If I don’t try…I’m dead. So I bring my hands out in front of me and ram my elbow into Corey’s gut. The strike is ineffective at best, but he plays it up, doubling over and crashing to his knees.
Spinning around, fighting off the lingering dizziness from the meds and my overwhelming terror, I take off a run back the way we came.
Behind me, Arturo and Martín shout, but with how loud the storm is all around me, I can’t hear what they’re saying, and I fight my urge to look back, to see how close they are.
My boots slip on the rocks, and with my hands tied, my balance is off. I crash against the side of the cliff, but miraculously don’t go down.
Keep going. Faster!
My legs start to burn, and the first wheezes and whispers of panic spread out from my chest.
Just. Breathe. If you don’t, you’re dead.
I repeat my new mantra over and over again, and for maybe a minute, it seems to work. But then rocks explode just in front of me, and a tiny shard slices my cheek. It isn’t until it happens again that I realize what it is. They’re shooting at me.
Blinding light sears my eyes, and a crack of thunder directly overhead makes me yelp. My left foot lands on a loose rock, and pain rockets from my ankle up my lower leg as I start to fall. Too afraid to think straight, I overcompensate and stumble across the narrow path.
No! I’m too close to the edge of the cliff, and I grab for something—anything—as I hit the ground and my head, shoulders, and chest dangle over the precipice. My arms are pinned under me, rocks digging into my hands, and I try to wriggle backwards, but I’m slipping by inches.
All I can see below me are spindly tree branches growing out of the nearly vertical cliff face, and a small, narrow ledge so far away, if I hit it, I’m sure I’ll die.
And then a hand grabs my ankle. “Bitch,” Arturo growls. “Guess I got what I wanted after all.”
I don’t understand what he means until he shoves me off the edge. Time shifts, moving so slowly, the tree branches come into perfect focus as I fall. I hit one, then another and another. I try to grab for them and snag my bound wrists for a split second until the branch breaks under my weight. The narrow outcropping rushes up to meet me, and my shoulder, hip, and head explode in pain.
My throat closes up, cutting off my scream, and I can’t move. Can’t think. Can’t do anything but fight to breathe until the darkness takes me.
Chapter Nine
Mikayla
I’m choking. Can’t get enough air. Every part of my body hurts. My head most of all. And my hip. Something sharp jabs into my skin, and after a few seconds, I realize I’m lying on my inhaler. I can feel it. Corey must have put it in my pocket after he dosed me back at the grow site.
Rolling over takes the last bit of energy I can muster. It’s so cold. My clothes are soaked through, and the rain… Water pours down from the top of the cliff above. I can hear it, feel it splatter against my back. If I hadn’t been lying on my side, I’d be dead already. Drowned by the runoff. The ledge is so narrow, barely six feet deep, and a stronger deluge pushes me closer to the edge, but I brace my feet against a rock jutting up from the uneven ground and manage to reclaim the few inches I lost.
Darkness surrounds me, and until a bolt of lightning brightens the sky in the distance, I don’t process that I must have been down here at least two hours already. It was still light when Arturo threw me off the cliff. They haven’t come back for me. Do they think I’m dead?
Inhaler. Focus on the inhaler.
It’s my only chance to live through the night. I can feel my throat closing up, and it’s like someone’s winding ropes around my torso, tighter and tighter. The sharp pain in my hip intensifies as I wedge my bound hands into my pocket and fumble for the medicine.
The mouthpiece is cracked, and as I pull it free, a thin whimper escapes my lips. The piece of plastic is embedded in my hip, and it burns. I can feel the blood coating my fingers, but the rain washes it away quickly.
If I can stop this attack, I can take stock of the rest of me. Not until then.
My whole focus is on breathing out…just a little. My hands shake as I wrap my lips around the busted plastic, and my fingers almost slip off the inhaler twice before I get a good enough grip. The metallic taste fills my mouth, and I concentrate hard on drawing in just a little. Enough to take a second hit.
But when I try for another dose, nothing happens. It’s empty.
No! Not now!
I’m so cold. My teeth chatter violently, and my entire body shivers, which only makes everything hurt more. I don’t think I have the strength—or even the will—to move again. No one will ever find me here. Halfway down a cliff in the middle of nowhere? It’s well after five now. Li’s probably panicking and blaming herself. She won’t come out here. Not in this storm. Not alone. At least she’ll be safe. She and Isaiah.
Unless Corey tells Arturo and Martín about them. Unless they decide we all need to die.
My parents…my friends…they’ll never know what happened to me. And Austin. This was supposed to be our tomorrow. Our chance to talk about all the things he wouldn’t say last night. To figure out if we had something worth fighting for.
Now we’ll never know. I’ll never feel his lips on mine again. His arm around me. I’d give anything to see him again. To be able to tell my parents I love them. To have a chance at living another day.
