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"Thank you," I say to our savior, dipping my head in show of my heartfelt gratitude.

"Thank me when we live through this," he mutters, then pulls me behind him and out of the hellhole that's been my home the last week.

Halfway across camp, a confused yell cuts through the silence. Then another calls out, screaming in alarm. Pops of gunfire thunder through the peaceful, quiet night just as we step into the jungle.

"Get down," he shouts and shoves me to the dirt. My teeth jar at the impact of my hands and knees slamming against roots and the hard soil. The man stays standing to fire off a few rounds before hauling me back up and dragging me behind him. We make it ten steps when I stumble over a soft mass and fall to the ground.

A hand latches onto my bicep, yanking me back to my feet. But whatever I tripped over felt different than the other plants. Blindly searching through the debris of leaves and moist soil, my fingertips brush against something soft, covered in fabric.

"She must’ve fallen," I shout over the approaching shouts and gunfire.

"Get her up," he shouts back. "She’ll get us killed. We need to keep moving."

I wrap a hand around her shoulder, readying to shake her out of the shock which has surely paralyzed her like mine wants to do me. But my hands meet with something warm and slick. I snatch it back and look up to the man who’s firing off more and more rounds into the dark.

"She's shot."

"Fuck," he grits out, then slings his gun behind his back. Reaching down, he scoops her up and cradles her small frame against his chest. "Run. Go!"

I do.

But not nearly as fast as he moves through the dense underbrush. He doesn't seem to notice the bullets whizzing by so close that leaves and bark explode just a few feet from my head. But I notice. I notice it a lot. To keep moving, I focus every thought, all my energy on my legs, forcing them to keep moving instead of locking in place from fear.

Shit, I’ve lost him.

I pump my arms harder, faster, trying to catch up. Then I find him, just the silhouette stopped and turned toward me like he’s waiting when something wraps around my waist and hauls me back.

A panic-laced scream shoves from my lungs, cutting through the rapid gunfire.

"Which way’d they go?" the general’s second hisses into my ear.

None of the training Mac demanded I take snaps into place. Instead I claw and tear at the skin of the massive arm encircling my waist, but it does nothing. Think, Fate, think. But I can’t with my rising panic jumbling my thoughts. Until he advances forward, dragging me with him, toward the direction I last saw the man in black.

Mustering up what little courage I've gained this past week, I dig my heels into the ground and point in the opposite direction we're heading. "That way," I wheeze as loud as I can with his arm nearly cutting me in two. "They went that way."

Surprise overshadows panic when his arm loosens and I fall to the ground. A blip of hope spreads through me that he’ll let me go, or maybe I've somehow managed to cut a main artery with my ragged nails, causing him to slowly bleed out and that’s why he set me free.

But just my luck, neither are true.

One second I’m staring into the dark, planning my escape, and the next something smashes against the base of my skull, making everything go black.

**

LOUD CHATTER AND LAUGHTERnearby pounds in my eardrums, pulverizing my brain. I force my eyes open a sliver only to slam them shut again to block out the brutally bright sun. Since I can’t move just yet, I figure I might as well take a quick inventory of what I can feel.

I swallow but there’s nothing to soothe my dry throat. Darting my tongue along my lips, I find them dry and cracked. By the stinging pain, they’re probably cracked in several places at this point. And everything hurts.

But I have to look. I have to know.

Am I safe? Was it all worth it?

I roll to my back with a groan and then pause, waiting for my vision to stop sparkling behind my lids. With a deep breath in, I will my lids open enough to glance around a familiar shack. But I find it empty.

Just me.

Alone.

The cracks in my lips spread as a small smile moves up my cheeks and tears catch in my veil.