Maddie starts screaming, and everyone else falls silent. Her voice is an earsplitting tide of grief and anguish as she fights to get to her brother.
The rest of the world slides out of focus as I stare at Ryan,willing his lungs to expand. Willing him to breathe.
Come on, Ryan.
The wound is too big. There’s too much blood.
This can’t be real.
Please, God, let this not be real.
Finally Ryan’s back rises, so slightly I’m not even sure of what I’m seeing.
“Julian!” Silvana grabs the shooter’s rifle and slams the butt into his nose. Blood bursts from Julian’s ruined face, and he howls until he starts choking on it.
“Ryan!” Maddie screams, but his name is half swallowed by sobs, and I can hardly see her through my own tears. “Call someone to help him!” she demands again, but Silvana only shrugs.
“There’s no point.”
“No!” Maddie’s legs fold, and Moisés has to hold her up. Two men carry Ryan into a tent.
Indiana lets me go, and I lurch toward my cousin. But then I stop, frozen. I know eight ways to take down an unarmed opponent, and three methods for disarming one. But I can’t take on this many armed men at once.
Maddie finally fights free. Moisés aims his rifle at her, but looks to Silvana for an order; after Julian’s nose, the guerrillas are afraid to act on their own.
Maddie keeps screaming and backing away from the gunman. Her voice is hoarse. Her eyes are wide and her hands are shaking.
Silvana nods to one of the gunmen. “Shoot her.”
“No!” Sebastián lunges for her, but I’m faster.
I push Maddie behind me and stare, breathless, at the rifle now aimed at my chest. “I’ve got her!” I shout, my pulse thundering in my ears. They can hear me because Maddie’s voice is almost gone. “She’s my cousin.” I reach back and grab her arm to keep her behind me. Out of the line of fire.
Silvana frowns, and I can see the order hanging from the tip of her tongue. She wants Maddie facedown on the ground, and nothing less than absolute obedience will satisfy her.
Sebastián steps between me and the gunman. “¡Deténganlas! ¡Las necesitamos!” he shouts at Silvana. Sweat breaks out on my forehead while I wait to see if his insistence that they need us will outweigh Silvana’s ego.
She scowls and aims a dismissive wave our way. The gunmen lower their rifles. Breath I didn’t realize I was holding explodes from my lungs.
Sebastián marches past Silvana and tugs Maddie out from behind me.
“Lo siento.”He points toward the tent where they took Ryan, and my grief swells. “An accident.” Then he turns back to Silvana. “Madalenavendrá con nosotros.”
“Fine,” Silvana snaps. “Madalena comes.” Then she addresses the rest of our group. “You have five minutes to gather food and supplies, but nothing that can be used as aweapon. Anyone who runs will be shot.” Her focus finds me, then slides to Maddie, who’s staring at the ground with an unfocused gaze. “Anyone.”
I hate Silvana with the fire of a thousand hells, and that isexactlywhat I will bring down on her before this is over.
I lead my cousin toward the tents with the others, escorted on both sides by armed men. As we pass the tent they put Ryan in, she reaches for the flap, still sobbing.
“Maddie!” I hiss as I pull on her arm. Silvana is already marching toward us, pistol drawn.
Indiana steps up on her other side, and we help her into her own tent.
Alone in mine, I dump my backpack, then quickly repack only the essentials. A change of clothes and my waterproof blanket. My remaining protein bars and packets of tuna. Bug repellent. My flashlight. Every bottle of water I can find. I roll up my sleeping bag and strap it to my bag, then step out of my tent.
Óscar rummages through my things and tosses out the flashlight, because it’s big enough to be used as a weapon. Which is exactly why I packed it.
“What are they going to do with us?” Penelope whispers from my left as she settles her backpack onto her shoulders.
