The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

Tony started pacing a wide oval path between me and Gabby. Couldn’t he be still for a minute? He slapped orange-and-blue-striped palm fronds out of his way. “Everything in science has an explanation. We just have to figure out how we ended up here.”

  Lifting her hands to her colorful ponytails, Gabby started fixing the loose ones. She passed me one of her stretchy loops. “You need this.”

  “Thanks.” It took a few twists to pull my thick length of hair back. At least now it wasn’t swinging around, swatting me in the face any more.

  Gabby started in on Tony again. “That’s the thing about you science types. So locked into a narrow way of thinking. You just can’t wrap your mind around the possibility that all things do not have a tidy scientific answer.”

  I couldn’t accept everything that had happened today too easily myself, but we had bigger problems to worry about. My mind had been stingy with memories, but now wanted to make it up to me by raising one survival concern after another. “Since we have no idea how long we’ll be stuck here, we need a plan to find water and food. And to figure out what’s poisonous or not.”

  Gabby’s eyes lit up. “Since Tony clearly doesn’t trust our judgment, he can taste everything first.”

  “Very funny,” Tony grumbled, still beating a circular path.

  One look at where we’d just come tearing through the weeds and bushes introduced a new problem. The vegetation had already started growing back as I watched, which meant moving around would only get us lost when the path covered over, even if I left markers.

  When Tony passed a bush with yellow and orange flowers, he flipped his hand at one, scattering petals everywhere.

  Gabby shoved a disgusted look at him. “I don’t know what your problem is but I bet I can’t pronounce it.”

  The squinty glare he shot back at her said he hadn’t found that funny, but he did avoid touching the next vine he passed that supported a bright pink flower the size of his face.

  I leaned my head back, searching above us for fruit in the trees, but saw nothing obvious. If we didn’t recognize something edible soon, what were we going to eat?

  When I brought my chin back down, Tony had paused, standing with his arms crossed next to another huge pink blossom. This one had brilliant green spots.

  And petals that moved in and out as if...breathing?

  I rubbed my eyes. That couldn’t be. Right?

  Had to be the wind causing the movement, but I didn’t feel a breeze stirring the thick air.

  I would have dismissed the flower, but I noticed Gabby studying one just like it next to Tony’s left knee.

  “We need a plan,” Tony said, unfolding his arms and slapping the phone against his thigh in a rhythmic tap.

  Hadn’t I just said that?

  That brought Gabby’s attention back up with a sharp chin lift. “How are we supposed to come up with a plan when we have no information to go on?”

  Tony swung his arms out. “I don’t know. Maybe we start with finding something we can use for weapons.”

  Strange as this seemed, I was about to say he had a valid point. Tony swung his hand that held his phone out and back toward his thigh at the moment I realized that flower really was drawing a breath.

  I yelled, “look out,” but the pink petals lunged up, sucking tight around Tony’s hand and arm before he had a chance to react.

  Everything happened in a burst of seconds.

  Fast as a coiled snake, a tendril of the vine lashed out from beneath the flower and raced around the wrist that Tony frantically tried to jerk free.

  Tony shouted, “What the–”

  I dove for him, but landed in an empty space as the vine snatched him off his feet and slithered away, dragging Tony deeper into the jungle. He made garbled noises.

  “Grab him,” I shouted at Gabby, who had the best shot at getting to Tony before he passed her and disappeared.

  She hadn’t looked overly athletic until she lunged for him and managed to barely snag his ankles.

  I jumped up and raced after both of them.

  “Raaayen!” Gabby yelled, flopping behind Tony as his body cut through vegetation slapping right and left like a shark ripping through water.

  Picking up speed, I caught glimpses of Gabby’s hair flying behind her and her face plowing up silvery dirt. Her body acted as dead weight to slow the momentum of the slithering vine, but not by much.

  I pushed harder to get ahead of both of them, leaping over fallen trees and dodging wide bushes as I passed Gabby. Humidity soaked my clothes and sweat ran down my back.

  Whipping around a tree, the vine seemed to slow for a second.

