The Missing by Kiersten Modglin (essential books to read txt) 📕

feet in front of you, the trees close together as they were, and leaves, vines, and other greenery growing up in every direction. Whoever, or whatever, was moving could be just a few feet in front of me.

Could they see me?

I could hear the others talking behind me, several yards away with no idea what was happening. If I called out or bolted, it was possible I could be grabbed or attacked without them even realizing it had happened. I refused to look behind me, determined to keep my eyes peeled for any sort of movement.

“Hello?” I called cautiously. “Is someone there?”

A branch cracked, and I jumped just as Noah appeared in front of me, a cocky grin on his face. “Boo.”

“Jesus, you scared me.” I placed a hand to my chest, my heart thundering under my palm.

He cackled, eyeing the leaves in my hands suspiciously. “What are you doing?” He nodded his head toward the others on the shore. “Better question, what are they doing?”

I couldn’t focus on his question, because at that moment, all I could see was what was waiting in his arms. Five large, green coconuts sat nestled between his forearms and his chest. When he noticed my stares and slack jaw, he jutted out his chest a bit more.

“You like my nuts, hm?”

I groaned, annoyed by the joke, but my throat was suddenly too dry to argue. “Where did you find these?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” His brow shot up playfully, his dark eyes teasing me.

“Noah, this is serious. Did you find more?” I turned to face the group, my hands over my head. “Guys! Hey! Look!” The wind carried my voice away, so they didn’t hear my calls.

“Hey, I didn’t say I was sharing,” he said, and though I listened for the joke in his tone, I wasn’t sure it was there.

I crossed my arms. “You don’t have a choice. We’ll all dehydrate if we don’t get something to drink.”

“I thought Captain Lotta-Brains was whipping up a water machine in his underground bunker.”

He could be infuriating sometimes. The cavalier way he acted, even when we were literally facing dehydration and death, made it impossible to deal with him. But, he was also the only one on the island who’d managed to find a source of hydration so far.

“You know, you could try being nice to us. We’re all in this together.”

“Calm down, Efron,” he teased, dropping the coconuts to the ground with a thud. He bent down, lifting one. “There are plenty more where these came from. Obviously, I’m going to share. I’m not trying to kill you all.”

My throat tightened at his words. Why had he chosen to say that? That he wasn’t trying to kill us? Why did he use those exact words? I tried to push the thought from my head, convince myself that I was just being paranoid… But was I?

“What’s going on?” I heard Harry’s voice calling from behind us. As I looked over my shoulder, I realized they had seen what was going on and were rushing toward us, seashells in hand.

“You found coconuts?” Harry asked, pure joy in his voice as he reached for one. Ava fell to her knees next to me, letting out a tearful laugh with utter relief. Noah knelt down in front of her, reaching for one of the coconuts and pulling out his knife.

“I guess you’re going to tell me this isn’t the right way to do it?” He eyed Harry suspiciously, placing the tip of the knife to its shell.

“You could do it like that,” he said, his tone unfazed. “But it won’t work half as well as this.” He scooped one up and shuffled a few feet from us, lifting it over his head and slamming it down onto a rock’s sharp edge with one fell swoop. The coconut split open slightly, clear liquid spilling from its insides. Triumphant cries were heard from all around as he put his lips to the opening, gulping it down quickly. My mouth grew drier at the sight, and I felt my hands reaching for my own coconut without warning. When he had drained it all, he held it up, peering at the hole as he swiped the back of his hand over his lips. Then, he slammed the coconut into the rock again and again until it smashed—not in half like I’d been expecting, but into several pieces, its white, milky insides on full display.

As he gathered the pieces, everyone else scooped up their own fruit and headed toward the rock, waiting to mimic what he’d done. One by one, we cracked the coconuts open. James got his on the first try like Harry. Ava and I each took three different hits to get the liquid to begin leaking, and Ava’s hardly came out even then, but that didn’t stop her from attempting to drain the liquid as quickly as she could. For a moment, we were all silent, languishing in the delight of the lukewarm and sickly sweet libation.

Noah sat still, the only one who hadn’t made his way to the rock, still attempting to cut it open with his knife, an unrelenting stubbornness in his jaw that said he wouldn’t give up.

“You know, it’s crazy. I’ve never even liked coconut juice. But right now, I can’t think of anything better,” Ava said, euphoria in her tone as she flopped back on the sand where she sat, one arm behind her head. She placed one of the pieces of coconut in her mouth, sucking on the fleshy meat of the fruit. Watching her, I did the same, wanting to get every bit of nourishment I could from it.

Finally, Harry scoffed. “Come on, Noah, don’t be ridiculous. Just open yours like everyone else. You’re only going to dull your blade if you don’t manage to break it or slice your hand open.”

“Yeah,” Ava agreed, propping herself up with one hand. “And if you do that, we can’t use your knife to get the