The Missing - Kiersten Modglin (the reading strategies book TXT) 📗

what to do. If I screamed, I could put myself in danger. If I went the wrong direction, I could end up even farther from their trail.

Just as I was beginning to break down from panic, I heard a voice in the distance. Noah.

I moved toward his voice instinctively, keeping each step quiet, despite my labored, terrified breathing. As I drew nearer to his voice, I heard Ava too, and relief flooded my body.

“What do you think we should do?” she asked, her voice a high-pitched squeal.

“It could’ve been the ocean,” Noah replied.

Harry’s voice came next, as I finally caught them in my line of vision. “The ocean didn’t do this. It couldn’t have.” As I pulled back the branch blocking my view of the shore, I saw them standing several feet away from me, spread out in a makeshift circle, each one staring down at the ground below them.

“What, then? An animal? It could’ve been an animal.”

“No way this was an animal,” Ava argued, shaking her head.

“What’s going on?” I asked, shielding my eyes from the rising sun as I made my way across the beach. The group jumped practically in unison from the interruption, and all eyes fell on me.

“Thank God,” Harry said, a hand to his chest.

“What’s wrong?” I asked again. “What are you all looking at? Why didn’t you wake me up?” I picked up the pace as I got closer to where they were standing, desperate to see what all the fuss was about.

“We tried to,” Ava said, her fists pressed into her hips. “You were sleeping hard.”

“Thought it was best to let you get your rest before we headed out anyway,” Harry added.

“But what’s going on?”

“I came out here to rinse off in the water, and I saw this,” Noah said, pointing down toward what had once been our SOS signal, but was now just a scattered pile of sticks and rocks. Someone had dismantled our sign entirely.

“What the hell?” I asked, walking around the circle to look at it from every angle, though it made no sense from any direction. “What does this mean?”

Harry’s face was solemn when I looked up, and I knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. “It means we aren’t alone on the island. It means someone’s watching us.”

Chapter Twelve

“But it could’ve been the water,” James said, grasping at straws. “We don’t know how high the tide got up last night.”

“The sand is dry,” Ava quipped.

“The wind, then… We don’t know that this means we’re being watched.”

“Oh, come on—” Noah began to argue, but Harry cut him off.

“Look, it doesn’t matter who or what it was. This doesn’t change our plans of exploring the island today. If we’re being watched somehow, we need to move. We can’t make this easier on them.”

“So, what are you suggesting?” James asked.

“We’re going to find the highest point of the island and find out what we can see from there. Other people, houses, a town, fresh water… We need to understand what it is we’re working with here, and the longer we sit still, if someone is trying to hurt us, the easier we’re making it on them.”

I nodded in agreement. “Harry’s right. We can’t stay in one place. It’s not safe.”

“It’s settled, then,” Ava said, “because I agree. We should gather the three spears from last night, the coconuts we still have left, and go.” She shivered, despite the heat, and I noticed she still appeared to be feeling off.

“Fine, but I’ve got an appointment with a bush, so give me twenty minutes,” Noah said, already walking away from us.

“Don’t go far,” I called, worry churning in my stomach as I kept a watchful eye on our surroundings.

“Trust me, you don’t want me close.”

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Ava. “How are you feeling this morning?” She hadn’t eaten much at dinner the night before, claiming her stomach had still felt upset.

She waved off my concern quickly. “Oh, I’m fine. Just fighting off a bug of some sort. Leave it to me to get sick in the middle of all of this. In paradise, no less.”

I smiled halfheartedly, unable to compare our current location to paradise, even if it would’ve been under different circumstances. “Have you gotten sick anymore?”

“Nope,” she said, her lips tight. “Just yesterday. I’m pacing myself with the coconut water, though; I think that was the issue. Maybe I have a slight allergy or something.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” I said, looking away from her as I heard Noah cry out in the distance.

“Hey!” he shouted, drawing our attention to him. “Come here! Quick!”

Instantly, the four of us began running in the direction his scream could be heard from. Please be okay. Please be okay. My internal pleas shocked even me, but after the way he’d taken care of me yesterday, albeit reluctantly, I felt I owed it to him to do the same. As we neared the tree line, I listened for him to make a noise again.

“Noah?” Harry called cautiously. “You…you okay? What’s going on?”

“Never been better,” his reply came from behind us. We spun around and, upon seeing him, my stomach lurched.

“Where did you get those?” James asked, his voice practically quivering.

“Why do you have them?” Ava demanded.

In his arms, he held two shotguns, a pistol, and two machetes. As ice-cold fear swept over me, I watched his grin spread.

“Things are about to get interesting…” His brow raised, sending a chill down my spine. “Aren’t they?”

Chapter Thirteen

“Why do you have those, Noah? Where did they come from?” I asked again, begging him to look at me. Instead, he was admiring the weapons in his arms with great care. Was he going to kill us? Was this how it would end? I needed to avoid jumping to conclusions as I so often did, but how could I not?

When he finally looked up, it was me his eyes narrowed on. “Why don’t you tell us?”

“Me?” I asked, startled