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

“These were by the shelter, and since you were the last person in the shelter, I’d assume if anyone knew where they came from…it’d be you.”

“I…” Suddenly, all eyes were on me. I felt chills line my skin as I shook my head, trying to find reason where there was none. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. How on earth would I have come up with those? They weren’t there when I woke up.” I thought back, though my memory of waking up alone was hazy at best. “At least, I don’t remember them.” I pressed my fingers to my temples, thinking.

“Either way, you need to put them down until we figure out where they came from,” Harry said, his arms outstretched, palms facing the ground as he tried to ease Noah into putting them down.

As could be expected, Noah didn’t budge.

“No, I don’t think I will. I think I’ll hold on to them.”

“Are they even loaded?” Ava asked, staring at him skeptically.

“Want me to shoot and see?” he asked, a brow raised.

“No,” Harry and James said all at once.

“We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves,” Harry added.

“I hate to break it to you guys, but someone already knows we’re here.” He gestured toward the weapons in his hands.

His sentence brought me back to reality. “He’s right.” The words sent chills down my spine. Someone did know we were there, and there was no room to question it any longer. “Someone knows we’re here… Someone is setting us up.”

“It could be one of us,” Noah said, still looking at me. “Any of us.”

“Unless you believe it was me, it couldn’t have been any of us. You were all at the beach together, and I swear to you, the weapons weren’t there when I woke up. I would’ve told you about them.”

Noah’s brow raised, but it was slight. I knew he was thinking about the waterfall I’d kept a secret, but I brushed the thought away, going on.

“That means someone waited until I was awake and away from the shelter to put the weapons down. They left them somewhere they knew we’d return. They wanted us to find them.”

“Someone could be looking out for us,” Ava said, her voice nearly a whisper. “Maybe they were giving us protection.”

“From each other, yeah,” Noah said.

“We aren’t a danger to each other,” Harry argued.

“Maybe we’re on TV after all,” James added in hopefully, but the longer he spoke, the less certain he seemed. “Maybe this is all a setup. Maybe the guns aren’t loaded and the knives aren’t sharp…”

Noah laid the weapons on the ground carefully, keeping just one shotgun, and placing his body between us and the weapons. Without warning, he fired a shot into the air, causing us all to jump and scream. Harry covered his head with his hands. Ava fell to the ground.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded once I’d realized we were still okay. I charged toward him angrily, my hands in fists at my sides. “Why would you do that?”

“You’ve already said whoever planted these knows we’re here and knows where we are, so now we’ve also disproved the theory that the guns aren’t loaded. What should we do next?” he asked, a lopsided grin on his lips.

“I don’t understand you…” I said, turning away from him, my belly burning with anger. “Why can’t you just take a single thing seriously? Why does everything have to be a joke?”

“There could be animals out here,” Harry pointed out. “You could’ve just drawn them toward us.”

“Animals who’d run toward gunfire?” Noah asked skeptically.

“At least if he did, we could get something real to eat,” Ava said, her hand on her stomach as she stood finally.

“We each need a weapon,” I said finally. “In case someone—a person or animal—were to attack. There are five things. That’s obviously intentional.” I reached for a weapon, but Noah stepped in front of them, wagging the gun. He didn’t point it at me, but it was enough to send ice-cold fear through my veins.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he said, waving the gun again. “Not so fast. I’m the one who found the weapons, apparently. I’m the one who gets to decide what we do with them.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Noah. She’s right. We need a weapon each. It’s only fair,” Ava said.

“Who says I want to play fair?” he asked, his brows drawing down in mock confusion.

“You can’t shoot us all at once,” James said, taking a step toward him aggressively. “You might be able to take one of us out, but it’s four against one, man.”

Noah’s eyes bounced between us, his expression unchanging, but I caught the glimmer of fear in his eyes. “Are you really willing to take that chance?” he asked finally.

“Yeah, I am—” James took another step toward him, now shoulder-to-shoulder with me. His hands balled into fists at his sides.

“We don’t have time for this, guys,” Harry said, exasperation in his tone. “Come on. We need to get going if we want to explore, especially if we’re worried about someone watching us. The best form of protection is for us to keep moving.”

“I guess we could just leave him here,” Ava said, crossing her arms. “If he won’t share the weapons, he can keep them all and be by himself.”

“Fine by me. You all go on your little jungle adventure. I’ll be here working on a tan.” As he said it, a darkness fell across the bright sand, and we looked up to the sky where a storm cloud had crossed in front of the sun.

“So much for your tan,” Ava joked.

Suddenly, lightning shot down from the cloud, connecting with the horizon.

“There’s a storm coming,” Harry said ominously as the wind began to pick up. As if further confirming his words, thunder cracked overhead, loud and booming in the otherwise near-silence. I jolted, feeling tears prick my eyes.

Why? Why was this happening? Why couldn’t we seem to catch