The pain is so overwhelming, my vision dims, and I fear I’m about to pass out.
“What else can I do?” she asks, her voice soft and emotional.
I shake my head tersely. “Nothing. You’re doing everything, baby. Thank you.”
She nods and looks up at the sky. “We should find somewhere to sleep. You’re done for the day,” Courtney says, looking around now, assessing our surroundings.
I shake my head and attempt to sit up. “We should keep going, we still have another hour or so of sunlight.”
She levels me with a look that screams I must be joking, and for once, I concede because I can’t fathom attempting to walk right now.
I point to where the rock face of a mountain overhangs the path just up ahead, and she turns to look at it. “There. It’s close. If it rains, we’ll be decently covered and we won’t lose our path.”
Courtney nods. “Sounds good. I kinda made us at home here anyway,” she says, looking around at our scattered supplies.
I chuckle, then wince as it shakes my body.
She steps carefully towards the overhang, her gaze scouring the ground.
“What are you looking for?” I ask.
“More traps or anything else that could seriously ruin either of our days.”
“Good call. I found one over here,” I say sarcastically, jabbing my thumb at the bloodied trap beside my leg.
Courtney scoffs. “Yeah, thanks for the heads-up. You could have just pointed it out. You didn’t need to go all dramatic for attention and sacrifice yourself.”
A small smirk pulls at my face as she walks back to me.When she steps behind me and slips her arms under mine, I’m confused at first. “What are you doing?”
“Dragging you. You’re way too heavy for me to carry, and you can’t walk, or at least you shouldn’t until you absolutely have to.”
She pulls on my body, and it takes her a moment or two before I move. Soon, she has momentum, though, and she’s able to drag me all the way over to our temporary home for the night.
“Phew. After that workout, I think it’s safe to say I don’t have to go to the gym for, what, three, four weeks at least?” she pants.
“If we make it out of this, you don’t have to go for the rest of your life.”
“We will. There is no if. We will not lose this fucking challenge,” she says with a confident nod.
I mirror it and give her an encouraging smile as she begins gathering up all our materials and stuffing them back into our bags. I wish I shared her confidence. Twenty minutes ago, I did. Now, things have changed. I’m dead weight, and this challenge just got a whole lot fucking harder.
Chapter Forty
Courtney
Istayed up all night tending to the fire. Landon walked me through how to build it, and thankfully, one of the backpacks had a lighter in it, so that made the whole thing a little easier. It got surprisingly cold once the sun set, and I was too scared of the fire going out to sleep and that Landon wouldn’t wake up if I fell asleep.
I’m not a nurse or anything—I work the front desk at a hospital part-time. I know enough, though, that if we don’t get something to sterilize his leg, he’s likely to pick up a seriously nasty infection out here. Bright side, we’re over halfway to where our key is marked on the map. Dark side, with a forest no doubt filled with booby traps and two selfish psychos who are ready to kill us to win, we might not make it to the key anyway. So, really, who cares about a little infection in the grand scheme of things?
Once the sun begins to rise, I turn to wake Landon. I can’t help but stare at him for a moment. I want nothing more than to be off this godforsaken island, but I can’t regret meeting him. My entire life, I’ve only been focused on Lily. There was never room for anyone else. With him, though… I see more for all of us.
Landon must feel my gaze because he blinks up at me blearily as he tries to gain his bearings.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Nothing. The sun is up. We should get moving,” I say and pull the fleece blanket off us, packing it back into the backpack. That was like a holy-grail item when I found it.
Landon pushes himself to sit up, wincing when he has to move his leg to do so.
