The next morning I awoke to the sound of voices.
"Rise and shine." Someone said and a second later my cot shifted and I was dumped onto the floor.
"Ouch!" I gasped my hand immediately going to my injured wrist. I looked up, glaring at one of the guards who now towered over me.
"What do you want?" I snapped.
"Just was told to wake you. Wouldn't want to be late."
Be late. My heart sank as I remembered everything. Right. Lucas had said that he was taking me with him at dawn and as I glanced past the guard I could see that the first rays of sun were just barely peaking over the horizon. Show time.
For a minute I wondered if I could take the two guards, but then thought better of it. At twenty one years old I was still barely 5' 3" and I guessed that they were just itching for a chance to be violent.
"Want to give a girl some privacy?" I grumbled as I reached for my clothes.
"No." The guard by the door said and the first guard smiled pervertedly. Ew. Just as I was about to open my mouth though to make a retort, I heard another voice.
"Gentlemen, you heard the lady. Give her a moment."
The guards' heads spun around and I watched as Lucas strolled into the room. His walk was slow and lazy as if he had all the time in the world, but his posture was straight and I could tell that he was still very aware of his surroundings. Was that what happened when someone spent five years living alone in the jungle?
"You heard him." I snapped, turning to the guards. "Out!"
The first guard glared at me but then nodded to his partner and the two left, leaving Lucas and me alone.
He had already made himself comfortable, lounging on my bed with his hands folded casually in his lap as if he had no intention of leaving.
"You too." I said but Lucas just shook his head and smiled.
"What, did you think I was going to leave you all alone? Sorry, you're not getting out that easily."
I wasn't sure which was less appealing the idea of having the guards in here, or Lucas. I wondered for a moment if I could trick him into leaving, but I didn't even bother. I knew it wouldn't work and I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me beg.
"Fine." I said, reaching for my clothes. I studied them for a moment and glanced over my shoulder trying to ignore Lucas's smug grin, as if he was waiting for a show. He wanted a show? Alright, let's see what I could do.
I slipped the new shirt over my head and in one swift move tugged my arms out of the other one and pulled it off, not showing one bit of skin. The pants were a little harder but in a few minutes they were off too and I was fully dressed.
"Hmm." I said, glancing at myself appraisingly in the mirror. I was now wearing a dark v-neck tank top and a pair of cropped pants. I tugged my hair band off my wrist, gathered my hair into a ponytail and topped off the outfit with my favorite necklace: a dark blue gemstone in the shape of a raindrop. Then I turned back to Lucas. His smug look was gone.
"Ready to go?" I asked with an innocent smile. You win some you lose some, I thought. And it felt damn good to win against Lucas. Even if it was something as small as this.
He may have been able to control me in the past but those days were gone. I was no longer that same scared girl and I was ready and willing to show him how much I had changed since he left.
Unfortunately the blank look on Lucas's face only lasted for a moment and then his grin was back. The same one that made my stomach drop out every time. The one that told me that I hadn't won just yet.
He rolled off my bed and made his way over to me, only stopping when he was a breath away, just like yesterday. He stared at me for a moment and I forced myself to hold his gaze, challenging him. But then he did something that I was not expecting: he leaned down and kissed me.
The kiss was so brief that the only thing that kept me from wondering if I imagined it was the smirk on his face. For a moment I just stood there, too stunned to react. It felt as if someone had just shocked me and my body was left both buzzing and numb at the same time.
"Now I'm ready" he said with a smirk and his words snapped me out of my daze.
I blinked and suddenly all I could feel was anger. I brought back my hand, winding up to smack him, but before I could make contact he caught my wrist. I gasped and tugged back but his grip was like iron and we both knew he was a lot stronger than I was.
Apparently my attempt to escape was just amusing cause Lucas laughed. Then he shifted his grip from my wrist to my waist and before I knew it I was upside down and staring at his back. I couldn't believe it, that bastard had actually thrown me over his shoulder!
"Lucas!" I gasped wincing as I bounced painfully against his shoulder. "Lucas put me down!"
But he just ignored me. Even as a kicked and hit my fists against his back all the way through camp. When he stepped onto the platform that served as a makeshift elevator, I gasped and closed my eyes, gripping tight to his shirt and trying not to look as I felt us drop to the ground. When we had made it down, Lucas stepped off the platform and set me down.
