Page 15 of Stranded
We rested for almost an hour, but it didn’t help much. We were barely back on the track when he fell behind again. Left with no option, I prompted him to climb onto my back. As light as he was under normal circumstances, I was weak from lack of food so the going was slow. Although the sun was lower in the sky, it was still blazingly hot.
It was useless. My legs got too heavy, and my grip on him was slipping.
No, I have to go on.
I hoisted him up my back. “Aiden?”
Nothing. He must have either fallen asleep or passed out from exhaustion. I plunged ahead, but despite my best efforts, I only managed a few feet before I had to rest again.
A flicker of light caught my eye through the haze of dust and heat. I squinted toward it, wondering if exhaustion had finally pushed me into hallucinating. But the closer I got, the more the shape sharpened against the desert. An old miner’s shack stood alone in the wasteland. The woodwork weather-beaten from the elements with strips of rusted metal. A sagging porchreinforced with newer beams that didn’t quite match the rest of the structure. Solar panels tilted crookedly beside it.
Someone had fixed the place up enough to survive out here.
Hope hit me so hard it almost hurt.
Using the last ounce of strength I had left, I staggered toward the shack, nearly losing my footing on the loose rocks scattered near the entrance. The door creaked when I shoved against it, unlocked. Relief crashed through me so fast my knees nearly buckled. Clutching Aiden, I stumbled inside.
7
AIDEN
Where am I?
Groaning, I turned over onto my side. My head felt fuzzy, and my stomach was grumbling, but I lay on something warm and soft. I glanced down at myself. Instead of my old tattered shirt, I was wearing a crisp white T-shirt.
I sat up with a jolt and took in my surroundings. The wooden walls seemed to belong to an old cabin. A fire burned in the corner.
Was this real? Had I died, and this was Heaven?
I rubbed my eyes, but my view stayed the same. Only now Jackson appeared, smiling. What was he wearing? The last time I’d seen him, he had on days’ old clothes caked with dirt. Now he was wearing a clean pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.
“What’s going on?” I croaked. “Where are we? Did we get rescued?”
I glanced down at myself, at the clean T-shirt. Had he stripped off my clothes and cleaned me up? Most of the dirt and grime was gone, though I’d give one of my kidneys for a toothbrush and some toothpaste. There was only so much water and a piece of cloth could get rid of.
“We got lucky,” he said. “I really thought that would be the last of us, then I found the cabin.”
“Just sitting in the middle of nowhere?”
Jackson huffed out a dry breath, glancing back toward the door like he still couldn’t quite believe it himself. “Not exactly nowhere. My guess is that this whole stretch used to be mining land. Guys would come out here chasing gold, silver—whatever they thought they could pull from the ground. They built shacks like this to live in while they worked. Most got abandoned when the money dried up.”
He nudged at one of the patched boards with his boot. “Someone came along later and fixed it up. While you were sleeping, I looked around. There are solar panels on the outside. Water barrels too. Probably an off-grid setup.”
He chuckled, and my stomach flopped around uneasily. What was wrong with him? Jackson never smiled like this, but he seemed happy.
I guess a near-death experience can really change people.
“I’m sure the owners will be back soon,” he added. “Their goods look freshly stocked. When they get back, we can find our way back home.”
“Oh.”
Why didn’t the thought of going back home fill me with relief? I lowered my head and peered up at him from under my eyelashes. We’d both been on the brink of desperation over the past few days, seeking comfort and pleasure in each other. We never talked about it because survival was more important at the time.
Was that all it’d been for him, though? Just a desperate attempt to clutch at the last moments of pleasure before we died?
What more can it be? He’s your stepfather. He’s literally married to your mother.
“I made us vegetable soup,” he said. “It’ll be good to settle your stomach. Do you want to eat first or take a bath? There’s enough water, but we’ll have to conserve the supply.”
