be the alternative.”
Jasmine swiped at him and that slow grin, sitting back to watch Zach build a lean-to.
“Anything I can do to help?” she asked.
“Not unless you can see in the dark. You can gather a few of those ferns from over there and put them under here. This is about as done as I can make it for now. It’ll be a tight squeeze for all three of us, but I think we can manage.”
The darkness was so thick, Jasmine was afraid to move far beyond their camp. She was terrified of stepping on a snake or a spider. She pulled as many frond leaves as she could, her arms full, then returned to their shelter to lay down a bed of ferns for them to sleep on.
Utterly exhausted, she was ready to crash for the night. They had a cold supper of some canned spaghettios. She was just glad they’d grabbed canned food with pop-top lids, since they didn’t have a can opener with them. She ate half the can and passed the other half to Dante. He wolfed his half down in under a minute and still looked hungry.
She felt bad for having eaten at all. No doubt they needed more nutrition than she did. They were all bigger than her.
“We need to hunt tomorrow. We’re just going to get weaker if we don’t get some meat in us. And something about changing to a wolf leaves me starving,” Dante said as he rubbed his rumbling stomach. She was right. He hadn’t had enough. But a night of being hungry wouldn’t kill any of them. At least they’d found clean water that they didn’t have to purify with fire.
“Agreed,” Zach said, nodding.
“You think they’re going to find us?” Lucas asked no one in particular.
“Well, the others should ditch the boat in the ocean, but with that massacre we left on the beach, there’s sure to be some notice from someone in the area, if not local military or the project. Hopefully the jungle is thick enough to keep them from tracking us too easily, but I don’t want to give them an easy target to follow. We’ll keep traveling as fast as we can and put as much distance between us and the attack as possible.” Zach finished and gave a stretch, eyeing their sleeping space behind him where a blanket had been laid over the fronds.
“We’ll dismantle it in the morning. Scatter everything as best we can,” Lucas said. “Man. I hate this shit. What I’d give to just go back home. What about you? You got anyone that’s going to miss you? Be out searching?”
Jasmine looked up. Their faces were indistinguishable in the dark. “No. Not really. I mean, I have Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, but they’ve never given two shits about me and my family. My family turned their back on my mother when she married my father. A lot’s changed in the south, but some families are still prejudiced.”
“What do you mean?” Zach asked.
Dante nodded his head. He knew what was up.
“She was white and married an older black man. He was ex-military. They dated for years before finally getting married and having me. Mom already had my brother from a bad high school relationship, so they already looked down on her for that and thought she was trash. Dad and mom dated for years before I think they finally stopped caring what people thought about them and decided to do what made them happy.”
“Well, what about them? Wouldn’t they be looking for you?” he asked.
Jasmine sighed, feeling choked up. Some days were harder than others to talk about it. “I haven’t always been this size. I used to be big as a house. We all were. Mama always thought she’d get gotten by a heart attack. She used to joke about her weight and needing to change her ways. Breast cancer took her. She wasted away to nothing. In some ways, it made her happy that she wouldn’t be buried in a coffin the size of a piano box. That crazy heifer,” she said, giving a watery, choked up laugh. “Bubba had always had a problem drinking.
Dennis Berry Peter Wingfield F. Braun McAsh Valentine Pelka Ken Gord Stan Kirsch Don Anderson Roger Bellon Anthony De Longis Donna Lettow Peter Hudson Laura Brennan Jim Byrnes Bill Panzer Gillian Horvath, Darla Kershner