“They’ve seen us.”
“Yeah,” muttered Red, still taking everything in his stride. “But I can’t imagine they’re going to follow and it’s a long walk round the other way.” He was right; the natives would have to go out of the temple and up the cliffs to find us. By which time we would be long gone.
Hopefully.
As we emerged out of the shaft into the jungle, I climbed off of Red’s back, and he looked about him. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at the top of his voice, “Sixty-nine!”
It hardly seemed the time but he was answered moments later by another shout.
“Double X!”
The voice was that of Drake and my heart leapt.
“You still got my watch?” asked Red.
I gave it back to him and he checked our bearings. “Come on. They know where we’re heading. They’ll meet us.”
Chapter 10
We ran through the jungle as fast as this challenging terrain would allow, trying to avoid rocks, ferns and massive tree roots that hampered our every step. The natives would be a lot quicker than us through this, having spent a lifetime in such surroundings, our only advantage was our head start.
“Red!”
I jumped in fright and then beamed in delight as Campbell and Drake ran from the close trees through the gathering dusk towards us.
“Alright?” asked Red.
“Good. You?”
“Fine.”
“Got the jewel?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go.”
That was it for pleasantries. Confirmation that no one was hurt and that we had gotten what we came for, now it was time to run.
“They’re coming.” Drake was bringing up the rear, keeping an ear and an eye out for our pursuers.
Night had fallen but I wasn’t sure to whose advantage this was. It would help us hide but would hinder us from finding the wildlife reserve that was our target. It would make it harder for the natives to find us but they were used to living out here and could probably search by night better than we could hide by it.
“Keep moving,” instructed Campbell.
I’d never run like it before and was surprised to find how tired I wasn’t. Whether it was fear or adrenalin that kept me going, that kept exhaustion at bay, I did not know. Perhaps it was something else entirely, because inside me, behind the terror, masking the tiredness, was excitement. Perhaps I was still struggling to take all this seriously, to believe that it was really happening, but I couldn’t help finding the whole thing thrilling. That excitement, as much as anything, kept me going, the fact that there was a part of me that was actually enjoying this.
A gunshot rang out, dragging my exhilaration back down to a very real place.
“LeSoeur’s men are with them,” confirmed Drake.
“Do you guys have guns?” asked Red.
“How would we have guns?”
“Just something I heard.”
Another gunshot and the sound of the bullet smacking into a tree trunk not far from us. Night was now definitely to our advantage.
“How far to the reserve?” I asked.
“No idea,” admitted Campbell. “But we’re going the right way. We’ll hit it eventually.”
“Or they’ll hit us.”
“That’s the spirit.”
What no one was saying, and what I didn’t want to think about, was the fact that the reserve offered no protection whatsoever. They didn’t have weapons, they didn’t have guards, they didn’t have walls or fences – it was a wildlife reserve, not a prison. All it offered was a possible link to the outside world, a possible way out. But there was nothing to stop or even slow the natives and LeSoeur.
A cry from behind made me turn and I saw two men – the faster native scouts leading the charge – jump out at Drake.
“Keep running,” Campbell instructed firmly, and again I did as I was told, but could not stop myself from looking back to see Drake catching one man in mid-air and hurling him back at his compatriot. He wouldn’t kill any of these guys, but Drake didn’t go easy on anyone.
“There!” Red yelled from up ahead. Through the thick trees, lights had started to emerge, coming and going as the vegetation blocked them.
A few minutes later, we burst through the tree line and found ourselves on the edge of a small runway belonging to the reserve. A plane, that looked as if it had been built in someone’s back yard, stood at one end of the strip of ragged grass, illuminated by hesitant lights.
“No time to ask permission,” said Campbell, a man who liked to justify these things, even if it was just to himself. “Come on.”
As we reached the plane, Drake caught up with us, wrenching the door open as the natives spilled out of the jungle.
“Get in,” Campbell urged me, and I tumbled into the cramped back of the little plane.
“Do you know how to fly this thing?”
“How hard can it be?”
Now, LeSoeur’s men joined the natives and more shots rang out, hitting the plane and making it less air-worthy than it had already been.
The door slammed shut.
“Everyone ready? Hang on to something.”
The plane juddered into life with a sound like a lawnmower engine and began to rattle its way down the runway.
“Don’t you need to be going faster than this?” asked Drake.
“The throttle’s stuck,” Campbell replied.
“I only ask because there doesn’t seem to be much room for error, given where the trees are.”
At the far end of the runway the jungle started again, thick and impenetrable. If we did not get the necessary height to clear it then we were crashing as soon as we’d taken off. And if we managed to survive that then the natives would be on us seconds later.
“There she goes,” murmured Campbell as the plane’s speed increased.
“Too late,” growled Drake.