  I saw my opening and threw myself toward Tony and grabbed at his free arm. Got it. Now Gabby and I could both be anchors. Maybe the vine would hit a spot it couldn’t pull all three of us through.

  Sounded good. Wasn’t. We were getting beat to pieces and, even with my ankle restraint gouging a deep furrow through feather-fine soil and decomposing leaves, nothing slowed us down.

  If anything, the vine started moving faster.

  “Don’t let go!” I yelled.

  My last words hadn’t been necessary.

  Fuzzy brown tendrils snaked up from the main vine and circled down Tony’s body to snag Gabby around her wrist. They were lashed together as if one elongated body.

  A second tendril whipped around Tony’s arm until it reached my wrist.

  Let go and risk being able to catch up again? Or–?

  There wasn’t enough time to think it through as the sticky brown length wrapped and triple lashed my wrist to Tony’s arm.

  Terror rode through Gabby and Tony’s faces.

  I couldn’t be distracted when I had to find a way to free us.

  Like fragile tails tied to a windborne kite, we swept across the jungle floor, bouncing up and down, banging back and forth, being thwacked against plants, small trees and leaves with prickly thorns.

  At last, the vine started to slow.

  I raised my head, gritting my teeth against the burning pain of being dragged over uneven ground. I spied a wide-girthed tree ahead, larger than any others nearby. One so big that little grew anywhere in the immediate area except for a huge bush with jagged leaves at the tree’s base.

  Dark, oozing, orange spots and bumpy shapes dotted the weathered tree bark, some looking uncannily like faces. Small faces.

  But the tree wasn’t the biggest threat. The bush surrounding its base sported another pink blossom, like the one that had attacked Tony. Only this flower was massive. The petals were wider than my shoulders. They sucked in and fanned out in a breathing motion. The center area had what looked like a pile of black sticks...that started spreading.

  The sticks moved until they lined the opening like teeth, sharp and clicking when the mouth of the plant snapped closed then opened again.

  “Tony, watch–” The words choked in my throat when a vine branch curled around my neck, tightening.

  “Hellllpppp!” Tony’s frantic plea came out muffled as another vine wrapped his head, turban style, covering his eyes and nose.

  I’d hit my limit of being knocked around and attacked.

  Anger shot through me and sent strength to my tight muscles.

  Energy started building in my chest, wicking its way up through my arms and down through my legs. Everything slowed. Sounds dulled. I could feel each beat of my heart thrum in my ears.

  Then that energy exploded inside me, boiling my blood, hotter and hotter, until my mind and body moved with the speed of a lightning strike.

  Purely on instinct, I swung my only free hand in a slashing chop toward the vine branch that was shutting off my air supply. My one thought, cut, cut, cut.

  And I did. I lanced the tendrils as though my fingers were small knives, and air once again flowed into my lungs.

  I had no idea why that worked, but the vine dragging the three of us stopped moving forward. Instead, it began wrapping layer after layer around Gabby, Tony and me. Like a spider coco
oning its prey.

  I wrenched aching muscles, forcing myself to wiggle forward, past Tony and Gabby, struggling until I could yank each of my legs free to stand between them and the host bush. With everything I had in me, I stomped the vine with my foot, focusing on the word crush as I did.

  Nothing.

  Brown tendrils wrapped Tony’s mouth, leaving only his eyes void of any arrogance, just pleading silently for me to save him.

  Gabby gasped and wheezed.

  The vine was strangling her to death.

  I focused harder. I thought break as I shoved my heel down with a vicious blast on the vine.

  Again, nothing.

  One last effort. Squeezing my eyes until flashes of light burst in my head, I called up all the energy into one last thought.

  Kill.

  Then I heard it. The shuddering of live wood ripped asunder and an unearthly howl of pain. The bush screamed.

  CHAPTER 8

  My heart slammed my chest with every ear-splitting wail from the massive pink flower at the base of the tree.

  Had I killed Gabby and Tony by attacking the vine?

  The tension wrapping their bodies snapped.

