“I can show you,” I hear Titus telling Harper.
“Then do it.” Harper nods to us like the matter is settled. We’ll follow Titus, who may or may not have tried to kill us, to locate where he found the flag.
“Are you coming with us?” I ask Green Beret. My voice is barely a whisper. I have this strange half fear, half fascination going on with this guy. Like I’m not sure whether I want to watch the sun set together, or sleep with one eye open.
Green Beret’s face pulls together. I realize it then — he hates me. And not in the way in which I find out later that he actually liked me the whole time.
“O-kay.” I think it’s clear he wants no part of this travel entourage. But then as I’m turning toward Harper, I hear him speak.
“Yes.”
I spin around. “Yes? Yes, you’re coming with us?”
He yanks on his left earlobe — the mangled one — and walks by me, nearly bumping my shoulder as he passes.
“My name’s Tella,” I say to his back. He stops for one second, then keeps walking.
Harper turns to face him. “Who are you?”
“Guy Chambers,” he answers.
What the hell? Why doesn’t he hate Harper? I look her up and down. Oh, right.
Harper glances at his lion, then back at him — at his broad shoulders and towering height. I imagine she’s noticing the way his eyes don’t dart, but lock on their subject. “Okay,” she says. “Welcome. We’re following Titus here to see where he found his flag.”
Guy reveals his own flag and balls it in his fist.
“Where?” Harper asks. She seems to know better than to grab him.
“At the start of the race. About two miles northwest of here.” His voice is deep and steady, like he’s never been unsure of anything in his whole entire life.
“RX-13,” Harper yells. Oh God. I wince as the eagle makes a new mark on Harper’s stomach northwest of the one the twins found. Guy nods his approval. They’re a good match. The two nutcases.
Harper presses her palm to the wound. “Let’s move.”
And just like that, we forget about nearly getting killed. About how minutes before, our Pandoras were fighting for our safety.
The grizzly bear is near the front by Titus’s side. The other Pandoras eye the bear as they move, but for the most part, they stay near their Contenders and remain calm. Madox bounces around near my ankle, biting at my bootlaces.
Shaking my head at him, I try to hide my glowing admiration. You could have told me you were a total badass. I imagine him shrugging. Yeah, I know. You’re not the talkative type. Clenching my hands together is the only way I can keep myself from trying to pick him up every five seconds. I’m just so damn happy to call him mine.
I walk near the back and watch Guy move through the jungle. He’s in front of me, and Caroline, Dink, Harper, and the twins are sandwiched between Guy and Titus. For several minutes, we walk in silence. Then Guy turns and faces me. He holds a finger to his lips and points at my feet. He’s insinuating I walk like an ogre, heavy and loud.
“What?” I cock a hand on my hip when I say it, because it’s honestly kind of belittling. “Sorry, I don’t slither like a snake.”
He looks me over for a moment too long. The others continue walking, oblivious that Guy is staring me down, running his eyes over my face … my neck. “Pick your legs up higher,” he says before returning to the hike.
I glare at the back of his head but decide I’ll try the whole picking-up-my-legs thing. It causes my thighs to burn, and at first, I’m certain the only thing it’s doing is making me work harder. But then I realize I’m not stumbling anymore, and, yeah, I guess I sound a little less like a bulldozer.
At one point, Ransom jogs over to hang out with me. “Going to puke again?”
I see Guy tilt his head and realize he’s listening. My face burns.
“No, I think I’m retch-free,” I answer.
Ransom nods toward Madox. “Dude,” he says.
I smile. “Dude.”
“Did you have any idea?”
I pretend to brush the front of my shirt so Ransom doesn’t see how guilty I look. It’s not like I knew exactly what Madox was capable of, but then again, I certainly hadn’t admitted to what happened with his glowing eyes last night. “Um, sorta.”
Ransom grins. “Way to play the underdog.”
“I wasn’t —” I start to say, but Ransom is already jogging toward his brother.
“Let us know if you need to ralph,” he yells. “We’ll make a pit stop.”
I’m mortified. Though I don’t know why. Who cares if the two new guys know I got sick?
After what feels like another half hour, Titus points in front of him and says something. I’m too far back to hear, but I see the pole and connect the dots. We’ve found it. Again, we stand in a circle and stare up at the flagstaff. I half expect us to take hands and sing “Kumbaya” while swaying side to side.
We don’t. But Harper does practice the art of self-mutilation via eagle talon for the third time today. The third small gash along her stomach indicates this flag is southeast of the one the twins found. And the one the twins found is southeast of the flag Guy found. The three marks make a diagonal line starting at the bottom left of her stomach and continuing to the top right.
“Is it a pattern, you think?” Levi asks.
“We have nothing better to go on,” Harper says. She looks at Guy, and I wonder when he suddenly became her collaborator. He nods and then pitches his head to the east. “Yeah,” she says. “Let’s head east for a while. We’ll camp there for the night, then head south later.”
I agree, but secretly resent I’m not the one giving orders. Five days ago, when it was my first day in the jungle, I would have loved for someone to take charge. Now I feel an itch to be a part of the decision making.
I’m not sure we’re headed exactly east. Who could tell? We more just hang a left and start walking. At some point, the rain finally relents. The brown scrubs cling to my body as we move, and my boots are heavy. I run a hand over my head and figure that with my short hair matted against my scalp, I probably look less like a girl and more like an emaciated, prepubescent boy. Hot.
Though we’re all dragging our feet through the mud and probably driving Guy crazy, we’re making good progress. Walking in a group helps. No one wants to be the person to slow the rest down.
At some point, I tire of being at the back of the pack. So I quicken my steps — passing Guy and fighting the urge to stick my tongue out at him — and catch up with Ransom and Levi. The first thing I notice is Ransom holding his left hand with his right.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
Ransom drops his hand and presses it against his side. “Yeah, it’s nothing.”
I circle him and grab his arm. There are a dozen dots of blood springing up across his palm. “What happened?”
Harper pauses and motions for the rest of us to stop. She trudges over and inspects Ransom’s hand. “Does it hurt?”
“No,” he answers, though he says it through his teeth and is obviously lying. Below us, Ransom’s Pandora is going crazy, circling his feet and reaching up like it wants to say something. “I grabbed ahold of a vine to keep from slipping in the mud.” He shakes his head. “It was covered in spikes.”
Guy appears and takes Ransom’s hand from me. He rubs his thumb over the puncture wounds. Then he glances around like he’s searching for something. “You need to disinfect the area. There’s a plant that can help. I’ll keep an eye out for it as we walk.” He nods to Harper.