“Damn it all.” Campbell hauled the plane’s steering column about, so it executed a shuddering U-turn just before the end of the landing strip and headed back the way it had come, towards the approaching natives. More gunshots echoed and the plane’s windscreen cracked.
“At least it didn’t shatter,” said Campbell, ever the optimist.
“Are they getting out of our way?” I asked, staring at the sea of angry locals running towards us.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
Just before we hit the natives, the plane gave a cough and rose into the air. We soared a bare foot above the heads of our pursuers, gunshots peppering the belly of the plane and making me scream as we climbed higher, describing an arc about the airfield.
Red opened the door and leaned out. “Don’t worry! We’ll bring it back when we’re done!”
Chapter 11
Drake held the jewel between thumb and forefinger, admiring it with wide eyes. “That is something. I mean, that is really something.”
I wouldn’t have credited Drake as being a man who admired pretty jewelry, but he was the one of the three who seemed to have the most hidden depths to explore.
He handed the jewel back to Red. “Well done.”
“Couldn’t have done it without Jane.”
I smiled and blushed as the two men turned appreciative smiles on me.
“You’ve been a trooper tonight,” said Drake. “There aren’t many women that would have come through all that the way you did. You’re really something.”
Which seemed to be his way of saying sorry for his earlier antipathy towards me. Given it was also how he had described the jewel, I felt that was a pretty great compliment and I smiled at Drake. I felt that he was looking at me differently now. I was more than just a burden who had to be taken care of whether they liked it or not. I might not exactly be part of the team yet, but I had my uses and I had proved myself.
Maybe there was something more there, too. His gaze lingered on me when he thought I wasn’t looking. At first I thought he might be attracted to me �
�� not to be arrogant, but men do find me attractive from time to time – and maybe there was a hint of that. But there was something more, too. Something that went deeper. The depths of Drake were something I had yet to discover and I wondered if I would get the chance.
“What now?” I asked.
“Now we head for the mainland,” said Campbell from the pilot’s seat. “Then we make contact with our organization, and get picked up.”
“Sounds easy,” I said, noticing that, though the words made it sound easy, Campbell’s tone did not.
“It would be,” agreed Campbell, “except I think I’ve figured out why this plane wasn’t locked up in a hanger or something.”
“Why?”
“We’re losing fuel at an alarming rate.”
“Maybe one of LeSoeur’s men shot through the gas tank.”
Campbell shook his head. “Then we’d be dead at an alarming rate. No, I think this was a pre-existing issue. Although the bullet holes aren’t exactly helping our airspeed.”
“Do we have enough fuel to get where we’re going?” I asked, nervously.
“Possibly. There’re a lot of imponderables.”
“Such as?”
“Well,” Campbell sighed, “firstly; I don’t know at what rate we’re losing fuel so I can’t really tell how far we can get. Secondly; although the compass is working fine, very few of the other instruments are. Thirdly; I don’t know exactly where we’re going, which will likely become an issue at some point.”
“At some point?”
Campbell shrugged. “We’re heading the right way. I think – it’s very dark out. As long as we reach land then what land it is doesn’t matter all that much. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to do then you might see if there are any parachutes aboard.”
There weren’t.
By the time we hit land, the sun was rising and we were flying on fumes, which I had not even thought was possible. Unfortunately…
“Nothing but mountains,” grimaced Campbell as he stared from the window. “No chance of a safe landing there.”
“How much longer do we have?” asked Drake.
“About ten minutes ago I’d have said we’ve got five minutes left. I stand by that.”
“What the hell do we do?” The fizzy excitement that had kept me going in the jungle seemed a long time ago now. Now I was just scared.
“Unsafe landing,” said Campbell. “It’s either that or crash landing.”
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
“One is by choice, the other is inevitable. I say it’s good to keep control of your life and make the choices.”
Red spoke up. “The dial says we’re out of gas, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“But we’re still going, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“None of the other dials work right, yeah?”
“Very few of them, yeah.”
“So how do we know the fuel dial isn’t broken and we’ve actually got plenty of gas?”
“Is that a chance you want to take?”
The engine gave an unpleasant cough like the death rattle of a victim of consumption.
“I vote for the unsafe landing,” said Red.
It wasn’t really a vote. It wasn’t really a choice. It was just the only option we had left.
Campbell angled the plane’s nose downwards towards the unforgiving rocks, crags and gullies of the mountain range, desperately scanning for somewhere a little bit flat.
“Yell if you see something.”
We all rushed to the windows, looking out for anywhere that looked slightly less hostile.
The engine coughed again, making the little plane lurch.
“Ah,” said Campbell, matter of factly. “I no longer have control. Well, I guess here’s as good as anywhere. Buckle up.”
With only the plane’s momentum powering it, Campbell coaxed us down towards the rocky landscape. Red got into the co-pilot’s seat while Drake and I strapped ourselves into the two seats in the back.
“Hang on,” said Campbell. He really needn’t have bothered.
