say. But all I can hear is the echo of gunfire. All I can see is my brother, covered in blood.
“I know.” Genesis dumps my backpack and starts sorting through my things. “We have to pack.”
“I’m not going.” I’ve already lost my dad. I can’t lose Ryan too.
She rolls up one of my clean shirts and shoves it into my bag. “If you don’t, they’ll shoot you.”
“If I go, they’ll let Ryan die.”
“There’s nothing we can do for him.” Her voice cracks, and for just a second, I can see her pain.
Rage crackles like fire inside me. I rip my bag from her hands. She has no right to that kind of pain. She wasn’t there when we got the call about my dad. She didn’t visit Ryan in rehab. Letting him party with her friends made him worse, not better, and she doesn’t have any right to—
Genesis holds my gaze, as if she can read my thoughts. “I love him too, Maddie.”
I can’t think.
My cousin tugs the bag from my grip and starts shoving things into it.
“We can’t leave him,” I whisper.
She sets the bag aside and starts rolling up my sleeping bag. “Staying here won’t help Ryan, but it will get us killed.”
She’s right. I need a better plan. “Did you bring a satellite phone?”
“No. The whole point was to be out of reach for a while.” She buckles my sleeping bag to the bottom of my pack, then picks up a small glass vial that was hidden beneath it. My missing vial of insulin. “Do you need this?”
My eyes fill with tears again as I stare at the vial. “I lost it.”
Genesis slides the vial into a pocket on the side of her hiking shorts and zips the pocket closed. “We can’t let that happen again.”
“He wouldn’t have been shot if I hadn’t lost it.” I can’t stop my nose from running.
Genesis sets my repacked bag in front of me. “Julian pulled the trigger. Not you.”
“So we’re just supposed to leave Ryan here?” My words sound half choked. Fresh tears blur the inside of my tent.
She lowers her voice until I’m practically reading her lips. “They’ll pay for this, Maddie. I swear. But until then, you need to keep your mouth closed and your head down.”
My tears won’t stop coming. “But he’ll die if we leave him.”
“We’ll die if we don’t.” She exhales slowly. “And what good would we do him then?” I can practically see her shoving pain and fear back from the surface of her thoughts. Turning it all off like she did when her mom died.
That scares me more than an entire crew of armed kidnappers.
GENESIS
“Sebastián!” Nico strains his neck to look up from the ground, where he’s bound with fifteen other hostages. “Don’t do this!” His focus flicks from me to our captors. “Take me, please. Let me help!” “Leave him!” I shout as I swing my backpack onto my shoulder. The thought of having that backstabbing bastard around makes my skin crawl. “He’s done more than enough!”
“Genesis, I didn’t . . .” Nico struggles to lift his head high enough to see me. “This wasn’t—”
“¡Cállate!” Silvana shouts, looking up from the map Sebastián holds. “Or I’ll put a bullet in you myself.”
Nico’s jaw snaps shut, but he keeps watching us.
“¿Estás listo?” Silvana asks Sebastián.
“Sí. Vámonos.” Sebastián folds the map and shoves it into his back pocket while Silvana gives an overhead “round-’em-up” signal to her other men.
No one speaks as we’re marched out of the clearing flanked by seven of the nine gunmen. The eighth is in the tent with Ryan, and the remaining gunman stands over the captives bound facedown on the ground.
Indiana walks at Maddie’s side as she plods in front of me. Penelope and Domenica stare at the ground as if they’re afraid that seeing or hearing too much will get them killed. I take in every detail. As my father says, forewarned is forearmed.
My father also says Colombia isn’t safe. But how was I supposed to know he was serious about that, when his everyday level of paranoia sentenced me to years of Krav Maga, self-defense, and survival classes?
If he’d told me there was a specific threat in Colombia, I never would have paid the pilot to bring us here. My friends and I wouldn’t be heading into the jungle at gunpoint.
