20

Watching June’s body jerk around in the sand turned his stomach. He swallowed hard and pushed the feeling away as he marched toward her. “What happened?”

“We were sitting here, and she just started shaking.” Katelyn wiped tears from her face, but it looked like she’d stopped crying for now, thank goodness. “We didn’t know what to do, then she fell sideways and kept shaking in the sand.”

Erin pushed through them and knelt beside June.

Luca moved out of the way to let her examine the girl. He almost felt guilty for not calling her in the first place, but he’d forgotten about Erin being an authority figure, especially since she’d been practically useless since they got here.

But crazy or not, Erin’s instincts seemed to have kicked in and she quickly went to work. June had stopped shaking and Erin called to her softly as she checked her pulse and lifted her eyelids.

June moaned and turned her head.

Avery jogged over and handed Erin a bottle of water. Erin took the bottle and held it to June’s lips. “Can you drink this?”’

June lifted her head slightly and took a sip before laying back. “What happened?”

“You had a seizure,” Erin said. “Do you have a history of seizures?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Could it have been caused by the snake bite?” Luca asked.

Erin nodded. “Definitely. You need to lay back and relax for the rest of the night. No more hiking through the jungle.”

June gave them all a weak smile. “You got it.”

She blinked up at Luca hovering over her and smiled a little brighter, but she turned away before he knew what to make of it.

Something tugged at his mind, something about her eyes. He wasn’t sure he liked the thought so he pushed it to the back of his brain before he had to figure out what it really meant. His stomach growled loudly and it gave him the perfect excuse to step away and find something to eat.

A basket of fruit sat in the shade but all he found were pears. That was the last thing he wanted. His gaze moved to the jungle, and he studied the trees and shadows inside. He could go in alone. The thought simmered for a moment, and he glanced around to see if anyone watched him. Sure, he didn’t want anyone else doing it, but he needed to be by himself. Being surrounded by so many people all the time was exhausting.

Glancing around one last time, he stepped into the jungle and hiked toward the banana tree they’d seen a few days ago. Farther and farther he trekked, until sweat pooled on his back and ran down his temples. He pulled off his shirt and slung it over his shoulder as he continued deeper into the jungle. His eyes moved back and forth constantly, scanning for snakes or monkeys or weird native people.

Nothing stirred the trees though, and after a while, he spotted yellow ahead. Luca grinned. He’d remembered the banana tree’s exact location. Excellent directional skills; just another perk of hunting and tracking. The reminder tensed him up as he remembered the uncertainty waiting for him back home.

In the winter months, he helped his uncle at the family taxidermy shop. His dad and his uncle worked there together for years, stuffing animals and preserving experiences. They also ran a meat processor, but when Luca’s dad died a few months ago, his uncle couldn’t handle both sides of the business.

Luca had begged Uncle Jimbo to keep the processor so he could run it when he graduated from high school, but Uncle Jim said he had no choice.

Now Luca was nearing graduation and had nothing to fall back on. Uncle Jim didn’t need a partner, and the new meat processor wasn’t looking to sell the business back. What would he do when he got back home?

He stood at the base of the tree and peered up, trying to figure out how to get the bunch down from the tree. He sighed and placed his foot against the peeling bark. Going up was the best way he could figure. He hefted himself up the first few paces before it started to get hard, and at the top he pulled out the small pocketknife he’d found in the van a few days ago.

The knife was dull and the stalk was thick, but the bunch finally broke free and fell to the ground with a thud.

“Watch it!” someone called up.

Luca sucked in a fast breath and stumbled on the tree branch. He grabbed onto the closest branch he could to steady himself before looking down.

A guy his own age stood on the ground below. His dark hair stood in spikes around his head, and his dark skin reminded Luca of Sam, the van driver. This guy definitely was not from their mission trip.

“Who are you?” Luca needed to get out of the tree, and fast. Standing up there made him feel like a coward, but climbing down put him in a vulnerable position, and that was something he didn’t much like.

“Rafa,” the newcomer said. “And you are?”

Luca frowned. This guy—this Rafa—acted as if they were meeting at the skate park instead of the middle of an abandoned desert oasis.

“I’m Luca. Watch out. I’m climbing down.” Luca kept his gaze on Rafa as best he could as he slid down the tree trunk. The thick bark sliced into his arm at one point, but he kept his gasp in so Rafa wouldn’t notice. At the bottom, he slipped into his shirt and wiped the blood from his arm on his shorts. His other hand palmed the knife, just in case. “Where did you come from?” Luca demanded. “We’ve been here for days and haven’t seen anyone.”

Rafa’s eyebrows rose. “I thought you met Rae. He said he’d spoken to the group of abandons.”

Rae.

Luca tried to relax, but he found himself tensing instead. “You know Rae?”

“Yeah dude. We both live here.”

They lived here. In this jungle. “We haven’t seen any housing. We haven’t seen anything that hints at people living here.”

Rafa smirked. “You think you have seen the entire jungle? This is a big place.”

The guy made a good point.

Luca took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. “Sorry. That’s true. Can you help us? We want to get out of here.”

“Of course we can help you. Anything you need.”

Just like that? After Rae’s hemming and hawing, Luca hadn’t expected immediate compliance. “Really? Because we could use a phone or computer, or a working van to get out of here.”

“You left another van on the other side of the jungle, didn’t you?”

Chills pricked Luca’s arm. Did these guys see the group’s every move? That wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right.

He smoothed out his face and worked to look cool. “That’s right. We had two vans, and the other group moved to stay with our group. They had to leave their van behind because it wouldn’t start.”

“Couldn’t you take the gas from the non-working van and use it in the other van?”

Luca shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, I guess that could work.”

Rafa grinned. “Glad I could help. Listen, we’re around if you need us. We don’t go hanging out in the open because, hey, that’s not our thing. But if you need us, just come looking. Really.”

The muscles in Luca’s shoulders relaxed a little more, and he nodded. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

Rafa nodded then stepped into the shadows and out of sight.

Luca grabbed the bananas and slung them over his back, heaving a grunt with their weight. It was stupid they hadn’t thought of it earlier. All they had to do was patch the hole in the gas lines of their own van while someone else made the trip to the other van and drained the gas out.

Now they just needed a gas container, but there had to be something lying around they could use.

He had worked up a full-blown sweat by the time he reached camp, and it was only as he set down the bananas and Avery glared at him from the girls’ shelter—she must have noticed he’d gone alone—that he realized something. Two somethings, to be exact.

How did Rafa know they had a gas leak in their van?

And if he lived in this jungle—and had for a while—why did he speak in non-accented English?