When I came to, there was a ringing in my ears and the world seemed to have been turned upside down. I blinked a couple of times and found that the world was not upside down, I was. The plane had come to rest on its back and we were all suspended from our upside down seats by our seatbelts.
“Hello?” I asked, hopefully.
“Jane?” There was a click as Campbell unbuckled himself from his seat. He instantly fell to the floor – which was actually the ceiling. He stood up, rubbing his head. “Didn’t think that one through. Red?”
“I’m good.”
“There’s blood on your face.”
“Isn’t there always.”
“Drake… Drake?!” I followed Campbell’s gaze to where Drake should have been suspended next to me, but his seat was empty and the straps of his seatbelt hung in tatters.
“Drake?!” I cried in panic.
A low groan issued from a heap on the floor, and in amongst the detritus of the plane that had all tumbled together, I could see something moving. Campbell hurried to his friend as Red released himself and came to help me.
“You alright?” he asked solicitously, though his own face was covered with blood, flowing from a gash in his forehead.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got a face that suits a few scars.”
“What about Drake?”
Once Red had helped me down, he too went to dig Drake out.
“Drake, can you hear me?” asked Campbell. The happy-go-lucky tone with which the guys seemed to treat every adventure was gone now in genuine concern.
“Wuh hi’ me?” murmured Drake thickly.
“A mountain,” replied Red.
“Lemme at it. I c’n tae the fucker.”
Drake blinked his beautiful blue eyes and stared at his friends. “Red, you’ve got red on you.”
Red wiped some of the blood from his face. “Everyone’s hung up on that.”
“Can you remember why we’re in the mountains all wearing shorts?” asked Campbell.
“LeSoeur. The jewel. Escaped by plane.”
“Do you remember this nice young lady in the bikini?”
Drake smiled. “Who could forget?” His eyes focused on me. “We just had a plane crash, how come you still look amazing?”
“It’s a gift,” I acknowledged.
Drake shook his head. “I’m okay, guys. My head’s in one piece and all the bits of my brain are there.”
“But?” Campbell knew his friend well enough to know what was coming.
“There’s a lot of pain in my left ankle.”
“Broken?”
“Or a bad sprain.”
“Let’s get you out of here.”
Red and Campbell lifted their bulky friend and I cleared the way for them to carry him out into the cool air of the mountains.
“Jane, see if you can find any blankets, extra clothes, anything in the plane,” instructed Campbell.
I hurried back in and was delighted to find emergency crash kits, which included not just blankets and extra clothes, but food, water and flare guns.
“Well done,” said Campbell, as if I had packed them.
“What now?” I asked.
“Now we walk,” said Drake, determinedly. He stood up, his face turned green and the suppressed gratings of a scream found their way through his tightly gritted teeth.
“Hurts, does it?” asked Red.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” lied Drake. He took a step forward and suppressed another cry, looking like he might pass out from the pain.
“I’m not sure you’re up to mountaineering,” said Campbell.
Drake sank back to the ground, relief spreading across his handsome face. “You might be right.”
A scout of the area, made by Red, revealed a cave that would serve as a good place to build a fire so Drake could rest in comparative comfort
.
“Right,” said Campbell, turning to me. “I guess you know what happens now.”
“You guys go for help and I stay with Drake.”
Campbell nodded. “He can be a pain in the ass at times but, just kick him in the ankle if he gives you any trouble.”
“I heard that.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said, confidently.
“And we’ll be as quick as we can.”
For the second time in as many days, I waved goodbye to two of the guys as they headed off into uncertain territory. My life had changed a lot recently. This time was somewhat different, though. When I had said goodbye to Campbell and Drake, I had sort of been relying on Red to look after me – that was what he was there for. This time, though I was sure Drake would be doing everything he could, I was there to look after him. I was relatively comfortable with the basics, but what if something untoward happened?
When I went back into the cave, Drake was using his knife – all the guys seemed to have knives, though I was not one hundred percent sure where they kept them – to shape a tree branch into a rudimentary crutch.
“What do you think?”
“Nice crutch.”
He shrugged. “That’s what all the girls say to me.”
When he had been a bit dozy and dopey in the plane, directly following the crash, he had been a bit less guarded in the way he had spoken to me. He had even gone so far as to say I looked amazing – which is what a girl stranded on a mountain wearing little more than a bikini and sarong needs to hear. Since he had gotten his mind back under his control, then he had retreated into his more guarded self. I wondered which reflected his feelings. Would he have made nice comments about any reasonably attractive girl in the room, just because he had taken a whack to the head? Or did those comments reflect an underlying attraction that he suppressed because of our situation, because I had hooked up with his friends, or because that was just how Drake was? Some men are like that, you have to use a crowbar to get at their feelings. Drake struck me as being such a man. Which didn’t mean that he definitely had a thing for me but…
Her Shadow Harem: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 8