Page 25

Troy

T he forest was eerily quiet. The only sound was my boots crunching over the frozen ground as I carefully walked through the dense trees.

I kept my focus sharp, marking my path as I went, dragging my gloved hand over rough bark, kicking over small stones, leaving a trail to find my way back.

I had been walking for hours.

Longer than I should have.

But I couldn’t stop.

Not when I needed answers. Not when I needed to know if there was a way out of this hell. Every step I took, my mind spun, thoughts spiraling faster than I could catch them.

Elena. Adrian. The future.

Did I even have one?

Would we even make it home?

And if we did…

What the hell was I going to do with the rest of my life?

Everything was different now.

The thought of returning to my old life and pretending to be the guy I had been before the crash was impossible .

I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to do it. My future had changed the moment I kissed Elena.

The moment I admitted what I wanted. She was it for me. And Adrian, too.

Not in the same way, but in a way that mattered just as much. I wasn’t going to walk away from this. From them. That meant making some hard choices.

Amanda.

I exhaled sharply, rubbing my hand down my face. I had avoided thinking about her, but I couldn’t anymore, not after last night.

Not after the way Elena looked at me, the way she felt in my arms, the way her trust in me had cracked something deep inside my chest.

Amanda deserved more than a half-hearted, going-through-the-motions relationship.

She deserved someone who actually wanted her. And that wasn’t me. It hadn’t been me for a long time.

When I got home, I was going to end it. No more pretending. No more lying. For the first time in years, I felt confident about something. That was Elena and Adrian and whatever the hell was between us.

I wasn’t letting it go. I wasn’t letting them go.

The trees finally thinned, and I stepped out onto the edge of a mountain cliff.

The view was breathtaking. Mountains stretched as far as the eye could see, endless waves of green and white and shadows.

But there was nothing else.

No roads. No smoke from chimneys. No sign of life at all. Just wild, unrelenting isolation.

I clenched my jaw, my stomach twisting.

We were so far from everything that we would never be found if no one had looked in the right place .

I pulled my phone from my pocket, turning it on for the first time since the crash.

I had left it off to preserve battery, convinced it was useless, that I wouldn’t have service this far into nowhere.

But now…

Now, I needed to try.

The screen flickered to life, and I stared at it as it loaded.

And then?—

My heart stopped.

One bar.

Then two.

Then—

Messages.

So many goddamn messages.

They flooded in all at once—missed calls, texts, and voicemails piling up so fast I could barely process them.

A broken laugh escaped me, a choked, disbelieving sound.

Service.

I had service.

I ignored everything and went straight to the only number that mattered.

Dad.

I hit dial.

It rang. And rang. And rang.

No answer.

A sharp sob ripped from my throat, the first one I had let go since the crash, my body curling in on itself as I gasped for breath.

The voicemail beeped, and I sucked in a shaking inhale before speaking.

“Dad.” The word broke, splintering on my tongue.

I swiped at my eyes, forcing myself to push through the tears and get the words out.

“I’m alive. Adrian is alive. Elena is alive.”

I swallowed thickly, my throat aching.

“Dean is dead. He died when the plane went down.”

I clenched my fists, trying to hold it together .

“Please, Dad. I-I don’t know where we are. It’s the mountains—God, I don’t even know what fucking mountains, but we’re running out of food and?—”

I let out a broken sob, my chest heaving.

“We’re running out of hope. Elena is hurt. She is wasting away. We’re trying to ration what food we have, but we won’t last another week if something doesn’t give. I’m trying to be positive, but it’s so fucking hard. Please, Dad. Please come find us.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, my breath shaking, my entire body trembling from more than just the cold.

“I love you. I’m so fucking sorry. Please. We’re out here.”

I ended the voicemail with a shaking hand.

Then, before I lost the signal, I snapped a photo of the view—proof of where we were—and hit send.

I watched the screen.

I watched the little sending message.

Watched as the signal flickered in and out.

And then?—

Sent.

I let out a shaky exhale, relief and terror clashing inside me. It had gone through. Hopefully.

For one last desperate attempt, I dialed 911.

The phone rang once?—

And then someone answered.

It was a garbled voice, cutting in and out with the fading signal.

I shouted into the phone, my voice hoarse with desperation.

“My name is Troy Drexler! I’m alive! I’m in the mountains! We need help! Please, God, come?—”

The line cut out.

Signal gone.

I screamed, the sound raw, my fist clenching around my phone, my entire body shaking with frustration.

“Fuck!”

I sat there for hours, staring at my screen, watching the bars disappear, waiting for something.

For it to come back.

For another chance.

But it never did.

It was my Hail Mary, like when I played football. All my Hail Marys worked—always. I prayed this one did, too.

The sun started dipping lower in the sky, turning the mountains gold and blue, and I knew I had to get back before nightfall.

I wasn’t giving up.

Tomorrow, I would try again.

Again, and again, and again.

I wasn’t going to stop until someone found us.

But for now…

For now, I needed to get back.

I needed to see her.

And Adrian.

I needed them to know there was still hope.

I looked at the mountains, squared my shoulders, and turned back toward the forest, turning my phone off to preserve the battery.

I was going home.