Chapter 13
Luna’s eyes jerked open. That was an engine, buzzing, in the distance. Her heart raced. Crap. She was alone. Alone alone. There was a chance that the engine had a friendly person attached to it. A helpful, kind, generous person. But that chance was very very small. Her breath gasped. She glanced around the broken tent at her sopping wet EVERYTHNG. There was a real possibility that Luna, alone, was in a dangerous situation. Best case scenario? She lost her stuff. Worst case? Crap. She definitely didn’t want any worse cases.
But it was seriously hard to think this all through because her head, her heart, her mind, were all broken. That was the only explanation for how she felt: broke, near-drowned, sodden, desperate. Maybe she could stand on the edge of the water and wave her arms and beg to be taken on board. Surrender.
God, she wasn’t capable of this. She wasn’t strong or brave or —
She grabbed the radio (battery dead because of the lack of sun), her wet sack, and the water desalination kit with Beckett’s name scrawled on it, unzipped the tent, looked both ways, and lugged it all to the tree line, hurrying, splashing through ankle deep puddles all the way. When she made it to the tree line, she shoved further in through the underbrush and stashed everything under a bushy mass of ferns. She tried to calm her mind and breath to listen — the engine still sounded very far away.
She raced back and yanked up the tent’s stakes, her body moving without her brains, heaved a corner of the tent (still pretty full of gear), and dragged it through the muck to the hiding spot under the trees. The tent billowed. She threw her body on top, begging the tent to collapse, but it obstinately continued being a tent. “Damn it, deflate, tent. Deflate.” She twisted and folded it, and dragged it farther into the woods, hoping it couldn’t be seen. It was bright yellow — it needed to be dark and easy to hide.
The engine was coming closer — she dropped down beside the tent and wrapped her arms around her knees and pressed her kneecaps into her eyes — if it made it to the inlet, it would see her boards for sure — Breathe gasp breathe gasp breathe gasp breathe —
