I rubbed my hands along my legs as I hid my face into my bent knees. Was I too trusting? Naive? Plain old stupid? If Cal was right and Will was the real spy, then Grant was with him all alone. To make matters worse, they were being chased by a group and I had my doubts that Will would help Grant in defense. I wondered if instead of Will and Aaron randomly becoming separated if Will hadn’t intentionally left him.

And then my thoughts went to Beth, who was currently suspended from a tree. I hit myself in the face with my palm. How did I even allow that to happen? I’d done everything wrong.

"Ryleigh," Cal said, her voice slowly coming back. "Are you alright?"

"Not really," I said. "I feel so useless just sitting here while Grant is out there somewhere with Will, who may or may not be a spy, and while Beth is hanging from a tree like a piñata."

"I’m sorry," she said softly, looking away. "You’re sitting here because of me. And you know what? Will probably isn’t a spy; no one is. I don’t know why I said that. It was dumb."

I smiled at her. "None of this is your fault. And you were right to doubt Will. We barely know him. I hope he’s not against us, but deep down I know there’s a chance he is."

She sat up next to me. The sky was gradually changing colors as dusk approached.

"I only suggested it might be Will because those two never seemed to like each other. But, who could blame them? This isn’t exactly the ideal setting to make new friends. It’s probably just a guy thing. People deal with trauma in different ways. Maybe off of this island, they’re both completely different people than who they are here," she suggested. “Maybe we all are.”

I thought of the side of Will I had seen when he was with Beth. I’d been shocked, but what Cal said made sense. Maybe that was a side of him that was common in the real world; just not here on this crazy island.

"I’m putting too much thought into it," I sighed. "Either way, we still need to get off this island."

She nodded silently. We sat there trying to keep our minds off of the many horrible images that fought their way through into our heads. I rubbed the back of my neck and closed my eyes.

"Ryleigh," Cal whispered.

My eyes shot open as I heard rustling in the weeds nearby. I put my hand up to silence her and nodded to let her know I heard it, too. She stared at me.

"Can you crouch down at all?" I whispered.

She nodded quickly.

"Follow me," I instructed and started to crawl past her.

Cal bent over and got as low to the ground as she could. We made our way through the tall weeds, hoping to get away from whatever was making its way toward us. A few trees were nearby and I figured we could hide behind them. I pointed at them to Cal and she nodded. When we got closer, I ushered her in front of me. She gave me an inquisitive look, but I just motioned for her to keep going. Grabbing a large rock, I tossed it over in the other direction. It landed in the weeds, rustling them enough to make it seem as though we had gone in that direction.

Cal made her way to the trees and collapsed behind one of them. I could hear two voices coming from behind me and I froze.

"What was that?" the first voice asked.

"You go check it out. I’ll keep going this way." the second voice said.

I heard footsteps take off toward where I had thrown the rock. I frantically looked around for another rock, but by the time my hands touched one, it was too late.

"Don’t move!" a voice ordered from behind me.

I froze and slowly took my hands off the rock.

"Turn around. Slowly!"

I crawled in a half circle until I was facing the voice. A teenage girl stood before me. Peering down, her brown eyes were ablaze.

"Where’s your friend?" she asked.

I didn’t answer her. I just stayed still, staring up at her.

"Really? You’re not going to answer me, huh? You must like to play games. That’s good; I love playing games. Let’s play!" she sneered.

My hands were sweating. The girl took a couple of steps toward me. She was holding a rusty hammer in one hand. She twirled it around in her palm, the sun glistening off of it. She smiled wickedly when she saw me eyeing it.

"Tell me where your friend is or I’ll have to make you tell me."

I stared up at her and narrowed my eyes. She must have been close to my height. She was wearing khaki shorts and a dark t-shirt. Her brown hair looked dirty and was partially falling out of a loose ponytail. I was crouching down before her and she lifted up one leg and kicked me with her boot. It was my perfect chance. I deliberately toppled over onto my back much harder than I normally would have. She laughed and I cried out in pain.

I reached around to hold my back as if I had injured myself. With one hand, I quickly grabbed the knife from my back pocket and kept my hand behind my back. She took another step closer and raised the hammer over her head. I groaned in pain.

"This will be easier than I thought. They were right; there are really some weak ones this time!" she spat.

Just as she was about to bring the hammer down, I reached around and slashed the knife across. It hit her thigh, making a deep gash. She screamed out in pain, dropping her hammer to grab onto her leg. With my other hand, I took her hammer from the ground and rolled to my side, hopping up on two feet.

She took her eyes off of her bleeding thigh and glared at me. I held my knife and the hammer and stood in front of her.

"You want to run?" she asked. "Go ahead. I can still catch you!"

She came at me then, just like a linebacker. Her entire body lunged at me and I turned to the side, barely missing her. She swept by me, stumbling to keep her balance. I turned around to face her and she charged at me again. I swung the hammer, but missed. It’s weight in my hand making my arm hit lower in the air than I intended. She grunted loudly. Her thigh was rapidly dripping blood down her leg.

"What? You think you hurt me?" she asked. "This is nothing but a scratch."

"Looks like more than that," I said smugly.

"Let me show you what a real injury looks like," she said and lunged at me again.

I tried to jump out of the way, but she gripped my tank top and yanked me toward her. I twisted and turned, but she wouldn’t release me. I swung the hammer around and hit her in the ribs. She flinched and I hit her again. Her grip loosened, but not enough for me to get away. She was grabbing at me, pulling me from all sides. Panic set in and I couldn’t tell what she was doing behind me. The hammer slipped from my hand. I gripped the knife and stabbed in all directions behind my back, unable to see a target. I knew I had hit her when the knife stuck and she yelped out in pain.

Breaking free, I ran forward and turned around, expecting her to come charging. Instead, she was bent over, her arms wrapped around her torso. I could see blood oozing through her shirt. She was groaning and for a brief moment, I almost asked her if she was okay. She glared up at me and tried to take a step, but fell over onto the ground.

"I’ll kill you!" she cried.

I stood there and stared at her. She was bleeding and yet still had to keep threatening me. I backed away.

"Ryleigh!" Grant’s voice came bellowing from somewhere in the weeds.

"I’m here!" I called. "Grant! Over here!"

I saw him running through the weeds, Will close behind him. When he got to me, he saw the bloody knife in my hand.

"What happened? What-" He stopped when he saw the girl on the ground, whimpering in pain.

I shoved the knife back into my pocket.

"Come on! The others are close behind!" he told me, taking me by my hand.

As Will approached, I could see Cal slowly running behind him.

"Cal!" I yelled.

Grant paused. "She came and got us. We were heading in the wrong direction. She saw us and said you were attacked. We need to go. Now!"

Cal caught up to me and hugged me. "You’re okay! I’m so sorry!"

"I’m okay. Let’s get out of here!" I shouted as we kept running.

Next Chapter: Thirty Five