I swayed a little and put a hand to my head, dizzy from our fall and being upside down for so long. Then I blinked and looked around, momentarily forgetting to be upset.
"Wow." I said. It was the first time that I had been out of camp in over four months and I couldn't help being wonderstruck as I gazed around at the forest. Since the sixers never knew if I was going to run, I was only allowed out of camp if I was under the supervision of Mira or one of her soldiers. So basically if someone was around to babysit me. And let's face it, none of the sixers loved me. I was stubborn and sarcastic and I felt no need to hide the fact that I hated them. Come to think of it, if it weren't for Lucas I probably would have been thrown out of camp a long time ago. It wasn't as if Mira liked me either.
A branch snapped and I spun around to find Lucas walking away into the forest.
"Hey!" I called. For a moment I glanced back up at the camp, wondering if I should just go back, but I pushed the thought away almost immediately. This was the closest I had come to freedom in the last four months and I wasn't going to willingly return to captivity. So with that thought and my own curiosity I turned and run after Lucas.
I was breathless by the time that I caught up to him, my arms and face aching and covered in scratches from being whipped by the underbrush.
"Lucas!" I said, reaching out and smacking his arm to get him to slow down. "What the hell? You pull all this bullshit about me coming with you and then the second we're out of camp you leave me behind?"
"I knew you'd follow. Besides, don't want to stay in one place for too long, you don't know what might see you."
I felt an involuntary shutter go down my back at the word what. I was always aware of the presence of dinosaurs since we lived so deep into the jungle, but somehow living up in the trees made me feel safe. Now that we were on the ground I was uncomfortably aware of how vulnerable we were. Still, that didn't stop me from reaching out and grabbing Lucas's arm as I stopped in my tracks, effectively yanking him back with me.
"Damn it!" he swore turning to glare at me. "What is the problem now?"
"I'm not going."
"Yes." He growled. "You said that before." He turned and started to walk again but I stood my ground, refusing to move.
"No. I mean it, Lucas. I am not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on."
I opened my mouth to continue but then stopped when I saw the way that Lucas was looking at me.
"What?"
"Tess, don't move."
"Yea no shit, I said I wasn't going to- Wait, what?"
"Don't move." Lucas wasn't looking at my face anymore, but at the ground near my feet.
Suddenly I realized that Lucas looked a lot taller than he had moments before. Was he getting bigger or was I-?
I gasped, looking down at the ground below me only to realize that I couldn't see my feet anymore. My shoes had sunk into the earth, which was now thick and watery. Quicksand. I must have been standing on the edge of a pool when I had stopped walking. I struggled a little, trying to lift my foot out of the sand but then gasped as that only served to make me sink further. I tried again, wriggling to get free but by then the sand had reached my waist.
"Stop moving." Lucas commanded.
He had moved from where he was standing and was rustling through the brush, looking for something. I did as I was told for once, trying not to whimper as I sank lower and lower into the pit. How could I have been so careless? I knew the jungle was dangerous and yet I hadn't been smart enough to look where I was stepping?
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down and watch Lucas as he pushed apart plants, scouring the ground. He disappeared for a moment into the brush, and I felt my heart drop as I felt as the sand creep closer and closer to my shoulder. For a moment I wondered if he was gone, but a second later he returned with a large branch, about five feet long and as thick around as my arm.
He edged closer, and extended it to me, careful not to fall into the pit himself. I gasped as I reached for the stick and missed by inches. I tried again, but the movement just caused me to sink further into the sand.
"Come on Tess." Lucas said, and I was startled at the note of urgency in his voice. I glanced up and saw a flash in panic in his eyes. I felt my heart jump for a completely different reason and with one final burst of energy I lunged forward and grabbed the branch, holding tight. Lucas leaned back, pulling me from the pit and I gasped as I collapsed against the ground.
My body was soaked and covered in sand and mud but I was so happy to be out that I didn't even care. I rolled onto my side, my chest rising and falling heavily as I gazed up at Lucas.
"Thank you." I sighed.
Lucas studied me for a moment, then nodded and without a word extended his hand to me. I took it and let him pull me to my feet.