Wild Heat by Bella Blake

Author:Bella Blake [Blake, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

13

MEGAN

Between the fatigue of the hike and the exhaustion of the pain, I’ve almost been lulled into sleep as Chase carries me to the base of the mountain. I blink out of my stupor at Hugh’s shout of elation, then Chase lets out a similar whoop of joy and picks up his pace.

Going faster jostles my ankle harder, but right now all I care about is the sparkling river that comes into view ahead of us.

We’ve lucked out. This part of the river has a wide, rocky shoreline that stretches a hundred yards from the edge of the forest to the water, which means the ground goes from charred and ash to blessedly normal.

Chase carefully picks his way over the river rocks while I cling to him, but Hugh charges forward at a dead run.

He strips off the two packs as he goes, dropping them to the ground, and proceeds to wade into the river until he’s knee deep. He dunks his head under and lets out another shout as he resurfaces.

By the time Chase and I make it to the river’s edge, the ground is nothing but hard-packed sand, and Hugh is wading back towards us, shaking his head and shoulders with a big grin, water droplets spraying off his hair.

Chase kneels down and I kiss him on the cheek before carefully lowering myself off of him. I settle on the ground, my braced leg outstretched, and scoop up a handful of the sand. It’s gritty and damp and feels like a miracle.

I close my eyes for a moment, listening to the sound of the river rushing by, the clump of sand squeezed tight in my fist.

We actually made it, jacked up ankle and all.

I resist the urge to scoot over to the water and just start sucking it into my mouth. Instead, I anxiously wait as Hugh digs a water filtration system out of one of the bags.

With the efficient movement that only comes from experience, he unravels the clear tube, checks the ceramic filter, then crouches at the river’s edge and starts pumping water into the bottle. It goes so slow, enough that I want to yell at the little filter to hurry up, but I know the device can only go so fast.

Chase is a few feet away from us, splashing water on his face over and over. I’m tempted to hobble over there to do the same.

My skin is tight and dry from the miles of hot air we’ve hiked through, and even the little bit of sweating I did was no comfort. The salt made it worse, especially as the drops would touch my lips and I’d dart out my tongue to taste them.

The water bottle is half full when Hugh stops and holds it out to me. “Here,” he says, but I shake my head.

“No way,” I tell him. “You and Chase drink first. You had it rough coming down the mountain, making a path for us, and Chase carried me all the way down here.

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