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“We heard the explosions and followed the noise.”
She felt her mother’s hand move from her shoulder, then brush gently over her hair. Maddie flinched as her fingers touched the sore spot on her head where the blood had now crusted over.
“Maddie,” her mom said, her voice filled with panic. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“I—“ she tried to answer, but she couldn’t focus on anything else but where Saff was. “Josh,” she called out. “Is she—“
She heard him grunt, and his voice came out strained. “Yeah,” he panted. “I got her. She’s still breathing.”
Her jaw quivered as she tried to respond. “The—the blood—I think she’s lost a lot of blood.”
It took him a few moments to answer, and she could hear his heavy breathing over the muffled footsteps.
“I know,” he grunted. “I’m keeping pressure on it.”
“How—how far is—“ she tried to ask, her mind reeling.
“Not far,” her father answered.
She didn’t ask anything else, afraid that if she spoke even a word, it would somehow slow them down.
They moved with a focused speed, only daring to pause once when Josh needed to adjust Saff’s body in his arms.
And it felt like hours had passed when her dad finally muttered that they were almost there.
But she already knew. She could smell it—the tangy salt in the air as it flowed into her nostrils with each heavy breath.
“Josh?” she called out, the breath snagging in her throat as she waited for his answer.
“Yeah,” he panted heavily. “Still breathing.”
They charged ahead for another minute before she felt her father begin to slow. “We’re here.”
Maddie didn’t wait another second as she spun, surging to where she’d last heard Josh on his other side.
“Josh?” she asked, following his voice until her hands found him, then went down to the limp body still in his arms.
She gripped onto her as he gently set her down on the ground.
Maddie pulled her into her chest, hands instantly pressing into the bloody fabric covering her stomach.
“Are they—“ she started, her voice raw. “Where are they?”
Everyone fell silent. The only sound was the light breeze blowing through the trees. And beyond that, the gentle whoosh of waves in the water somewhere close by, probably padding up onto a shoreline of some kind.
Another minute passed, then she heard her mother’s voice.
“Do you see that light?” she murmured.
A beat of silence, then Josh’s voice. “Is that a boat?”
Chapter forty-nine
The lightness Saff floated upon began to grow heavy.
It was as if her body had evaporated, and was now slowly pooling back together, limb by limb. Even the searing pain she could barely remember began to simmer once again.
And slowly, that simmering turned into an agonizing boil, as if her whole body was being cleaved in two.
