Page 103 of Wild Like Us

“A travesty,” Akara quips. “Do we need to bury her in a third hole?”

“Fuck off,” she curses, frustrated, and she collapses on her ass.

Akara and I stop joking around with Sulli, and we all take a break. Grouped together in the dark, we pass out the only snacks left in the hiking backpack.

Teddy Grahams and applesauce.

With sweaty, bloody clothes and dirtied hands, we eat together, and as I finish off a cup of applesauce, I look around at where we are, what we’re doing, and I start laughing.

Sulli puts a hand to my head. “Are you concussed?”

My chest rises in a bigger laugh. “I was just thinking about how we’re eating food that first belonged to a baby, digging graves with shovels meant for shitholes, and we’re in a meadow with a Meadows.”

Akara and Sulli flash their headlamps around the grassy clearing we chose. Sure enough, they realize we’re in an actual meadow. And they both start laughing with me.

“Shit,” Akara breathes into the light sound. “I needed that.” He touches the back of my head.

“It’s what I’m here for.” I swig my water that I wish were beer. “The Meadows-in-a-meadow jokes.”

Sulli sways into me like she means to slug my arm, but instead, she just leans her weight against my side. I wrap an arm over her shoulder.

Akara keeps a hand on her knee.

Laughter has faded, but resting among each other carries a solace and comfort that I’d rather not leave behind.

24

AKARA KITSUWON

After heavingthe cougars in the graves, we shovel dirt on top. Covering their bodies, I crouch down while Banks hangs his head and Sulli presses her fingers to her lips.

I touch the packed-in dirt.

It was you or us.

I’m sorry it had to be you.

After a quiet moment, I rise. Banks makes a sign of the cross, and Sulli exhales a deeper breath.

“Let’s go,” I tell them.

They nod and follow. We make our way back to camp. It’s late. We’re all filthy and cut-up. Most of my pain centralizes on the bite mark around my elbow. Stinging escalates whenever I shift my arm, but I wash the ache down with some over-the-counter pain meds.

Sulli is rigging a makeshift shower. A plastic sack, resembling an IV bag, is full of boiled water that’s been warming in the sun all day. She hooks the bag to a tree limb, but there’s only enough water for one warm shower.

Before the cougar attack, we talked about just washing off in the river.Nowthat’s not happening. I don’t trust how well we’ve bandaged our wounds, and wading in a river with open cuts isparasite-central.

So I grab a water bottle. “You take the shower, Sul.” Unscrewing the cap, I’m prepared to do a quick clean-off.

“No way.” She steals the bottle, then blocks Banks from grabbing one out of his backpack, a hand to his chest. “The temperature outside has dropped too much—you’ll both have popsicle dicks if you try to bathe with bottled water.”

My lips quirk into a smile.

Banks makes a noise that sounds like a deep laugh.

After this crazy night, I can’t believe we’re still able to find humor. I should probably go check my phone now that we’re back at camp with cell service. Running a security firm and a gym is a full-time gig, and the amount of missed calls, texts, and emails keep piling the longer I neglect them.

But nothing sounds better than being here. With her. With him. Painful parts of tonight will creep back when I leave.