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

“Looks like travel plans are canceled…” Ava whispered. “Again.”

“This vacation is really turning into a nightmare, isn’t it? I hope they aren’t expecting a tip.” Noah winked and twirled the gun around again, but as James took a step toward him, he rolled his eyes. “Oh, relax, would you? You can all have your weapons. But I’m keeping this one.”

“Fine by me,” Ava said, stepping forward. “I’ll take the pistol.”

“Woah,” Noah tried to stop her. “What do you know about handling a pistol?”

She pointed it in the air. “Want to find out?” She smirked. “I told you, my dad’s a hunter. I’ve been around guns all my life. Do you know what you’re doing with that?” She jutted a finger toward the shotgun in his arms. “How to load it? How to turn the safety on? How to clean it?”

His eyes narrowed. “Fair enough. She gets the gun.” He took a half step back and allowed her to take the pistol. James made a move for the other shotgun, and Harry and I settled on the machetes. Okay by me, honestly. Guns had always made me nervous. I’d never grown up around them and had no desire to be around them now, let alone carrying one.

The wind howled, reminding us of the impending storm, and another bolt of lightning burned across the sky, this time the thunder following close behind it.

“We need to get to the shelter,” Harry warned, holding his machete awkwardly.

“In the forest? Isn’t that more dangerous with all the trees?” Ava asked as rain droplets began to pelt us. She shielded her eyes as we all waited to see what Harry would have to say.

“Sitting at the trunk of a tree, maybe, but under the boulder we should be safe. We should gather up the shells we had before and set them and the empty coconut shells out to catch as much water as we can, too. It won’t be much, but every little bit helps.”

Without needing further instruction, we jumped into action as the rain picked up even more, its roar deafening as it splattered onto the sand and trees, making it nearly impossible to see each other from just feet away. My skin ached as the rain slapped my sunburn, but I did my best to ignore it.

Harry and I split the empty, discarded coconuts while the others laid them out next to the seashells, in a somewhat neat row. They were already beginning to fill as we walked away, heading for shelter just as the storm began to rage.

We huddled under the rock, drenched and shivering as the wind howled and the lightning lit up the sky that was filled with sunshine just an hour before. We lost track of time, no longer able to count on the sun to help us determine how much of the day passed, and most of us dozed in and out of sleep, with thunder waking us up before we found any sort of true rest.

Hours later, when the rain finally slacked up, the shelter Harry and the others had worked so hard on had been completely knocked down, the branches shredded and splintering. We were windburned and sitting on muddy ground, soaked through our clothes and exhausted, despite the naps.

As we made our way out of the shelter to assess the damage, Harry gasped, and I looked around for whatever it might be that he saw.

“We’ll rebuild it,” I assured him as Ava and James went to check how much water we’d been able to accumulate. “We’ll all work together and get it fixed. With these”—I gestured toward where we’d laid the machetes near the back of the boulder—“it’ll be much easier.”

“It’s not that,” he said, still staring blankly into space. He pointed his nose upward. “Do you smell that?”

There were lots of smells out there in the jungle. The salty air, the stench of body odor and rotting fish bones from the night before. I inhaled deeply, trying to decide what it was he was smelling at that moment.

“I don’t know… What is it?”

His eyes met mine. “Smoke,” he said. “And it’s not coming from our fire.”

“The lightning?” Noah asked from behind me, true fear on his face for the first time. Harry’s grim expression neither confirmed nor denied it, but as I took another deep breath, I smelled it too.

Somewhere on the island, there was a fire. And if it grew to be too much, there’d be no escape.

Chapter Fourteen

“We have to move to higher ground,” Harry said, jumping into action and scooping up our weapons. “I need to see where the smoke is coming from. If it is a fire, we need to see where it is and if it’s still manageable. If we can put it out, we’ll have to… Otherwise, it’s going to spread like…well, wildfire.” He shoved my machete into my hands and, together, we made our way toward the beach to collect James and Ava.

They were bent down next to each other, examining the coconuts, and I noticed a closeness between them I hadn’t seen before. They kept their voices low, their bodies practically touching as Ava picked one up and drained it. James watched her almost hungrily, and I felt my skin crawl at the sight.

“Hey,” I said, interrupting the moment. Ava jumped, sloshing a bit of the water onto the sand, and James stood abruptly. I watched her rub her arm across her mouth and stand too, a bright smile on her face.

“You guys! They’re all full. Fresh water!” She gestured toward the coconuts waiting for us.

Okay, so maybe I’d misread pure happiness as attraction as they stood farther apart now, both staring at us with waning smiles.

“What’s wrong?” James asked.

“There’s a fire in the forest,” Harry told them. “We have to get going. No more delaying it. We have to find the highest point we can access and try to get an idea of where the