Page 104 of Stranded

I look up at Weston, who’s still standing beside me. His expression is neutral, not smiling, but not upset either.

“Aren’t you happy they’re here?” I ask, making him glance down at me and frown.

“I’ll be happy when I see some insignia on the side of that chopper, telling me who they are.”

I furrow my eyebrows as I glance back at the sky. “But I thought you said there’s only one reason a chopper would be out here?”

“I said they were searching for someone, I didn’t say they were on our side.”

My eyes widen as that fear takes full hold of me. My gut’s been in a knot since I first heard the sound of that chopper. I thought it was from fear of leaving this island, but maybe it’s something more. Maybe it’s my instincts telling me something isn’t right here.

“Guys…” The chopper gets even closer, almost on top of us now. “I think we should—”

Pop pop pop pop.

The sand flies up in front of Kingsley and Bower as the chopper suddenly turns sideways and starts shooting at them. I scream their names and Weston wraps his arms around me, quickly carrying me as he runs towards the jungle.

From my position, I can see Kingsley and Bower running full speed towards us, and when they reach the jungle, untouched, a small amount of relief fills me.

The sound of firing stops and Weston puts me down on a part of the path with a lot of cover from above. Kingsley and Bower stop beside us, heaving heavily. I quickly run over to them, running my hands over their shoulders and backs, making sure they weren’t hit.

When I’m inspecting Kingsley’s front, he grabs me and pulls me against his chest, holding me tight as he breathes heavily. “That wasn’t Reece.”

Bower shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t.”

Realizing it’s time to admit something I’ve been hiding from them, I pull away from Kingsley so I can see them all. “They’re here for me.”

But Weston overlaps my words with identical ones, making us frown at each other in confusion.

“You?” he asks before I can. I nod my head slowly.

“They’re here for us, obviously,” Bower says, gesturing to Kingsley and himself.

“Uh… I think I’m missing some vital information here,” Weston says, still frowning. “I told you guys about my previous plane being taken down. Why do you three think this is about you?”

“We found some shady shit in Australia, it’s why we were headed to Kenya,” Kingsley explains. “I think someone is trying to silence us.”

“What about you, Zee?” Kingsley asks, turning to me.

I stare at him in surprise. How had I not known where they were going when they crashed? Both our flights had the same trajectory, and both went down in the same spot. That can’t be a coincidence… Can it?

“Zee?” Bower prods before I can think too much about it.

“I—” My voice cuts off as my eyes bounce between them. I’ve tried not to think about this for fifteen years, bringing it up brings back things I’d rather not remember.

“Zee, you need to tell us, it’s important.”

“My dad said our crash wasn’t an accident. Someone sabotaged the plane. Someone who wanted the two of us dead.”

“Do you know who would want to do that?”

“Not exactly. I think it has something to do with my grandfather, but my dad never spoke about it. I just know when we left Perth, he seemed really nervous and upset.”

“Perth,” Kingsley says, his furrowed eyes staring at me like he’s trying to see into my head.

“Well, fuck. What do we do? We don’t even know which of us they are after!” Bower says as we listen to the sound of the chopper circling the island, looking for us most likely.

“First of all, they can’t be here for Zee, it’s been too long,” Weston says, giving my shoulder a squeeze of reassurance. “But either way, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like we can bargain with them. Their orders are clearly to kill first.”

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