Trent halts our progress and turns back to face me. “Heather, we’re not really lost.”
“We’re not?” I ask, cautious optimism creeping into my tone. Had he just figured out where we were, or was he kidding me the whole time?
“No, of course we’re not lost.” A grin spreads over his face. “When you’re lost, it means you don’t know where you are. Well, we know where we are, exactly.”
“Where are we?”
“In the Amazon Rainforest!” Trent spreads his arms out wide and puffs out his chest proudly. I think he’s waiting for me to laugh. Birds caw in the distance, filling in the awkward silence as it stretches out into agonizing infinity.
“You…” I sputter, “you childish, ignorant, arrogant, stupid jerk! You’re worse than Rick-the-Prick!”
Trent cocks his head to the side like a puzzled dog. “Who’s Rick-the-Prick?”
“Never mind that right now! I can’t believe you, getting my hopes up like that. What’s wrong with you? Are you some kind of sadist who takes pleasure in the suffering of others?”
Trent stiffens up. His eyes get a hard, distant kind of look in them, and he turns stiffly away from me.
I stand there blinking in confusion for several seconds as Trent stalks away from me. I spur myself to action when I realize he’s stepping off the game trail.
“Hey, where are you going? Trent?”
I rush after him, plunging into the jungle as he sets a rapid pace through the underbrush. “Trent, where are you going? Hey—I know you can hear me! Wait up.”
He doesn’t respond, doesn’t even seem to hear me. He continues to forge through the dense forest, ducking under low hanging limbs and stepping up rises in the terrain. His longer stride, combined with the fact he’s not clumsy as a giraffe as I am, allow him to outdistance me bit by bit.
“Trent, will you stop? God damn it! Okay, maybe I was a little harsh with you, but that’s no reason to just abandon me in the forest. Trent? Trent!”
I can barely see his naked back as he slips deeper into the jungle.
“Trent, wait! I’m sorry, Trent. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, all right?”
I grow frustrated, angry. My rage fuels my stride, and for a short time I start to gain on Trent. I quickly grow exhausted, however, and he disappears almost entirely from my view.
“Trent, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Come back, Trent! Don’t leave me here all alone…”
I look ahead of me and realize I can no longer see him. He’s been swallowed by the forest. Not only that, but I have no idea how to get back to the game trail.
I fall to my knees, a scream ripping from my throat.
“Trent!”
My wail morphs into a strangled sob. I bend over, kneeling in the dirt as sobs wrack my body. Trent left me. He just went and left me, just like my parents. I guess nobody wants me around…
Now I’m lost in the rainforest, with no supplies and no idea of how to make it back to civilization. I’m going to die, and worse, I’m going to die all alone…
I’ve always been alone, and I guess I always will be. The Factory couldn’t change that. Nothing can. I might as well just stay right here where I am and die.
“Heather?”
I look up, vision blurred by tears, and see Trent looming over me, his face knit in concern. “Heather, are you all right? Did you get a snakebite?”
“Trent…” I leap to my feet and throw myself into his arm, sobbing hard. “Where were you? Why did you leave me?”
“I had to take a piss,” he says.
“You bastard,” I sob into his chest. “I thought you were abandoning me to die in the forest.”
“Hey, I might be a jerk some of the time…okay, a lot of the time, but I’d never do something heinous like that.”