  All at once, thick vines connecting them to the tree splintered as strips of the plant shriveled.

  I drew a breath and staggered over to reach down and grab them each by one hand, then I pulled, dragging them from the bindings still wrapped around their bodies. Uprooting one of these trees would be easier. Where had that wild energy gone? I still had adrenalin pulsing through me, but not that hot power. I yanked harder.

  Their bindings splintered this time, allowing me to drag them clear of the bush.

  Tony clawed his hands over his head until every last clinging stem remnant had disappeared, leaving cuts. His skin was flushed, his breathing heavy. He reached into his shirt, yanked out the metal disk and kissed it hard.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Saint C.” Tony eyed me. At my blank expression, he added, “You know. St. Christopher. Patron saint of travelers.”

  I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.

  Gabby fell over on the ground, hissing, cradling her wrists, which flushed bright red.

  Feeling lightheaded myself, I knelt beside her. “You okay?”

  She released her wrists, sat up and shoved hair off of her face, visibly shaken, but she took a breath and muttered, “I will be after I kill Tony.”

  “That thing attacked me,” Tony mumbled, the fight having gone out of him.

  “After you attacked another flower. Maybe it wanted to eat your phone.”

  “My phone?” Tony lifted his hand, realized he still had his phone and said, “Hallefreakinlujah.” Relief spread across his face until he frowned at Gabby. “What the heck are you talkin’ ‘bout the flower bein’ mad? It’s a plant.”

  “Everything in any world is alive,” Gabby said. “Just because you can’t make something fit into memory chips, processors and motherboards doesn’t mean it lacks value or survival instincts of its own. We have to be careful in this place.”

  “It was a freakin’ flower, for cryin’ out loud. Who woulda thought it’d try to eat me?”

  “You’ve got a point. I’d expect a plant to be more discriminating.” She rubbed the raw skin around her wrists.

  A leaf fell out of Gabby’s hair. She picked it up and shrugged to herself then gave up a half-hearted smile. She did look a year younger physically than I was, but she had the tough core of someone who’d fought her own battles for a long time. Whatever life she’d led had taught her how to adapt, because she’d been taking everything in stride better than Tony had so far.

  More than anything, this plant attack proved how much we needed each other. I hoped Tony realized that now. “Let’s call this progress on the learning curve and move on. No harm, no...” I almost had the word, but it vanished.

  “No foul?” Gabby smiled.

  “Yeah.” That sounded right, though I didn’t have a clue where the saying had come from. Another crumb from my brain.

  Tony muttered something in my direction that sounded like, “I’m gonna have to start callin’ you Xena after that.”

  Another name that meant nothing to me.

  Once Gabby reached her feet, she dusted off her ripped dress and asked me in the quiet voice of a conspirator, “What did you do to that vine?”

  Not a question I wanted to answer. Or could answer with any confidence.

  “Don’t know,” I admitted, and decided a lie would be better for now until I could figure a few things out for myself. Besides, that battle had drained me to the point it was hard to dredge up thoughts, much less words. Muscle fatigue from the inside out. “It all happened so fast. Everything’s a blur.”

  Though I had figured out something just now. Where I’d been out of my element in that school, there was something primitive here that called to my blood. Did my family live in a place similar to this? I didn’t think I’d ever seen anything like the vegetation or bats in this place, but I had a strong sense of having survived off the land at some point in my life.

  That I’d been expected to fight and protect. Or die.

  Gabby stared at me again with that deep look, as if trying to read everything I hadn’t said about getting away from the vine, but the sound of Tony thrashing away from us drew our attention.

  “Where you going?” she called to him then shot a questioning look at me as if I had a clue what that crazy Jersey Jerk was up to now.

  “Home,” Tony flung over his shoulder, steadily stomping deeper into the jungle, evidently trying to retrace the route the vine had dragged us.

  “There’s nothing back there,” I called out.

  Tony stopped as if pulled taut by an invisible wire. He turned partially to say, “Back in this direction is where the pod was. Might come again. Who knows? Gotta be better than dyin’ in this hole.”

