The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda

Author:Megan Miranda [Miranda, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

THEN

HOUR 4

Hollis

Hollis was lost.

She was all alone in the dark, but at least she wasn’t trapped anymore.

She’d been stuck for what felt like an eternity—first in the van; then on a muddy riverbank, wedged between slick river rocks; and finally in a section of trees with no visible outlet, until she’d found a path, crawling over a felled stump, a tangle of roots. Pulling herself from one place to the next, with no idea which direction she was heading. Only that she had to keep moving.

Her lungs were still burning, her arms and legs were numb, and she thought, not for the first time, I’m dead. I’m gone. None of this is real.

She thought she heard something under the sound of the river behind her. A crunch of leaves. A scurrying of footsteps. She spun around and called out with desperation into the night, “Hello?”

Her throat was raw from adrenaline and tears and exertion, but she screamed as loud as she could: “Is anyone out there?”

But whatever she’d heard, it wasn’t help.

She was still alone. Alone, though she didn’t quite feel it.

At the stop before the crash, she’d felt this way too. The vans had idled on the road, engines running, headlights the only beacons in the night. But there were things moving in the woods around her, and she kept getting this feeling that she was being watched as she argued with Brody.

Hollis knew how others saw her, the things they said when she passed—kind of odd; a little too quiet; sure, she’s pretty, but what a waste. Everyone in high school knew the things whispered about them, whether they’d admit to it or not. She just never knew that Brody thought them too, until that day. She’d won a scholarship, had been so excited when she told him, and he looked shocked. No, he seemed skeptical, even. As if he couldn’t imagine her being capable of such things.

And so she’d said, in a moment of hurt and surprise: I need a break.

It didn’t sink in at first. He’d tipped his head, jumped three steps ahead in the conversation, cutting her off: Hold on. You’re breaking up with me? Except it came out as: You’re breaking up with me?

She wasn’t thinking that, not entirely, until he said it. Just like that. She marched away from him, back toward the road.

Don’t be ridiculous. Get in the van, Hollis.

Which she’d been just about to do, until he said it, like that. And so she didn’t. She switched directions and slid into the other van, while he watched incredulously. She’d leaned forward to Ms. Winslow and said, Swapping seats, then slid the door shut behind her, so that Brody couldn’t follow her.

So definitive.

She understood, then, that Brody thought she was lucky to be with him. She understood that she had been undervalued, underestimated, underappreciated, and Brody could go fuck himself.

She couldn’t see straight she was so angry, but she didn’t want to crack. Didn’t want to give anyone else the pleasure of seeing Hollis March falling apart on a school trip.

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