Page 69 of The Island

“I’ll wait for you.”

“No! You go ahead!” Heather insisted. “Just go.”

“No.”

She propped Owen up under his left arm. Petra supported him on the right. He was groggy and groaning. Heather wondered if he was going to die. People did die from heat exhaustion. To save them, you needed IV fluids and rest and proper medical care.

“Have you got him?” Petra asked.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go, then,” Petra said.

The boy was deadweight between them. And the tide was coming in fast now. They were dragging him through wet sand, making hardly any progress at all.

That kid with the rifle on the beach would be able to see them soon. If the shoreline had been a flat bay or a curve, he would have already spotted them. As it was, the little Mandelbrot inlets and headlands protected them.

For now.

But not for much longer. They maneuvered Owen over a low-hanging tree branch. His ankles got stuck and they had to stop and lift his feet over one by one.

It took forever.

Heather looked over her shoulder. No sign of the teenager following them, but they could hear the O’Neill clan coming toward them across the heath.

“What do we do?” Petra asked.

Heather knew she couldn’t reason with them. Not after what they’d done to Hans. They were capable of anything. They could do anything they wanted on their island. Eventually the police would come looking for the four of them. She had to pin all her hopes on that.

“Hide and stay alive as long as possible,” she said.

They got Owen through the trees, and there was Olivia, standing there, hands on hips, refusing to move. “I told you to keep going, didn’t I?” Heather snapped.

“I don’t want to go by myself!” Olivia wailed.

“Just go!”

“And leave my brother? I can’t.”

“They’re probably going to catch the three of us,” Heather said. “You can run ahead by yourself. You have a chance.”

Olivia shook her head.

“Just frigging go!” Heather insisted.

“You can’t tell me what to do! You’re not my mom,” Olivia said.

“That’s Owen’s line, Olivia. You need some of your own goddamn material. Come on, now, be a good girl and get the hell out of here!”

“And then what?”

“Just keep going as long as you can until dark. They’ll go back to the farm then. Especially if they have us.”

“Then what? If I do get away today, what am I supposed to do by myself?” Olivia said, sounding lost and bereft like the fourteen-year-old girl she was.

Heather forced her brain to function. Everything between her ears was like wet cement. What was Olivia supposed to do? What could she do by herself?

They carried Owen over another low tree branch. Heather looked behind her. Still no sign of the kid with the gun, but it wouldn’t be long now at the rate they were moving.