  Now he sounded worse than terrified.

  He sounded defeated.

  I glanced at the quivering bush, the one that had nearly devoured the three of us. My gaze traveled up the towering trunk where I caught sight of the small faces I’d noticed before. One looking more and more like a sad child in the shadows of the dim forest light.

  Gabby’s gaze bounced between Tony and me, searching for an answer in a place that held none. “You think we should go with him?”

  “No.” I meant it. My gut told me the pod was dangerous. But then, standing around or going deeper into the jungle could be, too. I shook my head and admitted, “But splitting up isn’t an option either.”

  In the few seconds that I hesitated, leaves and branches started weaving across the path behind Tony. Once we left this place the chances of finding our way back here, or anywhere else, were dismal.

  We were stronger as a unit of three. We could survive this if we kept our heads. I believed that at a level deep enough that it drove me to compromise.

  I headed for what I could see of the path he left. “Let’s go, before we lose him.”

  “We don’t have that kind of luck,” Gabby grumbled close behind. “But I’m not jumping in again if he gets attacked because of stupidity.”

  “How long do you think that’ll be?” I asked, afraid we’d find out sooner rather than later.

  CHAPTER 9

  Someone’s got to admit we’re lost. Might as well be me.

  I paused to lean against a broad tree trunk and dropped my head back, feeling the wood squish around my head. But when I shoved the heel of my hand at it, I hit a rock-hard surface. Had the bark anticipated the strike? I wiped sweat out of my eyes and rubbed at my ankle cuff that caused a drag on each step. I might be in better shape than either of those two, but I was exhausted and thirsty. “This isn’t working. I don’t think we’re getting any closer to where we started out.”

  I’d hiked over mounds of gnarled roots, hacking bushes with unyielding branches using nothing more than my hands–minus the super power I’d fought the vine with�
�and was hungry enough to start gnawing on my own arm.

  Gabby slipped into a crouch. The chafed, reddened skin around her wrists hadn’t gotten any worse, but no better either. She chugged a harsh breath, her hair now wearing as many twigs as ribbons. “Maybe Rayen’s right.” She exhaled heavily, looking at Tony. “Not sure we’re making any progress going this way.”

  “What is it about girls? You always side with her. Ever think I might be the one who’s right?” Tony crowed. Or it would have been a crow if he hadn’t been as winded as the rest of us. He stood with his legs braced in a wide V, hands on his hips, his chest heaving.

  Gabby cocked her head, tapping a finger to her cheek. “Hasn’t got anything to do with gender, but let me think about it. You right? No. You called her Xena. Change your mind about her being a warrior princess?”

  “A crazy one,” he mumbled.

  If we didn’t find water soon, being right or wrong wouldn’t matter. Besides, Tony had lost some of his edge after that scrape with death. And to be honest, I couldn’t in good faith say that returning to the pod area was a bad idea.

  But we needed to hydrate.

  Could we find anything in this place that would be safe to drink?

  I’d worry about that when we found some liquid. With as much as we were sweating, dehydration was a given. I’d gotten more light-headed with each step and I was sure a small furry rodent had slept in my mouth for a week.

  “I’m not taking sides,” Gabby added. “Nor am I arguing with the logic of going back to the pod area, but I don’t think you know where you’re going and rushing forward isn’t safe.”

  Tony’s gaze turned hard as tempered steel for a few seconds, then remorse washed all that away. Something was driving him even beyond the basic desire we all had to return home. Some fear that hid inside his anxiety and shook beneath his words. “I haven’t figured out what the freak happened to get us here or where the freak here is, but I can’t be late checkin’ back in with Suarez this afternoon. I’ve got a lot on the line for this Top Ten Project. A lot.”

  “Like what?” Gabby asked, her voice holding no bite.

  Tony looked as though he would tell her the truth, but his gaze shifted from worried to arrogant, quickly shielding whatever vulnerability he wanted to keep hidden. He cracked his knuckles, burning off energy even when he was exhausted. “Unlike you two, I am going to MIT.”