Chapter 20

"Raven! Kit!" Lena shouted, hands cupped around her mouth.

Robin trudged along the shoreline, her feet sinking into the damp sand with each step. The flickering torchlight cast eerie shadows on the twisted driftwood and jagged rocks that littered their path. Scarlet was at her side, Lena and Reese following close behind.

They'd stuck to the shore so far, not wanting to risk getting hurt on the uneven terrain inland in the dark. But they'd covered a lot of ground so far, walking all the way to the HEL sign that Jess and her crew made.

The night was filled with the chirps and calls of unseen creatures, but they hadn't seen or heard a sign of Raven and Kit yet. Reese stumbled over a tangle of seaweed, and Lena reached out to steady her.

"Why aren't they answering?" Scarlet said, brow furrowed. "Can't they hear us?"

"Maybe we should turn back," Lena said. "Try again in the morning. It won't do Raven and Kit any good if we get hurt out here trying to find them."

Scarlet gave a deep sigh. Robin knew that was the last thing she wanted to do, and she hated the idea of their friends stuck out there in the jungle if something happened to them. But their options were rapidly narrowing unless they wanted to take their chances among the trees.

"We'll work our way back toward camp," Scarlet compromised. "And probe deeper into the tree line. We have torches, we can light our way."

She started to pick her way into the underbrush, then there was a rustling in the foliage and she doubled back, smacking into Robin.

"Hello?" Lena called.

Robin's heart raced as she held her torch higher and a shadow appeared, then burst through.

"Oh, thank God." It was Raven, her face and arms scratched from hiking through the thorns and sharp underbrush. "We need help."

"Where's Kit?" Robin asked.

"She's hurt," Raven said. "Come with me." She led them back into the brush, explaining, "She tried to climb over a rocky outcropping. I told her we should just go around but she insisted it'd be faster. The rocks were wet and she slipped. Her leg... it"s bad."

Robin"s stomach twisted at the news, her mind immediately conjuring images of Kit lying injured and alone in the jungle.

"We've been trying to cross the island to get back to camp," Raven went on. "But she can't put any weight on it so we haven't made much progress."

The deeper they went into the dense jungle, the less they could see of the stars overhead. They were navigating purely by torchlight, and branches snagged at their clothing and leaves whipped against their faces as they walked.

"Kit," Raven said as she reached a small clearing. "I brought help."

She was leaning against a downed palm tree, pain etched across her face, and even in the torchlight, Robin could see the unnatural angle of Kit"s ankle. The sight sent a wave of nausea through her.

"Hey, long time, no see," Kit smiled at the rescue party, but her voice was tight with strain.

"Just hang on, okay?" Robin said. "We're going to get you back to camp, and then Amelia and Krys can take a look at your leg."

Kit nodded, jaw locked as she braced for the pain. Raven went to one side of her, and Robin passed her torch to Scarlet, then took the other. They locked their arms underneath her thighs and behind her back and lifted her, and Kit screamed, the sound echoing eerily through the dark jungle.

"You okay, Parachute?" Raven asked.

The nickname seemed to give Kit strength and she nodded. "Never better."

Scarlet led the way with the torch, pointing out anything they might stumble over and trying to pull the thorniest bits of ground cover aside. Kit winced and whimpered the whole way, but bore it bravely, and Robin was breathing heavy with the effort, but she wasn't about to complain when Kit was the one with a broken bone.

When they got back to the beach, the going was easier, but they still couldn't see the camp.

"How much farther?" Kit asked, voice barely more than a whisper.

"Just a little further," Robin promised, although she couldn't quantify it, and even if she could, it would be relative. A little further for Scarlet who was leading the way was totally different from a little further for Robin carrying Kit's weight, and completely different again from Kit feeling the bounce and jostle of every step in her broken leg.

It was quite possibly the hardest thing Robin had ever done, but eventually the glow of the campfire came into view and relief washed over her.

"We need some help!" Reese yelled, running ahead as soon as they saw it. "Krys!"

Lex and Evie came running and offered to take over carrying, but Kit didn't want to risk the pain of being transferred. Krys ran up to them and got the story from Raven, who sounded as out of breath as Robin. When they got to camp, she pointed to a few padded mats pushed together near the fire.

"Set her down there," she said. "Careful not to get any sand on the mats."

They did, and Kit screamed again, alerting anyone in the camp who hadn't been aware that there was a problem. Her face went pale, skin glistening with sweat. Raven knelt beside her, brushing the damp hair from her forehead.

"Hang in there, Parachute," she said. "You are so strong."

Amelia ran over with the first aid kit and rummaged through its contents while Krys tenderly inspected Kit's leg. Standing at a distance, Robin could see that it was quite swollen and a bruise was already beginning to form. Kit winced and hissed air through her teeth with even the lightest touch, and she could wiggle her toes when Krys asked her to, but she couldn't move her ankle at all.

"Well, can you help her?" Scarlet asked.

"I can't say with certainty that it's broken, but given that angle, I think it's pretty likely," Krys said.

"And we don't have anything in this kit for an injury that grave," Amelia said, her tone laced with frustration.

"The best we can do is immobilize it," Krys agreed. "And try to numb the pain. Somebody get me a bottle of vodka, and the straightest sticks you can find, about a foot long each. We'll have to use some of the rope we made for the life raft."

"That's fine," Robin said. "Use all of it."

Lex came over with a bottle, passing it to Krys. "Second to last bottle."

"Really?"

It was already open and partly drank.

"Shit."

"Yeah, we went ape at the party, I guess."

Krys handed the bottle to Kit. "Drink up. This is going to hurt like hell."

Fear darted across Kit's expression and she took a long pull, grimacing as it went down. Robin brought over the coils of rope she and Scarlet and Zoe made, and Darcy came over from the firewood pile with a handful of sturdy, straight sticks.

Krys laid the supplies out around Kit's leg, and it felt like nobody in the whole camp was breathing when she said, "Okay, you ready?"

Kit took another swig of vodka. "Just do it."

She squeezed her eyes shut and Krys put her hands around Kit's crooked, swollen ankle. The moment she touched it to create the splint, Kit let out a piercing scream. She dropped the bottle, hands fisting in the mat beneath her, and then her body went limp.

"Kit!" Raven cried, eyes wide.

"It's probably better that way," Amelia told her.

Raven wrapped Kit's upper body in her arms while Krys finished creating the splint around her ankle. She worked quickly and efficiently, but she didn't dare try to set the bone without the benefit of X-rays to tell her what she was looking at.

When she was finished, she sat back with a grim expression. "They're almost definitely going to have to rebreak that to set it correctly."

"That's fine," Raven said quickly. "As long as she's okay."

Krys and Amelia exchanged a glance. Robin didn't need them to say it out loud to know what they were thinking. If they didn't get Kit off this island soon, she'd be in trouble.