Free Deadly Passion, an Epiphany by Gabriella Bradley Page B

Hellington.”
    “Keep your knife, Tom, and come with me. That’s if you want to, of course.” He held the knife out to him.
    “Hell, yeah. I’ll do anything to help.”
    That caused a stir. Other men jumped up wanting to be in the scouting party. Jonas sighed. “If we don’t find anything today, we’ll switch and take turns each day. How’s that?” It seemed to satisfy them. He walked back to his camping spot. “I’m off, girls. Behave while I’m gone!”
    “I want to go with you,” Cassie said, pouting.
    “Cas, we don’t know what we’ll find. It could be dangerous, who knows. You stay here and keep everyone calm. Maybe get everyone fishing for our dinner tonight, and we need more wood for the fires. See you soon.”
     
    * * * *
     
    “I hope,” Cassie said softly as she watched the scouting party disappear into the jungle.
    “He’s a big boy, dear,” Georgia said. “He can take care of himself.”
    “We don’t know what’s out there. All they’ve got are pocketknives.”
    “Maybe we can go a short way into the jungle and see if we can find more of that fruit. Jonas said it wasn’t that far from here,” Cassie suggested. She noticed Georgia’s hesitation. “Maybe some of us younger women.” She gazed at Mik trying to teach some people how to catch fish.
    “I don’t feel comfortable about this,” Georgia said and tried to pull Cassie back down.
    “We’ll be fine. Don’t worry, Georgia. Why don’t you join the men to help them fish?”
    Cassie called out to the groups. “I’m going to see if I can find some fruit. Anyone game to go with me?”
    Several younger women jumped up and ran to join her.
    A tall lithe young black woman said, “My name’s Tamara, Tammy for short. I can climb trees like the best of them.”
    Cassie smiled. The woman looked as if she was heavy into working out. She had a very lean and wiry body. Five women in total had volunteered—Carolyn, Patty, Hope and Marlene were the other four. They looked in pretty good shape. Grimacing to herself, Cassie wished she’d worked out more. “Here goes. Stay together and in pairs if possible. At a sign of anything weird, run for your life back to camp.”
    “Way to freak us out before we even go in there,” Tamara said. “Why weird?”
    “I don’t know. This is all freaky. We don’t know what to expect. There could be wild animals lurking in the jungle.”
    They hiked for a while, every now and then stopping to admire strange flowers or plants. There were very tall trees with skinny trunks and very straight branches sticking out at the top. Long green vines dangled from the branches. “Look at that,” Cassie said, pointing at the vines. “If they’re strong enough we can make a net for fishing.”
    “Hopefully we won’t be here long enough to need that,” Carolyn said, frowning.
    “I found some kind of fruit,” Patty called out from up ahead. She had a large purple fruit resembling a melon in her hands.
    “Let’s crack it and see.” Cassie looked for a rock and found a few large boulders not far from where they were. She watched as Patty smashed the fruit against the rock. It split open to reveal fruit just as purple as its skin.
    “Should we try it?” Patty looked at Cassie.
    “I don’t know. What if it’s poisonous?”
    “I’ll try it,” Tamara offered. “If I get sick, then so be it. I’m starving. There really wasn’t enough fish for all of us, not enough to still the hunger pangs.”
    Cassie didn’t know whether to stop her or allow it, but it was already too late. Tamara dug large chunks of the fruit out of the shell. Purple juice dribbled down her chin staining the bodice of her tattered evening gown that hung in glittering strips around her waist and legs. “Tastes good. A mix between bananas and pears.”
    They all sat on the rocks and waited for a while, but Tamara seemed fine so they went to the spot where Patty had found the fruit. There were many of them, some much larger.