The captives on the ground strain to look up at me. Several of the women are crying.
Moisés throws his rifle over his shoulder and hauls me past the picnic tables. I stumble, struggling for each panicked breath. My feet drag the ground.
I grab a branch as Moisés pulls me by a thick clump of brush, and it skins my palm as it slides through my grip.
The brush rustles. A blur in dark pants and a familiar blue T-shirt lunges into the clearing.
My brother slams into Moisés’s shoulder. The gunman falls, pulling me down with him. The impact drives the air from my lungs.
Ryan reaches for me. Fear lines his forehead. Over his shoulder, I see another gunman take aim.
“No!” I shout.
The rifle thunders. Ryan stumbles forward.
Blood blooms on the front of his shirt like a rose opening in time lapse. He collapses onto his side, just out of my reach.
“Ryan!” My brother’s name scrapes my throat raw, but he doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even move. “Ryan, look at me!”
He’s still breathing, yet the pool of red beneath him keeps expanding.
One of the guerrillas races across the clearing, shouting, “Dame tu chaqueta.” He drops onto his knees next to Ryan,and when he looks up to take the jacket one of the other gunmen offers, I realize I know him.
Sebastián. From the bar in Cartagena. I don’t understand. I kissed him. Now he wears camo and holds an automatic rifle while he presses the jacket to my brother’s wound.
Sebastián’s focus settles on the pendant hanging from a chain around Ryan’s neck. His forehead furrows and his hands clench around the jacket. His eyes close, as if he’s praying.
Finally Sebastián stands and orders one of the other men to take over for him. “Maddie.” He meets my gaze.“Lo siento.”
My tears run over. “You’resorry? Do something!” I shout. Putting pressure on the wound isn’t enough. “Call someone who can help!”
Sebastián gestures to two men, who lift my brother, then carry him into an orange tent. I can’t see him.
“No! No, Ryan!” Desperate, I turn to Sebastián. “Bring him back!”
Sebastián shakes his head and gives me a somber look.
Moisés drags me away, and I scratch and flail and kick, but I may as well be fighting a concrete wall. I scream as the world collapses beneath me.
I scream as people stare at me, and point guns at me, and shout orders I can no longer hear.
And once I start screaming, I don’t know how to stop.
43.5 HOURS EARLIER
GENESIS
The gunshot echoes in my head and Ryan hits the ground. Shock hits me like a punch to the chest. “No!” I lurch toward my cousin. Rifles swing in my direction.
Indiana pulls me back and pins me against his chest. I feel his breath against my ear, but I can’t hear what he’s whispering.
Maddie shouts as she kicks and claws at the man trying to drag her away from her brother, but I can’t hear her either. I can’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears.
Indiana won’t let me go.
My hearing comes roaring back. Gunmen are shouting. People are crying. The tour guide’s little dog is barking so forcefully that her whole body shakes.
But Maddie ...
