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I step farther back into the hut. I’ll simply have to wait this out.
I wring out my towel and shirt and lay them over the table. I drop my sodden shoes to the ground. At least this hut seems sturdy.
I walk to the cabinets in the back. Maybe the crew left something behind to eat. I’m ravenous after all the exercise. I step behind the counter in hopes of a forgotten cooler, and I see a huddled ball in the back. Another bag of trash? It’s not black, but grayish-white with blotches of red.
Another peal of thunder cracks, and I take a step forward as the light flashes in the shadows.
It’s definitely not garbage.
It’s Bailey, and she’s crying her eyes out.
15
BAILEY
This isn’t happening.
It can’t be.
No, no, no, no.
The floor is hard beneath my soaked body. My cover-up clings to me like wet tissue. I’m cold, somehow, even though the air is muggy. I’m leaning against a rough, unfinished cabinet, and I might have a splinter in my cheek.
But worst of all, everyone left me.
Bailey Johansson, the colossal fraud who sneaked onto the boat, is getting her due. She’s alone in a storm on an island with no electricity, no cell signal, no way to contact anyone to come back for her.
I picture myself trying to be Tom Hanks inCastaway, befriending a—well, there’s not even a volleyball here. A kayak? A coconut? Are there coconuts here? Could Ieatthe coconut if it became my friend?
A tremendous gust of wind rattles the shack, and I can’t help it. I scream.
It feels good, so I scream again at the top of my lungs, like I’m the wind itself.
Then arms are around me. Strong, comforting arms. They lift me off the floor like I’m nothing.
I think this is it. The hut came tumbling down, and I’m dead. This is Jesus, or an angel, or my long-gone grandma here to fetch me for the afterlife. I’ve become light as a feather, my dumb ol’ body gone.
But then a flash of lightning reveals the truth.
It’s the devil, and I’m on my way to hell.
Rhett Armstrong.
I kick and twist to get away from him. “Let me down!”
His grip gets tighter, so I lean close to his ear and scream as loud as I did when I thought I was alone.
He drops me like a hot skillet.
I stumble, grabbing at the counter to avoid falling. Then I’m up and standing and reaching on tiptoes to get in his face. “What the hell happened?”
The wind rattles the building again, but I’m too mad to scream.
Rhett shakes his head. “I don’t know. I got here after you.”
I pound my fists on his chest. “They left us! We were fighting, and they left us! This is your fault for yelling at me for half an hour!”
“You would have been off making your castle even if I hadn’t come along.”
