Page 7 of Blue Arrow Island
He turns slightly, avoiding a tree branch that’s growing over the path at shoulder level.
The jungle is dense with trees stretching so high I can’t see the sky. Their branches form a tight canopy, only slivers of light making it through. Vines encircle thick tree trunks and branches, brightly colored flowers the only contrast to the thousands of shades of green here.
A primal howl cuts through the exuberant cawing and singing of birds, making me snap my head upright and scan the thick jungle around us.
“That’s a wolf.” I pinch my brows together, listening as the keening howl repeats.
“Yep.”
“That’s...” I shake my head, confused. “Wolves don’t live in jungles. The environment is too hot for them.”
Pax’s lips tilt up in a grin. “This place is full of surprises.”
A wolf in a jungle isn’t a surprise. It’s a scientific impossibility. Unless...
“Someone brought the wolf here.”
He shrugs. “Wasn’t me.”
My heart races with fear of what else might have been brought to this island. Whitman exiles people here for the crimes he considers the greatest offenses to his new world order. Speaking out against his government. Refusal to register DNA in his database. Any form of resistance to his laws. Or in my case, using birth control because I refuse to be bred against my will like an animal.
Now you get to play a little game.The guard’s words ring in my ears as I realize what sort of twisted, cruel game he must have been talking about.
I’m going to be hunted on this island. Whitman’s troops have seeded it with predators, human and animal. They’re probably watching it play out with buckets of popcorn in their laps, cameras hidden all over to feed it to them in real time.
We’re approaching a tall rectangular archway. The wooden sign at the top of the arch has the wordsRising Tideburned into it in neat black letters.
“This is your camp?”
“It’sourcamp.” He says it like I had any say in coming here. “You’re a Tider now.”
I don’t argue, because the more compliant I pretend to be, the better my chances of getting out of here.
Massive green leaves spread out on the ground grab my attention. They’re close to three feet wide, some of them starting to brown at the edges. I lean forward, trying to get a better look.
“Is that...Alocasia?”
I must be wrong. There’s no way the giant elephant ear leaves scattered here are Alocasia.
“What, the leaves? No clue. They grow like crazy and we use them to keep the ground from getting muddy in some places. Just don’t pick them up or walk on them with bare feet, because?—”
“The calcium oxalate crystals can cause skin irritation,” I say softly, puzzled. “But this species is native to Asia and Australia. How far from the US are we?”
“Are you a human computer or something?”
I don’t respond. I’ve given too much away already.
I’m mentally calculating. If there was something added to the water at the prison that knocked us all out, how long could we have been on the boat to get here without anyone dying of dehydration?
Six peoplediddie, though.
Could they have hydrated us with IVs? I check my arms for bruises and don’t find any. They could have put IVs in veins we can’t see. I’m dehydrated, though, so that doesn’t track.
People can survive around three days without water. Less in high humidity because of all the sweating. How did they get us as far as Asia or Australia so quickly?
I slump with defeat. It’s not how they got us here I’m as concerned with, it’s how I’ll get back. On my own, it’s going to be near impossible.
“I can walk now.”
