“Never made any. I’ve eaten plenty, though.”
“Well, I’m happy to be the one to pop your pancake cherry.”
Fuck, she’s doing it again. Flirting with him. Can’t help it. She feels bad every time it happens because she can’t give him what she’s promising yet, but he seems to care far less about her inability to follow through on all these flirts that she feared he might. It’s the tabloid story that remains the sticking point for her. She has been cheated on once already and she fears setting herself up for a round two…though that might be a challenge considering their situation.
She flips through a few files about climate change, her interest piqued, and a gasp leaves her lips at Gwen’s name at the very top. “Theo, look.”
“She works here?”
“Looks like it. I don’t know why it’s empty right now, she said she was on vacation, but I assumed someone else would be taking her place. You know what this means, right?”
“She’s coming back.”
Nora nods, a grin spreading out fast and furious. “We aren’t waiting indefinitely for whoever, we’re waiting for someone we know is coming.”
The odds are in their favor this time. She can hardly believe how lucky they’ve gotten to stumble across the same spot her friend works in. The very person she came here to see. It makes her look at everything here differently now, knowing it belongs to Gwen and not some faceless worker.
She slept here in this bed. She ate the food in that pantry, used these computers, and then unknowingly left it all here for the two of them.
“How long did she say the vacation was?” he asks.
“Three weeks. Enough for the wedding and then a short honeymoon.”
“Well, we’re missing the wedding, that’s for sure.”
She raises a brow with a purse of her lips. “We’re the only guests. I think they’ll reschedule in favor of…I dunno….making sure we aren’t dead.”
“We’ll see. People get weird about weddings as if it’s more important than the marriage.”
“Gwen wouldn’t just get married while we’re missing. I know her, she isn’t like that.”
He holds his hands up in mock surrender, clearly disbelieving that this elopement won’t still go off without a hitch despite their unfortunate situation.
Nora hasn’t been keeping track of the days as much anymore, but they’re deep into this journey. It won’t be long before Gwen shows up again. Search or not, she can’t put off work to look for them indefinitely, and that eases her stress by a mile.
Until the radio down the hall begins sputtering to life behind the locked door.
Hello? Hello, is anyone out there? Mayday? Help? Someone, anyone, can you hear me? We need help. There are survivors here from the plane crash, please—
The sound cuts off, crackling to a dead stop with nothing but static left over as Nora and Theo push their ears to the door.
“From the crash,” she whispers. “The other half?”
“Has to be. Who else would be calling for help in the middle of nowhere, right?”
“We can’t leave,” she says, firmly. “No matter what, we stay here until someone finds us. Okay?”
“I’m not going out there. We’ve got everything we need. It would be suicide to hike out again.”
Gwen is coming back. They’ll be rescued within the week. If she gets her wish, that might be enough time to work through what’s holding her back when it comes to Theo, before the real world threatens to pull them apart.
Chapter 10
They’ve got their backs to the communications door, knees bent, and asses on cold ground, listening for new transmissions.
Twice more, the same voice and request have filtered through the radio with a description of their location, then it all goes silent again. Theo’s about to suggest they give up after hearing nothing for over an hour when it crackles to life with a different voice. More frightened and forthcoming.
Hello? Is anyone out there at all? The pilot, he was…we thought he was dead but then he wasn’t. He bit someone. Tried to…and we didn’t have a choice. Rabies, maybe? But that doesn’t make sense, does it? Out here? There were no wild animals. Nothing makes sense. The person he bit got sick, too, and now there are two less of us. Please send help. I’m not sure we can make it much longer.
